“Ma Yuqing paints Italian four-season aesthetics with a poetic brush. 31 diary entries and over 200 illustrations present Bologna’s cultural landscape and growth whispers… In recent years, illustrators rooted in China have begun to reach the world, using their wonderful stories and artistic creativity to sketch the beauty of China and the world!”
— Reader‘s official new media (February 2025)

“One reason the author chose ‘four seasons’ as the theme is that Italy has a mild climate with distinct seasons, and many special cultural activities are held seasonally. Another is that she felt the locals’ pursuit of harmony with nature.”
— Douban reader (highly upvoted long review)

“The author spent a year recording 31 emotional diary entries of Bologna‘s spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Every illustration is full of poetry and beauty. Following her brushstrokes, you can feel the delicate emotional shifts of the changing seasons.”
— E-commerce reader

“I really love it! The layout is very designed, every page is beautiful, colorful, and full of life.”
— Douban reader

★ Douban rating 9.1. 31 emotional diary entries, over 30,000 words, more than 200 full-color hand-drawn illustrations. The author spent a year recording her complete life journey through spring, summer, autumn, and winter in Bologna. In spring, she climbed to the hilltop church to overlook the city; in summer, she watched films under the stars at the open-air cinema in Piazza Maggiore; in autumn, she wandered through harvest markets; in winter, she felt the warmth of Italian affection during the Christmas holidays.
★ Author Ma Yuqing graduated with a bachelor‘s and master’s degree in Illustration and Comics and Illustration Publishing from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna in Italy. She currently lives and works in Italy as a freelance illustrator. Her works have won international art and publishing awards, and she has long provided illustrations for magazines, novels, and picture books at home and abroad.
★ An “unconventional” study-abroad memoir. More than a travel sketchbook, it is a micro-history of a young artist‘s growth. 31 diary entries faithfully capture the long psychological adaptation period of studying alone abroad at 18 — from the confusion of language and culture shock to building deep human connections with her Italian “mother,” classmates, and mentors, gradually discovering her own visual art language.

This book tells the story of a Chinese girl’s seven years in Bologna.

Ma Yuqing came to Italy alone at 18 and was admitted to the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, studying from bachelor‘s to master’s, from Illustration and Comics to Illustration Publishing. Seven years later, she organized this experience into 31 emotional diary entries and over 200 hand-drawn illustrations, arranged by spring, summer, autumn, and winter, recording the specific and small moments of life abroad.

In spring, Bologna welcomes a series of festivals, and locals habitually climb mountains and go to the hilltop church of San Luca to overlook the city. In summer, Piazza Maggiore sets up an open-air cinema, where everyone shares a cinematic feast under the stars. Autumn is harvest season, with markets full of local specialties and streets filled with the scent of autumn. When the winter Christmas holidays arrive, the bonds with people in a foreign land give warmth to the cold season.

But this is not a simple travelogue. The book also writes about the long adaptation period of an 18-year-old girl first arriving in a foreign country — language barriers, culture shock, loneliness. Through deep relationships built with her Italian “mother,” classmates, and mentors, she slowly found her own rhythm. From confusion to certainty, from imitation to finding her own hand-drawn language, this process is fully recorded.

Ma Yuqing wrote in her preface: “This ‘adventure’ of retracing past experiences opened a door to anywhere in my daily life. Through the door, it seemed I could see that reckless, naive, headlong time. It turns out the courage I once had has not disappeared, but has become part of my inner self.”

This book is suitable for anyone curious about life abroad, and for everyone who is or has experienced loneliness and adaptation. It does not provide answers, only shares a real path.

Ma Yuqing
Born in 1997, Chinese young illustrator living in Europe.
Graduated with a bachelor’s and master‘s degree in Illustration and Comics and Illustration Publishing from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna in Italy. Currently lives and works in Italy as a freelance illustrator.
Her works are mainly in a delicate hand-drawn style and have won international art and publishing awards. She has long provided illustrations for magazines, novels, and children’s picture books at home and abroad.
Representative works include “Four Seasons in Bologna” and “Wandering in Switzerland.” In June 2026, at the official invitation of Switzerland Tourism, she attended book launch events in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

Spring
March 16 Sunny Spring Night Adventure
March 31 Sunny Daylight Saving Time
April 5 Sunny Hilltop Church
April 12 Sunny Afraid of the Children‘s Book Fair
April 14 Sunny Vintage Market
April 17 Sunny Part-time Job
May 10 Showers “White People’s Food”
May 25 Sunny Ludovica

