Comics of Hohhot's time-honored brands is online hit

Wangyitie by Xu Haoda and Cao Yu from Inner Mongolia Normal University (IMNU). Wangyitie is a century-old brand famous for its traditional plaster in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia autonomous region. [Photo/hhhtnews]

Hand-drawn comics of Hohhot's time-honored brands have recently gone viral on social media.

The comics depict the century-old brands of the city in Inner Mongolia autonomous region, including Cuitielu, a 200-year-old handicraft workshop, and Wangyitie, a local brand of traditional plaster with a history dating back over 300 years.

The artists, Xu Haoda and Cao Yu, are students of the International Modern Design Art College at Inner Mongolia Normal University (IMNU).

They depicted a figure related to the brands and their common instruments or products against backgrounds of written characters illustrating the brands’ origins.

It was a big challenge for them. Xu Haoda comes from Wenzhou, Zhejiang province and Cao Yu comes from Jincheng, Shanxi province and neither of them is familiar with Hohhot's local brands.

“We got the inspiration from a discussion on time-honored brands of local residents, and chose six as our subjects,” said Cao.

According to him, it took them three months to finish the artworks.