Jiang Weipu (; June 1926 – 29 September 2019) was a Chinese ''

lianhuanhua ''Lianhuanhua'' () is a type of palm-size picture books of sequential drawings popular in China in the 20th century. It influenced modern manhua.Wong, Wendy Siuyi. 002(2001) Hong Kong Comics: A History of Manhua. Princeton Architectural Press. N ...

'' artist, publisher, and art historian. Considered a founder of the ''lianhuanhua'' industry in the People's Republic of China, he has been called the "patron saint of ''lianhuanhua''".

Biography

Jiang was born in June 1926 in

Huang County Longkou (), formerly Huang County (), is a port city in northeastern Shandong province, China, facing the Bohai Sea to the north and the Laizhou Bay to the west. Longkou, a county-level city, is administered by the prefecture-level city of Yantai ...

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

, Republic of China. He joined the Communist revolution in October 1944, and worked as a journalist for ''East China Pictorial'' () run by the

East China Military Region East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

. He later served as chief editor of the magazine. In 1953, Jiang established the ''lianhuanhua'' division of and served as its director. By 1962, the division had published 1,400 works of ''lianhuanhua'', with more than 100 million copies printed. When the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

broke out in 1966, Jiang was persecuted and imprisoned for two years. He returned to work in 1968 after his rehabilitation. In 1973, with the approval of Premier

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 J ...

, Jiang re-established the magazine ''Lianhuanhua Pictorial'' (), which had been shut down since 1962. In the 1980s, it became one of China's ten best-selling magazines. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Jiang was appointed deputy editor-in-chief of People's Fine Arts Publishing House in 1977. He founded China Lianhuanhua Association in 1983 and served as its president. In 1985, he founded China Lianhuahua Publishing House and served as its editor-in-chief. He was elected a member of the 8th

Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC, zh, 中国人民政治协商会议), also known as the People's PCC (, ) or simply the PCC (), is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of ...

. He retired in 1995. Jiang died on 29 September 2019 in Beijing, aged 93.

Publications

From the 1950s to the 1990s, Jiang oversaw the creation and publication of many ''lianhuanhua'' works, including ''

Water Margin ''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''. The story, which is s ...

'', ''Story of

Yue Fei Yue Fei ( zh, t=岳飛; March 24, 1103 – January 28, 1142), courtesy name Pengju (), was a Chinese military general who lived during the Song dynasty, Southern Song dynasty and a national hero of China, known for leading Southern Song force ...

'', ''

The Generals of the Yang Family ''The Generals of the Yang Family'' is a collection of Chinese folklore, plays and novels on a military family from the earlier years of imperial China's Song Dynasty (960–1279). The stories recount the unflinching loyalty and the remarkable b ...

'', and ''

Romance of the Western Chamber ''Romance of the Western Chamber'' (), also translated as ''The Story of the Western Wing'', ''The West Chamber'', ''Romance of the Western Bower'' and similar titles, is one of the most famous Chinese dramatic works. It was written by the Yuan d ...

''. These highly popular works influenced generations of Chinese readers. From 1987 to 1993, Jiang published the five-volume ''lianhuanhua'' ''A Red Ribbon on Earth'' (), based on an eponymous novel about the

Long March The Long March (, lit. ''Long Expedition'') was a military retreat undertaken by the Chinese Red Army, Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the National Revolut ...

of the

Chinese Red Army The Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army or Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, commonly known as the Chinese Red Army or simply the Red Army, are the armed forces of the Chinese Communist Party. It was formed when Communist ...

. It won multiple national prizes and was hailed as a milestone in the history of ''lianhuanhua''. Jiang also wrote a number of works on the history of ''lianhuanhua'', including ''Lu Xun on Lianhuanhua'', ''A Treatise on the Art of Lianhuanhua'', ''Appreciation of the Art of Lianhuanhua'', and ''Sixty Years of Lianhuanhua in New China''. In 2004, he was named a "Distinguished Art Historian" by the

China Artists Association The China Artists Association (), originally the China National Art Workers' Association (), is the official national association of Chinese artists, with its headquarters in Beijing. It was established in July 1949, with Xu Beihong as its first c ...

. The

manhua () are Chinese-language comics produced in China and Taiwan. Whilst Chinese comics and narrated illustrations have existed in China in some shape or form throughout its imperial history, the term first appeared in 1904 in a comic titled ''Cu ...

artist Hua Junwu called Jiang the "patron saint of ''lianhuanhua''".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jiang, Weipu 1926 births 2019 deaths Artists from Yantai Writers from Yantai Historians from Shandong Chinese journalists Chinese publishers (people) Chinese comics artists Chinese art historians Members of the 8th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference