MY LIFE WITH OPERA PAINTING

Zhang Hongkui

I'm eighty-five years old. My whole life draws close ties with Chinese operas.

In 1930, I was born in Zhuozhou, Hebei Province, where originated the historical event“Taking Oath of Brotherhood in a Peach Garden by Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei” as depicted in the Chinese classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I began to read the book in primary school. Those historic figures left me such deep impressions that when going to the theatres with adults I mostly watched operas about this novel, like Empty City Strategy, Meeting in the Ancient City, Fighting with Ma Chao. I was nearly obssessed with them.“Smoking Twin Towers” is one of the eight famous scenic spots in Zhuozhou. There was an open theatre not far from the tower in the north. Standing on the top of the tower, one was able to not only hear the beating of gongs and drums, but also see the wonderful performance on the stage. So it was my favorite place of entertainment after school. When I went back to my hometown and climbed up to the tower sixty years later（2012）, it still reminded me of sweet old memories in my childhood although the theatre had gone.

It was also in my childhood that I loved drawing the characters in operas. I can still remember that I used to draw all kinds of characters in the blank space of my textbooks when in primary school. Later on, I went to middle school in Beijing. I often went to the theatre to appreciate the posts and stage photos at the gate, and when I came back home, I often drew them on blank paper with my memory. Then I would stick them on the wall besides my bed in my dormitory. It brought me a lot of pleasure.

In 1949, I joined an art group called “Theatre on the Battlefield” which served the First Field Army of the the Chinese People's Liberation Army. I left Beijing and followed the army first to the North-west and then to the Southwest. Later we arrived in Chengdu, the holy land where the three heroes of the Three Kingdoms who took an oath of brotherhood in a peach garden built the capital of Shu Kingdom.

In 1957, I left the army and became a student in Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. After graduation, I became a teacher of the Institute, teaching Chinese Figure Painting, mostly traditional Chinese Belle Paintings. I thought that just like painting mountains and rivers, flowers and birds, painting ancient figures could also be combined with sketches from life. Then I made a suggestion to the leaders in my department that we should go to the Theatre of Sichuan Opera or the Theatre of Peking Opera to make sketches from life while appreciating live performances. After I got approval, I took my students to the Theatre of Sichuan Opera, and we spent a lot of time staying with actors and actresses of the drama troupe. We watched the actors and actresses practicing, rehearsing in the day time and entered the theatre in the evening to watch their live performances and make opera sketches. That was how I became familiar with Sichuan Opera.

In 1962, I left Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and began to work as an art editor for Chengdu Evening News.To provide relevant content for the newspaper, theatre going and painting became work assignments, no longer merely my personal hobby and interest. Thanks to my job, Jinjiang Theatre offered me a privilege that whenever I went to the theatre, I was able to take a seat in the middle of the first row. Every time when the curtain rose and the musicians began to beat the drums and gongs, I would be quite enchanted to capture the perfect moment of the opera. Usually, after enjoying the performance, I had to improve my sketch drafts overnight and had them published on the newspaper the following day. My paintings were appreciated by readers who were fond of Chinese opera. Some readers cut the paintings down, and made albums with these cuttings which they treated as their treasures. Some of these readers were also actors and actresses of Jinjiang Theatre. Some of them were very experienced and some of them were still greenhands; I regard all of them as my good teachers and helpful friends. Sometimes, they would show their valuable homemade painting albums to me. When we apprecited the albums, they would often share their acting experience with me. I benefited a lot from such communication, which greatly contributed to the improvement of my paintings. Due to the long time of interacting with those actors or actresses, we gradually became very close friends.

