Source from Xia Da on Mop: http://game.mop.com/topic/XD/

Zi Bu Yu the cartoon: http://dm.game.mop.com/fengmian/4827.html

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Xia Da （夏达）, a girl of 28 from Hunan province, found herself suddenly rising to fame across the nation lately. According to her wish, this should come from her successful cartoon Zi Bu Yu （子不语, Confucius Says Not）which explores the delicate world of supernatural visions from a 9-year-old girl’s perspective and was published on one of the top Japanese cartoon magazine Ultra Jump. However, quite a lot of fans of her associated her name with such words as ”fairy-like goddess”, “otaku/indoorsy-killing lolita”, “idol of beauty”, etc. which, although faithfully highlights her outstanding personal appearance, upsets her a lot.

Confucius Says Not is a series of cartoons with 13 episodes since 2007. It owes its title to the Analects of Confucius which says that ”Confucius did not speak of strange events, violence, riots and supernatural things” and echoes the Qing Dynasty fiction collection by Yuan Mei of the same name. Taking inspirations from folk legends and pantheist worship and greatly influenced by her parents who are experts on ancient architecture, paintings and calligraphy, Xia Da aptly captured the sensitivity of a pure, imaginative and adventurous girl who constantly communicates with a mysterious world of deities and spirits (including flowers, silkworm,rivers,tiger,stoat and crane).   

In an interview published on http://game.mop.com/comic/2022501.shtml  one of the  biggest online communities of cartoon lovers and internet users under the age of 30, Xia Da recalled her childhood as a quiet, introvert girl.  “I want explore the relations between human and nature through Confucius Says Not,” says she, “Of course, this is too big a topic for a person of my age, so I used the eyes and mind of 9-year-old Xiao Yu to watch and think, starting from the tiny beings and events from her daily life. I have grown up in a place surrounded by mountains and rivers, but this plance has become totally different today. So many people are believing that instead of healing our sky and earth they would rather build up an environment totally independent from nature, but I believe that human and nature should live with each other, rather than one conquering the other. ”

“I like old people, don’t know if it’s because I spent most of my childhood together with them. But the death of an old person is like the demise of an entire library. Only a limited number of things can be inherited over generations. I always remember my grandfather’s sigh: You must grow up fast so that I can tell you a lot of stories. It’s a pity… I grew up so slowly, and didn’t catch up with the steps of time. And how many stories are being forgetted in our world as we speak? ”

Unlike a foggy atmosphere of noises, fusses and sometimes farces in Chinese culture and media, Xia Da seems to remain very quiet and secluded. She has four cats at home, often works overnight, and is sometimes troubled by stomach ulcer and headache due to overwork. She is deeply influenced by Japanese cartoon and her next cartoon to be published is named The Silent Gozilla. In 2008, she won the Gold Prize in the girls’ category of the fiction section, the Fifth OACC Golden Dragon Award Original Animation & Comic Competition, the biggest one in China of its kind.