Microsoft Word - Stember MA Thesis.docx THE THE THE THE SHANGHAI SHANGHAI SHANGHAI SHANGHAI MANHUA MANHUA MANHUA MANHUA SOCIETY: A HISTORY OF EARLY CHINESE SOCIETY: A HISTORY OF EARLY CHINESE SOCIETY: A HISTORY OF EARLY CHINESE SOCIETY: A HISTORY OF EARLY CHINESE CARTOONISTSCARTOONISTSCARTOONISTSCARTOONISTS, 1918, 1918, 1918, 1918----1938193819381938 by Nick Stember B.A., Portland State University, 2010 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (Asian Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2015 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Nick Stember, 2015 ii AbstractAbstractAbstractAbstract Towards the end of the 19th century, the first illustrated pictorials began to appear in China. Satirical cartoons found their way into Chinese newspapers and magazines over the following decades, as print technology gradually improved. By the 1910s illustrated pictorials began to proliferate, along with the first examples of humor magazines, a trend which would continue through the 1920s. By the early 1930s, China had over two dozen magazines dedicated to satirical comics, or manhua, as they came to be known. This study looks at the Manhua Society, a group of semi-professional cartoonists whose members were active in Shanghai from roughly 1918 to 1938. By pooling their resources and working under a common banner, the Manhua Society members were not only able to find employment, but also to step into the role of publishers themselves, financed by day jobs in advertising and education. This study reconstructs the history of the society using oral histories, academic studies, and primary source materials (translating many previously unavailable in English). It focuses on eight key members of the Manhua Society: Ye Qianyu, Ji Xiaobo, Ding Song, Zhang Guangyu, Lu Shaofei, Wang Dunqing, Huang Wennong, and Hu Xuguang. These men saw their careers transformed by a series of escalating military conflicts: the May 4 Movement of 1919, the Zhili-Anhui War of 1920, the first Zhili-Fengtian War of 1922, the Jiangsu-Zhejiang War and second Zhili-Fengtian War of 1924, the May 30 Movement of 1925, the Northern Expedition of 1926-1928, including the Shanghai Massacre of 1927, and the first Japanese invasions of Shanghai in 1932 and 1937. Their stories show how the history of Chinese comics was shaped by individuals, as well as organizations. Although this industry was crippled by the Japanese invasion of Shanghai in 1937, the same cartoonists would go on to work in the propaganda offices of World War II, the Chinese Civil War, and the Cold War. In tracing the origins of the Manhua Society, therefore, I argue that it influenced not only the development of cartooning and comics in the Republican era, but also the visual culture of the PRC. iii PrefacePrefacePrefacePreface This dissertation is original, unpublished, independent work by the author, Nick Stember. The research topic was developed with guidance from my advisor, Christopher G. Rea. Further feedback was provided by Sharalyn Orbaugh, Sara Wellington, Ben Whaley, and others at the Modern Japanese and East Asian Popular Culture Workshop on March 31, 2015. Portions of this thesis were presented at talk given at the Fourth Annual UBC Asian Studies Graduate Conference on April 11, 2015, titled, “The Manhua Society (1926-28).” iv Table of ContentsTable of ContentsTable of ContentsTable of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................................................ ii Preface ................................................................................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................................. iv List of Tables ..................................................................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................................................... viii Epigraph .............................................................................................................................................................................. ix Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1 : War, What Is It Good For? ....................................................................................................................... 5 Ye Qianyu: The Student .............................................................................................................................................. 8 Ji Xiaobo: The Master .............................................................................................................................................. 13 Burnt Bridges and Bad Blood? ................................................................................................................................. 20 Chapter 2 : The Ties That Bind .................................................................................................................................. 22 Ding Song: The Grandfather ................................................................................................................................... 23 Zhang Guangyu: The Godfather ............................................................................................................................. 27 Lu Shaofei: The Portraitist’s Son ........................................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 3 : Wild Cards ................................................................................................................................................. 32 Wang Dunqing: The Boy Scout ............................................................................................................................. 33 Huang Wennong: The Missionary’s Son .............................................................................................................. 36 Hu Xuguang: The Lumberjack ............................................................................................................................... 39 Chapter 4 : Come Together ......................................................................................................................................... 41 The Shot Heard Round the Bund .......................................................................................................................... 41 An Unexpected Party ................................................................................................................................................ 45 The Northern Expedition ........................................................................................................................................ 51 Chapter 5 : The Breaking of the Fellowship ............................................................................................................. 58 Shanghai Sketch I ....................................................................................................................................................... 59 Dr. Fix-It and the Pioneer Syndicate...................................................................................................................... 63 Shanghai Sketch II ..................................................................................................................................................... 70 Chapter 6 : The Legacy .................................................................................................................................................. 76 Birth of the Modern .................................................................................................................................................. 77 The Manhua Boom .................................................................................................................................................... 87 v Censorship and War .................................................................................................................................................. 94 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................................ 98 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................................... 106 Appendix ......................................................................................................................................................................... 117 Appendix A: Tables ................................................................................................................................................. 117 vi List of TablesList of TablesList of TablesList of Tables Table A.1 Major manhua artists and publishers by decade, 1884-1917 .................................................. 117 Table A.2 Cartoon periodicals published in Shanghai, by year founded, 1928-1937 ........................... 119 vii List of FigureList of FigureList of FigureList of Figuressss Figure 1.1 Three Friends Co. storefront on Nanjing Road, date unknown. ...................................................... 12 Figure 1.2 Ji Xiaobo “I always feel that life is so unreal!” 總覺得人生的虛無縹緲了！The Young Companion, Issue 1, February 15, 1926, 21. ............................................................................................................ 16 Figure 1.3 Ji Xiaobo “Warrior” 戰士 The Young Companion, Issue II, March 15, 1926. .................. 17 Figure 1.4 Ji Xiaobo “Fullness” 圓滿 The Young Companion, Issue 1I, March 15, 1926. ................. 17 Figure 2.1 Ding Song “Falling in Love” 戀愛 Shenzhou Pictorial神州畫報, January, 1918, 84. ..... 25 Figure 2.2 Lu Shaofei “Goals Youth Should Have” 青年應有之目的 Shenbao, October 17, 1921, 17. 29 Figure 3.1 Wang Yiliu [aka Wang Dunqing] “Founding of the League of Left-Wing Writers” 左联 作家联盟成立 Shoots萌芽, Issue 4, April 1930, 7. ........................................................................................... 35 Figure 3.2 Huang Wennong “Our Office Will Have a Meeting at One o’clock Today” 本公所定今 日下午一時開會 Shenbao Sunday, March 20, 1921, 18. .................................................................................. 38 Figure 3.3 Hu Xuguang “Candle in the Wind” 風中之燭, Shenbao, Thursday, January 6, 1921, 16. 40 Figure 4.1 Zhang Meisun “Emblem for the Manhua Association” 漫畫會會徽 November, 1927. .. 47 Figure 5.1 The first Dr. Fix-It 改造博士 Shenbao Sunday, January 1, 1928, 26. .................................. 64 Figure 5.2 The first Mr. Wang 王先生 Shanghai Sketch II, March 21, 1928 ................................................ 65 Figure 5.3 Huang Wennong “Jump on the Horse and Drop Anchor” 上馬及拋錨 Shanghai Sketch I, January 1, 1928, 3. .......................................................................................................................................................... 67 Figure 5.4 Ye Qianyu “Standard Sizes”大小標凖 Shanghai Sketch I, January 1, 1928, 2. .................. 67 Figure 5.5 The Romantic Adventures of Mr. Mao 毛郎艷史 Shenbao, June 1, 1928. ................................ 68 Figure 5.6 The Traveler 旅行家 Shenbao, August 8, 1928. ................................................................................ 68 Figure 5.7 Brother Tao 陶哥兒, Shenbao, September 14, 1928. ........................................................................ 69 Figure 5.8 Lu Liaoliao [aka Lu Shaofei] “The Destiny of Love” 愛的命運 Shanghai Sketch II, Issue #3, May 5, 1928. .................................................................................................................................................................... 73 Figure 5.9 Lu Liaoliao [aka Lu Shaofei] "Young Girl and Married Woman" 少女與婦女 Shanghai Sketch II, May 12, 1928. .............................................................................................................................................. 74 Figure 5.10 Lu Shaofei “New Styles for Early Summer” 初夏的新裝 June 2, 1928. ................................... 74 Figure 6.1 Logo of the Modern Press 時代印刷有限公司 designed by Zhang Guangyu in 1931........... 79 Figure 6.2 “Picture of Mr. Lu Xun Beating a [Drowning] Pug” 魯迅先生打叭兒狗圖 Lin Yutang, Peking Press Supplement 京報副刊, January 23, 1926. ....................................................................................... 84 Figure 6.3 Cover of the first issue of Modern Sketch by Zhang Guangyu, featuring the “Don Quixote of Manhua” 漫畫的堂吉訶德 by Zhang Guangyu, January 24, 1934 ................................................................. 88 Figure 6.4 “The Cry of Life,” 生活的呼號 Manhua Life, Issue 1, September 20, 1934. ............................ 91 Figure 6.5 “Heads of State” 元首, The Spectator, November 15, 1934. .......................................................... 93 viii AcknowledgementsAcknowledgementsAcknowledgementsAcknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank the Faculty of Arts at UBC and the Gregory Tso Memorial Scholarship in Asian Studies whose funding made this project possible. Secondly, I would like thank my advisor, Christopher G. Rea, for his guidance and, most of all, patience as this project made its way towards completion. His knowledge of the visual culture of 19th and 20th century China and willingness to share resources provided this study with an unparalleled foundation of support, as did his assistance with funding and grant applications. He is, in every sense of the word, a mensch. I would also like to thank Timothy Cheek and John A. Crespi for serving on my committee, and Jerry Schmidt for serving as chair. It is thanks to their close reading and incisive comments and questions that I have been able to shape something resembling an argument out of the crooked timber of my thesis. The remaining knots and splinters are, of course, my own. More generally, I would like to thank Catherine Swatek for sharing her expertise as both a sinologist and a friend, and Sharalyn Orbaugh for always encouraging me to dig a little bit deeper. Stefania Burk was a pillar of support during all manner of crises. Bruce Rusk provided invaluable advice on digital archives, and Ross King’s suggestion to focus on the founding rather than the failing of the Manhua Society turned out to be just the advice I needed. Additionally, Carla Nappi was always there with robot coffee when I really needed it, and Robert Hegel provided killer advice for an aspiring grad student, as did Maggie Greene. I also want to Brendan O’Kane for encouraging me to follow in his footsteps by studying abroad in China. I would like to thank my family and friends in Portland, Shanghai, Harbin, and now Vancouver, for putting up with my obsessions and encouraging my passions. