There are a stretch of black roofs, and black-tiled white walls reduced to ash black with centuries-old wind erosion. Thanks to the sunshine, green moss is found to be creeping over gray black walls. —— Zhuang Hongxing

How lucky I am, born and brought up in Nanxun, a treasured land of fish and rice in Jiangnan which used to nurture numerous influential figures in China and even in the world. — Zhuang Hongxing

Another Yellow Plum Drizzle is coming, swishing down from eaves, ticking sometimes depressingly and sometimes refreshingly on oilcloth and paper umbrellas, gurgling freely between rock cracks … —Zhuang Hongxing

Depicting the idyllic, quaint, unsophisticated homestead, pursing the footprints of acquaintances gone forever, and creating the ultimate Jiangnan humane world in my mind is my everlasting dream. —Zhuang Hongxing

As time goes by, only the world of my childhood becomes increasingly crystalline, transparent and pure. The miraculous riverside towns in Jiangnan (a region in the lower Yangtze valley) always inspire me. —Zhuang Hongxing

Twenty-eight of his works were collected by National Art Museum of China, with 12 of them themed on Nanxun in the period of the Republic of China (1912-1949).

Zhuang Hongxing’s Nanxun Images in the Period of the Republic of China (1912-1949)

In 1977, Mr. Zhuang Hongxing returned to his hometown, which he left many years ago. He drew rare sketches, following in the footsteps of his childhood.