Zhou Qihe, a famous Sichuan Opera artist, has gone to my art exhibitions many times and often sang high praise to my works. He even wrote an article for my art exhibition, titled “Vivid Opera Painting”. This article was published on the newspaper, in which he told the readers: “I got acquainted with Hongkui long time ago. We both love Sichuan Opera very much, and we enjoy learning from and communicating with each other. Gradually, we became good friends. Hongkui drew down various opera characters vividly with his painting brush, such as those in Elites-welcoming Inn and Autumn River”.Zhou Qihe is a well-known clown（Chou）in Sichuan Opera.I have watched many of his performances and drew numerous paintings about him. Another famous Sichuan Opera artist, Zhang Guangru often came to visit me at my home. I loved her performances very much, especially her wonderful performances in such operas as Ya n g Balang Returned to the Military Camp, A Battle on Tielong Mountain and Emperor Liangwu Said His Farewell to His Concubines Before Going out for a Battle.Once,while watching her performance in the opera Dou Yi（a young scholar preparing for imperial examination being teased by a beauty）,I was deeply touched by her superb performance. Therefore, before she finished her performance, I conceived a wonderful picture of her. No sooner did I come back home than I drew the characters of the opera on the paper with my painting brush. One day when she came to my home, I was painting the role played by her in the opera A Battle on Tielong Mountain.The woman played by her in my painting looks sinister and ruthless. Looking at the picture, anyone who is familiar with Sichuan Opera can easily recognize that character is Queen Du played by Zhang Guangru. Fortunately, Zhang Guangru had qualified successors. Her favorite disciple Chen Qiaoru twice won Plum Award for her wonderful performance. The first time I met Chen Qiaoru at Zhang Guangru's home, she was only eighteen or nineteen years old. At that time, Sichuan Opera Theatre of Chengdu was rehearsing a new grand opera series Empress Wu Zetian, in which four actresses played the role of the Empress. Zhang herself played the old Empress, and her disciple, Chen played the childhood Empress. I drew four sketches of Empress Wu Zetian of different ages, and had them published on the magazine Opera and Film.One sketch was titled Taming the Horse, on which the Empress played by Chen Qiaoru was taming a horse. But on stage, there was no horse. While I was watching her performance, her vivid and graceful postures helped me conceive a picture of her taming a real horse. After I came back home, I finished drawing the picture very quickly. While drawing this picture, I broke the convention of painting opera characters: On the horse, Wu Meiniang（Wu Zetian's name when she was in her girlhood）raised the whip. It seemd that she was flying in the air and the stable boy was crouching down on the ground. The beautiful painting was full of emotion and vitality. Later, I drew many sketches of the role played by Chen Qiaoru in the opera Complain to Sea-God.Later,she won the gold prize in Sichuan Opera Young Actor Competition of Sichuan for her outstanding performance in Complain to Sea-God.The next day,she came to my home and surprisingly met Shen Tiemei by chance. Shen Tiemei is also a gold prize winner, an actress in Sichuan Opera Theatre of Chongqing. I first made her acquaintance early in 1987 when I held my opera painting exhibition at Sichuan Fine Art Institute in Chongqing. That time, she and her father Shen Cunfu— a famous Peking Opera artist, came to my exhibition. To celebrate my exhibition, Sichuan Opera Theatre of Chongqing provided the public with a show in the auditorium of Sichuan Fine Art Institute.The last performance was Fengyi Pavilion, in which Shen Tiemei played the famous ancient Chinese beauty Diaochan who wears a long gauze gown. With such beautiful costume, Tiemei looked very slim, graceful and charming. Impressed by her beauty, I composed a painting of her, also titled with “Fengyi Pavilion” , in which Diaochan played by Shen Tiemei who has a pair of dewy eyes was looking back with a charming smile. But beneath all her tender feelings lies strong embitterment. To represent her embitterment and strength, I drew a red gown for her. Tiemei liked it very much. Then whenever she came to Chengdu for performance, she would invite me to the opera theatre. When I composed Liu Bei's Wife Sun Shangxiang Pays Homage to the Souls of Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei besides the River,it seemed that I had come back to the theatre where the breath-taking aria sounded like roaring waves, the mood of the character went ups and downs like billows, and the sorrowful elegy resounded in the air. Thus I couldn't help drawing on the paper many waves which do not represent the stage setting but heartening musical notes and lingering tunes that seem to be endless turbulent torrent. Now Tiemei has won the Plum Performance Award three times. The last time she went to Chengdu was in 2013 when she performed in the adapted Sichuan Opera—Li Yaxian（a famous prostitute in the Tang Dynasty, later married a young man who ranked the first in the imperial examination）on the Plum Award Gala. I was so glad to meet her again that I drew five sketches of the role played by her in Li Yaxian right away.