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Ding, for her constant love and support. ix EpigraphEpigraphEpigraphEpigraph “They were always doing something. Quietly, without interruption, and with great concentration, they carried on with the hundred-and-one small things that made up their world.” ― Tove Jansson, Moominpappa at Sea, 1965, translated by Kingsley Hart 1 InInInIntroductiontroductiontroductiontroduction Over the last roughly 150 years China has undergone massive changes, going from absolute monarchy to semi-colony, and eventually to a pair of 21st century nation states, the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China, with equally dramatic changes occurring in Chinese-language print culture. As new technologies introduced from abroad came to replace traditional methods of printing, new types of publications, such as newspapers and magazines, came into vogue. Although a long tradition of illustrated texts exists in China, going back to at least the Tang dynasty (618-907), it was not until the late 19th century that high fidelity illustrated texts could be reproduced quickly and cheaply, spurring an explosion in visual print culture for men and women, rich and poor alike. This democratization of information was unprecedented in Chinese history, and in turn spurred social changes that would transform China. By the 1920s, Shanghai, then China’s largest metropolis, was experiencing a publishing boom brought about through a confluence of two very different groups of intellectuals: those aligned with the politically-motivated New Culture movement, concerned with issues of language reform and national sovereignty, and those who catered to the tastes of public, through popular literature, music, films, and other forms of entertainment. Both groups sought to capture the attention (and dollars) of a growing audience of increasingly cosmopolitan readers. While New Culture critics disparaged popular writers as the “Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies” clique for their sentimentalism, symbolized by the romantic clichés of yuanyang (Mandarin Ducks, which mate for life) and hudie (butterflies, free flying denizens of the garden, a sexually charged space in traditional Chinese drama and literature), the line between the two groups was not as hard and fast as such appellation might suggest. Given the inherently subjective task of literary analysis, critics more often than not labeled writers based more on whom they associated with than on the actual content of their writing.1 Writers of all stripes, meanwhile, took a keen interest in the potential of the graphic arts, with the “Butterflies” gravitating towards entertainment, and the New Culture critics to propaganda. This thesis looks at a very small part of this much larger print boom phenomenon, namely, the emergence and afterlife of the Manhua Society 漫畫會, a group dedicated to the production of manhua (cartoon) periodicals whose members belonged to both sides of the great literary debate. First adopted in the mid-1920s, the Chinese term manhua refers to cartoons in a general sense, and was adopted by a 1 For examples of the differences in the language used by literary and popular writers, see William A. Lyell’s afterword to his translation of Zhang Henshui’s novel, Shanghai Express: A Thirties Novel, trans. William A. Lyell (Honolulu: Univ of Hawaii Pr, 1997). 2 specific group of artist-entrepreneurs to promote their own work. Rather than look at the aesthetic influences (particularly from the West) on their work, as Paul Bevan has done in his recently published monograph, this study is primarily concerned with using oral histories, academic studies, and primary source materials (translating many previously unavailable in English) to reconstruct the life and times of the members of the Manhua Society.2 The Manhua Society was formed in late 1926 and disbanded in in 1928, with scholars Bi Keguan and Huang Yuanlin later hailing it as “the first civil cartoon society in Chinese history” 漫畫會是我國歷 史最早出現的民間漫畫團體.3 This is probably an exaggeration, as the Manhua Society was likely only one of several “civil societies” dedicated to the making of cartoons which was formed in the 1920s.4 It was, however, one of the few to announce its activity with some regularity in the Shenbao and other publications, from its founding in late 1926 though to its apparent breakup in late 1927. Key members of this short-lived organization included Ye Qianyu 葉淺予 (1907-1995), Ji Xiaobo 季小波 (1901-2000), Zhang Guangyu 張光宇 (1900-1965, born Zhang Dengying 張登瀛) and his brother, Zhang Zhengyu 張正宇 (also known as Zhang Zhenyu 張振宇, 1904-1976), Ding Song 丁松 (courtesy name Ding Muqin 丁慕琴, 1891-1969? 1972?), Ye Qianyu 葉淺予 (1907-1995), Lu Shaofei 魯少飛 (1903-1995), Huang Wennong 黃文農 (1903-1934), and Wang Dunqing 王敦慶 (1899-1990). The Society and its various publications also sought to draw on the talents of a larger pool of cartoonists, and inspired in large part by the political turmoil of the late 1910s and 1920s, these artists turned entrepreneurs saw cartooning not only as an economic opportunity, but also as a moral necessity.5 In addition to publishing large numbers of political cartoons through various publications during the 1920s and 1930s, members such as 2 Paul Bevan, A Modern Miscellany: Shanghai Cartoon Artists, Shao Xunmei’s Circle and the Travels of Jack Chen, 1926-1938 (Brill, 2015). 3 Bi Keguan 畢克官 and Huang Yuanlin 黃遠林, Zhongguo Manhua Shi 中國漫畫史 [The History of Chinese Manhua] (文 化藝術出版社, 1986), 85. 4 Other informal groups almost certainly existed in Beijing and Guangzhou, given the existence of cartoon periodicals published in the latter, such as Fifty-cent Funnies 半角漫畫, and the presence of cartoonist and educator Wang Junyi 王君異 (1895- 1959) in the former. See Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Banjiao Manhua” 半角漫畫 [Fifty-Cent Funnies], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝術卷, November 2000, 598 and Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Wang Junyi” 王君異 [Wang Junyi], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝術卷, November 2000, 598. 5 Meeting notes for one gathering state that “…our group has adopted an open format and we welcome new comrades to join. There is no established procedure for soliciting new members, so interested parties are encouraged to contact us” 該會取公開 態度、歡迎同志加入、但無徵求會員之手續、願入會者、可與該會接洽云. “Ge tuanti xiaoxi” 各團體消息 [Society News], Shenbao 申報, June 8, 1927, 17. 3 Ye Qianyu, Zhang Guangyu, and Wang Dunqing devoted themselves almost exclusively to creating anti- Japanese propaganda after the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese war in 1937. When considering the impact of the Manhua Society, however, it is equally important to note that through the diverse work of its members, manhua came to refer to a much larger creative sphere than simply “cartoons.” As Crespi argues, …the English word “cartoon” can be a misleading translation for the Chinese term manhua. Cognate with the Japanese word “manga,” Chinese magazines like Shanghai Sketch …and Modern Sketch…expanded the meaning of manhua to cover a diversity of graphic forms beyond what we normally think of as “cartoons.” Indeed, looking at the various cartoon periodicals published during the 1920s and 30s by members of the Manhua Society, it seems that manhua came to be understood as a general category of visual play, exemplified by the cartoon or caricature, but also encompassing photographs, fashion illustrations, advertisements, poster art, and wildly creative typography. To understand why a group of young men would dedicate themselves to drawing and publishing cartoons (and other works which combined art and humor) in Shanghai in the late 1910s and early 1920s, one must understand the development of the city in which they made their home. Science fiction author J.G. Ballard (who was born in the International Settlement in 1930 and lived in the city until he was 15) once described Shanghai of the early 20th century as …almost a 21st Century city - huge disparities of wealth and poverty, a multi-lingual media city with dozens of radio stations, dominated by advertising, befouled by disease and pollution, driven by money, populated by twenty different nations, the largest and most dynamic city of the Pacific rim, an important political battleground. In short, a portent of the world we inhabit today.6 Here, Ballard would seem to be echoing his cotemporary Marshall McLuhan, who argued that the technology of popular media and communication altered the way we think, not through the merits of the contents it carried, but through the immediacy of its delivery, allowing for a “…retribalizing process 6 J.G. Ballard, “Ballard Interviewed by Hans Ulrich Obrist in 2003,” interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist, 2003, http://www.jgballard.ca/media/2003_catalogue_for_beck’s_futures_art_exhibition.html (accessed November 22, 2015). 4 wrought by the electric media, which is turning the planet into a global village.”7 In this way, the illustrated magazines of 1910s and 1920s such as Vanity Fair and Vogue, which Manhua Society members such as Ye Qianyu recall having modelled their own publications on, can be argued to have been a portent of the 21st century media-sphere, marrying current events to trends in fashion and popular culture, foreshadowing television and, ultimately, the internet. Like the internet today, an exciting mix of both high and low culture could be found of the pages of manhua and other illustrated periodicals in Republican-era Shanghai, which struggled to stay afloat in the face of low profits and over-zealous censors. As media savvy consumers and interpreters of global culture, the Manhua Society and its members left an indelible mark on the visual culture of the Republican-era, which became the cultural heritage of the PRC after Mao Zedong and the communists came to power in 1949. To understand this cultural heritage, we must consider not only the artwork produced, but also the men who produced this artwork and the great sweltering paradox of a city which brought them together. 7 “The Playboy Interview | Next Nature Network,” n.d., https://www.nextnature.net/2009/12/the-playboy-interview- marshall-mcluhan/ (accessed November 24, 2015). 5 Chapter 1Chapter 1Chapter 1Chapter 1 : War, What Is I: War, What Is I: War, What Is I: War, What Is It t t t Good FGood FGood FGood For?or?or?or? Fittingly, given the role free trade agreements have played in the development of 21st century cities, Shanghai of the early 20th century, “portent of the modern world,” was made possible by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 which designated Shanghai a ‘treaty port,’ becoming a casualty of the first Opium War between the rapidly expanding British Empire and the ailing Qing Empire.8 The Manchus had ruled China since overthrowing the ethnic Han Ming dynasty in 1644, overseeing a huge growth in population and territory. According to many scholars who have studied the era however, the Manchu reforms were primarily targeted at restoring rather than reforming political, economic, or social institutions which they inherited.9 Eventually, foreign aggression forced the imperial government to begin efforts toward Western- style modernization.10 The British treaty was soon followed by similar French and American treaties in 1844. Chinese entrepreneurs flocked to the foreign concessions to take advantage of the new economic opportunities they provided, while many others sought refuge from the political turmoil of the Taiping Rebellion of 1851 to 1864. Foreign products, most famously opium, but also English wool, Indian cotton, Russian furs, American ginseng, and silver bullion mined in Mexico were imported into China through the docks and godowns [warehouses] of the Huangpu, and while goods such as tea, silk, and porcelain were exported from the farms and villages of the Chinese countryside. Over time, a local manufacturing industry (of which printing presses were to form a large part) emerged, eventually overtaking the import-export business. 8 Former treaty port cities in China include Guangdong, Xiamen, Fuzhou, and Ningbo, among others. 9 See Frederic Wakeman, The Great Enterprise: The Manchu Reconstruction of Imperial Order in Seventeenth-Century China: Volume 1 (University of California Press, 1986) and The Great Enterprise: The Manchu Reconstruction of Imperial Order in Seventeenth-Century China: Volume 2 (University of California Press, 1986). 10 This is, of course, an extremely simple interpretation of the long and complex legacy of the Qing dynasty. As Frederic Wakeman and many others have pointed out, numerous attempts were made by reformers in the Imperial Court such as Kang Youwei 康有為 (1858-1927) and Liang Qichao 梁啟超 (1873-1929) in the late 19th century, who briefly succeeded during the Hundred Days’ Reform of 1896. Five years later in 1901, following the disasterious outcome of the Boxer Rebellion, which led to the occupation of the capital in Beijing, the Empress Dowager Cixi and her supporters instituted the New Policies which, like the Hundred Days’ Reform, was largely modeled on the Meiji Restoration of 1868 in Japan. Following her death in 1908, however, the reforms were once again rolled back by the conservative faction that came to power. William Rowe, meanwhile, has argued that one can see strands of reform in the activities of guilds and philanthropic organizations of the late Qing dynasty, an argument which Rowe builds on the concept of the “public sphere” introduced in Jürgen Habermas’ The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society (Cambridge: Polity, 1989). Although Rowe has faced criticism from Wakeman for overestimating the automony from the Manchu state that such organizations were able to achieve, it does suggest an interesting possibility for a re-assessement of the extent of social and political reforms achieved on the level of civil society during the Qing dynasty. See William T. Rowe, “The Public Sphere in Modern China,” Modern China 16, no. 3 (1990): 309–29, Frederic Wakeman, “The Civil Society and Public Sphere Debate: Western Reflections on Chinese Political Culture,” Modern China 19, no. 2 (1993): 108–38, and William T. Rowe, “The Problem of ‘Civil Society’ in Late Imperial China,” Modern China 19, no. 2 (1993): 139–57. 6 In 1895, the defeat of the Qing in the first Sino-Japanese War led to the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which created the first Japanese concessions in China while also establishing a legal precedent for foreign- owned manufacturers within China. At first, Chinese industrialists struggled to compete with the capital resources and more advanced manufacturing techniques of foreign-owned factories. Chinese firms quickly latched onto the idea of using the rhetoric of nationalism to sell their products, which often came at a higher or equivalent real cost, with a lower level of perceived quality. Anti-Japanese sentiment was stoked even further by the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, when Japan seized additional concessions in the Liaodong peninsula 遼東半島, in the northeastern province of Liaoning 遼寧, which at the time was known as Fengtian 奉天. When the by then widely despised Qing government was finally overthrown in late 1911, the ensuing wave of nationalism help bring by Sun Yat-sen’s孫中山 (1866-1925) Kuomintang 國民黨 [Chinese Nationalist Party, KMT] to power, with the support of the leading Qing general, Yuan Shikai 袁 世凱 (1859-1916) and his modernized Beiyang Army. Meanwhile, business owners quickly realized the opportunity to seize market share from foreign imports with the establishment of the Chinese National Product Preservation Association 中華國貨維持會. Beyond simply promoting Chinese products, the CNPPA would go to organize numerous anti-Japanese boycotts from its headquarters in Shanghai, which were largely suppressed by the Republican government under pressure from the Japanese legation.11 When World War I broke out in August, 1914, Japan, which had been formally allied with England since the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance, seized the German concession in Qingdao, Shandong province and proceeded to force the Yuan Shikai’s government, which had ejected Sun Yat-sen’s KMT the previous year, to accept a list of demands, including the recognition of the various Japanese territorial claims in China. In late 1915, Yuan reinstated the monarchy, declaring himself Emperor Hongxian of the Chinese Empire 中華帝國大皇帝洪宪, a controversial decision which led to the break-up of his government even before his death from kidney failure in 1916. Following Yuan’s death, the Beiyang Army split into warring factions, which coalesced into three main groups: the Anhui clique 皖系, the Zhili clique 直系, and the Fengtian clique奉系.12 At first, the 11 See Karl Gerth, China Made: Consumer Culture and the Creation of the Nation (Harvard Univ Asia Center, 2003). 12 For background on the warlord factions, I have relied heavily on Chi Hsi-sheng, Warlord Politics in China, 1916-1928 (Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1976). 