Autobiographical motifs in the "silent books" of contemporary Chinese artists (using the example of Sean Tan and Guojin)

Myao Jianzhong Postgraduate student; Department of Arts and Design; Far Eastern Federal University 690922, Russia, Primorsky Krai, Vladivostok, Fefu Campus str., building 5, office 704 alexkun.2016@mail.ru

Fedorovskaya Natal'ya Aleksandrovna ORCID: 0000-0002-8789-7994 Doctor of Art History Professor; Director of the Department of Arts and Design; School of Arts and Humanities of the Far Eastern Federal University 690920, Russia, Primorsky Krai, Vladivostok, Russian, 10 myao.tc@dvfu.ru

"Silent books" are books in which there is no text, the plot and the author's position are revealed exclusively with the help of a sequential series of illustrations. In the first half of the 20th century, the prototype of "silent books" – comics – was distinguished by rather primitive graphics, so although they were popular, they were published in mass editions, but they were considered a "low genre" in the professional community. Then the comic went beyond the kitsch culture and became an element of middle-class culture, and at the end of the century the comic was reinterpreted in pop art and included in the formation of neo-elite culture ^{[1, p.70]}. At the beginning of the XXI century, the silent books inheriting the comic book became a recognized genre of artistic illustration, their authors win the most prestigious competitions, earning the love of both the children's audience and the expert community. The analysis of the specifics of the "silent book": the author's self-expression; the figurative embodiment of the plot and character of the hero; compositions and image techniques are an urgent scientific task.

The studies of Russian scientists A.V. Gorbunov ^[2], O.V. Pozdnyakova ^[3] and others are devoted to "Silent Books". The neo-mythological archetypes of the characters' images in comics are revealed by R.T. Aliyev ^[1]. However, these works focus mainly on Russian and American graphic novels and do not affect the work of Chinese artists of the new generation. The work of Sh. Tana is mentioned among other authors of "silent books" in the works of Western researchers Marcella Terruzi ^[4], G. Greeley ^[5] and J. Mirandola ^[6].

The purpose of the article is to identify the autobiographical motives and specifics of the author's self–expression in the "silent books" of internationally recognized artists Shaun Tan and Guojing.

The sources are illustrations for 4 books: the graphic novel "Arrival" by Sean Tan ^[7] and Guojin's books "Beyond the Wall of the Blizzard" ^[8], "Thunderstorm" ^[9] and "Flamingo" ^[10]. Materials from Internet resources were also used - the websites of artists, publishing houses "MYTH" and "Polyandria", fans of the "silent book".

Sean Tan and Guojin work in the global art space, strictly speaking, they should not be called "Chinese artists", but artists with Chinese roots. Sean Tan is an Australian artist of Chinese descent, and Guojin is an artist who lives in Canada, publishes in the USA, Russia and other countries. Their works are united by the fact that they complexly combine autobiographical and universal principles, realism and fiction, Chinese and Western stylistics and illustration techniques. In addition, the works of these artists are intended for both children and adults.

Sean Tan (Fig. 1) was born in 1974, graduated from the University of Western Australia with two majors — fine arts and English literature. He worked as a theater artist and then as an animation artist for Pixar and Blue Sky Studios. In the book industry, he began by illustrating texts by other authors, and then began to create his own original, unlike anything else, hand-drawn stories. In total, the artist has created more than 20 books. Among them are the children's fairy tales "Orchard" (2007) and "Mahogany Tree" (2008), which have been published in many countries of Europe, Asia and America and have received a number of prestigious awards ^[11].

In 2011, he received an Oscar with the animated film "Nobody's Thing" (The Lost Thing), created by him based on his own children's book, and also became the winner of the Astrid Lindgren Award — the most prestigious award in the field of children's literature.

His most famous graphic novel is Arrival (2007), for which he received the prestigious Bologna Ragazzi Award. The style of this work is designed in the spirit of steampunk (steam-punk), i.e. paradoxically combines retro realism in the reproduction of the first half of the twentieth century (black-and-white gamma or sepia, typical of documentaries and photographs of that era (Fig. 2; 3 a); images of mechanisms, machines of that time) and unexpected elements fiction (fig. 3b). It seems that the hero, having emigrated to Australia or America on an ocean ship, arrived on another planet.

The graphic novel "Arrival", despite its gloomy fantastic flavor, is connected with the story of Sean Tan's family, who moved from China to Australia and at first faced considerable difficulties that the first generation of emigrants goes through (especially given the two world wars and mass manifestations of cruelty).

The hero of Arrival even bears a portrait resemblance to Sean, although the Asian features of his appearance are deliberately smoothed out, because this story reveals not only family, but universal problems. These are bureaucratic obstacles, racial and class discrimination (Fig. 4), the "sweatshop system" in the workplace (Fig. 5), mass repression and purges.