Liu Yun, a famous Sichuan Opera artist, has won the Plum Performance Award twice. I watched her performance most and drew the roles played by her most too. I have watched her performance in the opera Liu Siniang many times. Her shaking sleeve seemed to perfectly embody her grief. Apart from drawing a sketch based on her performance, I also had an article published on Chengdu Evening News,the title of which is Liu Yun's Shaking Sleeve and Line Drawing in Chinese Painting.Because of this article, I got the second prize of Outstanding Supplement Works on newspaper of Sichuan Province. Liu Yun loved my painting very much, and she often came to my home to appreciate my opera paintings, and we had hearty communication on operas and opera painting. After attending my painting exhibition, she even published an article Brilliant Painting on the newspaper.

After watching the performance of the Young Opera actress Wang Ping in the Peking Opera Day Dream, I had mixed feelings. When I came back home, I made the figure of Ms. Cui being tortured by abjection, regret, helplessness, sadness and illusion stand vividly on my paper. When I drew the figure Du Shiniang, I recalled the doleful and heart-stricken lyrics — “after midnight on a moonlit evening, all seems misery…” which deeply moved me. Thus with a few lines of light color rather than heavy colors I drew the outline of the despairing Du Shiniang who went into the rolling river with a scarlet treasure box in her arm. There were no water in the painting but one can feel the endless waves. When I drew the role played by Wang Ping in Hongniang, I used a few red strokes to outline the clothes, which set her figure off as a bright and vivacious girl. Even when Wang Ping went to work in the Peking Opera Theatre of Jilin Province, we still frequently kept in contact with each other.

Chang Qiuyue, a young actress from Peking Opera Theatre of Beijing, won the gold prize in National Competition for Young Peking Opera Actors and Actresses with her wonderful performance in Cuiping Mountain,the performance style of which was created by the famous Peking Opera actor Xiao Cuihua. I wathched Chang Qiuyue's performance both in the quarter-final and the final through the live show on TV. What surprised me was that the stilt-walking of Xiao Cuihua style opera which has not been seen for a long time appeared in her performance again. As soon as I finished watching her performance, I composed a piece of work titled Cuiping Mountain, in which the heroine Pan Qiaoyun was played by Chang Qiuyue. Looking at the painting, one can easily recognize bashfulness and terror in the expressions of her eyes as well as her psychological distortion. Then I painted the enraged drunken Yang Xiong（Pan Qiaoyun's husband）with heavy color. When Chang Qiuyue came to my home at Chengdu and saw the painting Cuiping Mountain hung in my living room,she took a souvenir photo with me in front of the painting after appreciating the painting for a long time.

In 1987, Zhao Yanxia, a famous Peking Opera artist in Peking Opera Theatre of Beijing and Li Huiliang, another famous Peking Opera artist in Peking Opera Theatre of Tianjin came to perform in Chengdu. Coincidentally, my opera painting exhibition just opened at that time, so they all came to the exhibition. Li Huiliang also delivered a speech at the forum. Paintings based on their performances such as Lady White Snake and Zhong Kui Took His Younger Sister in Marriage were hung in the exhibition hall. Two days later, Zhao Yanxia published an article called Make Characters Onstage More Attractive on the newspaper which wrote “Luckily, I could went to the opera painting exhibition of Hongkui in Chengdu. In nearly one hundred paintings, he represented the vividness and energy of different characters on the stage like painted face character（Jing）, clown（Chou）, male characters（Sheng）and female characters（Dan）.As a Peking Opera actress, I felt very cordial when I saw these opera paintings”. Later, she even mailed me her inscription to me — “Show the Vividness of Characters, Reproduce the Charm on the Stage”. Famous Peking Opera artist Li Huiliang once came to my home at Spring Festival in 1988. He found my home by following the aria of Peking Opera because I was playing a record of Peking Opera.He said that in the Chengdu Evening Newspaper he had seen the opera paintings and sketches of Zhong Kui Took His Younger Sister in Marriage and Escape to Maicheng, in which he performed the leading role, and he treasured up the newspapers all the time.