7 most powerful of these was the Anhui clique, which controlled Beijing under the leadership of Duan Qirui 段祺瑞 (1865-1936), an Anhui native, with the support of the Japanese who provided loans in exchange for under-the-table territorial concessions. For similar reasons, the Japanese also supported the Fengtian clique, which was based in the far northeastern corner of the country above Korea, known as Manchuria, and led by Zhang Zuolin 張作霖 (1875-1928), with the support of Zhang Zongchang 張宗昌 (1881- 1932) and others. Hebei and its surroundings, meanwhile, were controlled by the Zhili clique, led by Cao Kun 曹錕 (1862-1938), in partnership with Wu Peifu吳佩孚 (1874-1939), Feng Yuxiang 馮玉祥 (1882-1948), and Sun Chuanfang 孫傳芳 (1885-1935). For much of the late 1910s and early 1920s, however, the province of Canton in the far south was largely controlled by the KMT under Sun Yat-sen’s leadership. Sun initially formed alliances with local warlords, in particular Chen Jiongming 陳炯明 (1878-1933), but found them to be unreliable allies in his quest to reunify China under KMT rule. In 1924, Sun founded the Whampoa Military Academy 黃埔軍 校 in Canton with support of the Soviet Union and the New Guangxi Clique 新桂系, which controlled neighboring Guangxi province, a major center of opium production.13 As part of the terms of support from the Bolsheviks, the KMT had formed an alliance with the Chinese Communist Party in 1923, known today as the First United Front of the Nationalists and Communists. In 1925, Chiang Kai-shek 蔣介石 (1887- 1975), commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy, drew on the graduates of Whampoa to found the National Revolutionary Army (NRA), a force which would ultimately retake the country for the KMT following Sun Yat-sen’s death in 1925. In was during these turbulent times that Ye Qianyu, today the most well-known member of the Manhua Society, grew up. Ye’s early life story is unique among his peers not so much in the particulars, but because we know a great deal about it, largely thanks to his autobiography which was published in the 1990s. Ye’s early life illustrates how the numerous military conflicts of the late 1910s and early 1920s shaped the lives and aspirations of the first generation of manhua artists in China. 13 Arthur Waldron’s From War to Nationalism: China’s Turning Point, 1924-1925 (Cambridge University Press, 2003) is an indispensable resource for helping to understand the complex military and political situation of the mid-1920s in China, in particular Chapter 7, “The war and society.” 8 Ye QianyuYe QianyuYe QianyuYe Qianyu: The Student: The Student: The Student: The Student Born in 1907 into a family of merchants in Tonglu county 桐廬縣, Zhejiang province, in the mountains to the southwest of Hangzhou at the confluence of the Fenshui and the Fuchun, at age seven Ye entered Baohua Primary School 葆華小學. After graduating in 1916 he enrolled at Zixiaoguan Advanced Primary 紫霄觀高等小學 where in addition to his other coursework he also studied traditional ink painting and handicrafts. He spent five years at Zixiaoguan before graduating in 1921.14 While Ye was in his third year Zixiaoguan, World War I ended with the Treaty of Versailles. Signed on June 28, 1919, due to secret territorial concessions granted by the various warlord cliques in exchange for loans and military equipment, this controversial document upheld Japanese claims over Qingdao and the Liaodong peninsula, despite China having contributed some 140,000 laborers to the Allied war effort. More than 800 miles to the north of Hangzhou, student protests against both the warlords and Japan took place in the capital of Beijing on May 4, 1919, quickly spreading to rest of the country. The “May Fourth” movement, as it came to be known, was a watershed moment for a new generation of Chinese intellectuals who increasingly came to advocate for the abandoning of “backward” Chinese tradition in favor of the modern ideals of “science and democracy.” Although he was only 12 when the May Fourth movement began, in his memoirs Ye recalls participating in student protests inspired by the May Fourth movement several years later while going to school in Hangzhou. 1n 1920, Ye applied to the Zhejiang Provincial Number One Teaching Training School 浙江省 立第一師範學校, a famous public school in Hangzhou, but failed the entrance exam. The next year he applied a second time to the same school, in addition to two more schools, Hangzhou Number One Middle School 杭州第一中學 and the more recently established Hangzhou Salt Works Middle School 杭州鹽務中學. Although he failed the entrance exam to Zhengjiang Number One a second time, Ye tested into both of the other schools. Despite wanting to attend Hangzhou Number One Middle School, in the end Ye decided to attend the Salt Works Middle School, apparently under pressure from his father. Although the other school would have given him the option of going on to university after graduation (and also would have had art classes), Salt Works Middle School had been established to train future employees in the 14 This, and other biographical information about Ye Qianyu’s life is drawn from his autobiography Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian 葉淺予自傳：細敘滄桑記流年 [The Autobiography of Ye Qianyu: Carefully Narrating the Changes of the Ages, Recording the Passing Years] (Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe 中國社會科學出版社, 2006). 9 government salt monopoly. For Ye’s father, whose business was struggling at the time, it likely seemed to be a better investment than the more nebulous promises of a well-rounded education. Tasked with providing war reparations to the Eight-Nations Alliance following the Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901, the salt monopoly faced a shortage of staff fluent in foreign languages to deal with the representatives of the Eight-Nations Alliance. In light of his involvement in the May 4 Movement, Ye, was understandably less enamored with this career path. Along with his girlfriend, Wang Wenying 王文英, and three other classmates, Ye ran away from school in the summer of 1924, taking a passenger ferry to Xiamen where they attempted to gain early admittance to Xiamen University 廈門大學. Only one of the five friends managed to pass the exam, but the other four, including Ye and Wang, were allowed to stay on at the preparatory school for Xiamen University. They soon found themselves trapped in Xiamen, however, due to the outbreak of the Jiangsu- Zhejiang War 江浙戰爭 in September, 1924. Following the Zhili-Anhui War of 1920, when Duan Qirui’s Anhui clique had been defeated by Cao Kun and Wu Peifu’s Zhili clique, former Anhui clique generals, Yu Longxiang盧永祥 (1867-1933) and Qi Xieyuan 齊燮元 (1885-1946), who had sworn allegiance to the Zhili clique, continued to be rule over the provinces of Jiangsu (containing Shanghai), Anhui, and Zhejiang (containing Hangzhou). For the next two years, meanwhile, Beijing found itself nominally under the joint rule of the Zhili and Fengtian cliques. This partnership fell apart in 1922, with the advent of the First Zhili-Fengtian War, which saw the Fengtian Army routed, forcing Zhang Zuolin to retreat to Manchuria. The Jiangsu-Zhejiang War of 1924 which trapped Ye Qianyu and his friends in Xiamen began as a struggle between Lu and Qi for control of the Chinese districts of Shanghai, and quickly escalated into the Second Zhili-Fengtian War, for which Zhang had been enthusiastically preparing since his embarrassing defeat only two years earlier.15 To help overthrow Qi, Lu had partnered with He Fenglin 何豐林 (1873-1935), the Military Defense Commissioner of Shanghai, and Du Yuesheng杜月笙 (1888-1951), a powerful crime boss in the Green Gang 青幫, which controlled the opium trade in Shanghai. With the Zhili clique’s northern reserves forces tied up in skirmishes with the Fengtian Army, Sun Chuanfang 孫傳芳 (1885-1935), also of the Zhili clique, decided to step in to support Qi Xieyuan, leading his forces up from Fujian, where he had been stationed by Cao Kun and Wu Peifu in early 1923. 15 Wakeman Frederic, Policing Shanghai, 1927-1937 (University of California Press, 1995), 120. 10 By October, 1924, only one month after the Jiangsu-Zhejiang War had begun, it was already over. Sun Chuanfang and Qi Xieyuan had defeated Lu Yongxiong, who fled to Japan, with Sun replacing Lu as the military governor of Zhejiang. In response, the victorious Fengtian clique attempted to extend their influence into the Yangtze River delta region, with Zhang Zuolin sending Zhang Zongchang and Feng Yuxiang’s Guominjun 國民軍 [National Army] on the Anhui-Fengtian expedition to take the Chinese districts of Shanghai from Qi Xieyuan. After being quickly defeated in April, 1925, Qi Xieyuan was forced to flee to safety in Japan, and the Guominjun occupied the Chinese parts of the city. By the fall, however, Zhang Zongchang had been recalled to Shandong, allowing Sun Chuanfang to ultimately take control of Jiangsu, Anhui, and Jiangxi over the next three years, becoming one of the most powerful men in China. Ye Qianyu, meanwhile, was forced to stay in Xiamen for another five months, not having enough money to return home. While Ye was off trying to make a name for himself, the Ye family store had gone bankrupt, which meant that the family had been reduced to living off the income they received from renting out their property. Failing to gain admission to Xiamen University, in March of 1925, Ye was convinced to return home when his father took out a 100 yuan mortgage on their family property to bring his son back from Xiamen. Back in Tonglu, Ye’s father pleaded with him to return to the Hangzhou Salt Works Middle School to finish his degree. Ye resisted, and after running away and threatening to kill himself, he was able to convince his father to let him apply for an apprenticeship as a clerk in the retail department of the Three Friends Co. textile factory 三友商業社.16 One of the largest and most well-known Chinese-owned companies at the time, Three Friends Co. had been posting wanted ads in the Shenbao 申報, a prominent Shanghai newspaper with distribution throughout China. Founded by the English entrepreneur Ernest Major (1841-1908), the Shenbao was a pioneering Chinese language newspaper which played a key role in the development of the public sphere in Shanghai from when it was founded 1872 to when it finally shut its doors in 1949. It is not surprising, then, that it also played a critical role in the development of Chinese cartooning, launching the first illustrated magazine in China, the Dianshizhai Pictorial 點石齋畫報, and 16 Named after a famous saying attributed to Confucius: “Having three kinds of friends will be a source of personal improvement; having three other kinds of friends will be a source of personal injury. One stands to be improved by friends who are true, who make good on their word, and who are broadly informed; one stands to be injured by friends who are ingratiating, who feign compliance, and who are glib talkers” 益者三友，損者三友。友直，友諒，友多聞，益矣；友便闢，友善 柔，友便佞，損矣. Roger T. Ames, tran., The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation (Random House Publishing Group, 2010), 197. 11 providing employment to many of China’s first cartoonists, from Shen Bochen and Ding Song, to Lu Shaofei and Huang Wennong.17 After passing an interview with Wang Shuyang 王叔暘 (1903-1973) in the office of Three Friends Co. by demonstrating his drawing ability, Ye was hired as apprentice clerk selling cloth in the Three Friends department store on Nanjing Road, the bustling commercial thoroughfare of the British- American International Settlement (See Fig. 1.1).18 Located on the northwest bank of the Huangpu River, which runs diagonally through the Yangzte River Delta, the International Settlement was sandwiched between the long rectangle of the French Concession and the Chinese walled city, containing Yu Garden 豫園 and the City God Temple 城隍廟, to the south, and Suzhou Creek 蘇州河 to the north. This rough stretch of water, thick with effluents of the many tanners and dyers located along its banks, marked the border to the Chinese controlled district of Zhabei, with the terminus of the Nanjing-Shanghai Railroad and a large number of factories, including those of Three Friends Co. 17 For more on Ernest Major and the Shenbao, see Rudolf G. Wagner, ed., Joining the Global Public: Word, Image, and City in Early Chinese Newspapers, 1870-1910 (SUNY Press, 2012). 18 Wang Shuyang would later work as a distributor of The Young Companion and Shanghai Sketch II, among other magazines. See Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 69. 12 Figure 1.1 Three Friends Co. storefront on Nanjing Road, date unknown.19 Named after the former imperial capital of China, in Chinese it was often referred to as Main Road 大馬路, Nanjing Road ran east to west from the waterfront, known as the Bund, to the Shanghai Race Course (since razed by the communists and replaced with appropriately named People’s Park). For a young man from a small town in the Zhejiang hills like Ye, Nanjing Road was a heady place, a major economic artery, a mix of East and West, where the gathered multitudes of living, breathing things all started to affect my way of looking at things. I went from seeing things with the eyes of a peasant from the local county seat, to seeing things with the eyes of a Shanghaiese. My brain became filled with new and exciting things, seeing the changes in society; spending time on Nanjing Road, full of art and culture, I became aware of the things which I loved, the things 19 Jia Yan 賈彦, “Shangzhan yu Bingzhan: Naxie yu Sanjiao Maojin Youguan de Kangri Chuanqi” 商戰與兵戰:那些與“三角” 毛巾有關的抗日傳奇 [Retail Wars and Miltary Wars: All Those Stories About Three Triangle Towels During the War of Resistance], Lishi Pindao - Dongfangwang 歷史頻道-東方網, April 18, 2014, http://history.eastday.com/h/shlpp/u1a8040028.html (accessed December 30, 2015). 13 which I needed, and so I made a choice, then and there. This is probably why I gradually realized that I needed to change jobs, to spend time improving and absorbing and digesting these things. 一條經濟大動脈，華洋雜處，會公眾生，把我這帶點農民意識的小縣城的眼睛，逐 漸變成十裏洋場的眼睛，腦子裏也裝滿新鮮事物和社會新面貌；又接觸了布滿南京 路的文化藝術環境，使我對所愛的所需的有所認識，進而有所選擇。也許就是這個 原因，我逐漸意識到需要換一個工作環境，來充實和消化這些東西。 Soon thereafter Ye was promoted to the advertising department of Three Friends Co. where he met Ji Xiaobo, a twenty-five year old artist from Jiangsu who would provide a model of success for the ambitious Ye. Although largely forgotten today, Ji Xiaobo’s somewhat fraught relationship with Ye helps explain the likewise fraught formation of the Manhua Society. Ji XiaoboJi XiaoboJi XiaoboJi Xiaobo: The Master: The Master: The Master: The Master Born in 1901 in Xinzhuang Village 新庄鄉, Changshu county 常熱縣, Jiangsu 江蘇省, just south of the Yangtze River, in Ye Qianyu’s words, Ji “…had received a formal art education in Shanghai, and so he was familiar with foreign music. He told us that the Municipal Concert Hall had free seats on the third floor, open to the public, and that he could take us to check it out if we were interested” 在上海 受过正规美术教育，接触过外国音乐, 他告诉我们，市政厅音乐堂的三楼，有免费的座位， 可以自由出入，你们有兴趣，可以带你们去见识见识.20 At first Ye was unimpressed with the stiff formality of the classical orchestra, finding that it compared unfavorably with the spontaneity and liveliness of the folk music he had heard in amusement parks while growing up in the Zhejiang countryside, and one can easily imagine the older and more erudite Xiao lecturing the younger and more impetuous Ye about the fine points of Western music. Yet after repeated trips to the Municipal Concert Hall Ye recalls that he found himself gradually beginning to enjoy it. 20 Unless otherwise mentioned, information about Ye Qianyu is drawn from his autobiography. All other biographical information on Ji Xiaobo is based on a short essay and two encyclopedia entries: Bu Wuchen 步武塵, “Gaoshou manhuajia Ji Xiaobo” 高壽漫畫家季小波 [Long Lived Manhua Artist Ji Xiaobo], Suzhou Zazhi 蘇州雜志, February 2002, 11–12, Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “季小波” [Ji Xiaobo], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝術卷 (Shanxi Renmin Meishu Chubanshe 陝西人民美術出版社, November 2000), 952 and Tang Fei 庸非, ed., “季小波” [Ji Xiaobo], Zhongguo Dangdai Manhua Jia Cidian 中國當代漫畫家辭典 (Jiangsu Renmin Chubanshe 浙江人民出版社, May 1997), 617. 