Posted January 23, 2017 by Dioniso Punk2 Comments Art

Sleepless in Shanghai

If you think an artistic mind knows some kind of bounds, maybe you just have to give a look to Tango Gao’s comics. Short exhilarating stories of a sleepless existence with a great dream: drawing non-commercial comics, which can cure the others and himself. He wishes such drawings could act as a way out for urbanites who suffer from the pressure of life and work and let them feel the beauty of the world.

From unknown and lonely advertiser who only drew for oneself, Tango became a comic celebrity who brings laughter and energy to his readers. Until now, he has completed more than 1,600 drawings and counts 500,000 fans on Weibo. He is constantly on the road for lectures and book signing sessions in which he mesmerizes both children and grown ups. Following the success of his first comics book Sleepless —《睡不着》—, Tango has recently published his second book I Have a Dream —《别作梦了》.

“I don’t want to wake up. Reality is very tough, full of rules that we don’t want to follow. But at the same time, it is unpredictable. So I would rather stay in my dreams and make my work worth it, valuable for others and allow myself to escape a little from all the constraints imposed by the society“.

Born in Shanghai and graduated from the Mathematics Department of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tango pursued his dream of drawing by completing a major in design at the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, before entering the prosperous advertising industry at the end of the 1990s. He is today one of the most popular comic artists in China.