Contemplation of Decades Blooms into Illustrations

I wrote my kongfu novel “The Book and Sword” in the 1950s while working as a journalist for New Evening News in Hong Kong when Mr. Dong Peixin created illustrations for kongfu novels serialized in Hong Kong Daily News and Blue Book owned by Mr. Luo Bin. Dong appreciated my kongfu novels and I appreciated his illustrations. We agreed that readers would be very much pleased if he created illustrations for my novels. We both thought it was a good idea. Regretfully the project did not come through.

Mr. Luo Bin liked my novels， thinking my novels offered an interesting read and appealed enormously to readers. At that time he was the owner of Hong Kong Daily News， a very good newspaper and I was the owner of Ming Pao， a very good newspaper. Both were new tabloid newspapers sold for one dime a copy. The two newspapers competed against each other naturally in Hong Kong， a very small news media market. At that time， Ming Pao had not yet formed a mature and independent style， yet to be preferred by politically independent intellectuals. Given the competition， Mr. Luo Bin did not embrace the idea of Dong Peixin creating illustrations for my novels.

It was not until both Ming Pao and Hong Kong Daily News changed hands in 1997 when Hong Kong returned to the sovereignty of China that Dong Peixin began to create illustrations for my novels. Some of illustrations had been in his mind for decades. Some underwent repeated changes either in composition or in images.

The artworks yielded from long-term contemplation are purely amazing. In the illustration of Xiao Feng’s arrival at Juxian Residence that precedes a bloody free-for-all， there is tension pulsating in every inch of the illustration. In the illustration of Wei Xiaobao frolicking with his girl friends in a huge bed in a brothel in Yangzhou， readers find no disgusting sex. Instead， they find humor， integrity and joy， which is exactly the tune the novel intends to convey and express. The illustrations rhyme perfectly with the novels. Readers will smile sincerely.

Many mainland artists have tried to create illustrations for my novels. Some artists are masters. They created pretty illustrations， but comparatively theirs are not as successful as those by Mr. Dong Peixin. They are great artists， but they might have lacked artistic contemplation that lasted decades. The art of Dong Peixin matured through decades of thinking. This is natural growth and maturity. Each of the illustrations in this collection reflects Dong Peixin’s artistic on the kongfu world of Jin Yong’s novels. These imaging and considerations were in his mind for decades or at least more than ten years.

Editor’s Note:

September 22， 2010 witnessed the completion and grand opening of Jin Yong Academy in Haining， the home town of Jin Yong in Zhejiang Province. Dong Peixin， a Chinese artist now living in Canada， came all the way to attend the event. In order to express the appreciation of the artist’s friendship with Jin Yong (Louis Cha)， Haining hosted an exhibition of Dong’s illustrations of Jin Yong’s kongfu novels at West Lake Expo Museum in Hangzhou.

The opening ceremony of the exhibition was held on September 23， 2010 on the West Lake in Hangzhou. More than 100 distinguished guests and art enthusiasts attended the ceremony. Also present at the opening ceremony were leaders from Haining City. On display were sixty illustrations.

Dong Peixin was born in 1942 in Wuzhou， Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. He grew up in Guangzhou and migrated to Hong Kong at 15. He began to work as an illustrator for news media at 16. He created more than 300，000 illustrations from 1958 to 1999 and his readers were more than one million. He moved to Vancouver in 1989. With the consent of Jin Yong， he began in March， 2005 to create illustrations for his kongfu novels. These illustrations are in the style of the traditional Chinese painting. These illustrations have been exhibited in Guangzhou， Macao， Hong Kong， and Vancouver.

Dong spoke at the opening ceremony. Dong’s wife Zhou Hengliang acted as a narrator at the exhibition and gave detailed explanations on all the paintings. The artist autographed for readers and improvised some sketches for distinguished guests. □