The novel became a worldwide sensation for a reason: Sean Tan went against the established stereotypes in the depiction of Chinese migrants, which began to take shape in the literature of the late 19th century and firmly entrenched in the popular culture of the 20th century. Even Sherlock Holmes from Conan Doyle's books began to fight against cruel and sophisticated Chinese criminals, and S. Romer's novel "The Secret of Dr. Fu Manchu" (1913) formed the image of the leader of the Chinese mafia, who in comics embodied in the images of such supervillains as Blue-eyed Manchu, Yellow Spider, Wu Fang, Wu Chung Fu, China White − incarnations of evil and objects on which numerous superheroes honed their combat skills ^{[1, p. 84]}.

Contrary to these stereotypes, Sean Tan shows Chinese migrants as ordinary people, kind and worthy of respect and sympathy, who are opposed by a cruel and inhumane system. And the "white superhumans" in this context look very much like ordinary fascists.

In terms of genre, Sean Tan in "Arrival" very subtly balances on the edge of a technocratic dystopia and a children's fairy tale with kind and intelligent animals − helpers and friends of the main character. His interpretation of the heroic is not to kill and defeat everyone, but to preserve humanity, save those you love, and live in peace and harmony. The hero of Arrival does not destroy the world he arrived in, but makes it a little kinder.

The artist Guojing (fig. 6) was born in China, in Shangxi in 1983. After graduating from the Academy of Arts in Tianjin, Guojin worked for a long time in the game industry and animation as a designer and artist, but eventually became famous as the author of "silent books". "Animation was close to me, but most of all I wanted to create full-fledged stories. Then I started thinking about what kind of project I could implement as an artist myself from beginning to end, and eventually settled on a book" ^[12], — these are the words of Guojin at the spring Non/fiction fair in Moscow during a teleconference with artist Maria Sudovykh in 2021. This interview was timed to coincide with the release of Guojin's new book "Thunderstorm" in Russia by Polyandria Publishing house (Fig. 7).

Before that, another work of the artist was published in the publishing house "MYTH" — a black-and-white fairy tale parable "Beyond the wall of the Blizzard", partly inspired by memories of her childhood in China (Fig. 8). During the creation of "Beyond the Wall of the Blizzard" Guojin specially traveled to Shanghai, to her grandfather's house, studied family heirlooms and photographs to reliably convey the signs of everyday life and the spirit of that time.

"Thunderstorm" is already a colorful story, more concise and cinematic, but no less lyrical. The plot of the book is devoted to how trust and friendship gradually arise between two lonely creatures – a stray dog and a girl. The portrayal of the characters of the characters and the situations that arise is distinguished by subtlety and delicacy, one might even say intelligence. "The image of the dog in the "Thunderstorm" is associated with my dog, which I lost ten years ago. I still can't forget her, so I wanted to make a book in her memory and imagine how she found a new owner. So I put a lot into this book, at first it was big, about a hundred pages, but then I still reduced the volume," Guojin shared at the fair ^[12].

In an interview with Artyom Roganov, Guojin told how biographical her first two books are: "I believe that any work of art is more or less based on the real life of the author, on his experience. Since our life is full of joys and sorrows, losses and gains happen in it, it is a good source of inspiration. The artist's personal experience is an integral part of his work. But only part of it — do not forget that there are many more. My experience inspires me, but it is only a starting point for the thoughts and concepts that I want to share in the end."^[12]

The plot of "Behind the wall of the blizzard" is very simple: a little girl is sitting at home alone, and decides to go to her grandmother. On the way, she accidentally passes the right stop and finds herself in an unfamiliar area of the city. And then, along with childhood fears, unbridled imagination turns on. The girl follows the magical deer, and together, overcoming dangers and making new friends, they get home. But thanks to Guojin's art, this simple plot turns into an exciting literary adventure. There is a complete emotional immersion in the book, which does not require words and explanations. Only the power of illustrations and a powerful author's thought touching on the themes of loneliness, the search for intimacy and love ^[13].

Sean Tan commented on Guojin's book: "A beautifully drawn adventure that easily switches between dreams and memories, as if these two worlds merge into one distant place, where the heart and consciousness must go to understand what it means to be lonely and feel what it feels like to be loved" ^[14].

The monochrome graphics of "Behind the wall of the blizzard" are also subordinated to the desire to enhance the retro effect in the reader's perception: "... one of the reasons for making it black and white for me was this: imagine looking at old faded photographs that evoke memories of the events depicted on them. The past seems to flash before my eyes. And the black and white color scheme works in a similar way, it adds nostalgia. In addition, I like the rough, but universal technique of pencil drawing" ^[12] (Fig. 9, 10).

