Bitter Grounds Magazine

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China’s Year of the Rabbit stamps revealed

Written by catpaw
October 31, 2022

China Post revealed their 2023 Year of the Rabbit stamps. Release date for this annual Lunar New Year issue is set for January 5, 2023.  The great Huang Yongyu  黄 永玉 , designer of China’s first Year of the Monkey stamp (1980), created this pair.  

 China 2023 Lunar New Year of the Rabbit stamp one  Year of the Rabbit stampsChina 2023 Lunar New Year of the Rabbit stamp two

The first stamp, titled “Wise Rabbit”, is ready with a pen and card in hand (.. paw?) to send you greetings. The blue colouring symbolises good wishes for the New Year. The second stamp is titled “Symbiosis in the Same Circle”. The rabbits are running in a circle, displaying the cycle of agility, vitality and warmth. It’s difficult to see the pattern on the 2nd stamps background, but it’s there. The pattern is described as 玉兔捣药”纹饰  or in a bad translation Jade Rabbit pounding medicine. This represents a wish for good health and happiness despite the pandemic. 

I tweaked the contrast on the stamp so you can see the absolutely exquisite background. Once you see it, the Jade Rabbit pounding medicine theme makes sense. 

Rabbit pounding medicine

Self-taught artist, poet, essayist and novelist Huang Yongyu became a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, at the age of 28. His career, spanning the length of modern China’s history, has influenced generations of artists and illustrators.  

1980 year of monkey

1980 Year of the Monkey

Click to read more about Huang's early life

Due to his family’s poverty, he went out at the age of 12 to make a living and was exiled to work as a child laborer in a small porcelain workshop in the mountains of Anhui and Fujian, and later moved to Shanghai, Taiwan and Hong Kong. He began publishing at the age of 14, and for a while focused on printmaking, and his unique printmaking works were well-known at home and abroad. At the age of 16, he began to make a living by painting and woodcarving. He has served as a porcelain factory worker, primary school teacher, middle school teacher, family education librarian, theater trainee art team member, newspaper editor, film screenwriter, professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, vice chairman of the China Fine Arts Association, and consultant of the ninth session of the China Fine Arts Association [1] He is an honorary member of the 10th China Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Huang Yongyu_Baidu Encyclopedia
Huang Yongyu 黃永玉

Portrait Huang Yongyu
黃永玉

Huang published his most recent book Day Reading this year (September 2022) and is planning an art exhibition to celebrate his 100th birthday. I’m hoping he designs the 2024 Lunar New Year stamp. 

“I have worked in art for decades. The only wisdom I gained is not to flaunt one’s seniority,” the self-taught veteran artist said. “God bless if I can live past 100 years old. When the time comes, I will hold an exhibit of my latest pieces.”  Huang Yongyu: A seasoned artist with a childlike heart – CGTN

1980 year of monkey Dragon ink and water colour Artist painting Orchids on paper

Owls, 1984 ink and color on paper 
Dragon, 2012 ink and color on paper 
Artist, no date ink on paper
Flowers, 1979 ink and color on paper

“Painting is something you do all your life. I guess, I’ll be painting until I die” Huang Yongu in a 1999 interview.

During the chaotic years of the Cultural Revolution, Huang, like many artists, found himself in and out of prison because of his artwork and poetry.  He fell out of favour, and he was unable to paint much for years.  He described those years in a 1999 interview as a time when “Everyone was scared. It was a very abstract kind of fear” Huang Yongu in a 1999 interview.

winking OwlDespite the long, difficult years, Huang was able to return to art when the Cultural Revolution died out. With the blessingsWinking owls 3 of the new leader Premier Zhou Enlai, Huang, and others targeted by the extremism of the Cultural Revolution, were encouraged to create paintings for the new Beijing Hotel. It was the beginning of his slow rehabilitation as one of China’s great artistic voices. 

In 1974, Huang once again became a pawn when he was caught up in more political turmoil, when Mao’s wife Jiang Qing saw an opportunity to attack Zhou Enlai and try to grab more power for her faction. While employed at the Beijing Hotel, Huang took on a private commission to create what became known as the “Winking Owls”.

These seemingly innocent paintings were swept into a battle between the factions competing for Mao’s favour. Jiang called the owls counter revolutionary and anti-socialist, dangerous accusations to anyone during those chaotic post Cultural Revolution years.  “His well-known Owl paintings—which portray owls with one eye shut was meant as a symbol of government officials turning a blind eye to injustices” (Huang Yongyu | Artnet). Jiang used the winking owl controversy to accuse Zhou Enlai of bringing in a subversive element to the Bejing Hotel job.

Criticism was swift and harsh, with Huang exiled to a labour camp for 3 1/2 years. The political nightmare continued on until Mao stepped into the fight and ended it with a simple observation “an owl does have one eye open, and one eye shut”.  Whether he intentionally meant the owls as a criticism of the government or not is a much-debated subject.  Huang’s artwork now hangs in museums around the world, including Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, National Museum of China, Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Asian Arts Museum in San Franciso. He has also been the subject of a number of retrospectives (including in China itself). 

“I tried to adjust to hardship and I tried to find opportunities to paint. I have never regretted a thing.” Juang Yongyu 

If you’d like to see more of his work, and learn more about Huang, check out Step into Huang Yongyu’s paintings – seemingly unorthodox charm of life – Zhihu. It unveils another aspect of Huang’s talents and explores his “comic” images from a personal point of view. I enjoyed the article, despite the translation.  and this article has a more orthodox look at his career Huang Yongyu: A seasoned artist with a childlike heart – CGTN.

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3 Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing, I did not know about this artist and I am loving it!

    Reply
    • He’s amazing, isn’t he!

      Reply
  2. This was informative and interesting to read about him. Thank you.

    Reply

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