Summer
June 6 Sunny Summer Worries
June 12 Sunny Under the Tuscan Sun
June 26 Sunny Italian Cold Drinks
July 6 Sunny Friends
July 15 Sunny An Illustrator‘s Growth Begins After Graduation
July 28 Sunny Starlit Cinema
August 2 Sunny Escape to the Beach
August 7 Sunny Italian “Mother”

Autumn
August 30 Cloudy Season of Rest
September 4 Rain Season of Leaving Home
September 26 Overcast Half a Day of Leisure in Florence
October 10 Sunny Unforgettable City
October 25 Overcast Impressive Blue
October 26 Rain Venetian Glass
November 5 Sunny Looking at Bologna from Another Angle
November 15 Sunny The City of Beauty

Winter
November 22 Windy Holiday Preparations
December 7 Rain The Dream Little Wooden House
December 10 Cold Rain Food at the Christmas Market
January 10 Cloudy Coffee Pot
January 12 Overcast Want to Go to Remote Places
February 6 Sunny At the City Library
February 20 Sunny Chinese New Year in a Foreign Country
Afterword

【Foreword】
First of all, thank you very much for choosing this book and becoming my reader! Every illustrator has created countless unnamed paintings during long study and practice, but only those works that are finally seen by readers can complete the production-consumption cycle of art. It is the readers’ reading that makes my works complete.
In this book, I tell in diary form what I saw, heard, and felt while living in Bologna, interspersing introductions to some interesting local activities and customs. I chose “four seasons” as the theme for two reasons: first, Italy has a mild climate with distinct seasons, and many special cultural activities are held seasonally. Second, I felt the locals‘ pursuit of harmony with nature. As the seasons and climate change, people’s moods also shift somewhat — sometimes joyful and comfortable, sometimes irritable and low. Passing happiness in bright sunshine and comforting each other in the continuous rainy season made me feel the humanistic warmth of this city.
Italy is a very beautiful place. During the years I lived here, I tirelessly observed the buildings and scenery along the way, repeatedly praising the wonder of Italian aesthetics. My painting has undoubtedly been influenced by it, and in this book I strive to show it to readers. In terms of writing, I want to avoid dry list-like descriptions, and try to integrate some special places in Bologna into the telling of my own experiences, hoping to give readers an immersive feeling.
I have drawn many assigned illustrations and other people‘s stories. This is my first time writing my own story and illustrating it. The creative process was long, and I encountered some difficulties and doubts. For this reason, I continuously refined my painting during this period, and finally found my own way to present this work. I hope you like it! Finally, I sincerely thank the editors at China Light Industry Press for their trust and support, and for their careful efforts in bringing this book to life. I also hope every illustrator who is working hard can meet their own patron.

【Afterword】
Me and Painting
Since childhood, I was never a clever child, always learning new things a beat slower than others. In elementary school, it took me a long time to learn Chinese pinyin and math addition and subtraction. Plus, I am a sensitive person; if the teacher got angry, I would be very sad. At that time I was often extremely nervous, always highly focused, because if I did not maintain this state, the math teacher would complain to my parents about my homework, the dance teacher would scold why I was the only one who couldn’t learn new moves, and so on, which made me fearful.
In this way, I kept forcing myself to do things I was not good at, trying hard not to fall behind. It was not until I came to Italy that I discovered that even though I was a foreigner, my classmates did not learn faster than me, and no one worried about it.
Learning painting is a very complex process. It is not just learning from the outside, nor is there a system of education that suits everyone. More often it is constant trial and error, looking inward, and summarizing experience. For a long time I was very confused, tried many different painting methods, and did various exercises in the academy courses (making prints, making books, drawing various applied illustrations). After a long period of confusion, I found that drawing with markers was a good choice. The color of each pen is fixed; you only need to consider the combination of colors. Through continuous practice, I gradually got used to this material, fixed my color habits, and became more calm and purposeful in painting.
Looking back on the five years of study at the academy, it is hard for me to summarize exactly what I learned. Those painting practices and art history courses that once troubled me made me understand what kind of industry illustration is from various aspects, and imperceptibly shaped my way of thinking. In addition, in getting along with teachers and classmates, their serious and rigorous attitude toward painting and their reverence for art also deeply influenced me, making me strictly demand the quality of my works and constantly challenge new goals.
Although this path is long and hard, I am very glad that I can engage in this profession. I am not good at confronting people or competing in a team. It happens that the painting industry is also hard to form “competition.” Everyone is different, and everyone can discover their own preciousness. Now I still face many challenges, but I will be grateful and hopeful, and find my own path.