Comic strip is anancient Chinese traditional art. It narrates stories and depicts characterswith continuous pictures. This form has a wide range of subjects and diversecontents. It is a popular book for all ages.

连环画是一种古老的中国传统艺术，以连续的图画叙述故事、刻画人物，这一形式题材广泛，内容多样，是老少皆宜的一种通俗读物。

Comic stripspermeate every field of life. The generalized comic strips can be extended tothe scroll of literati paintings, frescoes of temples and so on. In theprosperous historical period of comic book, people's entertainment life wasrelatively simple, and teaching with comic books had become an important way toimpart knowledge. Because the art forms of comic strips are various and thethemes of comic strips have the characteristics of Chinese traditional cultureand certain historical periods, they are quite different from the comic stripsof other countries and they have their own unique artistic expression.

连环画渗透在生活的各个领域。广义的连环画可以拓展到文人画的卷轴、庙堂的壁画等等。在连环画繁荣的历史时期，人们的娱乐生活相对简单，连环画也是寓教于乐的一个重要方式。由于连环画的艺术表现形式多样，题材具有中国传统文化和一定的历史时期特色，它与其他国家的漫画作品有着很大的区别，具有自己独特的艺术表现力。

According to thehistory of the development of comic strips, it has gone through a circuitousprogress.

从连环画的发展史看，它走过了一个跌宕起伏的曲折历程。

Before the foundingof New China, the techniques of comic strips were immature, and the printingwas rough. With the social turbulence and years of war, the creation andpublication of comic strips were suppressed. After the liberation of China,comic books were ushered in a new life.

新中国成立前，连环画技法不成熟，印刷也比较粗糙，加上社会动荡，连年战争，连环画创作与出版受到了压抑。全国解放后，迎来了连环画创作与出版的新生。

From 1950 to 1965,it was the first golden period for the development of comic strips. During thisperiod, China was far away from turbulence and war, and social stability hadprovided a great environment for the development of comic strips. At the sametime, the state had adopted an incentive policy and reorganized the comic bookpublishing units. The establishment of Shanghai People's Fine Arts PublishingHouse and People's Fine Arts Publishing House was of great significance tocomic strips. Later, most of the fine comic strips were published by these twopublishing houses.

１９５０年至１９６５年，是连环画发展的第一个黄金时期。这１５年中，中国远离了动荡和战争，社会稳定为连环画的发展提供了大环境。同时，国家采取了鼓励政策，并对连环画出版单位进行了重组。上海人民美术出版社和人民美术出版社的成立对连环画具有重大意义，后来的精品连环画多数是由这两家出版社出版的。

In the middle andlate 1950s, a large number of high-quality comic strips began to enter themarket, and excellent works emerged in endlessly. Long comic strips includedThe Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, General Yang and so on;single-volume comic strips included White-Haired Lady, Wusong Dahu, DarkSwordsman and so on. A large number of comic books published, occupied thecultural market, and became the most influential popular culture readingmaterial.

２０世纪５０年代中后期，一大批精品连环画开始进入市场，优秀作品层出不穷。长篇作品有《三国演义》、《水浒》、《杨家将》等等；单册的连环画有《白毛女》、《武松打虎》、《胆剑客》等等。连环画的大量出版，占领了文化市场，成为当时最有影响的大众文化读物。

1977 to 1985 was themost prosperous period for the creation and publication of Chinese comics. Therestoration of the correct ideological line had liberated the productive forcesof culture and art unprecedentedly and revitalized the creation and publicationof comic strips.

１９７７年至１９８５年是中国连环画创作与出版最繁荣的时期。正确的思想路线的恢复，使得文化艺术生产力得到空前解放，连环画创作与出版重现生机。

At the same time,when the painting books were wildly published, the film version of comic booksalso began to be released. By the early 1980s, it had achieved unprecedenteddevelopment .A large number of famous Chinese and foreign films entered Chinesefamilies in the form of comic books, which were welcomed by the public. Themost famous film comics are The Million Pound Note, Yesenia, Future World, etc.The unprecedented prosperity of comic books had led to the rapid expansion ofprinting volume. According to statistics, just in 1980, more than 1000 kinds ofcomic books were published nationwide, with over 400 million copies printed.

在绘画本大量出版的同时，电影版连环画也开始出版，到２０世纪８０年代初得到了空前发展，一大批中外著名的电影以连环画的形式进入了千家万户，受到了大众的欢迎。主要的电影连环画有《百万英镑》、《叶塞尼娅》、《未来世界》等。连环画的空前繁荣使得印量急剧扩大，据统计仅１９８０年全国出版连环画达１０００余种，印数４亿余册。

In the late 1980s,comics gradually fell into its low. With the rapid development of films andtelevisions and newspapers, comic books had been challenged and impacted asnever before. It was in this way that one of the greatest comics of the early1990s, the Red Ribbon of the Earth, which could live on forever, gave a boostto the slack comic book market.

