On a winter’s morning in 1936, Han Meilin was born in a scruffy old house on Huangqin Street in Jinan. Unfortunately, when he was just two years old, his father passed away. He was brought up by his mother and grandmother. Poverty and stress are tribulations that could overwhelm genius, but which can also sharpen one’s will. His far-sighted mother knew that only education could change her child’s fate. With hard work, she finally saved one silver dollar and sent 5-year-old Meilin to private school. This ignorant child gradually showed his artistic talent and eagerly studied calligraphy, seal carving and painting. In August 1949, Jinan was liberated. Thirteen-year-old Meilin joined the army as a signalman. With highly sensitive artistic force, this young man often went to study with the sculpture class. One year later, Meilin was transferred to the Jinan Repertory Theater. At fifteen, Meilin turned to tutoring. In that year, he published Basic Painting Skills and achieved many other successes in his art teaching and creation. In 1955, Meilin, having studied in junior high school for only three months, was admitted to the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Due to fatigue, Meilin lost his sight for eight days after the examination. When he graduated in the summer of 1960, he was assigned to teach in his university because of his remarkable achievements in painting and design.

　　1936年暮冬的一个清晨，韩美林降生在济南皇亲巷一栋败落的老屋里。家境贫寒，两岁时父亲又病逝，童年的韩美林是与奶奶、妈妈和两位兄弟躲在破草房里相依为命的。贫穷困苦是压没天才的磐石，也是磨砺意志的砥石。母亲有见识，知道读书的孩子才会有前程，拿出好不容易积攒的一块银元将五岁的韩美林送进私塾。因着这个机缘，一个懵懂的孩子渐渐显出了他的艺术天分，如饥似渴地学习书法、篆刻、绘画……。1949年仲秋，济南解放，十三岁的韩美林参军当了通讯兵，极富艺术敏感力的他经常跑去雕塑艺术组学习。一年后,韩美林转业到济南市话剧团。十五岁，韩美林转而执教，在美术教学和创作中连创佳绩，出版了《绘画基础知识》。1955年，仅读了三个月初中的韩美林通过努力，短时间连跳三级，顺利考入中央美术学院。因为用功过度，考试以后韩美林的眼睛竟假盲了八天。1960年夏，韩美林大学毕业，由于绘画、设计成绩显著，被安排留校任教。

　　Han Meilin suffered a lot throughout his life. Having taught in the Central Academy of Fine Arts for three years, he was sent to help build the Anhui Academy of Fine Arts and then worked in the Anhui Light Industry Institute. Once he encountered a former student in Shanghai, to his surprise, he was convicted of “Stealing military secrets to sell to foreign counties”. Because he had designed the cover for a famous dramatist Tian Han’s script Snow in Summer, and famous journalist Deng Tuo had wrote a poem for his painting, Han Meilin was labeled of “Counter-Revolutionary Revisionist” and “Three Village’s Accessory”. During the Cultural Revolution, Han was imprisoned for four years and seven months and suffered all kinds of tortures and humiliation. His feet bones were stomped on by mad guards and broken into over 40 pieces; his tesujis was cut an injury that still causes him difficulty. Though he has suffered mental and physical agonies, he still revels in his art world without regret. Like a saint facing the wall, he practiced asceticism and searched for salvation in the ocean of art.
　　The imprisoned Han Meilin, changed his prison into his studio, establishing his own future artistic heaven. After release, he lived in a six-square-meter house which he named “Tong Zhai”. In this little room, Han Meilin began to turn into butterflies.

　　韩美林一生命运多舛。在中央美术学院任教三年后被派往安徽组建美术学院，接着到安徽轻工业研究所任职。一次在上海偶遇昔日留学生同学，不料竟被人无中生有地安上了“窃取国家军事机密卖给外国”的荒诞罪名，又因曾为戏剧家田汉的《窦娥冤》剧本设计过封面以及邓拓为韩美林画作赋词一首等事，被扣上了“反革命修正主义分子”、“三家村的黑爪牙” 两顶帽子。文革中，韩美林遭受了四年零七个月的牢狱之灾，饱受折磨和屈辱。他的脚骨被造反派疯狂踩踏，碎裂成四十多块，他的手筋遭人恶意挑断，至今仍留有后患。但是，经历了精神和肉体双重“炼狱”的韩美林仍沉迷于他的艺术天地，九死未悔，痴心不改。他以圣者面壁的苦行方式在艺术的海洋里寻找着救赎之道。 
 　　狱中的韩美林，没有“划地为牢”，而是“划牢为画”，他在炼狱中建构着自己未来的艺术天国。出狱之初，韩美林寄居自封为“桐斋”的一个六平方米小屋。这个小小的空间就如一枚丝茧，受尽伤痛的韩美林里在这里开始羽化为艺术天国里的斑斓蝴蝶。

　　To most people’s surprise, there is no pessimism in Han Meilin’s work, even though he has suffered so much. His artist’s nature determines that he focuses on truth, good and beauty whenever he holds his brush. Han found emotional support from animals: His woolly and fluffy animal paintings integrated the effect of traditional ink and brush painting and modern watercolor painting. These cute and lovely paintings brought the long-lost warmth of art to the Chinese people who had experienced catastrophe. In 1980, Han held personal art exhibitions in Beijing, Hong Kong and 21 cities of the USA. His humane pandas and monkeys were so popular that they became synonymous with Chinese culture. In Han’s art world, innovation and change are his eternal law. At the beginning of the 1980’s, Han began research in ceramics: From simple pottery and luxurious Jun porcelains to Yixing teapots whose techniques were almost lost. At the same time, he expanded his creation to stamps and logo designs. In 1983, he designed the first “Pig” stamp, which caused a sensation because of its simple and exaggerated folk art style. In 1988, he created Ari China’s red phoenix logo. In the late 1980’s, Han entered the field of sculpture and created landmark sculptures for many cities. In 1989, Han Meilin Studio of the Chinese Artists’ Association was officially founded. It is the only Chinese Artists’ Association studio named after an individual artist. Since then, Han has continued the climb to higher peaks as an artist.

