The "Fang Tang's Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition" kicked off on April 3 at the Zhongshan Cartoon Museum.[Photo by Sun Junjun]

Fang Tang.[Photo by Ming Jian]

"My creations are mostly free and casual, but not commerce-oriented. I paint what I like at a large scale," said Fang Tang, a renowned Zhongshan cartoonist. A few days ago, he returned to Zhongshan to take part in the opening ceremony of his painting and calligraphy exhibition.

Fang Tang received an interview with Zhongshan Daily a day before the opening ceremony at the Zhongshan Cartoon Museum. The 80-year-old talked about the exhibition as well as his experiences and thoughts on creation, inheritance and development of cartoon.

Fang Tang said it is important for someone who wants to keep the mind clear to strengthen thinking exercise. "I always exercise my convergent and diffusing thinking. I have learned to gather information from newspapers, books and other materials, and to discover the true nature of different things. These are helpful to my creative work."

Fang Tang believed independent thinking will help promote an artist's discovering and creating abilities and make their works profound and viable. In his point of view, formulaic creations are insipid and tasteless.

The "Fang Tang's Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition" will be held until April 16 at the Zhongshan Cartoon Museum. Over 700 people attended the opening ceremony on April 3.

"The exhibition will display a total of 163 oil paintings, cartoons, watercolor paintings, traditional Chinese paintings and calligraphy works of mine," said Fang Tang. "I plan to donate some of them to my hometown Xiaolan after the event.”

Fang Tang, whose real name is Chen Shubin, was born in Xiaolan, Zhongshan. Since 1980s, he served as a columnist of over 20 newspapers and magazines in Beijing and Shanghai, and he has won national prizes for many times. In 2007, Fang Tang was awarded "Contemporary Lingnan Cultural Celebrity".