从２０世纪８０年代后期开始，连环画逐渐陷入沉寂时期。影视、报刊的迅猛发展，使得连环画受到了前所未有的挑战和冲击。就是在这种情况下，２０世纪９０年代初期一部可以永留连环画史册的巨作——《地球的红飘带》，又为日益落寞的连环画市场打了一剂强心针。

In the mid to late1990s, comic books backed to the public as collectibles. The initial price ofcomic books was very low, but the price for a collection quickly raised after1990, especially for some famous works and works of special historical period.In the spring of 2005, an original manu of a famous comic strip sold at auctionfor 11 million yuan.

1990年代中后期，连环画以收藏品的身份再次回到人们的视野。由于最初连环画售价十分低廉，而1990年后的收藏使其价位迅速抬升，尤其是一些名家作品和特殊历史时期作品，更是价格不菲。2005年春季，一部连环画的原稿拍卖成交价达到了1100万元。

Chinese comic is atraditional art rooted in the nation and a unique category in the world. It isone of the most popular book categories in the New China and the best carrierof spiritual civilization.

中国连环画艺术是扎根民族的传统艺术，也是世界上独具特色的艺术门类，更是一部反映中国历史的图画史料。它是一门在新中国最受群众欢迎的读物，也是担负精神文明建设的一种最佳载体。

From the past to thefuture, we can't erase the nostalgia and spiritual imprint of comics. We arelooking forward to another glorious era of comic stripes.

过去、现在乃至将来，我们对连环画的怀念情结和精神烙印是抹之不去的。我们期待着连环画走出困境，焕发新生。

Famous Comic Artists

著名连环画家介绍

Zhang Leping

张乐平

Born in 1990, ZhangLeping spent more than 60 years working on comic strips painting. As thewell-known “Father of Sanmao”, his magnum opus is the stories of Sanmao.

张乐平出生于1990年，被誉为"三毛之父"的他画笔生涯达60多个春秋，代表作就是三毛的故事。

In 1935, thecharacter Sanmao was created by Zhang Leping in Shanghai, and soon gainedreaders’ attention because of his special look. This typical character deeplyreflected the suffering in vagabondage children’s life and revealed theirrational social system in Old China. Sanmao’s story was adapted into featurefilm and puppet film.

1935年，春夏之交张乐平笔下的三毛漫画形象在上海诞生，其奇特的造型立即引起广大读者的注意。三毛这一典型形象深刻表现了旧中国流浪儿童的苦难生活，揭露了不合理的社会制度，以后又被改编成电影故事片、木偶片。

He Youzhi

贺友直

Born in 1922 atShanghai, He Youzhi was an artist of comic strips and line drawing. He had beenworking on comic strip since 1949 for more than 50 years, with over one hundredbooks of comic strips. He passed away in 2016, he had contributed a lot to thedevelopment of comic strips and line drawing art in China while working at ShanghaiPeople's Fine Arts Publishing House.

贺友直于1922年生于上海，是我国著名的连环画家、线描大师。他自1949年起开始画连环画，在上海人民美术出版社工作。他从事连环画创作50多年，共创作了百余本连环画作品，对我国的连环画创作和线描艺术作出了重大贡献。

He saw himself as apainter who grew up along with the New China. He was 28 and without a job when thePeople's Republic of China had just established. In order to make money, hebought the novel FuGui of Zhao Shuli,adapted it to over 200 strips of comic, which was luckily selected by apublisher. This was his debut of comic strips.

他是与新中国一起成长的画家。新中国成立那年，他28岁，没有工作，生活困难。听说画连环画可以挣钱，就买了赵树理的小说《福贵》，稀里糊涂地自编自绘了200多幅，竟然让一个画商印了出来，这就是他的处女作。

And his work GreatChanges in the Mountains in 1960s well represented his unique art style, whichresulted from his hard study of traditional Chinese line drawing techniques.This work was highly appraised for its ideological content and artisticquality.

20世纪60年代初，他经过刻苦钻研中国传统线描技法，创作出融思想性、艺术性于一炉的代表作《山乡巨变》，从而形成了自己的独特风格，获得了美术界的高度评价。

Qian Xiaodai

钱笑呆

Qian Xiaodai was bornin 1911 at Jiangsu Province, another famous master of comic strips in China. Hewas praised by comic strips readers and publishers in Shanghai as one of thefour top painters, with magnum opus of MonkeyKing and Skeleton Demon, A Dream in Red Mansions. The Monkey King and Skeleton Demon even won the third prize in the 2ndChildren’s Book Illustration Competition held by UNESCO.

钱笑呆 (1911年11月6日-1965年7月21日)，祖籍江西，出生于江苏阜宁县，我国著名连环画画家，被当时的连环画读者和出版者誉为上海"四大名旦"之一。代表作有《孙悟空三打白骨精》、《红楼梦》等。《孙悟空三打白骨精》在联合国教科文组织亚洲文化中心儿童画书插图第二届比赛中得到了三等奖。

记者 | 霍旻含 钟程祥

责编 | 曹骏懿 吴修远 周慧玲 赵静然

美编 | 刘童 李依璇 史佳颖