14 Ye also recalls that Ji Xiaobo was responsible for finding a new dormitory to rent when the company outgrew the cramped quarters they had been living in. When they moved into the new dorm, Ji used his own money to buy a gramophone. After long hours at Three Friends, the interns would crowd around the turntable to listen to Peking opera recordings and take turns singing stanzas from their favorite performances. Ji’s generosity rekindled a childhood fascination with the theatre which was to last for rest of Ye’s life. Ji Xiaobo’s own career had begun nearly seven years earlier, in the summer of 1918, when Ji and his friend, Fan Zhixi 範志希 (n.d) were hired by the artist and entrepreneur Sun Xueni 孫雪泥 (1888- 1965) to edit his Shanghai Resident News 上海市民報. Sun Xueni had originally been employed as an art editor at The New World Daily 新世界日報, published by the New World Entertainment Hall 新 世界游樂場, before setting up his own press, Shengsheng Fine Arts Company 生生美術公司 a newspaper publisher which doubled as an advertising agency, producing illustrated ads for other newspapers. 21 Seventeen years old and just out of high school, Ji Xiaobo made fast friends with the eighteen year old Zhang Guangyu, who at the time was apprenticed to Ding Song (1891-1972), the editor of World Pictorial 世界畫報, a second publication also printed by Shengsheng.22 Less than ten years later, the three would collaborate with Ye Qianyu, among others, to form the Manhua Society. In the fall of 1919, Ji Xiaobo joined the first class of the Shanghai Teacher Training College of Art 上海藝術專科師範學校 which had just been established by two graduates of Zhejiang Provincial Number One Teacher Training School (the same school Ye Qianyu had failed the entrance exam to twice), the artist Wu Mengfei 吳夢非, Liu Zhiping 劉質平, who had also studied music in Japan. It is somewhat surprising that Ji would choose to enroll at this school, given that at the time Ding Song was a teacher and provost at the more established Shanghai Art Academy 上海美術院 . Perhaps cost was a concern, since tuition was almost certainly cheaper at the Teacher Training College of Art, which didn’t even make enough money to employ its teachers full time.23 21 See Huang Ke 黃可, “Sun Xueni yu Shengsheng Meishu Gongsi--jiushi huajia de shengcun zhi dao” 孫雪泥與生生美術公 司——舊時畫家的生存之道 [Sun Xueni and Shengsheng Fine Arts Company: How One Artist Survived], Yishu Zhongguo 藝術中國 (September 3, 2009), http://art.china.cn/huihua/2009-09/03/content_3110162.htm (accessed March 14, 2015). 22 Ma Liangchun 馬良春 and Li Futian 李福田, eds., “Youxi Zazhi” 游戲雜志 [The Pastime], Dictionary of Chinese Literature 中國文學大辭典 (Tianjin People’s Press 天津人民出版社, 1991), 5846. 23 Geremie Barmé, An Artistic Exile: A Life of Feng Zikai (1898-1975) (University of California Press, 2002), 47. 15 Whatever the reason, Ji Xiaobo’s decision would turn out to be a fortuitous one when Wu Mengfei and Liu Zhiping convinced their former classmate Feng Zikai 豐子愷 (1898-1975) to join the school. Although Feng Zikai would later become a famous cartoonist, at the time he was still struggling to develop the unique fusion of traditional Chinese painting and Western cartooning for which he would become known. Feng Zikai and his publisher, Zheng Zhenduo 鄭振鐸 (1898-1958) decided to call his iconoclastic cartoons manga 漫畫 [casual pictures], borrowing the Japanese term for cartoons and comics which Feng had picked up while studying in Tokyo. 24 The term, pronounced manhua in Mandarin, was quickly adopted by other Chinese cartoonists, in particular the future members of the Manhua Society, who were likely looking to replace the terms huajihua滑稽畫 [humorous drawings] or fengcihua 諷刺畫 [satirical drawings] while also suggesting an association with the drawings of Feng, which had become wildly popular following the publication of Feng Zikai’s Manhua 子愷漫畫 in Literature Weekly 文學週 報 in May, 1925.25 Because he does not seem to have contributed to Shanghai Sketch I or II in comparison to the other members of the Manhua Society, Ji Xiaobo is not particularly well-known for his cartoons today. He also does not seem to have be a very prolific artist. This may of course be because his advertising work for the Three Friends Co. is, of course, uncredited. It is also possible that he published under a penname for professional reasons, or that he was simply too busy with his work to spend much time making cartoons. Although earlier works likely exist, the earliest manhua by Ji that I have been able to uncover was published in The Young Companion in early 1926, over a year before he joined the Manhua Society. It depicts the swaying branches of a willow tree blowing in the wind, with what appears to be a junk on the water in the distance. The full moon lies just above the horizon line, reflected dimly in the water, while two swallows flit among the branches, barely distinguishable from the drifting leaves. In constrast with the thick, organic brushstrokes Ji has used to create the scene, three thin, straight lines intersect the top of the image, suggesting perhaps powerlines, or the beam of a pavillion. Beside his drawing, Ji has written, “I always feel that life is so unreal!” 總覺得人生的虛無縹緲了！ 24 Relying on Bi Keguan’s analysis, Feng’s biographer, Geremie Barmé suggests that the term manhua was chosen to distinguish Chinese cartoons from Western katong 卡通 (cartoons). In his biography of Feng, Barmé explains at length how Feng came to use this term, while also exploring the long historical legacy of the word manhua in both China and Japan. See Ibid., 89–97. 25 Barmé records that it took over two years for the Manhua Society to adopt the term, while in fact Ji Xiaobo was describing his cartoons as manhua as early as February, 1926, some seven months after the appearance of Feng Zikai’s Manhua. See Ibid., 93. 16 Figure 1.2 Ji Xiaobo “I always feel that life is so unreal!” 總覺得人生的虛無縹緲了！The Young Companion, Issue 1, February 15, 1926, 21. Apparently the image (clearly showing a strong debt of influence to the work of Feng Zikai) was well received by readers, because the next month two more manhua by Ji Xiaobo were published in the same magazine the next month. Both depict nude women striking defiant poses, drawn in a style similar to his first drawing. The first is titled “Warrior” 戰士, and shows a woman in profile, her right arm raised to sky holding a sword with a thin blade and ornate guard, probably a fencing foil. Her chin is raised upwards, and her long, light colored hair falls behind her almost touching the ground. A tall conifer stands in the background before an enormous full moon, duplicated three times, which fills half the page. In the second image, titled “Fullness” 圓滿, the woman has medium length jet black hair, but like the first woman, her chin points straight up into the air. Both arms are raised to the sky, framing two swallows. As with the previous two images, a full moon floats in the sky.26 26 As Christopher G. Rea points out, the title of this image a double entrendre, reflecting not only the satisfied mental state of the figure, but also the “fullness” moon. 17 Figure 1.3 Ji Xiaobo “Warrior” 戰士 The Young Companion, Issue II, March 15, 1926. Figure 1.4 Ji Xiaobo “Fullness” 圓滿 The Young Companion, Issue 1I, March 15, 1926. Ji’s time with Feng Zikai was brief, because in late 1920 or early 1921, the Shanghai Resident News fell afoul of a group of criminals (possibly Du Yuesheng’s Green Gang) forcing Ji to abandon his studies and leave Shanghai. Feng Zikai, meanwhile, left Shanghai in the spring of 1921 to study abroad in Japan. Thanks to Fan Zhixi, Ji was able to find a job at Zhengda Daily 正大日報 a newspaper in Suzhou, edited by Sun Yiwen 孫一文 (n.d.) under the management of Zhu Xiliang 朱錫梁 (1873-1932).27 Zhu Xilang was former member of the Tongmenghui 同盟會, Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary organization which 27 It is also possible that Sun Yiwen is actually a penname of Zhu Xilang, who in addition to his courtesy name Liangren 梁任 and style name was 緯軍, also went by Junchou 君仇, Gongsun Junchou 公孫君仇, Huangdi zhi Cengceng Xiaozi 黃帝之曾 曾小子 (Great-great Grandson of Emperor Huangdi), and Guaigao Jushi 夬膏居士, among others. See Shi Xiaoping 施曉平, “[Zhuanzai] ‘Zhu Liangren Mu’ Wuzhong Qiren_Suzhou Ribao” [轉載]“朱梁任墓”吳中奇人_蘇州日報 [[Repost] “Zhu Liangren’s Tombstone” The Wonder of Wuzhong_Suzhou Daily], March 17, 2014, http://blog.sina.cn/dpool/blog/s/blog_4a3f841e0101jals.html (accessed November 21, 2015) which appears to have been based on an undated essay by Gan Lanjing 甘蘭經, “Zhu Liangren” 朱梁任 [Zhu Liangren], Zhongguo Renmin Zhengzhi Xieshang Huiyi Jiangsu Sheng Suzhou Shi Wujiang Qu Weiyuanhui 中國人民政治協商會議江蘇省蘇州市吳江區委員 會, n.d., www.wjzx.gov.cn/ (accessed November 21, 2015). 18 had help overthrow the Qing empire to establish the KMT and the Republic of China. It is not surprising, then, that he was deeply critical of the local warlord government which had usurped power from the militarily weak KMT.28 This paper was also shut down, this time by military police, forcing Ji to return to his hometown to evade arrest. While in his hometown, Ji got in trouble again by trying to organize a land reform movement, leading him to sneak back into Shanghai in early 1924,29 where he found a job editing the Three Friends Co. promotional periodical The Light of the Triangle 三角之光.30 Never one to forget a debt, Ji used his influence at Three Friends to publish new cartoons by Feng Zikai, who had by then returned to China and begun creating works in a new style heavily influenced by the casual sketches of the Japanese artist Takehisa Yumeji 竹久夢二 (1884-1934), in addition to two Chinese artists who created works of similar a style, Chen Shizeng 陳師曾(1876-1923) and Zeng Yandong (1750-1825) .31 It may seem curious that Feng Zikai never joined the Manhua Society, given his early passion for cartooning. He was least casually acquainted with Ji Xiaobo, and he likely knew other members of the group as well, particularly Ding Song and Wang Dunqing. The simple answer is that Feng Zikai operated in different social circles from the members of the Manhua Society, who were mostly self-taught, and employed in varying capacities in publishing and teaching. The tradition of literati painting, whose ingrained hierarchy and culture of connoisseurship has largely been duplicated by Chinese proponents of Western art, has welcomed Feng’s works in a way that members of the Manhua Society could never hope for. As Feng Zikai’s biographer, Geremie Barmé argues, By monopolizing the word manhua, along with all of its modern Japanese and commercial cultural associations, the members of the [Manhua Society] marked themselves off from an art scene that had no place for them, while occupying a viable niche in the commercial art and magazine market, 28 One biography of Ji Xiaobo records that the local warlord at the time was Sun Chuanfang. Sun however, did not take control of Suzhou until the fall of 1925. Ye Qianyu was born in March,1907, and remembers arriving in Shanghai when he was 18, meaning that he would have met Ji in 1925, making it more likely that the warlord who shut down Zhengda Daily was in fact Qi Xieyuan. 29 This is a rough estimate, given that his former employer Zhu Xilang at Zhengda Daily took up a new position as a professor at Nanjing Dongnan Daxue 南京東南大學 in 1924. See Gan Lanjing, “Zhu Liangren.” 30 Christopher G. Rea points out that 三角之光 can also be translated as “light from three angles,” a common lighting scheme used in photography and film. 31 For a thorough analysis of the development of Feng Zikai’s drawing style, see Chapter 2 of Geremie Barmé’s monograph, “Journey to the East” in An Artistic Exile. 19 which fed on sensationalism and topicality. In so doing, they also eclipsed the lineage of the manga as a term for describing Feng Zikai's equally unorthodox work.” 32 More importantly, perhaps, Feng had different goals from the members of the Manhua Society, who saw their purpose to either entertain (through either humor or titillation) or to convince (via political satire or outright propaganda). Feng, on the other hand, seems to have wanted his cartoons to enlighten his readers, to inspire stillness and reflection in an age of turmoil. Humorous manhua were not the only type of cartoon artwork to emerge in China during the first half of the 20th century. For example, a form of comics, closer in style to Western superhero comic books and pulp fiction, lianhuantuhua 連環圖畫 , or ‘linked picture books,’ also known as lianhuanhua 連環畫 and xiaoren shu 小人書 [kid’s books], were extremely popular 1920s as a form of cheap entertainment which could be rented on the street corners of Shanghai and other cities across China.33 Unlike the Manhua Society, however, early authors of lianhuantuhua were not feted by social critics and so left little behind to posterity, with most examples of surviving works dating from the post-1949 period, when the Chinese Communist Party began to promote illustrated stories as propaganda for the illiterate masses in the countryside.34 Likewise, other art forms related to the cartoon, such art deco, cubism, and Latin American- influenced portraiture all gained currency in Shanghai at this time, alongside manhua and lianhuantuhua. It not surprising then, that in his study of the aesthetic influences of manhua periodicals, Paul Bevan finds that elements of both art deco and cubism, in addition to art nouveau, surrealism, symbolism, and the English arts and crafts and decadent movements can be seen in the publications of the Manhua Society members from the late 1920s.35 32 Ibid., 94. 33 For an account of the early history of lianhuanhua, see Shen Kuiyi, “Lianhuanhua and Manhua--Picture Books and Comics in Old Shanghai,” in Illustrating Asia: Comics, Humor Magazines, and Picture Books, ed. John A. Lent (University of Hawaii Press, 2001), 100–120, https://www.academia.edu/11220556/Lianhuanhua_and_Manhua-- Picture_Books_and_Comics_in_Old_Shanghai (accessed October 5, 2015) and Nick Stember, “Chinese Lianhuanhua: A Century of Pirated Movies,” May 23, 2014, http://www.nickstember.com/chinese-lianhuanhua-century-of-pirated-movies/ (accessed October 5, 2015). 34 An excellent anecdotal account of use of lianhuanhua in the PRC is available in Gino Nebiolo’s “Introduction,” in The People’s Comic Book: Red Women’s Detachment, Hot on the Trail and Other Chinese Comics (Anchor Press, 1973). 35 Personal communication, November 11, 2015, Bevan, A Modern Miscellany, 29. 