Let’s start by getting to know you. How did you come to Turkey? What are you doing now?

Hello dear readers of Çeto Magazine. My real name is Chuanyi LEI. I came to Turkey from China in 2014 to do my master’s degree. My purpose in coming here was to learn and apply Traditional Turkish Arts and to do research in this field. I learnt Turkish at Fatih Sultan Mehmet Foundation University for one year and then completed my courses and thesis. Thanks to my professors and friends, my life in Istanbul has become easier and better. I am very happy to have come here, I am glad I came.

I continue my art and research life in Istanbul, my second hometown. I am in the second year of the doctorate (proficiency in art) programme at FSMVÜ. This year, due to the pandemic, I only do research in my own workshop and continue to draw my paintings.

Since 2019, I have been teaching Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Arts at Yeditepe University Confucius Institute. Before the pandemic, I had older and younger students in my workshop or in my friends’ workshops, I was giving lectures, organising workshops, now I can’t do any activities, unfortunately, but health is more important than anything else now. Last month, a university in China invited me as a guest research assistant, I give presentations and lectures remotely in my free time.

How did you start drawing?

I started drawing when I was still a child. Actually, I am very lucky because my father is a great painter. The standards to be considered a traditional Chinese painter are very high. He is a good painter as well as a calligrapher and poet. So were all the teachers my father learnt from. My childhood was spent in an environment full of art. How the great masters drew, how they looked at life and art to their students, how they taught their art wholeheartedly, all of these are engraved in my memory and still continue to impress me.

There was a photograph. When I was two or three years old, I was holding a thick brush and drawing the car and the fish in my memory. When I was five years old, I started to go to a painting course on weekends for the first time. Sometimes I was lazy, but when I saw my father’s diligence, my determination to work was restored and I continued to work. Fathers and mothers are the first and best teachers of children. How you start something is important, but more important is your patience and determination to continue that work. In this respect, I was very lucky.

How do you define your own art?

Before I came to Turkey, I was only drawing traditional Chinese paintings. As in all traditional arts, you need to work continuously and for a long time to draw even the simplest figure. In Xieyi art (close to Japanese Sumi-e art), once the ink is applied to the brush and paper, it is not corrected again. The composition should be ready in your mind beforehand. After you start painting, you can correct the missing parts in time according to the integrity of the composition structures. Chinese painting is a very flexible art but it is very difficult to master it. The painter needs to continuously improve his/her artistic talent, aesthetic taste and practical experience.

I think that my art is the fruit of traditional Chinese painting and Turkish arts. When I met Turkish arts in Turkey, various and marvellous handicrafts such as miniature, tile, illumination, calligraphy, etc. opened new windows for me. I am a graduate of Beijing University Archaeology and Historical Architecture. Therefore, I was very curious about not only the shapes and motifs in Turkish and Islamic arts, but also the philosophy of art and Sufi thought behind them, and I studied them. You can see some elements from these in my paintings. The infrastructure of my works is a combination of traditional Chinese painting techniques and the art philosophy and cultural communication of two civilisations. That’s why I wanted to work on art in the academic field. There are implicit references to art history in my works. Those who know art history can enjoy my works more by discovering the clues in the painting.

Especially in your drawings on Instagram, there is always ‘cat’. Why do you draw cats?

Yes, I constantly share my cat-themed pictures on Instagram and I named the account ‘catDAYI’. Actually, my pseudonym is ‘dayi’ in Chinese. Here, both dayi is read and uncle is read, as if it was a bit of a joke. I love cats very much. The first cat I drew was a short-haired Himalayan cat. Traditional Chinese painting artists are generally not interested in many fields. For example, my teacher, Master Prof. SUN Jusheng (1913-2018) lived to be 105 years old. As a Chinese painter all his life, he only painted cats, of course, he also knew how to paint flowers and butterflies for the background of the painting. My teacher, who was also a retired professor of Physics, was well versed in ancient Chinese literature and poetry, and he also wrote poems in calligraphy. I was also very impressed by my teacher’s lessons.

Istanbul is a paradise for cats. I feel very peaceful since I settled in Istanbul. My old house was on the Üsküdar coast, there were cats in the gardens, on the streets and in my neighbours. I got my cat Miluku from a beautiful staircase at that time, so the environment I live in is full of cats and they are all my models. So when inspiration comes, I can easily draw by looking at my model. Drawing cats expresses my emotions in the best way. I draw cats when I am sad and happy. When I am at peace, the cats I draw are peaceful. The cat’s eyes and facial expression reflect my emotions very well. The cat has also become an inseparable part of my life.

How do you see the future of traditional arts in an increasingly digitalised world?

Today, digital techniques are advancing rapidly. These are sometimes worrying. The world we live in now is already digitalised. Young people cannot live in a world without computers, internet and mobile phones. This is not a threat to traditional arts, on the contrary, it is an opportunity. With digital techniques we can better preserve, research and evaluate our cultural heritage. The important thing is how to digitise in a better way.

When I was in China, I participated in many projects. I used different applications such as AutoCAD, Sketchup, Rhinos, Arc GIS, 3d Max in areas ranging from palace and historical temple restoration to archaeological park design. Even things like database, VR, AI are very practical for our traditional arts. These works can only be sustained by governments or by the patronage of big capitalists such as banks. I think Turkish arts and cultural heritage will develop more with the creative industry. There are many things we can do.

Are there any projects you are currently working on? Do you want to illustrate children’s books?

There is a translation project I am currently working on: I am translating the book Ottoman Art of Painting from Turkish into Chinese. As a painting project, I continue to draw cat depictions with Turkish decorative arts in recent years, I have created my own style by combining illumination and tile patterns with my cats. I am also continuing the project of felineising famous figures. There are still discussions on some famous figures: For example, I catified an Ottoman sultan, I drew a cat sultan named ‘Selimyav’. There are many people who like it, as well as those who swear at it. Criticism comes, but it doesn’t matter, I will continue to draw despite this. I also drew a cat samurai, everyone liked it. Now I am drawing a cat in a Kazakh gold dress.

I love children very much. Every year both in Turkey and in China, I give trainings to children about the art of painting. If the opportunity arises, I would like to illustrate children’s books. I would especially like to work on cat drawings with children.