Zodiac rabbit hops into view

The Shanghai Library's Pudong branch is a new facility that officially opened to the public in September. The largest single library construction project in the country, it covers a total of 115,000 square meters. The artworks are scattered in open areas over the building's seven stories.

Zheng Xinyao, chairman of the Shanghai Artists' Association, has been making a series of cartoon figures of Chinese zodiac animals each year, and his latest piece, a rabbit drawn with a few simple strokes, is one of the first artworks to greet visitors.

"We have put together rabbits on all kinds of media, from ink and oil paintings to wood prints, sculptures, paper-cutting and so on," Sun says.

"The rabbit is one of the most versatile animals for cartoon and animation art," Sun adds.

Overseas artists have created cartoon figures of rabbits that have been liked by children through generations, such as Peter Rabbit, Bugs Bunny and Miffy.

In China, cartoonist Du Jianguo created a bunny named Fei Fei, which was the leading character in comic strips serialized on the Good Child pictorial in the 1980s and the '90s. Fei Fei, along with another rabbit, from the 1980 Chinese cartoon movie The Snow Child, are presented in the exhibition on the ground floor.