20 Burnt Bridges and Bad BloodBurnt Bridges and Bad BloodBurnt Bridges and Bad BloodBurnt Bridges and Bad Blood???? Ye Qianyu left Three Friends after one year, in 1926, and at first glance he does not seem to have had any hard feelings towards his former employer. In his autobiography he mentions that he can’t remember a specific reason for leaving, other than a general feeling that he wouldn’t have as many opportunities to develop his artistic abilities there as he had hoped for. Fortunately Ye was able to find a job at Central Plains Publishing House 中原書局 in Shanghai with the help of an unnamed friend, where he was tasked with illustrating textbooks. After working at the publishing house for a while, a former coworker from Three Friends (also unnamed) asked Ye to paint the backdrop for a theatre in his hometown of Changshu County. Ji Xiaobo is from Changshu County, so it seems highly likely that the former coworker was Ji. It seems curious, though, that he chooses not to name his benefactor, and could potentially indicate that Ji and Ye had some sort of falling out before or after he left his job at Three Friends, or that Ye felt that he should downplay his close relationship with Ji. Indeed, throughout his autobiography, Ye Qianyu impolitely refers to Ji Xiaobo as “that guy named Ji,” 那位性季的 rather than his full name, which he uses only once, when he passingly refers to him as “my old coworker from Three Friends, Ji Xiaobo” 三友社的老同事季小波. This is hardly the way one would expect Ye to refer to the man who helped him begin his career in publishing, and suggests the possibility of bad blood between the two cartoonists. The answer may lie in Ji Xiaobo’s political affiliations, which may have led Ye to burn his bridges with his former colleague after the founding of the PRC. In a 1938 article on Chinese cartoonists, left-wing journalist and cartoonist Jack Chen mentions that one of the founding members of the Manhua Society “joined the government and secured a job that kept him from doing embarrassing cartoons.” While Chen fails to elaborate on what exactly he meant by embarrassing, from the context is seems that Chen was implying that this individual, whoever he was, felt that drawing cartoons was less dignified than working for the government. Whether this is true or not, Chen may have also been channeling the feelings of his father, Eugene Chen 陳友仁 (1878-1944), a prominent overseas Chinese lawyer who served as a foreign affairs advisor and diplomat for Sun Yat-sen and the Nationalists in the 1920s.36 36 For an account of the last three generations of the Chen family, see Return to the Middle Kingdom: One Family, Three Revolutionaries, and the Birth of Modern China (Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2008), authored by Yuan-tsung Chen, Jack 21 Although Lu Shaofei went on to serve as a KMT official in Lanzhou during the war, acting as the director of the Lanzhou Municipal Social Services Department蘭州市社會服務處 until the defeat of the KMT in 1949, Lu didn’t actually start this job until 1941. Instead, Chen was almost certainly referring to Ji Xiaobo, who worked as a censor of the arts 美術視察 for the KMT-controlled Shanghai Department of Education 海市教育局 from 1929 to 1937. Following the communist takeover in 1949 Ji seems to have been able to successfully claim that he had been working uncover, but it was not until 1981 that he was able to find his way back in publishing, when he was appointed editor of Xuelin Press 學 林出版社. According to a newspaper article published in 2002, four years later he was completely rehabilitated and given an unspecified government position, not unlike those Ye Qianyu and Zhang Guangyu and many other cartoonists received directly after the war. 37 Even if Ji’s small number of published works and affiliation with the KMT might have limited his fame in later years, articles published under the title “Long Lived Manhua Artist Ji Xiaobo” indicate that Ji seems to have enjoyed playing the role of “master” cartoonist, as one of the founding members of the Manhua Society.38 It also undeniable that Ji Xiaobo did incredibly well for himself, given his humble origins, and that without him, his “student,” Ye, may never have had the opportunity to meet the other members of the Manhua Society and achieve the levels of success he later did. Chen’s wife. More recently, Paul Bevan has published his research on Jack Chen’s involvement in the manhua movement, which is explored in Chapter 5 of A Modern Miscellany. 37 Bu Wuchen, “Gaoshou manhuajia Ji Xiaobo,” 11. 38 Bu Wuchen, “Gaoshou manhuajia Ji Xiaobo.” 22 Chapter 2Chapter 2Chapter 2Chapter 2 : The : The : The : The TTTTies ies ies ies TTTThat hat hat hat BBBBindindindind Given Ji Xiaobo’s job as a censor for the Nationalist government in the 1930s, it is perhaps unsurprising that when Ye Qianyu wrote his autobiography in the late 1980s, he decided not to mention that Ji Xiaobo was an old acquaintance of two key founding members of the Manhua Society, Zhang Guangyu and Ding Song. Since Ji Xiaobo claims to have met both in 1917, while working Sun Xueni’s Shengsheng Fine Arts Press, it stands to reason that Ji Xiaobo would have introduced the two cartoonists to Ye Qianyu when the talented young artist was promoted to the advertising department of Three Friends in 1925. Instead, Ye recalls that he met Zhang Guangyu after submitting a cartoon to his tabloid, the China Camera News 三日畫報 in the summer of 1925, shortly after arriving in Shanghai.39 There may be an element of pride at work here as well, because according to Ye, Zhang was so impressed with his work that he asked to meet him in person. Or it may be that Ji never introduced them, and Ye resented him for not having done so. Regardless, it seems clear that Ye Qianyu and Zhang Guangyu hit it off almost immediately, with the younger Ye referring to Zhang as “the first of the older generation of manhua artists I met” 最早认识的老一辈漫画家. This, again, is curious, because Zhang, born in 1900, was only one year older than Ji Xiaobo. In comparison, Ye hardly mentions Ding Song. Given their respective ages, Ye Qianyu and Ji Xiaobo were likely much closer friends with Zhang Guangyu than they were with much older Ding Song. Nevertheless, Ding Song seems to have provided the group with a certain amount of guidance. Meeting notes for the society indicate that Ding Song was the chairperson of the group for the majority of 1927, stepping down in favor of Wang Dunqing in November, and he was a teacher and mentor to both Zhang Guangyu and Lu Shaofei. Most importantly perhaps, as the oldest member of the Manhua Society by nearly a decade, Ding Song is in many ways typical of the cartoonists who emerged in the first decade of the Republic prior to the formation of the Manhua Society. 39 Ye recalls that they met in 1926, while he was working at Central Plains Press. The first issue of Camera Daily News was published on August 2, 1925, and, reflecting the Chinese name of the paper [literally, ‘Three Day Pictorial’], was published every three days after that. Most likely, Ye got the dates mixed up, as he does in several other places in his autobiography. 23 Ding Song: The GrandfatherDing Song: The GrandfatherDing Song: The GrandfatherDing Song: The Grandfather Born in 1891 in Fengjingzhen 楓涇鎮, a small town in Jiashan county 嘉善 to the southwest of Shanghai, Ding Song’s parents both died when he was only 12. He spent his teen years at the Tushanwan 土山灣 orphanage in Xujiahui district, which had been founded by Jesuit missionaries in 1864.40 While at Tushanwan, Song studied Western religious and secular art with Zhou Xiang 周湘 (1871-1933) and Zhang Yuguang 張聿光 (1886-1968), in addition to learning how to operate a printing press. He quickly made a name for himself as an artist, and in 1913, Song was invited to serve as academic dean for the newly founded Shanghai Art Academy 上海美術院 , later being promoted to provost.41 It was around this time he became close friends with the prolific cartoonist Shen Bochen 沈泊塵 (born Shen Xueming 沈學明, 1889-1920), who had been hired as a staff cartoonist for the three-day tabloid The Crystal 晶報 in 1912.42 Under Shen’s encouragement, Ding Song to soon began drawing and publishing his own cartoons. In late 1913, Ding Song helped launch the monthly magazine Unfettered Magazine 自由雜誌, edited by Tong Ailou 童愛樓 (n.d.). 43 In December, Ding Song and others continued the magazine under a new name, The Pastime 游戲雜志, edited by Wang Dungen 王鈍根 and Chen Diexian 陳蝶仙. 40 The surviving buildings of the orphanage have since been turned into a museum which recreates the original structure and showcases the art of its former teachers and students. At the time of operation “Tushanwan” was romanized “Tou-se-we” to represent the pronunciation in Shanghai dialect. 41 From 1913-1920, the school was also sometimes referred to as Shanghai Tuhua Meishu Yuan 上海圖畫美術院 (Shanghai Painting Academy of Fine Art). In 1920, when Liu Haisu 劉海粟 (1896-1994) took over as director from Zhang Yuguang, the name of the school was changed to Shanghai Meishu Xuexiao 上海美術學校(Shanghai Fine Arts School). In 1930 it was changed again to Shanghai Meishu Zhuanke Xuexiao 上海美術專科學校 (Shanghai Professional Fine Arts School). Today it is commonly referred to as Shanghai Meizhuan 上海美專, an abbreviation of the final name for the school before it was merged with Disi Zhongshan Daxue Jiaoyu Xueyuan (The Fourth Zhongshan University, Education Academy), becoming the Yishu Jiaoyu Zhuanxiu Ke藝術教育專修科 (Department of Art Education). See Michael Sullivan, Modern Chinese Artists: A Biographical Dictionary (University of California Press, 2006), xix and Shanghai Municipal Archives Q258-1-153, p. 0012 cited in Julia Frances Andrews, “Pictorial Shanghai (Shanghai Huabao, 1925-1933) and Creation of Shanghai’s Modern Visual Culture,” Journal of Art Studies no. 12 (September 2013): 43–128. 42 Originally published as a supplement to The National Herald 神州日報 until being launched as a separate periodical in 1919, the first character of Chinese name of The Crystal, 晶 (literally ‘crystal’), is made up of the character for ‘day’ (or ‘sun’) 日 repeated three times, a play on the fact that the tabloid was printed every three days. See Sun Shusong 孫樹松 and Lin Ren 林 人, eds., “Jin Bao” 晶報 [The Crystal], Modern Chinese Compilation Studies Dictionary 中國現代編輯學辭典 (Heilongjiang People’s Press 黑龍江人民出版社, 1991), 229. 43 First issue September, 1913, second and last issue October, 1913. Originally published as supplement to the Shenbao under the name Unfettered Talk 自由談 , two issues Unfettered Magazine were published by Shenbaoguan 申報館 before it returned as a supplement to the Shenbao (where some 15 years later it would feature Ji Xiaobo et. all’s Dr. Fix-it under the editorship of Zhou Shoujuan). Wu Jie 伍傑 et al., eds., Zhongwen qikan da cidian 中文期刊大詞典 [Dictionary of Chinese Periodicals] (北京大学出版社, 2000). 24 Starting in 1914, Ding Song also became a regular contributor to The Saturday 禮拜六, drawing numerous full color covers for the magazine. As an artist, Ding Song excelled at drawing the human form, in particular intimate portraits of beautiful women. Much of the humor in his work, however, comes from the juxtaposition of grotesque caricature with ironic titles. For example a 1921 cartoon titled, “Falling in Love” 戀愛 depicts an obese, bald, and drooling woman with two pinhole eyes. A pigeon-toed man, presumably her husband or lover, stands behind her, holding her shoulders and gazing down at her affectionately.44 Beside them, an overweight dog ambles along on stubby legs, his vacant expression inviting comparison with the hideous woman. Years later, similar works by Shen Bochen would come under fire from the preeminent Republican-era author and critic, Lu Xun 魯迅 (1881-1936) who Geremie Barmé surmises found that his satirical drawings were an “essentially conservative and xenophobic populist art form” under its “flash Western exterior.”45 Writing in his particularly bombastic style in late 1924, Lu Xun concluded, While [the artist Shen Bochen] draws in style which is copied from the West, I am amazed that he is so antediluvian, and that he has such a vile personality. He is no better than a child who scribbles “so-and-so is my son” [sic] on nice white walls. Pity all things that come from abroad: once they cross our borders it is as if they have fallen into a vat of black dye, for they lose their original cast. Art is but one example of this. Even before we learn to draw nudes in proportion people busily set to work producing pornographic paintings; artists who have yet to grasp the principles of chiaroscuro when painting still lives churn out advertisements cheerfully. This is what happens when change is only superficial; at heart things are as of old. It is hardly surprising, then, that once introduced satirical paintings were immediately employed by people wanting to engage in character assassination. [沈泊塵] 的畫法，倒也模仿西洋；可是我很疑惑，何以思想如此頑固，人格如此卑 劣，竟同沒有教育的孩子只會在好好的白粉牆上寫幾個“某某是我兒子”一樣。可憐 外國 事物，一到中國，便如落在黑色染缸裏似的，無不失了顏色。美術也是其一： 學了體格還未勻稱的裸體畫，便畫猥褻畫；學了明暗還未分明的靜物畫，只能畫招 44 John A. Crespi suggests that this cartoon is criticizing young men who dote on wealthy older women to achieve wealth and official status, a common subject of satire in China during the 1910s. 45 Barmé, An Artistic Exile, 94. 25 牌。 皮毛改新，心思仍舊，結果便是如此。至於諷刺畫之變為人身攻擊的器具， 更是無足深怪了。46 Figure 2.1 Ding Song “Falling in Love” 戀愛 Shenzhou Pictorial 神州畫報, January, 1918, 84. Notwithstanding the future criticisms of Lu Xun, on September 1, 1918, Shen Bochen launched his own monthly bilingual humor periodical Shanghai Puck 上海潑克, passing his duties at The Crystal on to Ding Song.47 Ding would later hand this job off to Zhang Guangyu, who would in turn pass the 46 As translated by Geremie Barmé, with the exception of the two lines which I have changed: The first line has been amended to include the text “While [the artist Shen Bochen] draws in style which is copied from the West,“ [沈泊塵] 的畫法，倒也模 仿西洋, which Barmé chose to omit; and the second line (which seems to be a typo on the part of Lu Xun) has been corrected from the translation “I’m so-and-so’s son.” See Ibid. and Lu Xun 魯迅, “Sishi-san” 四十三 [Essay Forty-Three], in Re Feng 熱風 (Beixin Shuju 北新書局, 1925), 39. 47 Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Shanghai Poke” 上海潑克 [Shanghai Puck], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝術 卷, November 2000, 596. Shanghai Puck’s name was likely inspired by one or more pre-existing journals called Puck (in London, in St. Louis, and in New York). See Wu I-Wei, “Participating in Global Affairs: The Chinese Cartoon Monthly Shanghai Puck,” in Asian Punches: A Transcultural Affair, ed. Hans Harder (Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013), 365–87. Also not to be confused with Puck, or the Shanghai Charivari, a late 19th century cartoon periodical modeled on the successful British humor magazine, Punch, or the London Charivari. Written in English by colonists living in the foreign concessions was published from April, 1871, to November, 1872. Christopher G. Rea points out, however, that, “[this] little-examined [magazine is a] milestones in the history of the cartoon in China, not because of their influence on Chinese cartoonists, but as the earliest known examples of how foreigners brought literary humour and pictorial satire to bear on colonial society in China.” 26 torch to Huang Wennong in early 1925. With the help of Ding Song and other cartoonists, Shen and his brother, Shen Xueren 沈學仁, managed to publish three more issues of Shanghai Puck, also known as Shen’s Comic Pictorial 泊塵滑稽畫報 , before Shen succumbed to tuberculosis. Following Shen Bochen’s death on March 7, 1921, Shen Xueren held an exhibition of his work in his honor. Over the next several years, cartoon exhibitions would become an important method of promoting manhua artists and their publications. Around the same time as Shen Bochen began publishing Shanghai Puck, the first issue of World Pictorial appeared on August, 1918. Published by Sun Xueni’s Shengsheng Fine Arts Company, the first ten issues of World Pictorial were edited by Xueni and his assistant, Xu Yiou 許一鷗 (n.d.). Beginning with the eleventh issue, Xueni hired Ding Song to edit the magazine, who in turn brought Zhang Guangyu on as his assistant, which is where both men met Ji Xiaobo, who was working on Xueni’s newspaper, Shanghai Resident News. Both Ding Song and Zhang contributed a large number of humorous drawings and illustrations to the Xueni’s publications, and likely did much to inspire the younger Ji Xiaobo in his decision to become a cartoonist. Although illustrated magazines had been around since the 1880s, satirical cartoons had only become commonplace in China over the previous decade, with the social unrest of the 1910s fueling their popularity. Ding Song continued to work in cartoons after Shen Bochen’s death from tuberculosis in 1920. As an instructor at the Shanghai Art Academy, Ding Song made a point of introducing his students to a wide variety of Western-influenced artists through the Heavenly Horse Society 天馬會. Co-founded by Ding Song with and five other Shanghai Art Academy instructors in September, 1919, this group was incredibly influential in the world of modern art in Shanghai, with over 200 artists participating in its first exhibition. In 1921, Zhang Guangyu, Ji Xiaobo, Lu Shaofei joined a second artist’s association, the Aurora Art Club 晨光美術會, also founded by Shanghai Art Academy instructors. These organizations seem to have provided the young artists not only with opportunities to expand their social networks, but also a blueprint for the nascent Manhua Society.48 See Christopher G. Rea, “‘He’ll Roast All Subjects That May Need the Roasting’: Puck and Mr Punch in Nineteenth-Century China,” in Asian Punches: A Transcultural Affair, ed. Hans Harder (Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013), 389–422. 