In the Chinese art world, there is a pair of cartoonists, father and son, Ding Song (1891-1969) and Ding Cong (1916-2009), whose ancestral home is in Fengjing Ancient Town, Jinshan District, Shanghai. In Fengjing, a Ding Cong Art Museum was built on the original site of their ancestral home. The most attractive part of the museum is the restoration of Ding Cong's study "Shanhaiju" in Beijing during his lifetime on the second floor.
Ding Xiaoyi, the son of Ding Cong, and Huang Heini, the daughter of his father's old friend Huang Yongyu, recently met at the Ding Cong Art Museum and reminisced about their fathers' past with The Paper reporter, "Remembering the path our parents have taken, so that everyone can see the artist's life."
Ding Cong's son Ding Xiaoyi (left) and Huang Yongyu's daughter Huang Heini took a photo in front of the Ding Cong Art Museum in Fengjing.
Fengjing Ancient Town, a Jiangnan water town with a long history of 1,500 years, is called the "corner of Wu and Yue" because it is located at the intersection of Wu and Yue. The streets paved with bluestone slabs are full of delicious food, such as Ding pig with a strong aroma of sauce, steaming steamed cakes, and Shanghai green that is fragrant and sweet after the frost period and melts in the mouth. There is a kind of fireworks atmosphere everywhere that makes people unconsciously relax... According to the written records left by Ding Song, the Ding family moved to Fengjing Hongqiao in the early Qing Dynasty. In the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods, the family became more and more famous and was once a prominent family in the local area. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period, bandits rose up and the Ding family's ancestral home "Hongdong Thatched Cottage" became a ruin. By Ding Song's generation, only three tiled houses remained. In 1903, Ding Song left his hometown and went to Shanghai as an apprentice. Later, he became a famous painter and cultural activist in the Republic of China. The first cartoon society in China, "Cartoon Society", was established in 1926. The sign was hung at Ding Song's home in Tianxiangli (now No. 9, Lane 847, Huangpi South Road).
Ding Cong visited the park with his parents in the 1930s
Ding Cong was born in Nanshi, Shanghai in 1916. When he was 16 years old, he came to Fengjing for the first time when he returned to his hometown with his father to visit his hometown. Since then, due to wars and changes in the times, he has never set foot in his hometown again. It was not until 70 years later in 2002 that the 86-year-old Ding Cong came to Fengjing for the second time. This time, he and his wife Shen Jun asked and inquired along the way, and finally found the graves of his parents in Fengjing Cemetery. The following year, the relevant person in charge of Fengjing Ancient Town sent several letters to Ding Cong, who lived in Beijing, expressing his strong desire to build the "Ding Cong Cartoon Exhibition Hall". According to Ding Xiaoyi's recollection, his mother Shen Jun received several sincere letters from Fengjing in succession. Hearing that his hometown was about to develop tourism, Ding Cong expressed his willingness to support it. The Ding Cong Cartoon Exhibition Hall later became one of the three earliest tourist attractions in Fengjing Town.
Ding Cong took a photo at the "Ding Cong Cartoon Exhibition Hall" located on Fengjing North Street.
After the Ding Cong Cartoon Exhibition Hall was officially opened to the public in Fengjing North Town in 2003, many old friends of Ding Cong left their footprints, such as Huang Miaozi and Huang Yongyu. In 2019, the Ding Cong Cartoon Exhibition Hall was expanded and moved to the vicinity of the original site of the Ding family's ancestral home in Fengjing South Town, and was renamed Ding Cong Art Museum, which coincided with the tenth anniversary of Ding Cong's death.
In 2002, Huang Miaozi, Yu Feng and Han Meilin took a group photo in front of the Ding Cong Cartoon Exhibition Hall.
In the Ding Cong Art Museum, a painting that Huang Yongyu sketched when he visited Fengjing in May 2006 facing the "Ding Cong Cartoon Exhibition Hall" in the quiet alley echoes the current building of the museum, making people sigh at the passage of time. The paintings painted by old friends actually reflect the past and present of the art museum over the years.
In May 2006, Huang Yongyu's Ding Cong cartoons were displayed at the exhibition hall.
Xiao Ding and his friends
In front of the Ding Cong Art Museum, the first thing that greets visitors is Ding Cong's self-portrait: a humorous and open-minded round face, with a pair of glasses that take up one-third of his face, and his eyes smiling into a line. This is exactly the image of Ding Cong in Feng Jicai's "Ding Cong's Freehand Painting": "optimistic, open-minded, kind, not serious, loving but not hateful."
