Cartoon Master’s Ties with Louwailou Restaurant

Master Cartoonist Hua Junwu passed away at nine o’clock on the morning of June 13， 2010 in Beijing Friendship Hospital. A native of Hangzhou born in 1915， Hua Junwu was very proud of his roots in Hangzhou. I visited A Life of Cartoons， a retrospection exhibition in 2007 that looked back at his lifetime achievements in the sarcastic art. His self-introduction started with this brief statement: I am a Hangzhou native and I was born in 1915 in Zumiao Lane， Hangzhou.

In his evening years， Hua Junwu visited Hangzhou many times. He once said proudly that he would be able to speak the Hangzhou dialect fluently after staying for a brief week in his hometown. In 2006， Hua came back to Hangzhou to attend an art event. He visited Xueshi Road near the West Lake. He traveled up and down the road four times before he located a kindergarten where he as a preschooler spent some time.

And during his brief visits to Hangzhou， Louwailou Restaurant was a must for the cartoonist. On October 5， 1994， he came to the restaurant on the lake. He was treated a dinner of local cuisine. He thought chefs and diners must be artists before they could make and appreciate these dishes， which he thought were artistic masterpieces. For Hua Junwu， enjoying legendary local food at the legendary Louwailou Restaurant on the lake was bringing back a memory， an expression of nostalgia， a personal journey back to the past. On that day， Hua Junwu created a cartoon at the restaurant. The cartoon， entitled Covering All the Ugliness， depicts a man sitting in a chair and covering part of his face with a paper fan. Some people think it is Hua’s self-portrait， for the master created a few self-portraits in his lifetime， but none shows his real face. Some people think it is the master’s shot at ugly things in society. Well， the cartoon is just like a dish at the restaurant. You taste it and you find its taste.

On May 16， 1999， Hua Junwu came to Louwailou again. This time he created another cartoon for the restaurant. The 84-year-old cartoonist simply drew a fish， saying it was the made-in-Louwailou West Lake Fish in Vinegar Gravy， one of the most famous and most legendary local dishes of Hangzhou.

Zhang Weilin， the CPC Louwailou chief， recalls that Hua Junwu visited the restaurant many times， but it was on these two visits that he created a cartoon each for the restaurants.

After learning the death of the master， the people at the restaurant held a brief memorial service in commemoration of him. His two paintings are now printed in a collection put together by Louwailou. □