48 For more information on the Heavenly Horse Society, see Michael Sullivan’s entries on Liu Haisu 劉海粟 (1896-1994) on page 99 of Modern Chinese Artists and page 45 of Art and Artists of Twentieth-Century China (University of California Press, 1996). 27 Zhang GuangyuZhang GuangyuZhang GuangyuZhang Guangyu: The Godfa: The Godfa: The Godfa: The Godfatherthertherther If Ding Song was the “Grandfather” who provided the younger members of the Manhua Society with a ready role model, then Zhang Guangyu could be called the “Godfather,” for his role in bringing the group together and securing funds to bankroll their publications. Zhang could be seen as a more successful and talented version of Ji Xiaobo, who seems to have fallen out of favor with the group after becoming a government censor. Born into a family of doctors and herbalists in the city of Wuxi, Zhang Guangyu left home at 14 to apprentice in a shop in nearby Shanghai, soon to be followed by his younger brothers, Zhang Meiyu 張 美宇 (1902-1975)49 and Zhang Zhengyu.50 In his free time, Zhang met Zhang Yuguang 張聿光 (from whom Zhang seems to have adapted his pen name) a set painter and make-up artist for the New Stage 新 舞台, one of the first theatres in China to use Western lighting and sets to perform Chinese opera. Zhang Yuguang introduced Zhang Guangyu to his close friend Ding Song who was looking for an assistant to help out with the Shijie Huabao. One year later, Zhang Guangyu drew on this experience to partner with Yan Esheng 嚴鍔聲 and Qian Huafo 錢化佛 to publish the Comedy Pictorial 滑稽畫報, launched in October, 1919. Although Comedy Pictorial only lasted for two issues, it is notable for being Zhang’s first foray into publishing. In 1921 Ding Song left the Shanghai Art Academy to work in the advertising department of Shanghai-based multinational British-American Tobacco 英美煙草公司. Zhang Guangyu also continued to move up in the world, finding full time employment as an artist for the Chinese-owned Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company 南洋兄弟煙草公司 in 1921, where he would work for the next four years. During this time he took advantage of his regular income to subsidize his various commercial and artistic 49 Better known as Cao Hanmei 曹涵美, the name he took after being adopted by a maternal uncle who was without male heirs. See Jiang Yihai 蔣義海, ed., “Cao Hanmei” 曹涵美 [Cao Hanmei], Manhua Zhishi Cidian 漫画知识辞典 (Nanjing Daxue Chubanshe 南京大学出版社, 1989), 337. 50 Compared to his older brother, considerably less has been written about Zhang Zhengyu. After attending private school in Wuxi, Zhang spent some time as an apprentice in a flour mill before following Zhang to Shanghai in 1921. Only 17 years old, Zhang, like his brother before him, studied set design under Zhang Yuguang, eventually branching out in commercial art work. Although he does not seem to have published any cartoons until the late 1920s, he quickly emerged as an important and prolific cartoonist, also playing an important role behind the scenes at the various publications launched by Zhang Guangyu. Later in life he became known for his calligraphy and drawings of cats and pandas, influenced by traditional Chinese painting and seal carving. See Yihai Jiang 蔣義海, ed., “Zhang Zhengyu” 張正宇 [Zhang Zhengyu], Manhua Zhishi Cidian 漫畫知識辭典 (Nanjing Daxue Chubanshe 南京大學出版社, 1989), 211–12. 28 ventures, the first of which was The Motion Picture Review 影戲雜誌, launched in December, 1921.51 Zhang co-edited this 80-page long magazine along with the actor and filmmaker Gu Kenfu 顧肯夫 (? – 1932) and translator Lu Jie陸潔 (1894-1967). The first two issues were co-published by the Chinese Motion Picture Research Society 中國影戲研究會, where Gu Kenfu worked, and the Motion Picture Review Press影戲雜誌出版社, while the third and final issue was published by Mingxing Film Company 明星影片公司. Although it ultimately failed to take off, The Motion Picture Review also holds the distinction of being the first Chinese movie periodical, and Lu Jie’s reviews of foreign films are said to have had a major impact on the lexicon of film terminology in Chinese.52 It also gave Zhang Guangyu the practical experience necessary to launch the Oriental Fine Art Press東方美術印刷公司 in 1923, although it is unclear what exactly this press was involved with printing or when or why it closed up shop. Never one to rest on his laurels, in 1924 Zhang co-founded the Chinese Art Photography Study Group 中國美術攝影學會 with Ding Song and Lu Shaofei (among others), a move that would prove prescient for the would-be publishers.53 Photographs would go on to form an important part of the Manhua Society’s members’ later publications, with artistic nudes proving to be a particularly popular feature. Lu ShaofeiLu ShaofeiLu ShaofeiLu Shaofei: The Portraitist’s Son : The Portraitist’s Son : The Portraitist’s Son : The Portraitist’s Son Aside from Zhang Guangyu, Ding Song had a second student who decided to follow him into the profession that Shen Bochen had introduced him in the early 1910s. Born in 1903, Lu was the sole native Shanghainese of the Manhua Society, having grown up near the City God Temple in Nanshi where his 51 Wang Guangxi 王廣西 and Zhou Guanwu 觀武 周, eds., “Yingxi Zazhi” 影戲雜志 [The Motion Picture Review], China Contemporary Literature and Art Dictionary 中國近現代文學藝術辭典 (Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou Ancient Books Press 中 州古籍出版社, 1998), 1112–13, Zhengzhou. 52 The film scholar Wang Liu credits Lu Jie with having popularized the term daoyan 導演 (lit. “performance guide”) as a translation for “director,” among other film terminology that has since become standard. See Wang Liu 汪流, ed., “Lu Jie” 陸 潔 [Lu Jie], Dictionary of Sino-Foreign Film and Television 中外影視大辭典 (Beijing: China Broadcast Television Press 中 國廣播電視出版社, 2001), 311, Beijing. 53 Other members of this group included Hu Boxiang 胡伯翔 (who would later become a partner for Shanghai Sketch II), Ge Gongchen 戈公振, Wang Shouti 汪守惕 , Song Zhiqin 宋志欽, and Fu Yanchang 傅彥長. See “Tuanti Huiwen” 團體彙聞 [Organization News], Shenbao 申報, July 29, 1924, 20. 29 father earned his living as folk portraitist. Encouraging his son to pursue a career as an artist from an early age, the family was able to scrape together enough from their meager earnings to send Lu to the Shanghai Art Academy, where he almost certainly would have studied under Ding Song. Unfortunately, the burden of tuition proved to be too high, so Lu was eventually forced to drop out.54 His first cartoon in the Shenbao was published on October 17, 1921. Titled “Goals the Youth Should Have” 青年應有之目的, it depicts a narrow raised path that slopes gently upwards, labeled “The Road of Life” 生命之路. Two walls block the way, the second significantly higher than the first. A young man is poised in mid stride in front of the first wall, with a dotted eye-line extending to wall, which is labeled “Fight for: shelter, food, and clothing” 爭奪 住食衣. Figure 2.2 Lu Shaofei “Goals Youth Should Have” 青年應有之目的 Shenbao, October 17, 1921, 17. A second youth stands just beyond this first wall, gazing up at the second, which is labeled “A Fulfilled Life: Art, Science” 生活之圓滿 藝術 科學. Unlike the first youth, who is dressed in pants and long sleeve shirt, the seconds wears a Chinese-style tunic and jacket, perhaps indicating that he has achieved a higher level of material wealth, or simply that he is older. The title of the cartoon is written in thick brush strokes in the top right hand corner, along with the words “A work by Lu, inscribed by Yingbin 54 Bao Limin 包立民, “Ye Qianyu yu Lu Shaofei (shang)” 叶浅予与鲁少飞（上） [Ye Qianyu and Lu Shaofei (Part I)], Meishu zhi you 美术之友 no. 02 (1994): 23. 30 [Wang Yingbin 汪英賓 (1897-1971)]” 少飛作英賓題, while in the lower left hand corner Lu has written his name and the year with a pen. Two years later, in 1923, Lu Shaofei was hired to teach art at Liangjiang Women’s Physical Education Normal School 兩江女子體育師範學校.55 Founded two years earlier in 192156 by Lu Lihua 陸禮華 (1900-1997), an early proponent of women’s liberation and physical fitness for strengthening the nation, the first class only had 17 students and was housed in a private residence on Dengnaotuo Road 鄧 腦脫路. By the time Lu arrived, the school had over 100 students and was in the midst of expanding to include a middle school and elementary school, but the address had yet to change.57 Lu taught at Liangjiang for over a year before moving on to the Oriental Art Professional School 東方藝術專門學校 in the French concession. In 1924 Lu Shaofei was invited to teach Western-style art at the newly established Fengtian Art Academy 奉天美專 in Shenyang (then commonly referred to by its earlier Manchu name, Mukden). Founded that same year by Han Leran 韓樂然 (1898-1947), Leran had secretly joined Chinese Communist Party after graduating from the Shanghai Art Academy in 1923.58 While teaching in Shenyang, Lu began work on what would become Cartoon Travels in the North 北游漫畫. This book included sketches and cartoons dealing with his experiences living in Shenyang.59 By February 1925, Lu had returned 55 “Xuewu qianzai” 學務僉載 [School Affairs], Shenbao 申報, July 16, 1923. 56 In an interview conducted 1993-1995, Lu recalled that the school was founded in 1922. A 1934 article by Lu, however, records that the school was founded in 1921. Lu recalls that the school had over 30 students in its second year, but continued to struggle financially until the beginning of its third year. Given that the Shenbao notice mentions that Lu Shaofei was one of ten new teachers being hired, the earlier date makes more sense. See Chapter 4 of Wang Zheng, Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: Oral and Textual Histories (University of California Press, 1999) and Lu Lihua 陸禮華, “Fuxing houde liangjiang nuzi tiyu shifan xuexiao shi nian qian de huisu” 復興後的兩江女子體育師範學校十年前的洄溯 [Recollections of the Since Rejuvenated Liangjiang Women’s Physical Education Institute of Ten Years Ago], Qinfen tiyu yuebao 勤奮體育 月報 1, no. 10 (1934): 42–43. Chapter 3 of Yunxiang Gao’s Sporting Gender: Women Athletes and Celebrity-Making during China’s National Crisis, 1931-45 (UBC Press, 2013) is also dedicated to Lu Lihua and her school. 57 In 1937 the school changed names, becoming Shanghai Shili Tiyu Zhuanke Xuexiao 上海市立體育專科學校 (Shanghai Municipal Physical Education Professional School). 58 Shen Guangjie 沈廣傑, “Han Leran chuangban Fengtian Meizhuan” 韩乐然创办奉天美专 [The Founding of Fengtian Art Academy by Han Leran], Dangshi Zongheng 黨史縱橫 no. 05 (2012): 49–50. 59 Although Bi and Huang record that the first edition of Cartoon Travels in the North was published in 1924 or 1925 while Lu was living in Shenyang, the fact that the title includes the term ‘manhua’ is suspicious, given that the term did not become popular in China until the publication of Feng Zikai’s illustrations were published under that name in May, 1925. The earliest 31 to Shanghai where he contributed art work to the famous stationary company Lianyi Trading Co. 聯益貿 易公司.60 definitive date for publication is three years later in Shanghai on May 15, 1928. See Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Beiyou Manhua” 北游 漫画 [Cartoon Travels in the North], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝術卷 (Shanxi Renmin Meishu Chubanshe 陝西人民美術出版社, November 2000), 651–52. 60 “Lianyi Jian Si Ban Faxing” 聯益箋四版發行 [Fourth Printing of Lianyi Stationary], Shenbao 申報, February 27, 1925, 19. 32 Chapter 3Chapter 3Chapter 3Chapter 3 : : : : Wild CardsWild CardsWild CardsWild Cards As we have seen, Ji Xiaobo, Ding Song, Zhang Guangyu, Zhang Zhengyu, and Lu Shaofei all met in the late 1910s, and found an affinity in their shared interest in cartooning, and also perhaps a sense of social exclusion, since all four men were born into a merchant or tradesmen families. Their relative lack of education stands in contrast with many Republican-era intellectuals and artists who came from wealthy families and were educated abroad. Although Ye Qianyu was given the benefit of a high school education, and was also somewhat younger, like the Zhang brothers and Ye Qianyu, he seems to have mostly forged his own path to becoming recognized as a professional artist. The remaining members of the Manhua Society are Wang Dunqing, Huang Wennong, Hu Xuguang, Zhang Meisun 張眉蓀 (1884-1975) and Cai Shudan 蔡輸丹 (n.d.). Of them, Zhang Meisun seems to have been an early acquaintance of Ding Song, having studied art together at Tushanwan orphanage while both men were in their teens, and Hu Xuguang a student of Ding Song, having studied at the Shanghai Art Academy. The rest, like Ye Qianyu, seem to have been wild cards, attracted to Manhua Society by chance encounters and shared interests. Some, like Zhang and Cai, don’t seem to have left any cartoons behind, with Zhang becoming a well-known painter of watercolors, and Cai working as an assistant to Ji Xiaobo.61 Ye Qianyu has mentioned that he first became interested in cartooning after seeing cartoons by Huang Wennong, who himself may have been influenced by Shen Bochen without ever meeting him. Wang Dunqing, meanwhile, quickly rose through the ranks of the Manhua Society, taking over the chair from Ding Song in November, 1927. He made fast friends with Ye Qianyu, but seems to have remained distant from many of the other members of the society. 61 Zhang Meisun’s watercolors have appeared at auctions in mainland China. See for example “Xidamochang jie shuicai zhiben paimaipin_jiage_miaoshu_jianshang_(shuicai) - Bobao Yishu Paimai Wang” 【西打磨廠街 水彩 紙本】 拍賣品_價格_ 圖片_描述_鑒賞_(水彩) -博寶藝術品拍賣網 [West Damochang Street Watercolor Paper Version Auction Item_Price_Picture_Description_Appreciation_(Watercolor) - Artxun Art Auction Net], 博寶拍賣網, n.d., http://auction.artxun.com/paimai-119504-597519148.shtml (accessed September 11, 2015). According to the short biography included on Artxun, Zhang’s work has also collected into a three volume set titled Meisun Shuicaihua Linben 眉蓀水 彩畫臨本 [An Overview of the Watercolors of Zhang Meisun] (Hebei Renmin Chuban She 河北人民出版社, 1963). 33 Wang DunqWang DunqWang DunqWang Dunqinginginging: The Boy: The Boy: The Boy: The Boy SSSScoutcoutcoutcout Born in 1899 in Wangjiangjing 王江涇鎮, a prosperous village near Jiaxing 嘉興 city, located to the south of Shanghai, Wang Dunqing is unique among the founding members of the Manhua Society for his high level of education, having earned a BA from the prestigious English-language St. John’s University 聖約翰大學. During his time at St. John’s Wang was an active member of the Boy Scouts 童子軍, while also serving as the club president of the Illustration Research Society 圖畫研究會. The former appears to have been under the influence of Donald Roberts, a professor of English and History who organized the St. John’s Boy Scouts troop in 1917. 