China News Agency, Paris, January 29. Question: How do French stamps reflect the traditional Chinese zodiac art?
——Interview with well-known French-Chinese painter Chen Jianghong
China News Agency reporter Li Yang
In January 2023, France issued the Year of the Rabbit stamps designed by Chen Jianghong, a well-known French-Chinese painter.
Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye and French Post President Philippe Val attended the stamp issuance ceremony and congratulated Chen Jianghong on the successful design and issuance of the French Year of the Rabbit stamp.
Why do French zodiac stamps receive such high attention?
How do French stamps reflect the traditional Chinese zodiac art?
Recently, Chen Jianghong accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "East and West".
La Poste held a stamp issuance ceremony for the Year of the Rabbit in Paris to welcome the Chinese New Year.
Chen Jianghong signed autographs for the French people at the scene.
Photo by Li Yang
The interview transcript is summarized as follows:
Reporter from China News Agency: Please talk about the design ideas of the French Year of the Rabbit zodiac stamps. How long did it take you to design the Year of the Rabbit stamp? What's new about it compared with other year zodiac stamps you designed?
Chen Jianghong:
French zodiac stamps for the Year of the Rabbit are of special significance to me, because the Year of the Rabbit is my birth year, so I have a soft spot for stamps for the Year of the Rabbit.
In the summer of 2022, I started to conceive stamps for the Year of the Rabbit. I wanted to better express the unique attributes of the rabbit in the Chinese zodiac, such as gentleness, kindness, intelligence, and vitality.
It took me about two or three months to design this set of Year of the Rabbit stamps.
I have been designing zodiac stamps for La Poste since 2019, and strive to embody a concept (concept) in every zodiac stamp.
Since the format of the French Zodiac stamps is fixed every year, they all adopt the form of two stamps and two vertical miniature sheets, so a unified style is required in terms of artistic integrity.
I generally use traditional Chinese painting techniques, but I still hope that each year's zodiac stamps will have different design changes, from the color of the stamps to the plot of the picture to reflect different stories and interesting.
Chen Jianghong showed the original artwork of the stamp design at the issuance ceremony of the Year of the Rabbit zodiac stamps.
Photo by Li Yang
Specific to the Year of the Rabbit zodiac stamps, the rabbits on the edge paper of the two stamps look at each other, and the design is symmetrical; the 1.16 euro stamp is suitable for French postage, and the 1.85 euro stamp is suitable for international postage, which is convenient for users to send letters to different parts of the world .
I used magnolia flowers as the background of the stamp sheetlet, which symbolizes the auspiciousness and beauty of the Spring Festival.
It is worth mentioning that I also designed the official birth paper of the French Year of the Rabbit zodiac stamp. In addition to the stamp sample and technical information printed on it, Chang'e and the Jade Rabbit are also designed in the background, so as to more intuitively reflect the role of rabbits in Chinese traditional culture. image in .
The Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival in China. Every year, I design stamps of the zodiac with great care and attention. I hope that my works can bring everyone the yearning for happiness and peace of the Spring Festival.
Chen Jianghong shows the stamps of the Year of the Rabbit.
Photo by Li Yang
China News Agency reporter: Can you tell us about the printing process of the French Zodiac stamps? Can the zodiac stamp be integrated into the overall design style of French stamps?
Chen Jianghong:
I not only design the zodiac stamps, but also assist in supervising the printing process of the stamps.
French postal stamp printing is rigorous and serious, including stamp punching, color printing and other technical processes are relatively strict.
Before printing, I have to check the stamp proofs with the original artwork I designed to check the craftsmanship of the stamps, such as whether the color printing is accurate, etc.
The original artwork of the zodiac stamps I drew is very delicate and has a strong sense of hierarchy.
The final printed stamps are somewhat different from the original artwork, but they still pass the test overall.
For the Year of the Rabbit zodiac stamp, I designed a golden yellow moon background. I originally hoped to print it with gold powder to better reflect the texture of the moon, but I had to give up because the printing process was too complicated.
The Year of the Dragon will be ushered in in 2024, when France will host the Paris Olympic Games. I look forward to designing and printing an extraordinary French Year of the Dragon zodiac stamp.
The exterior of the flagship store of official licensed merchandise for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Photo by Li Yang
I have lived in France for many years, and French culture will naturally become my stamp design element, so that the zodiac stamps will incorporate some French artistic styles and show some artistic features of "combining Chinese and Western".
For example, in the design of the stamps for the Year of the Rabbit, I was inspired by the French dessert Ladurée and used the color of the dessert.
I believe that the French people can accept and love the zodiac stamps I designed.
