It comes from my childhood. My mom worked on cultural relic protection and lived in an ancient temple which is on the foot of a mountain. I often watched the immortals and ghosts in ancient wall paintings of the temple. I also used to wear the monkey king mask that my dad gave me, believing the mask could make me strong and powerful just as the monkey king.
It’s a story about a lonely boy. Everytime he is unhappy, he goes to the mountains and lives with an old statue of a monkey. One day, when the dark clouds and tree branches in the thunderstorm turned into innumerable terrible monsters, the boy felt frightened and helpless, but unexpectedly the stone monkey became unbelievably mighty. Also the boy, wearing his own monkey mask, bravely faced the fear. Finally, the boy who gained courage and self-confidence smiled in the mountain wind.
With this book, I want to cherish the memory of the mountain, its wind and myself, the little boy who was running in the wind, lonely and full of fantasy.
Li Yao, whose written name is Da Niu, was born in 1973 and he is from Shanxi, China. He is the first caricature painter of serial stories in modern China. From 1994, Yao Lee has started to create caricature and his works have been published in many magazines. Until now he published 50 books.
