Animal Poetry Town

A series of illustrated biographies intended to help Chinese children learn the works of famous poets studied in elementary and middle schools by presenting each poem within a comic based on the author's life circumstances around that particular poem's creation.

Author's own word on the books

Poetry is a key topic in Chinese language exams. When I was a child, I learned poems by rote memorization and never really understood what the poets were trying to express. My exam results depended entirely on how well I could recall them that day. It was only after I grew up—reading poets’ biographies and scholars’ papers—that I gradually understood the true meaning of the poems, felt their beauty, and genuinely felt proud of our cultural heritage.

But as a child, learning poetry was truly painful! So I asked myself: Is there any way to help young readers learn poetry more easily and joyfully, while also understanding its true meaning and experiencing its beauty?

After reading a great many books and papers on poetry and thinking about it every day, I finally discovered a solution:

1. Depict the poets as lively, adorable animals (for example, Li Bai as a free-spirited Arctic wolf; Meng Haoran as a countryside-loving white rabbit).

2. Render the poets’ life stories as engaging comics (for instance, Li Bai learned to read at age 5, studied the “Hundred Schools” at age 10, attended school on Mount Kuang at 18, apprenticed at 19, set out travelling at 20, married in at-marriage at 27, arrived in Chang’an at 30, had his audience with the emperor at 42, first met Du Fu in Luoyang at 44, was imprisoned in palace struggles at 57, and was released by the emperor at 59… All events are based on scholarly research, not fabrications or online encyclopedias).

3. Place each poem in the period of Li Bai’s life when it was composed (for example, at 27—when he married into the family—he wrote “Raising my head, I gaze at the bright moon; lowering it, I think of home.” At 31—when his job hunt in Chang’an failed—he wrote, “Sometime I’ll ride the wind and cleave the waves, setting my cloud-like sail to cross the boundless sea.” At 59—when he was freed—he wrote, “The gibbons’ cries on both banks never cease; a light boat has already passed ten thousand mountains.”).

Thus was born our “Animal Poetry Town” series. The first three volumes feature, respectively, the “Immortal of Poetry” Li Bai, the “Saint of Poetry” Du Fu, and the “Buddha of Poetry” Wang Wei.

Source: https://zh.wikifur.com/wiki/诗词动物城：漫画李白传