Monkey King drawings by Czech artist published

Czech and Chinese Monkey Kings meet in Beijing. Photo provided by Zhou Jing

By Li Zhixin

A new chapter in the history of Chinese-Czech cultural exchanges was written May 11 with the launch of a picture book on the Monkey King by the late Czech painter Zdenek Sklenar. The illustrations of one of China’s most popular literary characters were brought to the country by Sklenar’s nephew and the Czech Embassy.

Sklenar, born in 1910, visited China in 1955 and fell in love with the landscape and culture. “My uncle drew strong inspiration from Chinese landscape-painting traditions. After his return from China, these elements began to appear repeatedly in his paintings,” said the artist’s nephew and namesake, more popularly known as Sklenar Junior.

“His interest in Chinese culture evolved into a deep, lifelong passion and provided an ever-present inspiration for his own creative output,” he said. These included illustrations of the Monkey King, hero of the classic novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en (1500-1582).

Generations and generations of Chinese people grew up on tales of the clever monkey, and the character has been adapted into various art forms including animation, Peking Opera and TV dramas. “For the Czechs, the only way they got to know the Monkey King was through my uncle’s paintings,” Sklenar Junior said.

He said it was his uncle’s fervent wish to have his Monkey King illustrations shared with the Chinese people. “Now my uncle’s connection with China is revived more than 20 years after his death,” he said.

Libor Secka, the Czech ambassador, praised Sklenar’s contributions to Sino-Czech cultural ties, saying: “Sklenar’s illustrations are a vivid example of links between European and Chinese cultural traditions … His Monkey King returning to China is a reminder of the exceptional, exciting, open and artistically precious connection between the cultures and societies of China and the Czech Republic.”

The picture book’s launch was held in Beihai Park, one of the places the late painter frequented to gain artistic inspiration.

Illustrations of Sklenar’s Monkey King are on display at the ongoing World Expo in Shanghai and has been a hit with Chinese visitors.