Like Light and Shadow II: Illustrations by Gong Wanhui

Gong Wanhui is a painter and a writer.

Printed in full color, this book includes ninety-six illustrations created between 2017 and 2024, as well as fifty-four previously unpublished short essays and poems. For many years, Gong Wanhui has illustrated literary supplements and book covers both domestically and internationally. These illustrations have accompanied the writings of many renowned authors, and the writings have accompanied lonely and fragmented times.

Placing the text alongside these paintings in chronological order is like the black and white keys of a piano, creating a sense of independence yet interconnectedness, like light and shadow.

Gong Wanhui said: "Perhaps the theme of my work has always been time. Every hand-drawn painting is a unique copy. So, when they are all printed and turned into a book, it seems to be a silent and conscious resistance to the transience of daily life."

Gong Wanhui

Born in Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia, he studied at the Kuala Lumpur Academy of Fine Arts and the Department of Fine Arts at National Taiwan Normal University. He currently paints and writes, and his illustrations are often seen in newspaper supplements and book covers both domestically and internationally. He has held five solo exhibitions and participated in numerous international watercolor exhibitions. He has also received numerous literary awards, including the United Daily News Literary Award, the Huazong Literary Award, the Seagull Literary Award, and the Outstanding Young Writer Award of Malaysia. His illustration portfolio includes "Like Light, Like Shadow" and "Lighter Than Loneliness." He has also published the novel "Artificial Girl," the short story collections "The Age of Oviposition" and "The Room Next Door," and the essay collection "Morning School Bus."

Preface: Imagine a Book

• The circle of perfection. 1
• The circle of perfection. 2
• Finding a flooded road

ο Initial impressions about moving
ο cut

• Two Suns
• Childhood memories
• Body perspective
• Steam
• Legend
• Dream

ο The warmth of time
ο Pause
Snake tongue

• Summer suits
• Scars
• Dust Child
• Crows by the Pond

ο Dream Mother
Campus

• Baihua Bridge
• Coinweed
• Heart
• Dream Flower
• Those were the days. 1
• Those were the days. 2
• Burden
• tooth
• Mirror
• Farewell

ο Happy Birthday 2010
ο Norwegian Wood
Notes for the Inexperienced

• No. 5 Xinjie Square
• Late-night scavenging notes
• Night fog
• Hong Kong and Taiwan Years
• Epidemic Shop

ο Submarine
Sketching practice at Xuekewu in the afternoon
Mayfly
ο Mother and boy

• No guess. 1
• No guess. 2
• Year of the Rabbit
• Momotaro the girl
• Wounded City. 1
• City of Wounds. 2
• Lost horse. 1
• Lost horse. 2

Give me one more second
ο Background
ο Polaroid photos

• Starry sky
• Snow in Paris
• No one knows

ο Zhang Yusheng
ο Sigur Rós
ο Wedding dress
ο The voice of the story

• Transplanting Dreams
• Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. 1
• Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. 2
• Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. 3
• New Heroine Picture

Independence Day 2013
Lou Reed
ο Super Mario's pause time
ο Happy Birthday 2014

• Mythological origins
• Mary Jane
• Butterfly
• Goldfish Girl
• The Great Migration
• dolphin
• Boy in the Mirror
• horse

ο Rock Girl
ο ventriloquism
ο Youth Team
ο The meaning of life

• Diving boy. 1
• Diving boy. 2
• Dassai
• Metamorphosis
• memory
• Cocoon
• Humans and cats
• Quarantine period

ο Underpants Man and Dragon Beard Water
ο The Novelist's Struggle
ο Girl's Poem
ο Sir
ο Happy Birthday 2017

• Black Room
• Cat Talk
• Venus in the Bathtub
• Natsumi's Clock
• Darkroom light

ο idol
ο Walk like an Egyptian
Girls' Last Tour
ο Happy Birthday 2019

• Lilika on the seaside. 1
• Lilika on the seaside. 2
• Artificial Girl. 1
• Artificial Girl. 2
• Secret Love
• Bole

Yesterday's suicide note
ο New Year's Dream
ο cattle
ο Hell is other people

• Bedtime story. 1
• Bedtime story. 2
• Across the ocean
• Looking Back at Childhood
• Spring never grows old
• Last year

ο Olympus mju-I
ο Happy Birthday 2020
ο A mistake
Independence Day 2021

• Timeline. 1
• Timeline Script. 2
• White light and shadow
• Your own moon
• independence Day
• Girl Young Joo

ο Happy Birthday 2021
ο The Troubles of Young Joo
ο Housing Estate Stories
ο The distance of a song

• Fireworks. 1
• Fireworks. 2
• Land reclamation
• Why are we silent?
• Children of Heaven
• There are deer
• Making wedding dresses
• Day and Night

ο Happy Birthday 2023
ο Mirror
ο The gift of jet lag

• Writers and Cats
• Piggy Bank
• That street
• You are no longer there
• Do androids dream of electric sheep?

Postscript: Impressionism