Since it was first published in 1981, the magazine Duzhe (Readers) has been many people's daily reading. Its condensed articles cover a wide range of areas of knowledge and topics, widening
The bi-monthly magazine introduces people to literary beauty and the depth of thought. The magazine also serves as a platform where artists are able to showcase their gift by creating related illustrations. More than 300 artists have illustrated over 20,000 works to add artistic glamor to the magazine's 780 issues over four decades, according to its publisher, Duzhe Publishing and Media Co, which is based in Lanzhou, Gansu province.
Now, an exhibition is putting the spotlight on how illustrations have given added meaning to the magazine by showing some 250 such works that have been featured in it. Duzhe Illustration Art Works Touring Exhibition is running at the Beijing Fine Art Academy through April 9, as the first stop of a national tour. It shows the magazine's art and editorial elements, and the advancement of illustrations in the course of the country's reform and opening-up.
Works on show come with small boards on which original pages provide the text — short stories, essays, poems and critiques — and the illustrations, enabling the audience to sense the chemistry between words and images. It shows how far and wide the editors at Duzhe have reached, along with artists across the country.
Li Xiaolin, a professor of printmaking at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, is among those whose gift was spotted by the magazine.
Li took up illustration classes while pursuing a master's degree at the CAFA. His works were included in a book of his teacher's, and caught the attention of Duzhe's editors who contacted him.
"Then I began to receive commissions from the magazine. I have made nearly 2,000 paintings for it over the past 25 years," says Li, whose works are on show.
He says artists enjoy freedom when creating for the magazine.
"It is not a must that we illustrate precisely what the content is about. We are not to explain, but to visualize the atmosphere being delivered, and to extend the implications. This is especially true with essays and poetry," he says.
Li says earlier he sometimes had to have his job done in one or two days, and mail his work by postage service when the computer was still a luxury item to most people, but these days, all he needs to do is simply take a shot of his work with a mobile phone, his "reliable assistant", and send the picture to the magazine's editors.
He says the long-term collaboration between the magazine and its contributors, based on mutual trust, is evident at the exhibition, which covers a variety of styles and approaches of expression.
"People can see works that are realistic and abstract, colorful and in black and white. Aesthetically, the quality is steady, which is one of the reasons why the magazine has been successful."
A number of illustrations have been provided by professional artists like Li, while there are also amateurs whose creativity and imagination became known to people through their work for the magazine.
An issue, dated October 2007, published an essay and a drawing by Wei Erqiao, a cardiologist at the school hospital of Harbin Institute of Technology in Heilongjiang province, who died of lung cancer two months earlier, at age 43. Between the lines, Wei narrated the changes in his feelings for life, art and belief after being diagnosed with the disease. The late doctor liked drawing since childhood, and developed a habit of painting on prescription pads during night shifts. His works look simple but are humorous and insightful. He drew over 7,000 illustrations, including several for Duzhe that are also on show.
The works of Qiu Jiong, who graduated in physics from Nanjing University and now works as a comic and illustration artist, was inspired by Han Xizai Gives a Night Banquet, a master scroll painting made more than 1,000 years ago. Qiu has reenacted the banquet scene — showing the host, guests and performers — to go with an article on versatile figures in Chinese history.
Qiu says he likes to draw "embarrassing moments" in real life, or scenes in which he would put together figures from different periods of time and generate dramatic tension. He says he hopes to evoke shared feelings in the audience and engage in a mind-opening journey.
Liang Xiaosheng, the noted author and a regular contributor to Duzhe, attended the exhibition opening on March 16, and said he came to see the works of his favorite artists. He said the birth of the magazine was out of a wish to enrich the cultural life and spiritual world of young people in Lanzhou, and was "a miracle", as it is based in deep northwest, and not in Beijing or Shanghai.
"I began to read Duzhe in my 40s, and now, in my 70s, I am still reading it. I have kept dozens of issues of it at home," he says. "I'm getting old, and still a faithful reader."