62 Roberts, an avid collector of early Republican-era illustrated broadsheets, may have encouraged the young Wang to pursue his interests in cartooning. By the time he graduated with his BA in 1923, Wang was set on a career in the arts. Following a short stanza from Longfellow’s 1878 poem Kéramos,63 his yearbook biography modestly proclaims (in English): With a glance at the picture, you can immediately tell who he is. It is not strength, but his fine character and art that win the love and admiration of all his fellow students. As a friend, he is always sincere and ready to help without hesitation. As an athlete, he is noted for his fine college spirit. His beautiful verses in Chinese are depictable [sic] of humanity and true to nature. His clear perception with a firm, bold hand marks him a true artist of distinction. With such an intelligence, capacity and character, we are sure that a bright future awaits him.64 Following graduation, Wang prepared to go abroad for further study. His father’s sudden death interrupted these plans, however, forcing him to stay in Shanghai. In June, 1923 he was hired to teach 62 Donald Roberts graduated from Princeton in 1909 and was hired at St. John’s University in 1915 where he continued to teach until 1950. In 1917, in addition to organizing the Boy Scout troop at St. John’s, he also joined the Volunteer Corps of the Ministry of Works 工部局義勇軍. He attended Columbia during a sabbatical in 1919 and was eventually ordained an Episcopalian minister. See “The Alumni,” Princeton Alumni Weekly XX, no. 9 (1919): 210, “Lao zhaopian: shanghai sheng yuehan daxue xiaoyuan de shenyun” 老照片：上海圣约翰大学校园的神韵 [Old Photos: The Charm of Shanghai St. John’s University Campus], July 8, 2011, http://bbs.wenxuecity.com/memory/394958.html (accessed March 12, 2015). and “Block Prints of the Chinese Revolution - Princeton University Digital Library,” n.d., http://pudl.princeton.edu/collections/pudl0030 (accessed March 12, 2015). 63 “Art is the child of nature; yes / Her darling child in whom we trace / The features of the mother's face / Her aspect and her attitude.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Longfellow’s Poetical Works: Author’s Complete Copyright Edition (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1883), 609. Perhaps not coincidentally, this exact quote is also included under the heading of “Art” in the popular reference work The Cyclopæaedia of Practical Quotations (Funk & Wagnalls, 1886), 15. 64 “Wang Tung-Chung (Wang Tun-Chung) B.A. Chekiang,” Yuehan Niankan 約翰年刊 (1920): 70. 34 English at the Yaqiao Academy 亞喬書院, along with fellow Johannean Yang Deshou 楊德壽 (n.d.),65 a progressive institution which offered “half-off tuition to all female students for the sake of popularizing women’s education” 因普及女子敎育起見、凡女生來學者概收半費.66 By August a second notice announced that the school had enrolled more than 60 students and that placement exams would be conducted in September.67 Wang Dunqing seems to have been introduced to the Manhua Society by Lu Shaofei through their mutual friend, Wang Yingbin 汪英賓 (1897-1971), who provided the inspiration for Lu’s first cartoon in the Shenbao (see figure 3.1). Wang Yingbin had graduated with a diploma of college completion 大學畢 業學位證書 from the department of China Studies國學 at St. John’s University in 1920.68 While at St. John’s, in addition to his studies Yingbin worked as the illustration editor for the school yearbook, The Johannean 約翰年刊. That same year, Wang Dunqing also graduated with his diploma from the department of China Studies at St. John’s, and by virtue of their last names, both he and Yingbin were featured on the same page of the Chinese language supplement of that year’s yearbook.69 After graduating in 1920, Yingbin was hired as an art editor at Shenbao, becoming an important figure in the publishing world.70 Wang, meanwhile stayed on at St. John’s for another three years, earning his Bachelor of Arts in 1923. 71 65 BA in Economics in 1923. See “Yuehan daxue zuori zhi shenghui” 約翰大學昨日之盛會 [St. John’s University Ceremony Yesterday], Shenbao 申報, July 1, 1923. 66 “Xuewu congzai” 學務叢載 [Selection of School Affairs], Shenbao 申報, July 17, 1923. 67 “Xuewu congzai” 學務叢載 [Selection of School Affairs], Shenbao 申報, August 26, 1923. 68 “Yuehan daxue juxing biye liji” 約翰大學舉行畢業禮紀 [St. John’s University Holds Graduation Ceremony], Shenbao 申 報, June 28, 1920. 69 The historian Li Jie serendipitously includes this page of The Johnnean in an essay on Wang Yingbin. See Li Jie 李洁, “民国 报人汪英宾探微:兼及相关文献资料勘误” [Republican Journalist Wang Yingbin: An Investigation and Some Corrections to Errors in the Relevant Literature], Xinwen Chunqiu 新闻春秋 no. 03 (2014): 56–61 and “Zhongwen biyesheng xiaoxiang bing timing lu” 中文畢業生小像並題名錄 [Chinese Supplement: Pictures of Graduating Students and Biographical Information], Yuehan Niankan 約翰年刊 (1920): 24. 70 Wang Yingbin would go on study Journalism at the University of Missouri in 1922, later transferring to Columbia University where he earned a Masters of Science in Journalism. His thesis on the development of Chinese-language newspapers, Rise of the Native Press in China (New York : Columbia University, 1924), was the first in depth English-language study on this topic. 71 While his yearbook biography from 1923 doesn’t include his major, the Shenbao announcement indicates that he earned his BA 文科學士 from the school of liberal arts, meaning that he was undeclared. See “Yuehan daxue zuori zhi shenghui.” 35 While little of his work from the this time period has survived, by the late 1920s, Wang Dunqing had begun to publish cartoons under various pseudonyms, including Wang Yiliu王一榴, Wang Luzhen 王履箴, Huang Cilang 黃次郎, even using Wang Jiangjing 王江涇, the name of his hometown, as a pen name at one point. The purpose of these pseudonyms seems to have been to disguise his close association with the political left: one of the most well-known cartoons credited to Wang Yiliu depicts the first meeting of the League of Left-Wing Writers 中國左翼作家聯盟 (Left League 左聯) on March 2, 1930. Figure 3.1 Wang Yiliu [aka Wang Dunqing] “Founding of the League of Left-Wing Writers” 左联作家联盟成立 Shoots 萌芽, Issue 4, April 1930, 7. Organized at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and leading leftist social critic Lu Xun, the Left League was founded to promote socialist realism in Chinese art and literature. Other prominent members included the writers Guo Moruo 郭沫若 (1892-1978), Mao Dun 矛盾 (1896- 1981), and Ding Ling 丁玲 (1904-1986) and the playwrights Tian Han 田漢 (1898-1968) and Xia Yan 夏衍 (1900-1995). Due to the influence of Lu Xun, the Left League included a number of woodcut artists. Although Wang Dunqing’s illustration of the founding of the Left League does not appear to have been made using a woodcut, the use of sharp, angular lines and solid blacks suggests a stylistic debt of inspiration. 36 As Paul Bevan points out (relying on the work of Wong Wang-chi), also present at the founding meeting of the Left League on March 2, 1930, was the cartoonist Huang Shiying 黄士英 (?-?). Huang would go on to launch a string of controversial manhua publications in the 1930s, beginning with Manhua Life 漫畫生活 in June, 1934.72 His first connection to manhua, however, can be traced back to this first meeting of the Left League, where he proposed the formation of the Chinese Manhua Research Society 中 國漫畫研究會 and the May Day Pictorial 五一畫報, likely with the encouragement of Wang Dunqing.73 Although the proposed pictorial never materialized, the Manhua Research Society did eventually hold their first meeting, one year later, on June 9, 1931.74 The Left League, meanwhile, was thrust into the limelight when five prominent members were arrested at a secret meeting of the CCP in the International Settlement and executed by firing squad at Longhua Prison by the KMT government on February 7, 1931. As a member of the Left League, Wang Dunqing contributed cartoons to their publications Shoots 萌芽 and Pioneer 拓荒者. Wang later claimed to have been forced to go into hiding for several years following the crackdown, but given his use of pseudonyms, he may simply have meant that he stopped publishing cartoons under his own name during this time. 75 HuHuHuHuang Wennongang Wennongang Wennongang Wennong: The : The : The : The Missionary’s SonMissionary’s SonMissionary’s SonMissionary’s Son Unlike Wang Dunqing, Huang Wennong was born in a family of relatively humble means. Somewhat uniquely, however, his parents were converts to Christianity, working as missionaries in Songjiang county 松江, just to the south of Shanghai. In 1919, when he was just 16, Huang was 72 Bevan, A Modern Miscellany, 29 and Wong Wang-chi, Politics and Literature in Shanghai: The Chinese League of Left- Wing Writers, 1930-1936 (Manchester University Press, 1991), 62–63, 92. 73 Apparently unaware of Wang Dunqing’s use of the pseudonym Wang Yiliu, Bevan mistakingly claims that no members of the Manhua Society were present at the first meeting of the Left League. See A Modern Miscellany, 29. 74 “Zhongguo Manhua Yanjiu Hui Chengli” 中國漫畫研究會成立 [Chinese Manhua Research Society Founded], Shenbao 申報, June 9, 1931, 10; Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Manhua Shenghuo” 漫畫生活 [Manhua Life], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝術卷 (Shanxi Renmin Meishu Chubanshe 陝西人民美術出版社, November 2000), 600–601. 75 Wang suggests as much to Jack Chen in his 1938 interview. Chen writes that Wang went in hiding directly after the 1927 split between the left-wing KMT in Wuhan and right-wing KMT under Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing, I think he may be confusing this with falling out between Wang Dunqing and Zhang Zhengyu that led to him cutting ties with the Manhua Society from 1928 to 1931. 37 apprenticed to a copyist for the lithographic press of Chunghwa Book Company中華書局. Founded by former employees of the Commercial Press 商務印書館, the Chunghwa Book Company got its start printing textbooks for newly formed Republic of China following the fall of Qing dynasty in 1911 and went on to become one of Republican Shanghai’s “big three” publishing houses.76 Despite his lack of formal education, Huang proved to a quick study and within three years was promoted to working as an editor on the bimonthly children’s magazine Kids 小朋友, launched on April 6, 1922. Although most secondary sources record that Huang Wennong did not begin drawing cartoons until 1925, he actually seems to have begun drawing and publishing cartoons much earlier. It is likely that many of the illustrations in Kids are his work, although since they are, as a rule, uncredited it is hard to say to for sure. The earliest published cartoon I have been able to find that is credited Huang Wennong was published in the Shenbao on March 20, 1921. It depicts a vacant table, set with six high backed chairs. On the wall behind the table a large clock set into a hexagonal base displays the time: two o’ clock sharp. Just to the left of the clock a sign reads, “This public office will hold a meeting this afternoon at 1:00pm.” Even in this early cartoon one can see Huang’s satirical style starting to emerge. Unlike Ding Song, who found his humor in physical deformities, or Zhang Guangyu, who tended to rely on subtle allegories, Huang Wennong was surprisingly direct in his criticism of the government. 76 For more on the major publishing houses of Republican-era Shanghai, see Chapter 5 of Christopher A. Reed, Gutenberg in Shanghai: Chinese Print Capitalism, 1876-1937 (UBC Press, 2011). 38 Figure 3.2 Huang Wennong “Our Office Will Have a Meeting at One o’clock Today” 本公所定今日下午一時開 會 Shenbao Sunday, March 20, 1921, 18. Notices from the same year suggest that Huang was a regular contributor to the Shenbao, meaning that he would have meet Wang Yingbin, Hu Xuguang and likely Wang Dunqing around this time. It is also possible that his parents knew Ding Song through mutual acquaintances at the Tushanwan orphanage. In 1914, Ding Song, Liu Haisu, and Zhang Yuguang co-authored a best-selling how-to-draw book for the Chunghwa Book Company. Although Huang didn’t become an apprentice at the press until five years later, in 1919, he may have read a remaindered copy of the book as part of his informal training. In June, 1924, Huang formed the Chinese Painting Film Studio 中國畫片公司 with Li Yunchen 李允臣 and Shen Yanzhe 沈延哲 (n.d.).77 Within four months he had completed China’s first “moving cartoon” 活動滑稽畫 film, The Dog Entertains 狗請客, a 30-minute long mix of live action and hand drawn animation.78 Plans were made to complete further animated films, including an ambitious adaption 77 “Zhongguo huapian gongsi chengli” 中國畫片公司成立 [Chinese Painting Film Studio Established], Shenbao 申報, June 24, 1924, 22nd ed. 78 As far as I am aware, the film has not survived, although stills may exist in magazines or newspapers. I have not been able to find any however. 39 of Journey to the West 西遊記, but the Zhonghua Film Studio went bankrupt within the year and Huang was left trying to subsidize his film by creating cartoons for various periodicals.79 In early 1925 he took over the staff cartoonist position at The Crystal from Zhang Guangyu, which earliest definitive evidence that I have been unable to uncover of Huang Wennong collaborating with other Manhua Society members. Shortly thereafter Huang took on a similar position for the Commercial Press’ long-running flagship magazine, The Eastern Miscellany 東方雜志. While his cartooning career was clearly taking off, his animated films seem to have floundered due to a lack of funds. For Huang, then, cartooning may have represented the next best thing to creating animated films. One side effect of his earlier career, though, seems to have been a tendency to draw quickly, something which Ye Qianyu remembers being impressed by when they first met. Hu XuguangHu XuguangHu XuguangHu Xuguang: The Lumberjack: The Lumberjack: The Lumberjack: The Lumberjack In common with Huang Wennong, Hu Xuguang (pen name Ming Dong 明東) was also from Songjiang county. Born in 1901 in the town of Sijing泗涇鎮, his father, who worked in the lumber trade, died when he was only 14. After graduating from elementary school, he was apprenticed to a lumber trader in Xinzhuang 莘莊鎮, studying drawing and painting in his free time. His hobby attracted the attention of Fan Yichun 範亦純 (n.d.), the son of the lumber trader to whom he was apprenticed. Yichun convinced his father to fund Hu’s education in Shanghai, where he managed to test into the Shanghai Art Academy. Like Zhang Guangyu, his talent and hard work made a strong impression on Zhang Yuguang and Ding Song, who would become lifelong friends. After graduating in 1920, Hu worked as a commercial artist for a variety of businesses in Shanghai. He seems to have done well for himself, and by March, 1923, he had married Lu Jiezhen 陸潔貞 (n.d.) in a ceremony in the ballroom of the Zhenhua Hotel 振華旅館, with Zhang Yuguang (Ding Song’s close friend and Zhang Guangyu’s mentor) acting as witness and the journalist Hang Shijun 杭石君 acting as his best man. 80 79 Yin Fujun 殷福軍, “黃文農早期動畫創作研究” [Research into Huang Wennong’s Early Animations], Dianying Wenxue 電影文學 no. 09 (2010): 29–30. 80 “Hu Xuguang Zuori Jiehun” 胡旭光昨日結婚 [Hu Xuguang Got Married Yesterday], Shenbao, March 18, 1923, 1st ed., 18. 40 Figure 3.3 Hu Xuguang “Candle in the Wind” 風中之燭, Shenbao, Thursday, January 6, 1921, 16. Hu Xuguang was extremely active in the Shenbao during the early 1920s but seems to have disappeared following the dissolution of the Manhua Society in late 1927. As far as I can tell, he does not seem to have participated in the numerous manhua publications of the 1930s, or the anti-Japanese propaganda troupes of war period. This is curious, given the overt political messages of his cartoons from the early 1920s. For example, one representative cartoon from early 1921, titled “Candle in the Wind” shows a disembodied hand holding a candle labeled “Militarism” 軍國主義. The flame of the candle is nearly horizontal, sputtering in the wind which is labeled “Mainstream Spirit of the Times” 時代潮流. Cupped around the flame is a second disembodied hand labeled, “Warlords” 軍閥. Given that the warlords were not overthrown until the Northern Expedition, more than half a decade later, Hu Xuguang was clearly making full use of the extraterritorial protections afforded by Shanghai to express his discontent with the status quo. He was careful, however, not to call out a specific warlord or faction. 