A simple, unadorned and unrestrained childhood

About the author（s）：

Guo Zhenyuan is a writer who is fond of children and devotes to writing fairy tales.

Zhu Chengliang is a graduate studying oil painting at Nanjing University of the Arts. He is the winner of prizes and awards including the Feng Zikai Chinese Children’s Picture Book First Award， the New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books， the Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustrations， the Bologna Illustration Award， and Author of the Year of Chen Bochui International Children’s Literature Award.

Brief introduction：

A group of small animals amused themselves in the mountain and found that the sun had dropped from the sky. To stop the sun from falling， they put their brains to work. They bound， lifted， or bore the sun … and digged it out in the end. Stopping the sun from falling， those animals were like children. What this silly story tries to tell us about is childish instinct and fearlessness.

Don’t Let the Sun Fall

Guo Zhenyuan

Zhu Chengliang

China Peace Publishing House

May 2018

39.80 （CNY）

I very much like traditional Chinese folk art， such as paper cutting， New Year woodblock prints， toy embroidery and so on. Traditional Chinese folk art is a treasure to me. Whenever I have the opportunity， I will put the elements， images and language of these folk art into the creation of picture books. I have also created some children’s books and illustrations before， such as the Flickering Rabbit Lamp， A Day on Earth， Holding the Lantern and so on. These picture books all adopt elements of folk art and painting language. It is not difficult to see that folk art is very beautiful. It not only has the original beauty and the childishness beauty， but also an authentic kind of beauty.

This time， Guo Zhenyuan， a young writer of children’s literature， wrote a story about animals and the sun. I loved the story when I first read it， because it was an opportunity for me to incorporate a lot of elements of folk art. I shared the story and ideas with the president of China Peace Publishing House. She thought it very interesting and decided to let me draw it. I felt very happy at that moment.

Inspired by traditional Chinese lacquer ware， I chose vermilion and gold as the main colors for this book. Traditional Chinese lacquer ware has several main colors： red， black and gold. Sometimes mineral pigments are added， including shell inlays. This book is about the sun， which is very compatible with red， so most parts of the book are painted with red as the background. The sun and the woods on the mountain are both painted golden. Mountains painted in gold and brown look calmer to highlight the colors of the animals.

I drew the animals using images from the folk toys for reference. For instance， the cattle is a clay toy in Shaanxi， while the monkey， bird， and kitten are folk toys in Henan. It is very appropriate to use them here. Although the kangaroo is not native to our country， I dressed it in polka dots in pink and stone green. These two colors are often used in traditional Chinese toys， so it is equipped with Chinese features. In this way， the whole book has distinctive Chinese characteristics， giving the readers a sense of jubilance and cheerfulness. At the same time， in the layout design， the square， circle and semicircle are used to divide the picture. So it not only has the characteristics of lacquer， but also brings out the best of the sun’s image.

Animals go to great lengths to keep the sun from falling， and this process is the focus of the book. To make it interesting， I imagine the sun as a glutinous rice ball. When the birds tie it with rattan， it becomes soft. When the little monkey lifts it with the bamboo pole， it lies softly on the other end of the bamboo pole. When the sun falls in front of the cattle， he doesn’t use his horns to support， but stands on his head to hold the sun with feet， because he is afraid that the sun would be damaged by his horns ...

In addition， in the process of editing the book， I came across something very moving. To explore the size of the folio， the editors made two white-page books as a reference for the form of the book in the future. Over the years， this is the second time I have encountered such considerate behavior. The first time was when cooperating with Mr. Anano in Japan to draw A Day on Earth， the Japanese publishing house also made a white-page book.

Finally， I want to say， the creation of Don’t Let the Sun Fall offered me the opportunity to experience the charm of folk art again. It was truly enjoyable.