　　人们都很惊讶，经历了那么多苦难的韩美林，他的笔下居然找不到一丝灰暗。艺术家的天性决定了他握起笔就会向真，向善，向美。韩美林从动物身上找到了情感的依托，那毛茸茸的动物刷水画融传统水墨和现代水彩画效果于一体，人见人爱，使刚刚经历残酷浩劫的国人感受到绘画艺术久违的温暖。1980年韩美林在北京、香港和美国境内21个城市进行了巡展，他那富有人情味的小熊猫、小猴子深入人心，成为流行一时的中国文化代名词。在韩美林的艺术世界里，创新、求变是永恒的法则。80年代初，韩美林开始研究陶瓷工艺。从民间简陋的土陶，到华贵的钧瓷，再到工艺几乎失传的紫砂，他都有钻研。同时，他又将创作的触角延伸到了邮票、标志的设计上。1983年，他设计的第一枚猪生肖邮票，以民间艺术简约夸张的风格受到世人瞩目。1988年，他用一只朱红色凤凰完成了中国国际航空公司的航标设计。80年代后期，韩美林又踏进了雕塑领域，为许多城市设计了标志性雕塑。1989年中国美术家协会韩美林工作室正式成立，这是中国美术家协会第一个、也是迄今为止惟一一个以艺术家名字命名的工作室。从此，韩美林朝着更高的艺术之峰攀登。

　　Han Meilin’s art is a portrayal of his personality. He has a magnanimous heart and his spirit is an inexhaustible source of art. He constantly continues to surpass himself. In the early 1980’s, Han began his literary career. His essays Life is Beautiful, Retain the Beauty; Another Life Style and Beloved won prizes in national essay contests. Meanwhile, his new large urban sculptures began to emerg In 1991, his urban sculpture A Group of Tigers was installed at Dalian’s Tiger Beach; in 1996, his bronze sculpture Five Dragons Clock Tower created for Atlanta Olympic Games won out over designs from 17 other countries’ and he became the first Chinese to install his own sculpture in the USA. For Han, Five Dragons Clock Tower became the golden key to open the door of international culture and was the giant step bringing his into the field as an international master of art.

 　　韩美林的艺术正如他个性的写照，他永远童心未泯、坚定执着、刚烈厚重、特立独行，在其艺术背后永远隐含着一个坦荡率真的灵魂和永不枯竭的艺术源泉。他总是在不断告别过去，不断超越着自己。90年代初，韩美林开始了他的文学生涯。散文《人生美好，把美留住！》《换个活法》《挚爱》先后在全国散文大赛中获奖。在文学创作的同时，韩美林的城市雕塑也开始推陈出新……。1991年，他设计的巨型城市雕塑《群虎》在大连老虎滩落成，十八年后，《群虎》在中华人民共和国成立60年全国优秀城市雕塑评选中获得金奖；1996年，他设计的亚特兰大奥运会巨型城市雕塑《五龙钟塔》从17个国家的设计方案中脱颖而出，成为了第一个将自己的雕塑建立在美国国土上的中国人。《五龙钟塔》成为韩美林开启国际文化大门的金钥匙，是他迈向国际艺术大师坚实的一步。

　　Han Meilin’s distinctive creativity and inexhaustible passion are often breathtaking. From 1979 to 2001, he held five personal exhibitions in the National Art Museum of China which displaying over 10,000 works of art. In 2006, Book from Heaven, on which spent 34 years collecting and researching, was published. His visual style, made a unique interpretation of ancient Chinese characters. More than 10,000 ancient characters demonstrated Chinese ancestors’ extraordinary imagination and creativity. Since 2005 Han has donated thousands of his artworks to national and the local governments which have built Han Meilin Art Galleries in Hangzhou and Beijing. In 2008, as the general designer of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Bid logo and Beijing Olympic mascots, Han Meilin help put on for the world an Olympic Games with the most prolific cultural connotations.

　　韩美林不拘一格的创造力和永不枯竭的创作激情，常令人叹为观止。自1979年到2001年，韩美林在中国美术馆前后举办过五次个展，有上万件作品供观众欣赏。2006年，韩美林收集研究了34年的《天书》问世，以视觉造型对中国古文字做出了独特的阐释，超越万字的古文字展示了华夏先民的非凡的想象力和创造力；2005年起，韩美林将几千件作品捐给国家，在杭州、北京建立起两座韩美林艺术馆，前者精雅、后者大气，在京杭大运河的南北两端首尾相应，传递着中华地域文化中的历史情缘和文化血脉；2008年，作为北京2008奥运申奥标志、奥运吉祥物总设计师－韩美林向全世界彰显了一届最具文化内涵的奥运。

　　Han Meilin’s heart pulses with creativity. He said, “This is my golden age and my best work is yet to come!” He has many plans: Donate to the Hope Primary School Project to build more schools, publish Volume II of Book from Heaven, finish Collection of Chinese Ancient Characters, hold his sixth personal exhibition, install a sculpture in Las Vegas, build a Han Meilin Art Gallery at the foot of Helan Mountain and even in New York.
　　Speaking of Han Meilin, renowned writer Mr. Feng Jicai commented, “Everyday Han Meilin says goodbye to yesterday; everyday he renews himself incredibly. He is always full of passion.”