As an opera painter, apart from watching actors' performances downstage, I also need to have interaction with them in real life, using their reflections on performance for reference and learning how they characterize the figures. I even do some performance myself. It is my hobby and also a form of study on opera painting creation. After retirement, I participated in the activities organized by Peking Opera Veterans Troupe of Chengdu City. Admittedly, I had much enthusiasm about operas from childhood, but I never performed them out with accompaniment, let alone onstage. I merely attended activities for pleasure. Having listened to opera singing and watched opera performance for such a long time, I tried to act an old man in the episode Spring-Autumn Pavilion of the opera Embroidered Pouch with Kylin, without singing but only spoken parts. One attempt made me more daring. I continued training my voice, practicing singing accompanied on instruments, watching videos, learning the stylization of operas and the gait on stage. Eventually a chance came in the National Day of 2002, which enabled me to collaborate with my fellow amateur performer Wang Mei to act in the Peking Opera Wujiapo in Xinsheng Theater. That day, we had a full house, and the effect was satisfactory. While acting, I felt as if I was on the scene in person. The opera and the painting blended with each other to form a whole.

I have a seal which is engraved with four Chinese Characters “戏画同源”（painting cognates with opera）. Traditional Chinese operas and paintings are both of freehand brushwork. The formal characteristics of foreign arts, briefly summarized, are of three categories: freehand brushwork（image）, realism（concretization）and tachisme（abstract）. Pre-20th century western painting was dominated by realistic painting. After the 20th century, many schools of modern arts emerged such as impressionism and abstractionism. The style transformed from realism to abstractionism. Our Chinese painting, due to restrictions of national consciousness, aesthetic theories, manners and customs and psychological states, developed its own style, that is, imagism（freehand brushwork）. Image impresses people with essential features. Take the shrimps painted by Qi Baishi as an example.Several shrimps on a blank sheet without water make people feel that these shrimps are swimming around in vast waters. The shrimps are enlivened. Such style is different from concretization and abstraction. Qi Baishi says: “The charm of painting is mostly reflected in the middle point between resemblance and non-resemblance.” He is against both photographic realism and formal abstraction divorced from reality. My painting is based on imagism ideas associated with tradition and reality. Traditional Chinese operas are exactly of such freehand brushwork. Overviewing world dramas and operas, we can see that they also contain three systems: concretization of Stanislavsky system, abstraction of Brechtian system and the imagism of Mei Lanfang system. Traditional Chinese operas seek similarity in spirit beyond similarity in form. White can represent black, and whip, horse. For example, in the Peking Opera Fork in the Road, a night fight is performed on the brilliant stage, making audience feel pitch-dark. Likewise, in traditional Chinese painting, the blank can denote heaven, water and space. Unnecessary background or colors are represented by the blank. It renders the paintings more succinct and the main images more salient. It leaves sufficient room for readers' imagination. Whilst traditional Chinese operas feature freehand brushwork, they cannot be copied in the opera paintings like stage photos. Paintings of opera figures are different from stage sketches. There are a few steps to go from sketches to opera paintings. Having watched too many operas and sketched too much, I have deeper understanding of operas. Hence opera paintings are to give expressions to my feeling while watching operas, instead of recording the singing, speaking and movements on the stage. In my opinion, operas do not only act out the plots or show techniques. They have already transcended this level. To sum up in a word, operas mainly deliver beauty: beauty of mind, beauty of the spirit. Watching operas make me refreshed and relaxed, elated and ecstatic, bringing me to an enchanting and beautiful world. Such beauty is so deeply engraved in my heart that in my eyes, my opera paintings reproduce not merely stage images but opera figures. To express my inner feelings while watching operas, I introduce the techniques freehand brushwork used in bird-and-flower paintings into my own paintings. My style changes from line sketching and light ink drawing into boneless painting techniques featuring heavy ink, strong brushwork, distinct color lump and intense black, red, blue, white and grey as the dominating colors. It usually employs simple color lumps to echo the complexity of colorful figures on stage, highlighting the color effects and the modern sense of the structure of the painting. Additionally, the sense of movement and dynamic of the figures are intensified. I am faithful to what my mind suggests instead of what the eyes see so I can be free from limitations from objects. The sentiment of brush and ink, the mood, the vivid charm, the artistic realm and the mind force are all applied to bring out my own feelings. Thus, the charm of the operas finds full expression in the paintings.

