Fang Cheng, male, was born on June 10, 1918, in Zhongshan, Guangdong. He used to be known as Sun Shunchao. In 1942, he graduated from the Department of Chemistry of Wuhan University. He was once a research assistant of Huanghai Institute of Chemical Engineering, and was also an editor of several high-rank publications. In 1984, he was employed as a part-time professor by the Department of Journalism of Wuhan University and Zhengzhou University. In 1986, he became the editor of Witty World(US)—an international cartoon magazine, as well as the art consultant by the Rap Group of China Broadcasting Performing-Arts Troupe. Apart from those occupations, he was also hired as a supervisor by the Department of Journalism for graduates of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He is currently the president of the China News Cartoon Society.
Fang Cheng is a celebrated comic artist throughout the nation, and has been dedicated himself to comic arts for approximately half a century. His works with unique characteristics enjoy fame at home and abroad. He mainly focuses on satirical comics. In 1980, together with a group of comic artists, Fang visited Japan and received warm welcome from the Japan Comic Artist Society, and met Japan’s Prime Minister Suzuki. The Prime Minister was so pleased with the caricature finished by Fang on the spot and took a picture with him.
Before the PRC was founded, Fang had produced a series of comics which exposed the dark aspects of the society, for instance, Grain Levies; Selling; etc. Those works made his name known in the comic field for the first time. After the establishment of the PRC, his comics were shifted to international affairs and satirized the American Imperialism and Hegemonism, e.g., The Majority; America in United Nations; Holy Water, Really?; etc. which impressed people to a great extent. In the Post-Cultural Revolution Era, he began to produce comics reflecting social problems, and his works in this time caused massive social impacts. Fang filled his works with timely concerns about society, novel thinking and humor. Meanwhile, he scored great achievements in developing ethnical comics.
More notably, apart from creating comics, Fang also attempts at article-writing. He believes that only through making wise use of humor and irony can the art function within comics be fully maximized. His articles are of the similar style with his comics—concise, witty, and humorous style. In recent years, Fang makes another try to study theories of comics and humor based on his solid foundation of practical skills. In his theory, comic is “an art of contradiction” and “an art of language”, and comic is supposed to have the function of comment and feature of novelty. Fang`s great artistic achievements have made him be honored as a comic scholar and artist.