The interior of Ding Cong Art Museum, where Ding Cong's works serve as signposts. Photo by Tao Ping
The museum consists of buildings and gardens. The garden part restores Ding Cong's description of his ancestral home "Hongdong Thatched Cottage". Ding Cong's cartoons can be seen everywhere in the winding corridors, either as movement route indexes or as decorative embellishments, sketched with plain brushes, adding a touch of vividness to the quaint museum.
Ding Song's description of the Ding family's old house
The "Hongdong Thatched Cottage" was restored based on written records in the Ding Cong Art Museum. Photo by Tao Ping
The exhibition section of the Ding Cong Art Museum uses a combination of photographs, documents, works and real objects to outline the life stories of Ding Song and his son, as well as several of Ding Cong's former residences, including Tianxiangli in Shanghai, Weigongcun in Beijing, and Changyun Palace.
In his early years, Ding Cong's family had a "Saturday Living Room". Every Saturday, stars, writers and painters from the theater and film circles liked to go to Ding's house for gatherings. When he grew up, Ding Cong continued his father's tradition and his friends were spread across all walks of life. In the literary world, there were playwrights Xia Yan, Wu Zuguang, and essayist Yu Feng; in the translation world, there were famous couples Yang Xianyi and Dai Naidie. Of course, in the art world where he was, Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, Zhang Leping, Huang Miaozi, Deng Sanmu, Huang Yongyu, etc., all had close contacts with Ding Cong. There is a "Ding Cong and Friends Exhibition Area" in the Ding Cong Art Museum, which presents Ding Cong and his circle of friends.
Ding Cong and his friends in Chongqing (from left: Te Wei, Zhang Ding, Ding Cong, Hu Kao, Zhang Guangyu) Photographed in the 1940s, courtesy of Ding Cong Art Museum
"After decorating my grandfather's (Ding Song) exhibition hall, I gradually realized that my grandfather and my father both cherished friends very much. I hope to build a museum that can showcase their friendship and life status. For example, the friendship between my father and Huang Miaozi started when they were young men in their early 19 or 20s and lasted until the end of their lives. They have been walking together on the same path. In my opinion, such friendship is remarkable." Ding Xiaoyi said.
Huang Miaozi, who is over 90 years old, sorted the photos and wrote down the situation when he took the photo with Ding Cong on a sticky note.
Huang Miaozi took a photo of Ding Cong with a handheld camera
"The relationship between these old people has always been very warm. When they can't see each other, they will call each other, write letters to greet each other, and share happy things with each other immediately." Seeing the group of sketches of Ding Cong in Huang Yongyu's hometown Fenghuang exhibited in the "Basic Techniques" area of the museum, Huang Yongyu's daughter Huang Heini added, "They had more gatherings in the 1980s. My father loved his hometown very much, and he always took his friends there. For example, in 1985, my father took a group of friends to Fenghuang for the New Year. Some of them filmed documentaries, and some sketched. At that time, my father saw uncle Ding Cong painting, and he immediately painted one too." Today, Ding Cong's three sketches in Fenghuang in February 1985 are framed in the same frame. The distant views are on the left and right, and the middle is a half-length close-up of Huang Yongyu. The quaint and vivid scenery of Xiangxi is reproduced in Ding Cong's painting - in the left picture, a small figure is paddling a boat forward, with ripples on the water; in the right picture, Huang Yongyu sets up his easel, with a pipe in the corner of his mouth, concentrating on the scenery of his hometown, not at all disturbed by the crowd behind him looking out to watch, creating a quiet and focused world of his own.
Huang Yongyu sketching in his hometown Fenghuang, painted by Ding Cong
Huang Yongyu sketching in his hometown Fenghuang, painted by Ding Cong
The interaction and care between the two artists is even more in daily life. In 1981, Ding Cong and his family moved into a four-bedroom apartment in Changyun Palace, Beijing. However, before they had settled their albums and books, water began to leak from the upper floor, and the temperature dropped to minus 14 degrees Celsius. As a result, the entire house of books was not only soaked, but also frozen into "book ice bricks". Upon learning of this, Huang Yongyu wrote "Congratulations to Ding Cong on His New Home Being Flooded", which was half teasing and half comforting. In the article, the humorous Huang Yongyu wrote brilliantly, turning this "flood" into a triple "happy event". This article was later included in Huang Yongyu's "Wu Shimang Forum". When the book was republished in 2022, Huang Yongyu also made a special trip to illustrate this incident - in the painting, Ding Cong was immersed in a pile of "frozen cultural property" that turned from book bricks into ice bricks, and pursed his lips helplessly. As time goes by, the memories of old friends are still vivid. Only a close friend can describe them so vividly and meticulously.
