I Run an Art Exhibition
Every Night

Dali, an ancient Chinese city famous for its incredibly beautiful scenery and hippies, is a utopia for many people who are tired of modern city life. This book illustrates how people make a living there and how they finally regain their inner peace.

A-long, a new immigrant to Dali, has recorded his life in this city by drawing since 2016. Every day at dusk, he appears in the city centre and sells his paintings. In his paintings, we can see his companions setting up stalls on the People's Road, the vendors and tourists caught unawares on a rainy June night, the women selling chillies at the market, the people walking around with bamboo baskets on their backs, the ever-changing light and shadows on the village's old walls throughout the day, and even the local funerals.
He uses his brush to feel the world, to paint sounds, smells and time, to evoke memories and imagination about the world.

Awarded as “The most beautiful book in China” (2021)

English samples available

^{Text: A-long
Illustration: A-long
Published by Pan Press, July 2021
276 Pages
23*17 cm
All Rights Available}

“This book is in the form of a laced sketchbook to fit the title... The text on the inside pages is highly compatible with the style of the paintings in the book, and the text space is integrated with the painting space. The designer's dramatic arrangement of imagery, realism, movement and stillness, interspersed transitions between large and small images, and large areas of white space, fill the book with a cinematic narrative sense of time, where the artist's work and the designer's design are in perfect harmony. The ivory-coloured paper provides a warm reading sensation.”

“The most beautiful book in China” Committee

A-long, whose real name is Zhihua Long, is originally from Guangdong. He has been studying graffiti since he was a child.
In 2016, he came to Dali and stayed in a village near the ancient city, watching the villagers work at sunrise and return at sunset, living a quiet and fulfilling life. He enjoys his new life and regains the feeling of staying in hometown as a child. The daily life here has become his inspiration for painting.