About the book
Talent and profit clash, genius and mediocrity collide, and kindness eventually wins out in this tribute to Vincent van Gogh.
A story of art, self, friendship, romance, and materialism: Tiola, a young girl living in Arles, France, fishes a puppet out of a lake. When a local painter sticks a sunflower into the puppet’s hollow chest, the mechanical boy comes to life and begins a painting frenzy of his own. Though they might lack technique, the puppet’s paintings quickly become the toast of the art world because of their overflowing passion and vibrant tension – yet it is the painter (and not the puppet) who is mistakenly lauded as their creator. After a series of mishaps, the painter rejects an unscrupulous art dealer’s demands to take credit for the puppet’s paintings, in the hopes that doing so will free him to follow his own creative path. The puppet ultimately runs into a burning building to rescue the greedy art dealer, before falling back into the lake and disappearing.
Awards & Honors
Winner of the second-ever Chinese Culture and Art Government Award for Comics and Animation;
Winner of the seventh-ever Chinese International Comics Festival Gold Metal for Comics
About the Author
NIE Jun attended the China Academy of Art, and studied abroad in Kyoto, Japan before graduating. This rigorous fine arts education and literary training had a profound impact on Nie’s work, and at the age of 19 he began publishing his comics in magazines. Over the years, he has created works like My Beijing, My Street, Diu Diu, Sunflower Boy, and Sakura Boy, among the others. My Beijing has been translated into English, French, Italian & Persian. Many of his works have French editions.
Nie’s work is characterized by its unique narratives, as well as an unabashed willingness to explore many diverse art styles. His stories blend humble portrayals of everyday life with fairy-tale elements to create a warm realism that is often deeply entwined with the cultures in which his narratives take place – and the resulting comics have received unanimous acclaim from readers, in and out of China. In terms of artwork, Nie’s style is clearly influenced by Chinese comics (Lianhuanhua), while simultaneously echoing the work of Japanese artists Akira Toriyama and Otomo Katsuhiro, and the French artist Moebius (Jean Giraud).
His book Sunflower Boy received Chinese Culture and Art Government Award for Comics and Animation, and a Golden Dragon Award. Additionally, My Beijing won the Golden Horizon Prize at the Youth China Excellent Children’s Work Awards, was chosen as one of 25 books included in the New York Times’ “Standout New Picture Books”, and is the only Chinese work to have been nominated for America’s Eisner Award.
