Paul Gravett:
Can you please describe the room or space you work in and how you spend a typical day?

Zao Dao:
My life is very simple. Usually, when I am working, I get up around six in the morning and go out to do some exercise. When I get back, I do a bit of cleaning of my aquarium. Then I start working on my drawings which goes on till 11 at night when I go to bed. In a quieter period with not too much work, I go walking in the mountains, or play with the village dogs, or meet with friends and have a good meal together. But even so, I try to draw before going to bed around 11 pm.

What are your preferred media - pencil, ink, watercolour, gouache - and how much do you use digital software?

For my drawings, I start with a sketch in pencil, then I make the outlines in ink and apply colour with watercolours. To correct differences in the colouring in the scan, I use Photoshop, but for a long time now I’ve not drawn on a computer.

How were you influenced by reading Chinese comics or lianhuanhua, when you were young?

When I was small, you couldn’t find much to read in our little village that was isolated and almost without communication with the outside world. There was, however, a very old library which nobody wanted to use: people said that it was haunted. It’s true there were plenty of spiders’ webs inside it…. But I dared to go inside and read some lianhunhua books of comics: I’ve forgotten their titles and stories now, but I still have the memories of the pleasure reading these books gave me…

Which stories and artists from lianhuanhua were your favourites and why?

My favourite comics series was called The Calabash Brothers, which was the first and only comics series I had as a child. Its story and its style a bit like animated cartoons, and a bit like shadow theatre were so intriguing that I still get pleasure from reading and re-reading them today.

What importance does lianhuanhua have for younger people today like yourself?

The subject of what comics mean to our generation is a vast subject and I can’t speak about it as if I represent my whole generation. All that I can say is that for each generation comics influences a great number of artists. It’s a shame that I couldn’t read enough old books of comics because today they can no longer be easily found. Artists of the past drew of lots of characters and objects from real daily life, so they all possessed a very solid graphic foundation for their creating in the future. Their comics stories always have a close link to everyday life. I hope that young people of my generation will want to look at them again and get to know them, so they will discover the serious side of their work and will distance themselves from superficial, fashionable things.

What did you like and learn from reading manga?

In Japanese comics, there are a lot of different ways of telling a story, it’s amazing. And on top of that, their layouts have a natural, fluid rhythm to them. Reading works like these, you always learn something, for example how to dig deeper into the subtlety of a character’s personality. Among the Japanese authors, I prefer Sakaguchi Hisashi and Mizuki Shigeru.

Please describe your first art book, and how you composed it.

When I started Song of Sylvan, I was in a difficult phase, I had to make choices and my portfolio was almost empty. Thinking about this, I understood that a work of creativity demands total concentration. If you focus on money or other things, that blocks creativity. So I decided to concentrate totally on my creative work for two or three years, in the hope that by making this book, I would get to know my craft and its purpose. During these years, as I made progress, I had to take on small commissions, so I could then concentrate on what was for me my main work. I also travelled from province to province to avoid unhelpful disruptions. In this way I was able to make my drawings in great concentration and as I intended. I was very relieved the day I finished this story!

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