An Ning

One afternoon， it unexpectedly began to rain. An Ning was at home with the door and windows closed when suddenly someone knocked at the door. An Ning opened the door to see a rain-soaked man， and then fell with him into a different world where a fantasy adventure awaited him. The story starts in the real world， goes through the twists and turns of a fantasy world， and then finally returns to reality. It boasts both realistic meaning and liveliness， mystery and fantasy. It is worth mentioning that in the adventure through the fantasy world， the book explores the spiritual source of children’s inner world， and expresses concepts that even an ordinary person should bravely explore in order to break through and discover one’s unique self.

Huang Wenjun

He is a university teacher， a writer of children’s literature， and a member of Chinese Writers Association. He has won the Xingyun Award for Global Chinese Science Fiction， China Taiwan’s Mu Di Award for Fairy Tales， China Hong Kong’s Youth Literary Award， and Little Octoberkids Literature Award.

In one corner of the world， there is a very ordinary town. How ordinary？ It has no long history， no beautiful sights， no famous people worth mentioning， and no local specialties. Its name is so common that it is a duplicate of many other small towns. Therefore， it isn’t necessary to mention its name. Anyhow， you can’t even find it on a map.

In such an ordinary town， there is a very ordinary boy. He has a very ordinary name， An Ning. How ordinary is An Ning？ He is neither tall nor short， neither black nor white， neither fat nor thin. He has neither good nor bad school grades， and he is somewhere between being an introvert and an extrovert. His teachers and classmates often ignore his existence.

In fact， An Ning could have become the focus in art class. An Ning became obsessed with drawing when he was very young. At that time， An Ning’s house had lime walls， concrete floors and a wooden door painted with tung oil. He would draw and draw on them with chalk pieces or broken bricks. What did he draw？ No one taught him. Just based on the impressions in his mind， he drew stars， the moon， big trees， small flowers， pandas， hippos， boys and girls. Everywhere were his lifelike drawings. An old woman in the neighborhood told An Ning： “Although I have a bad memory， I will never forget my way home， because I can follow the pictures you drew on the walls to my house.” An Ning felt warm in his heart when hearing this.

When he grew a little older， An Ning knew the rules and stopped scribbling at home. However， he still couldn’t help leaving all kinds of graffiti on the corners of his notebook or the six sides of an eraser.

After going to school， An Ning had a variety of professional painting tools， so he thought about using brand new painting methods. He began to use colors more boldly： He colored pumpkins eggplant-purple， cotton sky-blue， and strawberries lemon-yellow. The shapes he chose became more exaggerated： the square sun， the dumbbell-shaped moon， and stars in parallelograms. The proportions also became more and more peculiar： A train passes through corn poppies， an elephant sits on an ant’s tentacle， a rock band lives in a little boy’s hair... But in art class， An Ning never dared to paint so boldly， because he was afraid of being criticized by the teacher or ridiculed by his classmates. He just painted properly like everyone else， so his paintings naturally couldn’t stand out from others.

An Ning’s parents have very ordinary jobs in very ordinary positions. They are not well-educated enough to help An Ning with homework. They have little leisure time to accompany An Ning on weekends. They would only ask some old-fashioned questions during meals： “Is the homework difficult？” “Can you understand it？” “Are you prepared for the exam？” But they never asked： “Did you have a great time today？” “Was there anything fun in school？” or “Did you make new friends？” An Ning had no choice but to eat while nodding， and replied absent-mindedly： “It’s okay.” “It’s alright.” or “Yes.”

Sometimes An Ning complained， but he had no solution. After all， he couldn’t choose his parents.