Xia Da: The trip to Chinese comics, singing along the way

Recently, the TV series "Long Song Xing" has become popular. This is a story about female growth, adapted from the comic book of the same name. The heroine in ancient costumes, passionate and passionate about her family and country. As the topic of the series has increased, its original author has also aroused a lot of heated discussions. She is Xia Da.

Xia Da is an inescapable figure in the Chinese comics industry. In addition to "Long Song Xing", she has many representative works. She has long covered all major comics platforms and has a huge fan base.

However, what attracts more attention than her comics is her exquisite appearance. "Post-80s beauty", "ageless childlike face", "Lolita girl", labels that seem to have nothing to do with cartoonists have been with her for a long time, causing her great distress.

Born for Painting

On April 4, 1981, a girl was born in Huaihua City, Hunan Province. In April, before the summer solstice, her grandfather named her "Xia Da". At the same time, Da also means "Da is beneficial to the world".

Xia Da’s father is a restorer of ancient buildings, and her mother is engaged in restoring ancient calligraphy and paintings. Xia Da inherited this artistic talent and showed a strong interest in painting at a very young age. So, her family sent her to extracurricular classes to concentrate on learning freehand brushwork and gongbi.

But as time passed, the parents discovered that the child’s biggest hobby turned out to be reading comics. One day in junior high school, Shada finished reading a comic book he liked with great satisfaction. At that time, the idea came to his mind: one day, he would also become a "creator" like the author.

One of the characteristics of successful people is to act immediately. Starting from high school, Shada officially embarked on the path of comic creation. This creative passion continued until I entered university.

In 2000, the "Beijing Cartoon" comic magazine published the short story "Growth" written by Xia Da and his friend ***. This is her debut work, which tells the emotional experience of a girl studying in a foreign land. The ancient poems interspersed in it are quite innovative and have won praise from readers. The teacher in the editorial department sent back a long handwritten letter directly, which greatly encouraged her.

Two years later, Xia Da won the China Comic Short Story Comic Excellence Award for his work "Winter Fairy Tale". In 2003, she published her first comic book "April Story". At this time, Xia Da, who had not yet graduated, finally made up his mind to engage in comic creation full-time.

Although the dream is very far away, you can only know what the end of the road will look like when you walk there.

The Island of Creation

Drawing comics at home sounds romantic and beautiful, but it is actually a hard job. Xia Da did not expect at first that her insistence on going to Beijing would result in a hard-fought wandering life.

When the economy was at its most difficult, she hardly went out for shopping and tried to reduce expenses. I would bend over my desk every day and work hard on drawings. One drawing would last from day to night, and I would often even forget to eat. To my family, I just wanted to report that I was safe, and lied to my parents that my royalties were high. In fact, her income at that time, after paying the rent, had very little left.

Once, after Xia Da got up early, she felt sick. Since she had no money to go to the hospital, she had to fight at home. Although she felt very uncomfortable, she still insisted on moving to her desk and continued writing comics. After drawing and painting, I finally lost all my strength, my eyes went black, and I fainted. When she woke up, it was already evening.

Due to a long-term irregular life, Shada developed digestive system disorders and her constitution became very weak. Even so, Xia Da still did not give up painting. In her understanding, she has no choice but to draw. Like breathing, eating, and sleeping, they are things she has to do every day.

The stubborn girl "sacrificed her own life". Those works are full of blood and sweat. Serious people believe that they will be seen one day.

God paid off, and things took a turn for the better in 2007. There was a cartoonist named Yao Feila who paid attention to Xia Da's works and invited her to go to Hangzhou to develop.

With a feeling of anxiety, Xia Da came to the water town of Jiangnan from the ancient capital in the north. On Summer Island, she created one of her representative works, "Zi Buyu". In 2008, with this work, Xia Da won the gold medal in the 5th Golden Dragon Award for Best Story Comic Girl Category.

In the same year, "Zi Buyu" began to be serialized in the Japanese comic monthly "ULTRAJUMP". This is the first time that a cartoonist from Mainland China has entered Japan's top animation magazine and has been published in the same publication as Japan's top cartoon master. The story of "Zi Buyu" has received wide acclaim among the Japanese people.

The 9-year-old Xiaoyu in the work, with a kind and innocent heart, explores the strange nature, bringing endless reverie and enlightenment to readers. When creating, Xia Da abandoned conventional forms and tried to show his past memories through natural and smooth lines and interesting stories.

In the second year, "Zi Buyu" was released in single volumes in China and Japan. In addition, there are "A Dream in the Garden", "Feng Qiu Huang", "Jian Jia", "A Jing" and "Jiu Rabbit". One short story after another, independently released, is nothing more than icing on the cake.

After ten years of sharpening his sword, Xia Da finally has an island with his name engraved on it in the ocean of comics industry.

