The Children’s Day of 2018 is approaching. Long Museum (West Bund) will present the "The Story of the Peacock Princess: Zhao Shutun and Nannona Comic Strips from Long Museum Collection", which will be held on June 1st. On the same day, a series of Children's Day activities will be held to send holiday blessings to the children.

Comic strips tell a complete story and reproduce literary works in the form of continuous painting. Because of their vivid pictures and imaginative stories, they are popular among children. A large number of precious comic strips in the Long Museum collection system will be gradually displayed to the public. The manuscripts of the comic strips "Zhao Shutun and Nannona" exhibited this time, with a total of 40 manuscripts, are ink comic strips created by Cheng Shifa in 1957 and published twice by Foreign Languages Publishing House in 1961 and 1965. The content presents Dai folk story "Zhaoshutun". 

"Zhao Shutun", also known as "The Peacock Princess", is a long folk narrative poem of the Dai ethnic group. The poem tells the story of how Banjia Prince Zhao Shutun fell in love with the Peacock princess Nannona when he was out hunting. There was a war shortly after the marriage. Nannona was regarded as an ominous thing, so she had to fly back to the Peacock kingdom before she died. After Zhao Shutun returned from the expedition, he went through hardships to reach the Peacock kingdom, and the couple was reunited. While praising the loyal love of the two, the story also reflects the life, thoughts and feelings of the Dai people. The poem was translated into Russian and other foreign languages and published, and at the same time it was adapted into puppet shows, dance drama, movies.

In 1957, Cheng Shifa accompanied a sketching group organized by the Ministry of Culture to sketch and create in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province. He was infected by the local ethnic customs. He used Western paintings to compose a large number of Dai costumes, utensils, architecture, animals, customs, mountains and rivers. Combining Chinese ink painting and western painting composition, he created "Zhao Shutun and Nannona". It became very popular once it was published. 

About the Artist

Cheng Shifa (1912-2007), formerly named Cheng Tong, was born in Songjiang, Shanghai in 1921, and graduated from Shanghai Art Museum College in 1941. Shanghai-style calligraphers and painters are unique in characters, flowers and birds, and are accomplished in comics, new year pictures, illustrations, illustrations, etc. Cheng Shifa has been the dean of Shanghai Painting Academy for a long time. He is an artist with outstanding achievements and high reputation both at home and abroad. One of his great works, "Kong Yiji", won the second prize of the first National Comic Painting Award.