The story of two world-renowned artists begins in the back of a bookshop on a hill in Wuming, China. This is where brothers ShanZuo and DaHuang Zhou were born into a family of artists. But to be an artist and a bookseller at the time of the Zhou brothers’ childhood, in the new People’s Republic of China, was a dangerous thing. “Twice,” their grandmother tells them, “bandits and then soldiers destroyed this store. Twice I built it up again.” As they grow, the brothers observe the beauty of the world in balance with the hardships they face, and this balance of beauty and hardship becomes a guiding philosophy in their art.

Spread from Flying Paintings by Amy Alznauer, illustrated by ShanZuo and DaHuang Zhou. — Spread from *Flying Paintings* by Amy Alznauer, illustrated by ShanZuo and DaHuang Zhou.

The Zhou brothers illustrate their own story, as told by Amy Alznauer, in Flying Paintings: The Zhou Brothers: A Story of Revolution and Art. In bold color and inky strokes, they paint portraits and scenes from their youth that capture the wonder of childhood, the bleakness of grief, and the trepidation of new beginnings as they move away from home. When the brothers lose their beloved grandmother, they return to the abandoned bookshop where they grew up and paint the neglected walls anew. Working in secret and remembering the guidance of their grandmother, they begin their first collaboration on a painting called The Wave. The tension of sharing a canvas yields an awe-inspiring result: “It’s like the world and our lives…” they say, “Terrible and beautiful.”

ShanZuo and DaHuang Zhou, The Wave, 1976. — ShanZuo and DaHuang Zhou, *The Wave*, 1976.

From that point on, the illustrations that depict the Zhou brothers growing as artists abound with energy and movement. The striking red figures that decorate each page, inspired by cliff paintings near their hometown, seem to fly off the page as in the paintings of their grandmother’s tales. As China slowly begins to change, and as they finally shed light on their art and present it to the world, the pages alight with joy. Of course, the joy is tempered by the weight of their past, and their hopes are balanced by their fears — a balance that is reflected in their art to this day.

ShanZuo and DaHuang Zhou, The Water Lily Pond of Life series. — ShanZuo and DaHuang Zhou, *The Water Lily Pond of Life* series.

We are thrilled to feature Flying Paintings in Illustoria’s On Our Bookshelf feature in our latest Issue 13: MAPS, and honored for the opportunity to interview the artists ShanZuo and DaHuang Zhou, as well as author Amy Alznauer about the process of creating their book. We hope you enjoy the interview with the creators below! You can find out more about the Zhou brothers on zhoubrothers.com and about Amy Alznauer on amyalz.com.

DaHuang and ShanZuo Zhou, image courtesy of Candlewick.

How did it feel to illustrate the story of your own lives?
Zhou Brothers: We are grateful to have the opportunity to illustrate our own story and once again memorialize our journey of art.

How did growing up in a family of booksellers shape your path?
Zhou Brothers: Growing up in a family of scholars and educators allowed us to build a strong early foundation. Our childhood education and the influence from our grandmother fueled our drive in our career.

What do you hope young artists and activists will take away from your story?
Zhou Brothers: This story is about two young boys and their beautiful dream of life. We hope that people will walk away with the message that they cannot accept defeat. No matter your situation, you need to fight and work hard to pursue your dream and it can be realized.

Amy Alznauer, image courtesy of the author.

How did you first learn about the Zhou brothers? What inspired you to write about them?
Amy Alznauer: About five years ago, I was attending an open house at the Zhou B Center, a huge warehouse converted into flour floors of art studios and gallery space in Bridgeport, Chicago. At one point, thumbing through the Zhou catalogues, I came across a statement that stunned me. “When you paint by yourself, you won’t have the courage to destroy your own painting. You think you are always right,” said the younger brother. “But two people together, they don’t care. With this kind of fighting something comes out that’s never happened before. It creates a new magic.” I suddenly saw that this was about not just painting together on the same canvas, but also about their relationship as brothers and about their love for China, even though the Cultural Revolution, which oppressed their family. Collaboration isn’t fundamentally about harmony, they think, but about finding a way to go on together. This seemed like a revolutionary idea to me and one that that the world desperately needs.

Flying Paintings is a true story. How did you figure out how to balance biography and storytelling?
Amy Alznauer: I say in the author’s note that I wrote the legendary bones of their story. I wanted the book to feel like legend for two reasons. First, their amazing life story has a legendary quality. But even more the legends of ancient China deeply influenced their art. So to develop the plotline, I worked to trim away many of the details and complications of their life, until all that remained was this simple arc of two brothers apart (because the second one hadn’t been born yet), together, apart, and finally together again. So to answer your question, the story is a biography, but simplified, trimmed, carved into something more like a poem or a legend that tells of how two brothers, through creativity and love, found a way to hold on to both the terrible and beautiful parts of their lives and made some beautiful out of all of it.

What idea or feeling do you hope readers will take away from the Zhou Brothers’ story?
Amy Alznauer: I hope readers will first of all love the story for itself and the art for its beauty. But I hope they will also see that relationships with other people, with our work, with the larger structures that contain us (towns, cities, countries) are sometimes difficult. So the task before us is never to erase conflict – for that’s impossible – but to believe that finding a way forward is of the utmost importance, and that if we dedicate our minds and hearts and hands to this task we might succeed, like the Zhou brothers did, in bringing forth a new magic.

We are thrilled to feature Flying Paintings: The Zhou Brothers: A Story of Revolution and Art in Issue 13: MAPS of Illustoria Magazine. Many thanks to Candlewick Books for sponsoring Issue 13 and making this interview possible. You can purchase Issue 13: MAPS here.