Preface to "Selected Comics by Zikai"

When I made these paintings, I was a twenty-seven or eight-year-old young man with two or three children. Like any other young father, I love my children. I love them sincerely: when they laugh, I feel happier than when I laugh; when they cry, I feel sadder than when I cry; when they eat, I feel that it is more delicious than when I eat by myself. I feel the pain is worse than my own fall... I could be said to have "love" for my children at that time. This love was the original motivation for making these paintings.

My children were born close together and there were few helpers at home, so I had to help take care of the children in addition to teaching, just like the "Father and Mother" in one of my cartoons at that time.

I often hold the child, feed the child, pack diapers for the child, sing songs to make the child sleep, and draw pictures to make the child laugh; sometimes I use building blocks to build a car with the children, or sit on a small stool. "Take the train". I am very close to them and often live with them. This "closeness" is also the origin of these painting materials. Because of "love" and "closeness", I deeply understood the psychology of children and discovered a children's world that is completely different from the adult world. Children are full of emotions but lack reason; children are full of desires but cannot suppress them. Therefore, the children's world is very vast and free, and they can make all their wishes and requests as they please: the roof of the house can be removed so that they can watch airplanes; the bed can be filled with flowers and butterflies for fun; the legs of stools can be worn. Shoes; railways and train stations can be built in the room; brothers and sisters can be new officials and brides; the moon in the sky can be asked to come down... Adults laugh at them as "silly", call their lives "child's play", often call them "naughty", and forbid them from being "noisy". This is the subjectivist view of adults and the crude attitude of those who do not understand the psychology of children. I can love them and be close to them, so I can deeply understand their psychology, and I am convinced that their behavior is sincere and noteworthy, so I paint these paintings excitedly and seriously.

Furthermore, I often "put myself in their shoes" to experience the lives of children; in other words, I often become children and observe them. I remember once making a picture of a room with an unusually tall table, chairs, and bed. An adult is trying to climb up on a chair to sit, but the seat of the chair is higher than his chest. He tries hard to climb up, but it is obviously not easy for him to climb onto the chair. If he wants to climb onto the bed to sleep, it is obviously not easy for him to climb up either. Because the bed was as high as the chair; if he wanted to drink tea from the teacup on the table, it was obviously impossible because the table was almost as high as his head and the teacup was placed in the center of the table and was much larger than his hand. The title of this painting is "Put yourself in the shoes of a child". This is an expression of my feelings at the time: I saw that most adults thought that children were preparing to become adults, and they only wanted them to become adults, but ignored their life during this preparation period. Therefore, furniture and utensils are all based on the body size of adults and are designed to facilitate adults' lives. Therefore, it is very inconvenient for children to live in adult families. Similarly, in spiritual life, adults’ thoughts and perceptions are the standard, so children’s spiritual life in adult families is very painful. In the past, I have seen: a six- or seven-year-old boy being put on a small robe, a small mandarin jacket, and a small copper basin hat by his parents to teach him to walk like his father; a six- or seven-year-old girl being taken to a barber shop by her parents to have her hair permed. Hair, put makeup on his face, lipstick on his mouth, teach him how to communicate like his mother. I also made a painting for them, titled "Little Adults". Now when I imagine what those two children look like, I still feel terrible. They are simply freaks with abnormal development! I thought that changing from a child to an adult was like changing from a caterpillar to a butterfly. The life of a caterpillar is very different from the life of a butterfly. The above-mentioned adults put wings on the caterpillar and taught it to fly with the butterfly, but I, the butterfly, gathered my wings and crawled with the caterpillar. Therefore, I can understand children's moods and lives, and describe these paintings excitedly and seriously.

The above are the trivial matters and random thoughts I had when I made these paintings thirty years ago. They can also be said to be my creative motivation and experience. However, this is nothing more than an expression of "deep affection". What benefit does it bring to readers? Where is the reference value for readers? How can we help them discover painting materials in their lives?

Undoubtedly, these paintings themselves are trivial and insignificant. There is just one sentence that I can tell readers: I "love", "get close" to, and "understand" the objects I depict, and experience them "in their shoes".

If a painter can use this attitude to create paintings when dealing with cuter, more valuable, and greater objects, I think he may be able to achieve success in life - especially in today's New China. In a vibrant life - discover more painting materials and make more beautiful paintings. If this sentence is correct, then these paintings finally have the function of indirectly helping readers, so let them be published.