China News Agency, Beijing, December 29th (Reporter Ying Ni) China Post’s public release of the special stamp artwork of the Year of the Rabbit on the 28th attracted huge attention on the Chinese Internet on the 29th. ".

　　The 2023 Year of the Rabbit zodiac stamp is a set of two, the first one is called "Guimao Sending Blessings", the second one is called "Together Circles and Symbiosis", and the controversial one is "Guimao Sending Blessings".

The rabbit in this stamp picture is blue all over, with semicircular red eyes and black eye sockets, large protruding teeth, and four steel wire-like beards on each side of the mouth; the blue rabbit stands upright, holding a pen in one hand and a letter in the other.

According to China Post's official explanation, "a wise rabbit is depicted in an ingenious blue color, as if it is conveying the best wishes of the New Year to people."

　　Most of the netizens complained about the Zodiac stamps, focusing on the painting style, which is "ugly" and "weird".

A small number of netizens who supported the opinion only praised it as "personality".

　　In fact, this work was not created by an unknown artist, but by the master artist Huang Yongyu.

At the age of 98, he is known as the "Father of Monkey Ticket". He is now an academician of the China National Academy of Painting and a professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He has held many solo exhibitions in the National Art Museum of China, the National Museum of China and many famous overseas venues.

And this kind of sharp painting style is also his style all the time. Someone once used "cool, dazzling, crazy, domineering, dragging" to sum up his character.

　　If you look back at the zodiac signs painted by Huang Yongyu, it is not difficult to find that the style is exactly the same.

In 2017, Huang Yongyu's zodiac paintings were exhibited in the National Museum. The reporter saw at the scene that many audiences often smiled when they watched the exhibition, but they all expressed their love to the reporter and found it particularly humorous.

The exhibition fully embodies "Huang's humor", and almost all of them have the characteristics of comics: the rabbit smashing medicine in front of the moon - "the safest counterfeit medicine on the moon", and the Bole who was kicked down by the horse's hind hoof - "Bole will get kicked sooner or later", draw a man in a windbreaker and looks very fashionable on the phone - "The fourth son of the dragon is so loud and roaring, and now you can often see it on the street"...and Huang Yongyu at that time It was also revealed that in 2006 China Post wanted him to design a stamp for the year of the dog, but Huang Yongyu designed a dog peeing shape, so it was not approved.

　　As for today's controversy, some experts told reporters that first of all, consumers' aesthetic standards should not be underestimated, and secondly, the artist's personality is understandable, but when his artistic personality is pushed to the public, it has public attributes, and the public's aesthetics must be respected.

Taking zodiac stamps as an example, the common expectation of the public is to embody a peaceful, festive, and warm style. At this time, blindly emphasizing individuality is biased.

This is also a factor that relevant departments should seriously consider before making any decisions.

　　Many netizens listed the Year of the Rabbit stamps issued in Hong Kong and Macau for comparison. The cute and furry images are very attractive.

Therefore, some netizens said, "I can accept this rabbit as a work of art to be exhibited in art, but I can't accept it as a zodiac stamp." Artistic personality, using the wrong occasion-this is probably what caused the controversy key.

(use up)