Huang Yongyu's painting "He Dingcong's New House Was Flooded"
"Everyone has a different personality. Uncle Ding Cong doesn't talk much, he's always smiling, he's like the big brother. My dad talks more. Sometimes they would review works and talk about current events together, but most of the time they were relaxed, positive and happy. Their relationship was 'sharing happiness and sharing difficulties'," Huang Heini recalled.
Ding Cong and Huang Yongyu
Ding Cong cartoon Huang Yongyu.
In Ding Xiaoyi's opinion, his father and many of his friends met in their twenties and often got together until they were in their nineties because they were engaged in similar careers. Although some of these friends were writers, some were painters, and some were musicians, they had experienced a series of events together, including the Anti-Japanese War, the Liberation War, and the labor reform in the Great Northern Wilderness, and they always walked hand in hand.
In the 1980s, Ding Cong and Wu Zuguang returned to the Great Northern Wilderness
Among the friends who "played together", we have to mention "Erliutang". The name "Erliutang" comes from Guo Moruo. As early as the Anti-Japanese War, Tang Yu, a patriotic overseas Chinese who returned to China to participate in the war, built a small building in Side Village, Chongqing, named "Bilu" for people in the cultural, drama, film, art, and journalism circles (including Xia Yan, Wu Zuguang, Ding Cong, Lu En, Zhang Zhengyu, Zhang Guangyu, Sheng Jialun, Dai Hao, Gao Fen, Gao Ji, etc.) who came from Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing and other places. Although Huang Miaozi and Yu Feng had their own residences at that time, they often went to hang out with them. Guo Moruo jokingly called this place "Erliutang". In those years of war, everyone sat around the stove, focusing on the war situation and discussing state affairs. It was really a strange cultural landscape. Xia Yan therefore had the wonderful theory of "first-class people in the second-class hall", which became a good story in the literary world during the Anti-Japanese War.
In the 1990s, the friends still kept getting together. Ding Xiaoyi told the reporter of The Paper a heartwarming detail: "Friends often get together. Beijing is very big and people live in scattered places. People of their generation are very frugal. Every time they get together, they have to take the bus and it takes one or two hours to get there. As time goes by, friends are worried that the elderly Tang Yu can't stand it, so they secretly discuss a solution and 'lie' him to say that he can get reimbursement for taking a taxi to the party, but not for taking the bus. This finally persuaded him to take a taxi. But in fact, the 'reimbursement' money was paid by Huang Miaozi from his own royalties."
In the early 1990s, several friends from Erliutang gathered at Xia Yan's home. From left: Wu Zuguang, Huang Miaozi, Tang Yu, Zhang Ding, Ding Cong, Yu Feng.
In addition to the satirical cartoons that criticize current social ills, Ding Cong's cartoons of cultural celebrities are also well-known. In the "Portraits" area of the first work gallery of Ding Cong Art Museum, Shen Congwen, Qin Yi, Xiao Qian, Ba Jin, Bing Xin, Fang Cheng, Feng Jicai, Xin Fengxia, Lao She, Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Huang Miaozi, Qian Zhongshu, Nie Gannu, Xia Yan, Wang Meng and other celebrities are vividly presented to visitors in the form of cartoons. The reason why these portraits can be expressed so vividly is not only Ding Cong's own painting skills, but also the friendship between them for many years that adds spirit to the portraits. It is understood that Zhejiang People's Fine Arts Publishing House will publish the book "Ding Cong and His Friends", which includes portraits of 116 friends in the cultural circle drawn by Ding Cong, and includes their mutual ridicule, outlining a small history of exchanges in the cultural circle, and also indirectly showing the daily friendship in their private exchanges.
Ding Cong Art Museum Exhibition Hall
Recreate Xiaoding's "Mountain and Sea Residence"
The most attractive part of the museum is the restoration of Ding Cong's study "Shanhaiju" in Changyun Palace in Beijing during his lifetime on the second floor. Ding Cong's desk stands quietly by the window, with brushes, pens, pencils and other painting tools scattered on the table. Standing scrolls, upside-down albums, and books of different sizes spread out from the table legs in all directions, layer upon layer. The bookcases behind him are staggered in height, and the owner has placed small ornaments on each layer. There are also wooden masks and musical instruments hanging on the wall...
The study room of Ding Cong's residence in Changyun Palace, Beijing, was restored. Photo by Tao Ping
Huang Yongyu's daughter Heini stopped here to examine it carefully: "It's really authentic. There are so many things here. Is that chair brought to your house by my father?" "It's Shanhaiju!" Ding Xiaoyi replied. Then, the two smiled at each other.