La Poste also gave positive comments on the design of the Chinese Zodiac stamps, basically they will adopt my various suggestions on the design and printing of Chinese Zodiac stamps, hoping that I can play freely and work hard to cooperate with my artistic creation.
China News Agency reporter: In your opinion, what significance does France's issuance of zodiac stamps have on Sino-French cultural exchanges?
Chen Jianghong:
Culture and art have no borders, and human emotions are all connected.
The combination of Chinese zodiac art and French stamps will undoubtedly help Sino-French cultural exchanges.
In my opinion, Poste de France attaches great importance to the promotion of Chinese culture, and the Chinese New Year zodiac art embodies the characteristics of traditional Chinese culture. Poste de France hopes to let the French people improve their understanding of traditional Chinese culture through zodiac stamps. The Zodiac Stamp Issuing Ceremony was held.
Despite the epidemic in the past two years, the French people are still very active in participating in the issuance of Zodiac stamps.
Now more people come to participate in the release activities, which will definitely further enhance the people-to-people bonds between China and France.
Chinese lovers in France performed traditional Chinese folk art programs in Chinese at the "2022 Paris • International Chinese Language Day" event.
Photo by Li Yang
Reporter from China News Agency: La Poste should hope that you will design a complete stamp of the Chinese zodiac. Do you have a preliminary artistic idea for the design of the next few sets of stamps? Is there a plan to have a complete and unified design style for the Zodiac stamps?
Chen Jianghong:
France Post does have this hope.
Of course, I also hope to design a complete set of zodiac stamps, and in consideration of integrity in the design, each set of stamps can reflect the characteristics of the corresponding zodiac.
From the perspective of stamp appreciation and collection, these twelve sets of stamps need to have a complete and unified design style in order to form a complete "series". .
Chen Jianghong displays stamps of the Year of the Tiger zodiac.
Photo by Li Yang
The first set of French zodiac stamps I designed was the 2019 year of the pig stamps. I did not participate in the layout design of this set of stamps at that time, so this set of stamps is different from other year stamps I designed in terms of layout. The year of the pig stamps are printed The Chinese "Chinese New Year" made by the government did not use the design of red Spring Festival couplets, while all other year's zodiac stamps used the design of red Spring Festival couplets.
The red Spring Festival couplets have a strong Spring Festival festive atmosphere and can better reflect the theme of the Chinese Zodiac stamps.
I may redesign a set of stamps for the Year of the Pig and add the background design of red Spring Festival couplets, so that the style of the entire zodiac stamps will be unified.
The year of the pig is at the end of the twelve zodiac signs, and the stamps for the year of the pig happen to be the last set of stamps for the twelve zodiac signs.
Souvenir sheet of some French Zodiac stamps designed by Chen Jianghong.
Photo by Li Yang
China News Agency reporter: I noticed that you have a special affection for your hometown Tianjin. Is this nostalgia for your hometown also integrated into your stamp design? In addition to stamp design, what other design plans do you have to continue to promote cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and France?
Chen Jianghong:
Tianjin is my birthplace, and I miss it very much.
Every year when I design the Zodiac stamps, I will think of the New Year's scene in Tianjin when I was a child: firecrackers are fired, the streets are full of Spring Festival couplets, there is joy, a warm and lively scene; the family is reunited and cooks a table of delicious meals.
At that time, every year passed, I was looking forward to the early arrival of the Spring Festival.
When I was designing the stamps of the zodiac, it seemed that the stories of the zodiac in my childhood memory came back to my eyes.
The design of my zodiac stamps adopts the traditional Chinese painting technique of half freehand brushwork and half fine brushwork. Tianjin's Yangliu Qingnian painting, which is full of the flavor of the year, also has an influence on my painting style.
Citizens visit the "Yangliu Qingqing New Year Paintings" exhibition.
Photo by Zhang Yun
In recent years, I have been doing art exhibitions in France, and I have also produced various picture books, some of which have also been published in China.
I am still trying different art forms, such as participating in a stage play based on my picture book, and painting live in the play to express my childhood story.
I hope that through these efforts, Sino-French cultural exchanges, especially in the field of painting, will be promoted.
(Finish)
Respondent profile:
Chen Jianghong, a well-known French-Chinese painter, graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and entered the Paris Academy of Fine Arts in 1988. Since then, he has worked and lived in France for a long time.
His representative works include Chinese paintings "Zhong Kui", "Young Eagle", "Tiger Prince" and so on.
Some of the award-winning artworks have been published in many countries.
His latest traditional Chinese painting series picture book "Going to the Market" and other collections have also been published in China.
Since 2019, he has designed Zodiac stamps for France Post, and it has been 5 years.