The old mariner in Sichuan Opera Autumn River is willing to offer help yet likes playing tricks. He is white-haired but still hale and hearty. He sweeps over rapids and shoals, creating an illusion of a great river on the stage. Each time I watch this episode, it gives me a feast of beauty. I painted many non-isomorphic graphs of Autumn River. Big color lumps were employed to depict the skew-eyed and humorous old mariner punting on the boat and the anxious Chen Miaochang who is longing for love. In Elites-welcoming Inn,I brought out the proprietress' air of an apple polisher, tilting her body and giving a seducing smile. I exaggerated in the description of the Prodigal Zhang in Marrying Mother away. He was blowing the suona horn with his mother on his back.Bitterness showed in his face.Picking up the Jade Bracelet is one of my favorite operas.I created many non-isomorphic graphs of it, emphasizing the image of an ancient maiden who seeks love and happiness and shows exterior shyness and inner delight.In Match-Making,I depicted the matchmaker Liu seated on a chair, crossing her legs, a long-stemmed pipe in her right hand, while her left hand was pointing at the coy girl Sun Yujiao. The air of bantering was obvious. All these ideas come from my feelings when watching operas. An eternal theme of my opera paintings is beauty. Chinese operas are always beautiful, so the opera paintings should also be beautiful,be it comedy or tragedy.Take Su San Brought to Trial as an example. The scene is that two guards are escorting Su San to Taiyuan for trial. The clothes worn by criminals and yokes are definitely not beautiful. But in the opera, the bright-red criminal costume and fish-shape yoke, adding the elegant figure of the actor, look very beautiful. In paintings, they are represented by heavy ink and the black and red to complement each other. In The Yanyang Mansion,I made the cloak wide open like the swings of butterflies and showed such big movements as raising the whip, aimed at revealing the arrogance, bossiness and sexual indulgent of Gao Deng as a negative character. While being reviled, it was also a beautiful image. In Small Feast, I transformed Lü Bu's frivolity and flirtation towards Diaochan into exquisite and reserved dance language by highlighting Lü Bu's waving the peacock feathers（with wine on it）on his hat onto Diaochan's face. The painting transcended the plane of the stage and made use of the space of painting. Lü Bu is placed at the upper left corner while Diaochan is at the lower right corner. One piece of the feather sticks upward and another piece is waved downward at the beauty's face. It is really a beautiful picture.

Every movement or act on the stage constitutes a beautiful dance and every poise reminds the modeling beauty of sculpture, like a moveable statue. It is fair to say that each gesture and motion is not merely representation of life, but rather artistic and beautified. Likewise, opera paintings should not indiscriminately copy the acts on the stage since they should reflect the sense of beauty, not stage action. Xi Mingzhen, former director of the Sichuan Opera Research Institute of Sichuan Province, appreciated my opera paintings and published the article Representations of Beauty on the newspaper. It reads: “Hongkui gets familiarized with Sichuan Opera by virtue of his business and then falls love with it. He has full knowledge of and profound love for the characters in the operas and displays them in his works. He can grasp the mental state of these characters in a moment and portray them in a vivid way. That's because he is not only describing the beautiful body, but focuses more on the mind and spirit. Therefore, in his paintings, the characters are all vivid and lively with distinctive personalities. Take for example Bao Zheng, governor of Kaifeng in the opera Beheading the Nephew.Hongkui adopts rough brush strokes with Bao Zheng's waving hair and beard and flapping sleeves, bringing out his intolerance of evil, uprightness and upholding of justice. The Buhhdist nun Sekong in World Temptation is depicted as a simple and innocent girl, stimulating audience's sympathy for her lot, bitter experiences and struggling pursuits. In terms of the effect, it has some flavor and charm that the stage performance does not have. What especially draws my attention is the beautiful portraits of the characters in Escaping from the Window. The emblazonry of clothes, water-smooth hair, straight figure, and rough strokes show the excitement of Qian Yulian and helps manifest her audacious resistance. Escaping from the Window is a master work of the performing artist Yang Youhe. In the painting, the actress still bears his trace. The knitted brow and compressed lips of Qian Yulian all make me miss comrade Yang Youhe...”