Ding Xiaoyi and Huang Heini in front of "Shanhaiju"
Ding Xiaoyi explained: "Uncle Huang Miaozi named my father's study 'Shanhaiju' because there are so many books in my father's house that it is like looking for a needle in a haystack to find them. My father's biggest hobby is buying books. He once said that he planned to read books slowly after retirement, but he never had much time. The number of books kept increasing, making it difficult for the family to even walk. Audiences working in the cultural field can relate to this scene very much."
"Now the four-bedroom apartment is packed full. The tables, the floor, the corridors, and any empty space are all occupied. When strangers come over, they think I'm moving when they see the mess!" What Ding Cong described before his death is vividly presented before my eyes.
A study room filled with empty spaces
"My idea is to let everyone know about Ding Cong, and hope that visitors who come to visit the Ding Cong Art Museum can feel his presence, so that people who come here can see and imagine the scene and appearance of his work at that time." Ding Xiaoyi said, "My father's desk was originally very large, but he liked all kinds of small things, and he continued to buy all kinds of books, so it was soon filled up. In addition to the part where he sat, his chair was also surrounded by books and magazines. Fortunately, his paintings were not large, so it was enough to clear a little space."
Ding Cong's study. The study in Ding Cong Art Museum was restored based on the photo and memory.
Through the restored study, visitors can see Ding Cong painting in the "basin" of books for decades. According to Ding Xiaoyi, after Ding Cong's death, his family counted more than 12,000 books of various types. Judging from the list of books, Chinese and foreign picture albums, comic books, and his friends' works occupy most of the bookshelves. In addition to the restored study, the Ding Cong Art Museum also rebuilt the "Xiao Ding Book House" based on the design concept of "Books in the Sky and Books in the Earth", where these old books have now found a new home.
The "Xiao Ding Book House" in the Ding Cong Art Museum. Photo by Tao Ping
From time to time, traces of Ding Cong's life can be seen in these books. For example, in one of the books, there is an envelope sent to Ding Cong by the Central Committee of the China Democratic League. On the cover of the cowhide envelope, Ding Cong's address "Unit No. 1, First Floor, Weigongcun Foreign Language Bureau Dormitory" was crossed out with a blue ballpoint pen, and the two characters "Er Ma" were written. When it was opened, the envelope contained specially sorted illustration materials for "Er Ma", including a page of calendar paper, a page of manuscript paper from the editorial department of "Reading", 21 manuscripts of Ding Cong's illustrations for Lao She's "Er Ma", and a page of manuscript paper from "Decoration" magazine.
Envelopes and calendar paper
Each of these materials is valuable, and the 21 illustrations of "Two Horses" are particularly important. Each of these manuscripts is the same size (10cm×13cm), and most of them are drawn in pencil. A careful comparison of these manuscripts with the officially published illustrations shows that these manuscripts are not the final illustrations sent to the publisher, but the "drafts" of the officially published illustrations.
In this regard, Yu Siyan, director of the Jinshan District Museum, once wrote an article introducing that "the first illustration on page 406 of the book, numbered ①, is the only one of the 21 illustrations that has traces of blue ballpoint pen modification... There are still many differences between the draft and the officially published illustrations. For example, the hairstyle and facial expressions of the characters in the final draft are more vivid and delicate than the draft; the ink bottle drawn with a blue ballpoint pen in the draft was not put in the end; in the final draft, there is an extra piece of clothing on the back of the chair, a bed behind the character, and a painting on the wall; even the position of the curtains and the architectural scenery outside the window have been more finely adjusted."
Comparison between the manuscript and the official published version of "Two Horses"
Just by comparing the first illustration, we can feel the meticulousness of Ding Cong's creation. It is this group of "drafts" that allows viewers to have a more intuitive understanding of Ding Cong's conception and creation process. Ding Cong's cartoons are known for their delicate portrayal. This cartoon style is called "fine brushwork cartoons" by Hua Junwu: "Ding Cong's paintings are very thoughtful and not sloppy, which is extremely rare in our Chinese cartoon world." He even said, "There is only one person in the cartoon world who has such skills."
Ding Cong Art Museum rebuilt the "Xiao Ding Book House" based on the design concept of "Books on the Sky and Books on the Earth". Photo by Tao Ping
In this "book world", Huang Heini wrote down her feelings about the exhibition in the guestbook: "I finally came to Fengjing to meet Uncle Ding Cong and his art gallery... I remember the path my parents took and try my best to restore it so that everyone can see and appreciate the artist's life."
Huang Heini's message on the guestbook
The book room was quiet and silent. A photo of Ding Cong quietly hung in the center. He sat contentedly on the sofa, looking at his favorite books in the room with a satisfied expression. The setting sun shone through the flower window, falling on the pages of the book, the wooden table, and the words.
