Cartoonist Li Kunwu checks part of the sixth volume of Une vie chinoise in his studio in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province.

KUNMING - In his hand-drawn books, Li Kunwu travels across China - and through its history - as a sparsely built, active man with slim arms and legs wearing a cap with a flat circular top.

And through his series of comics, Chinese and foreign readers are getting a clearer understanding of the country.

"When I was young, I used to leave a brief note to my mother with my own cartoon image instead of words," the 57-year-old said.

"One morning I drew a little boy holding a bowl and my mom understood that I went out for breakfast."

He has parlayed that love of drawing into numerous books about China. One of them, Une vie chinoise 2: Le temps du parti, which he did in collaboration with French writer P. Otie, took home a couple of awards in France in 2010.

The book is part of his three-volume series The Life of a Chinese, which describes China's society through his eyes as he grows from boy to man.

In October 2011 he went to Paris for a book signing, where the series sold 300 sets in one morning. It is published in five languages, including French, German and Korean, and the English edition may be released in May.

At the signing, many people asked Li about the differences between the China in their minds and the China in his books.

"They believed that China was poor and the country's tremendous development confused them a lot. I felt the responsibility to tell them about the real China," he said.

On the home front, Li's most well-known book is 18 Oddities to Savor My Homeland, a reflection of his travels in Yunnan and 18 peculiar customs he found there.

The native of Kunming in Yunnan province had been working as an art designer for a local newspaper.

In 1988, he spent most of his savings to buy a bike and took a trip around his southern province, turning what he saw into cartoon images.

"Few people rode to those remote areas at that time. The ethnic people were so curious about me and took me for a geological prospector because of my hat," he said.

"They didn't understand what I was looking for. Most people had never been to other towns, not to mention visiting Kunming."

"I told them I drew manhua (Chinese for cartoon, but with the same pronunciation as 'draw slowly'.) And they said 'you drew so quickly, not slow at all!'"

Local people judged a cartoon simply by whether it looks like the real image or not.

"But their honesty and simple sentiments moved me a lot and their thoughts as well as their lives also inspired me," he said.

In the following years, he visited many prefectures in the province and published several comic books about his own experiences.

In his 40-square-meter studio near his home, Li is making drafts of new books, continuing to tell the story of a Chinese man's life. The fourth and fifth volumes are finished, and a sixth is planned.

Li has kept the habit of getting up early that he developed in the army as a young man, and exercises daily.

He touches neither tobacco nor alcohol and never complains about a lack of inspiration. Letting nature take its course is his life philosophy.

But there are two things he can hardly let be - one is that the Chinese edition of The Life of a Chinese hasn't been published yet. The second is that the bike he rode for thousands of kilometers in Yunnan was stolen in 2005.

"It recorded the beginning and also the most unforgettable years of my career. It is a crude cross-country vehicle with a bumper and a shock-absorbing seat that I made myself," Li said with a deep sigh.

"I miss it so much."