The book was published in 11 languages (although the text there is only the title on the cover and a note for the girl's mother "Went to her grandmother"). The perception of the manner of drawing in the book "Beyond the Blizzard Wall" depends on the cultural background of the viewer. Readers from Asian countries see here the legacy of the traditional Chinese "dry ink" technique, and from Western countries the chiaroscuro technique, i.e. the creation of a pronounced contrast between light and dark areas in the composition. Such duality, references to different traditions at the same time, is not accidental, it is one of the modern trends in art.

The sequence and cinematography of the plot is achieved by dividing the page into several "panels" that work as alternating frames (Fig. 10). In the climactic moments, the artist uses a full-page illustration, which is an analogue of the "close-up" in cinema. This allows you to combine both detailed scrupulousness in the depiction of everyday life, and vivid emotional experiences of individual decisive moments in history.

The color in "Thunderstorm" works differently. "The multicolour in it helps to fully convey an emotionally intense story in several turns. For example, when a dog and a girl first met, they are strangers, so the colors in the book are colder. The more they trust each other, the warmer the general background becomes. When the storm begins, the cold shades return along with the fear of the heroes, and in the end, when the dog finds a new home, the color scheme warms up again" ^[12].

In 2023, Guojin published a new book, Flamingo, a full—color graphic novel without words (150 pages), the heroine of which is a little girl who had her own pink Flamingo (Fig.11).

There are also autobiographical motifs in this book: "... I managed to put a lot of thoughts and feelings into the novel, working on it reminded me of many important people and things in my life. I hope readers will like the book too, and I will be able to surprise them with its emotional and plot diversity ^[11]. "Flamingo" has just been released in English, and apart from the cover and several illustrations, it is not publicly available, so it is difficult to judge its plot and execution technique. However, one thing is obvious: the heroine of the book is again a girl endowed with kindness and imagination; her friend is not another child, but an animal; the novel is larger than the previous ones in size and much brighter in color.

For her achievements in book illustration, Guojin received fifteen awards in the field of children's literature, including the UNESCO Literary Prize, the title of the best illustrated book from the New York Times magazine and a nomination for the Eisner Prize ^[15].

The author's self-expression in the above books consists not only in the direct biographical elements of the plot, but also in a special attitude towards the characters, in the original interpretation of the psychology of the characters. The characters of Guojin's "silent books", like Sean Tana, are also "quiet" themselves. They do not fit into the stereotypical image of adults and children going on adventures^[16]. Unlike comic book superheroes, Sean Tan's main characters do not use violence; unlike Little Robber, Pippi Longstocking, Kid and Carlson (not to mention Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn), Guojin's heroines are not mischievous and naughty children who create problems for adults, fight, bully, spoil things and ruin birds nests. They are calm and gentle children with a rich inner world.

Sean Tan and Guojin's approach to animals is also new. In fairy tales, an animal usually performs the function of a "magical assistant" − it gives the hero some kind of resource that allows him to overcome all obstacles and achieve his goal ^[17,18]. The animal performs a service function, in fact, it is a living talisman or a magic wand. Sean Tan and Guojin's animals play a completely different role. In "Thunderstorm", in fact, it is the dog who is the main character (which is reflected even in the title), the attention of the author and the reader is focused on her fate, and the girl acts as a "magical assistant" − it is she who gives the puppy a home, warmth, safety, thanks to which she herself finds happiness. In Sean Tan's book, it is the animals that act as the only humane local inhabitants, the soul of a soulless and cruel world, where the main character finds himself.

Thus, the "silent books" by Sean Tan and Guojin are distinguished by a pronounced autobiographical beginning, although they do not contain the author's text, but only a series of illustrations. The individuality of the authors is manifested in the choice of a plot related to personal and family history, as well as in the choice of a character of a certain psychological disposition – "quiet", endowed with a rich imagination, the ability to empathize, feeling the need for equal friendly relations.

The technique in the graphic novel has the syncretism and dualism of the Western and Chinese traditions. It can be interpreted both in terms of Chinese writing with "dry" ink, and in the European style of "chiaroscuro" − in both cases we are talking about a clearly defined contour and a sharp contrast of light and shadow.

The heroes of the works of modern Chinese artists are representatives of previously discriminated and disenfranchised groups: Chinese immigrants in the West, a lonely girl in China during the "one family, one child" policy, a lost dog, etc. Their portrayal violates previously established negative and devaluing stereotypes in popular culture in relation to such characters.

All this distinguishes the works in question from the group of traditional graphic novels, making them a modern form of broadcasting social problems of society, opening up new ways in the development of book illustration.