Dongshan Xu's ink monkey wins over international awards

Dongshan Xu has turned a monkey with big eyes, red cheeks, and a mischievous expression into one of the most recognizable images in recent Chinese illustration. His picture book The Copycat Monkey has just won the silver award at the fourth edition of the CIAC, China's national illustration contest, and it had already caught the attention of international juries.

The project received the jury's recommendation award at the 2024 Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF) and was a finalist for the Apila Primera Impresión 2026, a Spanish contest dedicated to picture books. Xu's list of recognitions also includes the Hiii Illustration jury award in 2019 and a mention at the Chen Bochui children's illustration exhibition in 2020.

A monkey that imitates to find its place

The story follows a monkey who tries to stand out by copying other animals in the forest. He walks like a flamingo, boxes like a gorilla, and sings like a lark. Everything goes well until he imitates a fisherman and almost loses his life. For Xu, the story works as a mirror of the current pace: "True maturity is not about becoming someone else through blind imitation, but about knowing and loving your own self."

The author explains that he chose animals with very distinct traits so the imitation could be read at a glance. In the flamingo scene, for example, the birds form a dense line that contrasts with the empty space around the monkey. The eye lands on him first and then jumps to the group, which pulls the reader to the next page.

From the digital tablet to the brush with no undo

Xu came from working with a graphics tablet, but for this book he switched to ink, watercolor, and collage. "My fingers pressed the undo button several times on the paper," he jokes. The uncertainty of the manual stroke gave the project a looser, more playful tone, far from the polished finish that dominated his previous work.

The monkey is not drawn with anatomical precision. Xu exaggerates the eyes, the head, and the limbs, and leaves the body small and agile. The result has a comic-like expressiveness that connects with the reader before they even know the story. The background, almost always empty, follows the logic of traditional Chinese painting: "less is more."

A monkey and a gorilla in a jungle setting, with a colorful art style.user.guancha.cn

The combination of ink and collage appears especially in the scene of the monkey singing on a tree. The trunk and leaves are made with cut paper, while the animal is painted by hand. That contrast of textures reinforces the protagonist's presence without overloading the composition.

Xu studied sculpture at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and worked as a designer before dedicating himself fully to illustration. That mix of disciplines shows in how he organizes each double-page spread: he thinks of the book as a sequence, not as a collection of loose plates.

In addition to The Copycat Monkey, he has published titles such as Be Magic, Croak, Croak!, Chang'e Exploring the Moon Pop-up Book, and Mila of Curls Goes on a Trip. The monkey volume was submitted to the CIAC with five finished illustrations, and the rest of the story is still in production.