He says he was ready to die at the age of 60. But now he finds himself still alive after 60, so he regards every single day after 60 as a bonus. He makes full use of this bonus, not missing out on a day of drawing caricatures.

Having contributed numerous caricatures throughout his lifetime on Chinese traditional cultures and religions, he says he will continue to draw caricatures until the day he dies. He is Cai Zhizhong , a world-known caricaturist. 

He Fei brings his story.

61-year-old Cai Zhizhong looks amiable and peaceful, with long grey hair. He looks like an old man from ancient China, like Zhuangzi . Zhuangzi was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BC during the Warring States Period. He represented the Dao  philosophy amid many schools of philosophy and thought at that time.

Cai Zhizhong says he himself inside is also like Zhuangzi. 

"When I first got to know about Zhuangzi, I felt, wow, he was so like me. The emperor of Chu, the state where Zhuangzi lived, invited Zhuangzi to be the prime minister of the state, but Zhuangzi refused. He would rather to be a pig wallowing in mud than to be a privileged official. I am like him. What I want is an interesting life, other than money. Money is not everything. Then I thought I could portray him, so I did and drew many caricatures."

Cai Zhizhong extended his love for Zhuangzi to other ancient Chinese philosophers like Confucius, the establisher of Confucianism, and Mencius, an exponent of Confucianism. He created a series of caricatures to display their thoughts. His drawings also have Buddhist elements.

His unique creating style, drawing characters and scenes in a very simple, humorous and lovely way, made the profound and hard classical philosophy readable to a larger audience. 

"I always take it as a duty to arouse people's interest in our classical traditions. My drawing style makes readers feel the story is interesting and then leads them to read the original version of the philosophical books."

Cai Zhizhong [source: newssc.org]

Cai Zhizhong's works have been sold around the world and many Chinese people have grown up reading his caricatures. Cai Zhizhong's caricaturing life is like a legend. 

"I was born in a small village in the city of Zhanghua in Taiwan. Interestingly, our village had a church while the city did not. I went to the church every Sunday since the age of one. Every time I was there, I could see many colorful animal pictures like Mickey Mouse. Thus I was influenced by images like caricatures since very young."

Little Cai Zhizhong came to like caricatures and to make up his mind to follow a caricaturing road. 

"Gradually my little head was full of numerous great figures like Moses and Jesus who can make the lamb to walk and the blind to see. Thus I was very worried about my uselessness, fearing I could do nothing in future. Thus I started considering this problem when I was three and half years old. At four and a half, I made up my mind to draw caricatures. I decided to devote my whole life to it as long as I was not starved to death."

Cai Zhizhong has been keeping the promise he gave to himself. He became a professional caricaturist at the age of 15. He also tried to open two cartoon companies, which later proved to be successful. However, he quit both at the age of 37 and stayed in Japan for years, finishing over 40 caricature books.

"I had had my business for eight years when I was 37. At that time I had two million Yuan bank deposit and three nice houses. I thought I had done enough for making money, so I wanted to change to do something interesting."

Drawing caricatures is certainly something interesting. Cai Zhizhong adds, to make the caricatures book interesting it is important to tell stories in an interesting way. To enhance the ability of telling good stories, one must do a great amount of reading.

"I finished reading all the books around me when I was nine years old."

Cai Zhizhong's new books, like Study Diary of Wu Er Kong Kong and Caricaturing Genius Plan, are hitting the market and have been highly acclaimed.

For China Now, I'm He Fei.