Library hosts multilevel show on depictions of the animal in art and animation, Zhang Kun reports.
Young visitors get into the spirit of Zodiac Art Exhibition, which features 300 depictions of the animal at the Shanghai Library's Pudong branch. (SUN ZHONGQIN / FOR CHINA DAILY)
As 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit, according to the Chinese zodiac, more than 300 depictions of the animal in paintings, cartoons and digital programs, are being showcased in Zodiac Art Exhibition, an exhibition of artworks, at the Shanghai Library's Pudong branch, which will run until Feb 19.
The exhibition is being hosted by the Shanghai Artists' Association, the Shanghai Animation and Cartoon Association and the Shanghai Library.
Sun Shaobo, director of the Shanghai Animation and Cartoon Association, says the exhibition organizers had received 2,500 submissions on rabbits from China and another 200 from 40 other countries and regions in a month.
Young visitors get into the spirit of Zodiac Art Exhibition, which features 300 depictions of the animal at the Shanghai Library's Pudong branch. (SUN ZHONGQIN / FOR CHINA DAILY)
Each section of the exhibition features a unique theme — Chinese festive rabbits, avant-garde designers' rabbits and rabbits by renowned artists.
The Shanghai Library's Pudong branch is a new facility that officially opened to the public in September. The largest single library construction project in the country, it covers a total of 115,000 square meters. The artworks are scattered in open areas over the building's seven stories.
Zheng Xinyao, chairman of the Shanghai Artists' Association, has been making a series of cartoon figures of Chinese zodiac animals each year, and his latest piece, a rabbit drawn with a few simple strokes, is one of the first artworks to greet visitors.
Young visitors get into the spirit of Zodiac Art Exhibition, which features 300 depictions of the animal at the Shanghai Library's Pudong branch. (SUN ZHONGQIN / FOR CHINA DAILY)
"We have put together rabbits on all kinds of media, from ink and oil paintings to wood prints, sculptures, paper-cutting and so on," Sun says.
"The rabbit is one of the most versatile animals for cartoon and animation art," Sun adds.
Overseas artists have created cartoon figures of rabbits that have been liked by children through generations, such as Peter Rabbit, Bugs Bunny and Miffy.
In China, cartoonist Du Jianguo created a bunny named Fei Fei, which was the leading character in comic strips serialized on the Good Child pictorial in the 1980s and the '90s. Fei Fei, along with another rabbit, from the 1980 Chinese cartoon movie The Snow Child, are presented in the exhibition on the ground floor.
From armor-clad robot rabbits to a huge black rabbit perched on top of the library building in the exhibition poster, the show at the library presents different personalities and images of the animal.
Young visitors get into the spirit of Zodiac Art Exhibition, which features 300 depictions of the animal at the Shanghai Library's Pudong branch. (SUN ZHONGQIN / FOR CHINA DAILY)
Last month, artist Huang Yongyu's design for a postal stamp in celebration of the Year of the Rabbit sparked heated discussion online.
Some criticized the image of a mischievous blue rabbit as "vicious "and "ominous".
Xu Jiahe, an art critic with Xinmin Evening News, a Shanghai-based newspaper, argues, "Why can't rabbits be cynical, weird or even fierce? Art has to go beyond catering to people's expectations and what is recognized and accepted, to create novel imagery that is interesting."
If you go
Zodiac Art Exhibition
Jan 18-Feb 19, 9 am-4 pm, Tuesday-Sunday.
The Shanghai Library Pudong Branch, 300 Yingchun Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai.
Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn
