The publisher of the first biography of Yoshitomo Nara in Chinese, Chen Ken, founding director of the Shanghai publisher Insight Books, also talked of the strong emotional impact Nara's art had on him.

"I was struck by the powerful emotions in his paintings of a tearful doggy and grumpy girl, about 20 years ago. Nara has the intuition and bluntness of a child, incomparable to any other artist of our time."

About three years ago, Chen said,"I believed it was the time to make a summing-up for Nara and his art, and approached him about a biography.

"We set up the interviews with him and arranged his writings, recollections and narration to put together this book, so it came out simultaneously in Chinese and Japanese recently, just in time for the exhibition in Shanghai.

Insight Books has established a system working with international artists and architects.

"We interviewed Vietnam's top architect, Vo Trong Nghia, and had his biography published, and we were the first in the world to publish the work of the Russian comic artist Anton Gudim," Chen says.

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If you go

Yoshitomo Nara

Open 1 pm-9 pm, Tue-Thur; 10 am-9 pm, Fri-Sun, closed on Monday, last entry no later than 8 pm. Yuz Museum, 35 Fenggu Road, Xuhui district, Shanghai; 021-6426-1901