During the three years between 1996 and 1998, the supplement of Chengdu Evening News set up the special column“Appreciating and Painting Operas”, contributed by Xie Xiaosu. The pictures were illustrated by me. Over 80 paintings were serialized and the column won the first prize of Outstanding Works on Newspaper Supplement of Sichuan Province. These paintings and articles earned many compliments from opera lovers and stimulated much interest from a large number of readers who were still unfamiliar with operas. Apart from experiencing the charm of operas, these readers also gained some inspirations. Some started collecting newspapers and cutting and pasting them into a volume. Some even sent letters in hope of publishing it as a book. Nine years later,my book Appreciating and Painting Operas finally got published by Sichuan Fine Arts Publishing House in 2008. The former chairman of Literary Federation of Sichuan Province and consultant of the Provincial Leading Group for the Revitalization of Sichuan Opera Li Zhi wrote in the preface of the book: “Years having elapsed, seeing Mr. Hongkui's opera paintings again, I find that his artistic style has undergone some changes again. By using boneless painting techniques in traditional Chinese bird-and-flower paintings, he manages to bring into full play the most exquisite movements and appealing qualities of the characters in the operas. He injects his own affections into his paintings, creating sharp visual effects on viewers. Opera paintings add more color opera appreciation, and in turn, opera appreciation glorifies opera paintings. ”

My exhibitions of paintings of opera figures have, since 1987, been held among three cities in Chengdu, Chongqing and Guangzhou. Three exhibitions have been held in Chengdu, one organized by the Provincial Artists Association and displayed in the provincial exhibition hall, the second by the Provincial Dramatists Association in Jinjiang Theater, and the third exhibited in the municipal Cultural Palace during the third Artistic Festival held by the Provincial government in 1991. Many people of the drama circle, press circle attended the opening ceremony and a host of performing artists of Sichuan Opera and Peking Opera and theorists of Sichuan Opera published relevant articles on newspapers.The special issue Drawing Operas by Hongkui shot by Chengdu TV was played on“A Quarter at Night”.

Ye Shi, former chairman of the Provincial Dramatists Association, wrote an improvisational poem on the symposium of the opening ceremony:

The universe is underpinned by a stroke;

The heaven gets represented under a line.

The charm and delicacy of various kinds

All become explicit without knowing.

— Compliment of Zhang Hongkui's opera paintings

The municipal Sichuan Opera Theater also organized a congratulation performance with both performing artists of Sichuan Opera and new promising performers. Based on the opera paintings of my exhibition, 14 opera highlights were performed, which gave me great encouragement.

In 1989, at the invitation of my alma mater Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, I came to Chongqing to hold my exhibition of paintings of opera figures. The Sichuan Opera Theater of Chongqing also organized a congratulation performance in the auditorium of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. Ten Sichuan Opera highlights were performed. Chen Zhihua, theorist of Sichuan Opera, conducted an interview and wrote the article An Effective Attempt of Popularizing Sichuan Opera. It reads:“Sichuan Fine Arts Institute is special in valuing national folk art. When conducting the exhibition, they invited artists of Sichuan Opera in Chongqing to have a visit and interaction. At night a congratulation performance came off in the auditorium of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, pushing the exhibition to a climax. Hongkui's opera painting exhibition entering into institutes of higher learning was an efficient attempt to revitalize and popularize Sichuan Opera and win over new audiences, playing an important role of publicizing and broadening the influence of Sichuan Opera. In addition, it also bridged the communication between Sichuan Opera and Fine Arts. Practitioners of Sichuan Opera can draw nutrition from fine arts works to create its own artistic images, while fine artists can also take in new materials from traditional Sichuan Opera. They bring out the best in each other.”

After retirement, I had no work tasks. But due to personal interest, I continued painting. Whilst I had fewer opportunities to go to theaters, the CCTV Chinese Opera channel enabled me to have closer contact with Chinese operas. Later on, many of my opera paintings came out after watching TV, especially live broadcast of theater scenes, making me feel personally on the scene.

I have loved and painted operas for my entire life. It enriches my late-life. Although already 85 years old, I insist taking my opera recorder so that I can listen to the opera while having a walk. I find much pleasure in it.

At the end of the 20th century, my opera painting Series of Comic Characters in Sichuan Opera were selected into Sichuan Centenary Hundred-Person Paintings Exhibition.My Hundredopera Paintings came the first in the Guinness World Records.

Sichuan Opera is one of the main types of Chinese operas with extensive influence and included in the national intangible cultural heritage. To inherit and protect this precious cultural heritage, the Provincial Sichuan Opera Research Institute sorted out several hundreds of traditional Sichuan operas in 2010 and compiled them into Integration of Traditional Sichuan Operas to be published by Sichuan People's Publishing House in parts. On invitation, I made sketch illustrations for each episode of opera . It is an opportunity for me to devote my remaining energy and make some contributions to Sichuan Opera.

November, 2015