The Dragon Princess: The First Meeting

In Chinese culture, dragons are the symbol of authority and good luck. Chinese people called themselves the dragon's descendants. The importance of moral cultivation was emphasized; even dragons that were born with superhuman strength still had to work hard to cultivate themselves to become a king of dragons. In the legends, each dragon king lived in the palace of each river, lake and sea to control the local rain. Dong Ting Lake is one of the biggest lakes in China; the area around the lake is called the land of honey and milk. The heroine of this story was the daughter of the dragon king of Dong Ting Lake, and the hero was a human living by the lake. The story starts with their first meeting. The dragon princess' arranged marriage shows the tragedy of women who traditionally had no right to choose their futures. The sadness of the princess evokes Liu Yi's righteousness, which provides an example of the moral foundations of Chinese society. The artist has chosen to depict the active emotions of the characters without pictorial exaggeration in order to express the implicit beauty of Chinese culture. The bold colours used in this book skillfully build a dramatic and mysterious mood for this legendary story.