Jason Pym's Blog, page 4

Impractical Chinese 28: Orc

Orc 半獸人 bàn shòu rén = lit. half beast man.

Buy a print of this picture at Redbubble.

Penguin teapots

Mockups for Penguin China merchandise using my penguin illustrations. Design by the fantastic Suo Di, unfortunately these weren’t commissioned.

The Ideal Life – interview with Shidian Bookshop

http://www.jasonpym.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/jason_pym-shidian.mp4

An interview about A Dali Sketchbook as part of the series An Ideal Life.

Fairy tales for Yun

Illustrations for two fairy tales for Yun, which one day we’ll turn into proper picture books:

English-language video about A Dali Sketchbook

Put out on the English language media platforms (twitter, facebook) of the Yunnan Daily newspaper:

http://www.jasonpym.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/yunnan_daily.mp4

Chongqing TV interview

http://www.jasonpym.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/cq_tv.mp4

Short news piece about the book launch for A Dali Sketchbook in Chongqing. Made by the entertainment channel on Chongqing’s local tv station (CQTV娱乐), the programme is called Chongqing Entertainment Live (渝乐现场).

While we were there I was also interviewed on Chongqing Music Radio (重庆音乐广播：音乐风情之旅) by Hu Wei (胡玮). Here’s a link to the broadcast, you need to fast forward to an hour in to hear my bit.

Ivo Hardies’ documentary Agen

Ivo Hardies’ 11 minute documentary Agen, about a Tibetan traditional Chinese medicine doctor, won Best Woman Filmmaker and Best Short Documentary at the Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards 2016. It’s a quiet, understated film that pretty much captures exactly why I love Yunnan.

Book signings in Chongqing, Chengdu and Kunming

So after the book launch in Dali we went on to do book signings in three more cities, first up was Chongqing. Thank you to the ever lovely Chong Chong (虫虫) and Ninuo Art Centre (尼诺艺术中心) who did the organising and put us in touch with Chongqing Radio. And to Sinba (段新宇) from the British Consulate-General who has not only helped with all kinds of things consular, but also invited Chongqing TV to film the event.

Thank you to Si Nan (思楠) from Chongqing Publishing House (重庆出版社) who brought along the Tang Xianzu / Shakespeare scarf. She edited the accompanying books, and also CC’s translation of Jamie Oliver and Julia Child.

The book signing was on July 1st at the Bridge Bookshop (博来居书吧) in the Starlight Place Shopping Mall (南坪星光时代广场).

So that night we got the train over to Chengdu, and the next day held the Chengdu signing at Meli & Moli (生活馆) in Hengda Square (99号恒达广场).

Thanks to Golf (E哥) and all the Amys.

Cakes, flowers, all the set up, thank you.

And thanks to Xiao Jingling (小精灵) and Manma (馒妈) for asking the only questions that stumped me.

I’m thinking about starting a cult.

And finally Kunming on July 8, held at the myL/lifestyle bookshop (南亚风情第一城生活方式).

Thanks to all my in-laws for showing up.

And to Zengjie (曾姐) from Big Tomato Media (大番茄媒体) for arranging everything and Li Yuan (李媛) for the space, time, and free stuff :)

Besom’s drawing process

Besom is an illustrator and children’s book writer from Chongqing, I’ve known about her work for a few years but finally got to meet her! Please check out her website, her stuff is amazing :)

Also extremely chuffed to get a signed copy of her book Great Britain Little Us.

Photos from the book launch

On 24 of June 2017 we held the book launch for my new book A Dali Sketchbook (《大理外传》) at the Cangshan Library, just below the Hilton Hotel.

I really can’t thank everyone enough for how it turned out, way better than anything I’d imagined. Thanks especially though to Luo Yufei (罗宇飞) for finding the venue and general organisation, everyone at Xiao Yuanzi (小院子) for setting up, doing the posters and promotion, especially Pengzi (棚子) and Xiao Shen (小沈) for being the compere. Thanks to Ivo for filming. And everyone at Duku Press, not least Zhang Lixian (张立宪/六哥) for flying specially from Beijing – and of course for taking the book on in the first place.

And most of all CC for making everything happen and being infinitely patient.

He gave me a copy of the book in which he wrote in the front ”我曾侍候过一本好书“, which literally means “I have served in the publishing of a worthy book”, a play on the title of the film I Served the King of England (“我曾侍候过英国国王“ in Chinese), which was pretty much the most emotional thing to happen to me all day. And it was an emotional day.

Then it was my turn…

Just crazy (but thank you!)…

The talk was followed by questions.

Then book signing:

That’s it!