Moving forward amidst criticism

While Xia Da was concentrating on creating his next work, some discordant voices appeared on the Internet. Some of her personal photos leaked out and were watched by many netizens. There are even rumors that the reason why her works were launched in Japan is due to her loli appearance, because it caters to the preferences of Japanese otakus.

As the incident continued to unfold, Xia Da was confused for a moment. She felt that all her years of hard work had been completely wiped out by a rumor. Cartoonists, shouldn’t they show off their works? If you had always wanted to be famous, why would you choose this difficult path of comics?

I am not a star, so I don’t need to be remembered for this face. So Xia Da published a blog post describing his daily work status.

It was a woman who had not washed her hair or changed her clothes for five or six days. She was sitting in front of the computer and drawing. Her hands were stained with ink, her eyes were red, and she had a low fever. She also begged people not to add any modifiers such as "beautiful girl" or "loli" in front of Shada's name.

After that, Xia Da began to create more diligently. In 2010, she released "Zi Buyu 2" in Japan. He also tried color painting for the first time and published the comic "Godzilla Does Not Speak". With this work, he won the 6th "Monkey Award" for the best Chinese comic work.

All kinds of strange ideas are always emerging in the mind of this female author, and inspiration is like a golden finger, pulling out her strong desire for expression.

2011 is a very meaningful year for Xia Da. Her first personal painting collection "Early Summer" was published, and another representative work was serialized in "Manyou" magazine, that is, the long historical comic "Long Song Xing".

As soon as "Long Song Xing" was published, it was enthusiastically received by readers and fans. The following year, a figure of heroine Li Changge made a stunning appearance at the 8th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival.

As your reputation grows, your income will naturally increase. In 2013, Xia Da ranked 8th in the comic category of China's Richest Writers List.

In 2015, "Long Song Xing" won the Chinese Comic Award at the 12th China Animation Golden Dragon Award. Xia Da not only licensed this work to the TV series of the same name, but also held an exhibition of the original comics of "Long Song Xing" in the autumn of the same year.

Breakup and persistence

No one could have imagined that in 2016, a "Rashomon" would occur in the comics industry. Xia Da wrote a long Weibo post saying that her partnership with Yao Feila was about to end. She said that she had been fed up with the overlord clause signed by Xia Tian Dao for ten years, and the series of "Long Song Xing" would also be suspended.

As the CEO of Summer Island, Yao Feila is not only the discoverer of Xiada, but also an important figure in the Chinese animation industry. The industry earthquake triggered by this incident was extremely strong. Perhaps only the parties involved know the truth. But after this incident, Xia Da disappeared for a long time.

When people saw Xia Da again, they found that she had brought a brand new work "Records of Collected Relics", and also established a personal studio, named "Zhuo Mao" and located at "Lin Zhi Ju".

Her painting style has become more mature, and the characters in her paintings have become more and more stunning. Another work in 2018, "Bu Tian Ge", followed the trend of the times, was launched on the comic APP, and was drawn in full color. This is a story about growth and protection, full of Xia Da's heart.

To carry forward Chinese traditional culture is the original intention of the creator Xia Da who has never changed.

At the end of 2020, Xia Da announced that "Long Song Xing" and "Zi Buyu" would resume serialization and be animated. Readers said excitedly, "Ye Qing is back".

Outside and inside

Outstanding appearance, talent, classic painting style, and the person looks like he stepped out of a cartoon. Whether Shada likes it or not, her two-dimensional appearance will always be an unavoidable topic.

The cartoonist is responsible for the good looks. Every time he appears in the public eye, he still wears beautiful clothes, sometimes Hanfu, sometimes Lolita. She likes clothes made of cotton and linen very much, and she has no resistance to handmade products.

Fans call her "Da Dian" and "Uncle Da". Because her paintings prefer the cold weapon era. The way he behaves is also very "spicy". She would criticize people in public without any politeness. She was even more cruel to herself, working 12 hours a day, all year round. If there is a deadline, I will drag my assistant with me to rush the manuscript and stay up for three days and nights.

Xia Da made no secret of his ambition to become a "master". Magnificent perspective, meticulous conception, complete content, delicate emotions, precise structure, and beautiful writing style. An unusual long scroll, slowly unfolding, is the result of her exploration on the road of comic innovation.

However, she has never been complacent. When being interviewed as a guest, she always said simply: "I am an ordinary person who draws comics."

In April this year, Xia Da just celebrated her 40th birthday. Single status, life is full. When asked about her wish, she actually said, "If I could stop writing for a day, I would like to spend some time with a few cats."

From the era when black and white comics were the mainstream to the era when color comics dominated the world, behind all the glamor is unremitting hard work. As long as your attitude is sincere, readers will feel it.

In the eyes of a thousand people, there are a thousand Shadas. For the cartoonist himself, being able to continue drawing for a long time is the greatest happiness.