41 Chapter 4Chapter 4Chapter 4Chapter 4 : : : : Come TogetherCome TogetherCome TogetherCome Together While it is clear that the members of the Manhua Society were connected through a variety of social and professional institutions, it took them more than five years to form a society dedicated to the production and promotion of cartoons and comics in China. Initially, they may not have seen the need to organize, instead being satisfied to be paid to draw cartoons on a semi-regular basis for the Shenbao and other periodicals. For most of them, cartoons probably seemed like a hobby, or side-business, to their more lucrative work in advertising and teaching. The escalating political turmoil of the 1920s would seem to be obvious catalyst for the formation of the Manhua Society. On the other hand, cartoons and comics provided these young men with the means not only to speak out against foreign imperialism and government corruption, but also establish their respective careers and provide for their families. One event in particular has special significance for the formation of the Manhua Society, not simply because it spurred the Manhua Society members into action, but because it provided an opportunity for publishers (particually of pictorials) to capture the attention of readers. The Shot Heard Round the BundThe Shot Heard Round the BundThe Shot Heard Round the BundThe Shot Heard Round the Bund On May 30, 1925 policeman in the International Settlement opened fire on a crowd of Chinese protesters, many of them students, gathered outside the Laozha police station 老閘捕房, killing nine and injuring many more. The students had gathered to protest the trial of students who had been arrested performing a mock-funeral demonstration following the shooting of a Chinese worker in Japanese-owned cotton mill earlier in the month. Two days later, the tabloid Pictorial Shanghai 上海畫報 released its controversial first issue on June 6, 1925, featuring photographs of the bloody protests.81 Published by the popular noveist Bi Yihong 畢倚虹(born Bi Zhenda 畢振達, 1892-1926), who was associated with the Mandarin Ducks and 81 “Shanghai Huabao Zengsong Ming Jian” 上海畫報贈送名箋 [Shanghai Pictorial to Hand Out Free Name Brand Stationary], Shenbao 申報, October 6, 1925, 18. 42 Butterflies clique, the tabloid employed not only Zhang Guangyu and Ding Song, but also St. John’s graduate and future Manhua Society member, Wang Dunqing.82 Over the next month, a triple strike of merchants, students and workers organized by the KMT working in cooperation with Du Yuesheng and the Green Gang led to riots and more deaths, providing Pictorial Shanghai with enough sensational content to publish a new issue every three days.83 Clearly inspired, two months later on August 3, 1925 Zhang Guangyu launched his own three-day tabloid, the two-page broadsheet, China Camera News三日畫報. The May 30 Incident galvanized the young cartoonists into action, providing a ready market for their pointed political satire, and in addition to news and topical essays, the first issue also included satirical drawings諷刺畫 by four future members of the Manhua Society: Lu Shaofei, Huang Wennong, Ding Song, and Zhang himself.84 Lu Shaofei, who had returned from Shenyang some six months earlier, was also busy that summer putting together an exhibition for the fourth annual Aurora Art Club show 晨光美術會第四屆展覽會, held August 1-7 at the second campus of Iron Forge Creek Art University 打鐵浜藝術大學第二院, to the south of the French Concession in present day Jinshan. An preview published in the Shenbao the day before the show opened to the public makes it clear that this exhibition included the material which would published nearly three years later as Cartoon Travels in the North: “Mr. Lu Shaofei’s more than seventy sketches of his travels to the capital and Fengtian, featuring landscapes of the north, strange and bewildering to behold, without a set form, are especially impressive” 魯少飛君之旅京奉寫生約七十餘 件、北地風光、怪怪奇奇、不名一狀、尤為可觀云. 85 1926 was a period of growing ties between the members of the Manhua Society. In February, Lu Shaofei was hired as a set designer for 82 Sun Shusong 孫樹松 and Lin Ren 林人, eds., “Shanghai Huabao” 上海畫報 [Shanghai Pictorial], Modern Chinese Compilation Studies Dictionary 中國現代編輯學辭典 (Heilongjiang People’s Press 黑龍江人民出版社, 1991), 279. 83 According to the literature scholar Zhang Yongjiu, Bi Zhenda is said to have died from sexual exhaustion after spending two days and two nights with a prostitute. Pictorial Shanghai survived his death, however, with the last issue coming out in December 1932, having published over 500 issues by the end of its run. See Zhang Yongjiu 張永久, 鴛鴦蝴蝶派文人 [Literati of the Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies Clique] (ShowWe Press 秀威出版, 2011), 13 and Sun Shusong and Lin Ren, “Shanghai Huabao.” 84 “Sanri Huabao Di Yi Qi Chuban” 三日畫報第一期出版 [China Camera News Publishes the First Issue], Shenbao 申報, August 4, 1925, 17. 85 “Chenguang Meishu Hui Di Si Jie Zhanlanhui Yuzhi” 晨光美術會第四屆展覽會預誌 [Preview of the Fourth Annual Aurora Art Club Exhibition], Shenbao 申報 (Shanghai, July 30, 1925), 17. 43 Minxin Film Studio 民新影片公司, later recruiting Huang Wennong to work as the art director on the studio’s film magazine, Minxin Special Edition 民新特刊. 86 In March, Ji Xiaobo, riding high on his success of his Feng Zikai inspired manhua “I always feel that life is so unreal!” in the inaugural issue of Young Companion published in February, oversaw the printing of 20,000 copies of the first issue of the Three Friends Co. publication Light of the Triangle 三角之光.87 Featuring his own artwork on the theme “Sparrows in the Spring” 春天的燕子, Light of the Triangle not only showed his continued debt of inspiration to his former teacher, but also provide Ji with the clout to be included on the roster of cartoonists for the new pictorial The Shanghai Life (Illustrated) 上海生活, co-edited by journalist Zhao Junhao 趙君豪 (1900-?), Lu Shaofei, and Huang Wennong.88 Mostly forgotten today, thanks perhaps to the appearance of an unrelated magazine with an identical name, published 1937-41, other familiar contributors to The Shanghai Life (Illustrated), include Zhang Guangyu, Ye Qianyu, and Zhang Zhengyu. A notice offering 50 yuan and a free subscription in exchange for a logo design appeared in the Shenbao in early May, noting that the magazine would “...specialize in describing life in society, solving the three problems of clothing, food, and shelter.” 專描寫社會生活、解决衣食住三大問題 89 A second notice appeared later in the month requesting submissions noted that Shanghai was the cultural center of China, but that unlike London, New York, or Paris it still lacked a magazine devoted to the life and times of the city.90 Even given this relative level of success and name recognition, the future members of the Manhua Society were still struggling to fund their various projects. The first issue of The Shanghai Life (Illustrated), 86 Minxin Special Edition published seven issues between July 1, 1926 and September 1, 1927. Bi Keguan and Huan Yuanlin write that Lu Shaofei worked at Xinmin Film Studio 新民影片公司. This is almost certainly a mistake for Minxin Film Studio. 87 “Sanjiao zhi Guang Ding Qi Chuban” 三角之光定期出版 [Light of the Triangle to Be Published Regularly], Shenbao 申 報, March 29, 1926, 18. 88 “Shanghai Shenghuo Xuanshang Zhengqiu Shangbiao” 上海生活懸賞徵求商標 [Shanghai Life Offers Reward for Logo Design], Shenbao 申報, May 8, 1926, 25. Later notices mention that the printer for the Shanghai Life (Illustrated) was the Lianyi Trading Co., who Lu Shaofei had worked with in February, 1926. See “Shanghai Shenghuo Di Si Qi Chuban” “上海生 活”第四期出版 [“The Shanghai Life” Issue Four Published], Shenbao 申報, June 6, 1927, 11. 89 “Shanghai Shenghuo Xuanshang Zhengqiu Shangbiao.” 90 “Shanghai Shenghuo Hanqing Wenyi Jie Zhuangao” 上海生活函請文藝界撰稿 [Shanghai Life Requests Mailed In Submissions from the World of Art and Literature], Shenbao 申報, May 14, 1926, 21. 44 for example, appeared on newsstands until July 7, just under two months after the first announcement in the Shenbao, while the second issue appeared nearly four months later on November, 17. 91 Although the third issue was published on time, one month later, the fourth and final issue didn’t appear until June, 1927, citing a strike at the printer.92 Zhang Guangyu meanwhile, quit his job at Nanyang Brothers Tobacco in 1926, after launching China Camera News, and went to work as a designer for the Shanghai Mofan Factory 上海模範工廠.93 Founded in 1922, this large rubber factory in Jiangwanzhen was owned by the noted philanthropist Xu Qianlin 徐乾麟 (1863-1952). While there, Zhang designed advertisements for Mofan’s trademark Double-Ten rickshaw tires, in addition to rubber toys, soles for leather shoes, and other rubber products.94 Thanks perhaps to Zhang’s salary first at Nanyang Brothers Tobacco and later at Shanghai Mofan Factory, China Camera News managed to put out over 100 issues by early June, 1926, with an omnibus collection going on sale July 15.95 In March, 1927, a notice in the Shenbao carried the following announcement, titled “Relaunch of China Camera News” 三日畫報之刷新: Recently China Camera News has been undergoing a series of improvements. We are increasing the number of copperplates, selecting more precious photographs, drawn material, with a publishing date set for the first day of the second month of the lunar calendar [March 14]. Moreover we are preparing photographs of celebrities and collections of drawings by famous artists as gifts for our readers. 91 “Shanghai Shenghuo Jiang Chuban Dingqi Qi Yue Qi Ri” “上海生活”將出版 定期七月七日 [“The Shanghai Life” To Be Published: Date is Set for July 7], Shenbao 申報, July 1, 1926; “Shanghai Shenghuo Di Er Qi Chuban You Qi Shiqi Ri Chuban” 上海生活第二期出版有期 十七日出版 [Shanghai Life Issue Two to Be Published: Date is Set for 17th], Shenbao 申報, November 15, 1926. 92 “Chuban Jie Xiaoxi” 出版界消息 [News in the World of Publishing], Shenbao 申報, December 28, 1926, 18; “Shanghai Shenghuo Di Si Qi Chuban.” 93 Tang Wei 唐薇, “Zhang Guangyu Yishu Zuopin” 張光宇藝術作品 [Zhang Guangyu’s Art], Zhuangshi 裝飾 no. 01 (2007): 50. 94 Xie Lingling 謝玲玲, “Woguo jinxiandai zhuming cishanjia Xu Qianlin” 我國近現代著名慈善家徐乾麟 [Famous Modern Chinese Philanthropist Xu Qianlin], May 16, 2014, http://www.zx.yy.gov.cn/art/2014/5/16/art_53957_1450243.html (accessed February 24, 2015). 95 “Huabao Xiaoxi” 畫報消息 [Pictorial News], Shenbao 申報, June 29, 1926; “Sanri Huabao Bai Qi Huiji Fashou” 三日畫 報百期彙集發售 [China Camera News 100 Issue Collection Goes on Sale], Shenbao 申報, July 15, 1926, 22. 45 三日畫報近日從事改良編式、增加銅版、多選名貴照片、圖畫材料、刻定二月初 一日出版、并備有明星照片、及名人畫集、贈送定閱諸戶云、96 AAAAn Unexpected Partyn Unexpected Partyn Unexpected Partyn Unexpected Party In an interview conducted in the mid-1990s, Lu Shaofei recalls that he joined the Manhua Society entirely on accident: having just gotten back from a trip (perhaps scouting locations for a new Minxin film), Lu decided to pay a visit to his friend, Zhang Guangyu, at his house in Hengqing Alley 恆慶里, just off of Rue Admiral Bayle 貝勒路97. When he arrived, however, Zhang’s wife98 told him that Zhang and his brother, Zhang, were both at Ding Song’s house, just across the street in Tianxiang Alley 天祥里. Walking into the doorway of the house just as the Manhua Society was preparing to take a photograph for their inaugural meeting, Lu recalls that Zhang laughed and said, “It’s better to show up when the time is right, than to show up right on time” 来得早不如来得巧.99 Most second hand accounts provide a few names of the most well-known cartoonists, followed by the Chinese for ‘etc.’ 等, according to Ye Qianyu, the Manhua Society had seven founding members: himself, Lu Shaofei, Zhang Guangyu, Zhang Zhengyu, Huang Wennong, Wang Dunqing, and Ding Song. According to Lu Shaofei, however, there were four additional founding members: Ji Xiaobo, Zhang Meisun, Cai Shudan 蔡輸丹 (n.d.), and Wang Yisan 王益三 (n.d.). Bi Keguan and Huang Yuanlin largely agree with Lu Shaofei, although they substitute Hu Xuguang 胡旭光 (1901-1960) for Wang Yisan.100 96 “Chuban Jie Xiaoxi” 出版界消息 [News in the World of Publishing], Shenbao 申報, March 2, 1927, 18. 97 A minor street running north to south through the French Concession, it was originally given the name Rue Omnichan when it was built in 1901. It was renamed in 1906 after the French Commander-in-Chief of French Forces in the Far East, Admiral Charles-Jesse Bayle (1842-1918), while the section extending into the International Settlement to the north was known by the decidedly less prestigious name Mohawk Road. The two sections have since been renamed Huangpi Road South 黄陂南路 and Huangpi Road North 黄陂北路. See Paul French, The Old Shanghai A-Z (Hong Kong University Press, 2010). 98 Tang Suzhen 湯素貞 (1904-2002), married 1920. See Tang Wei, “Zhang Guangyu Yishu Zuopin,” 50. 99 Bao Limin, “Ye Qianyu yu Lu Shaofei (shang).” 100 Bi Keguan and Huang Yuanlin, Zhongguo Manhua Shi, 83. Bao Limin also notices this discrepancy. See “Ye Qianyu yu Lu Shaofei (shang),” 23. 46 Relying on information provided by Wang Dunqing in May, 1938, Jack Chen, records that the original Manhua Society had ten members, but neglects to mention them by name.101 Given the lack of agreement who the Manhua Society was founded by, Chen’s decision to omit this information was probably not accidental. There is also another major discrepancy between these four accounts, regarding the date the date that the Manhua Society was founded. According to Ye Qianyu, the group was founded shortly after Ye, Wang Dunqing, and Huang Wennong’s failed broadsheet, Shanghai Sketch 上海漫畫 (hereafter Shanghai Sketch I), was relaunched by Zhang Guangyu as a monthly under the same name, Shanghai Sketch (hereafter, Shanghai Sketch II). Since the first issue of Shanghai Sketch II was published April 21, 1928, this would mean the summer or fall of that year. In support of Lu’s claim for the fall of 1927, his interviewer, Bao Limin, points out that Huang Wennong’s Collected Satirical Drawings 文農諷刺畫集, which was published in 1927, features the words “The first collection of the Manhua Society” 漫画会丛 书第一种, concluding that Ye’s memory must have failed him. This theory largely holds up: although several accounts record that Huang Wennong’s Collected Satirical Drawings was published in the fall 1927 (that the group must have been formed several months prior), in fact the cover features the emblem of the Manhua Society (See Fig. 4.1), which was not carved by Zhang Meisun until November, 1927, meaning that the group could very well have been formed in the fall of 1927. 101 Jack Chen, “China’s Militant Cartoonists,” ASIA Magazine, May 1938. 47 Figure 4.1 Zhang Meisun “Emblem for the Manhua Association” 漫畫會會徽 November, 1927. The emblem to be carved by Zhang Meisun depicts a tightly coiled dragon, facing the viewer head- on. Although it has little to remind one, immediately at least, of cartoons, Gan Xianfeng describes the emblem in stirring terms: Because the term ‘manhua’ was unknown to most people… [therefore] the artistry of the emblem was drawn from the special qualities of ancient Chinese brick engravings in roof tile end caps and pictographic seals, using a boldly exaggerated brushwork to create a ‘holy dragon of Chinese manhua.’ This suggests that the sleeping dragon of China was waking up, just as the dragon of manhua was also waking up. 由於"漫畫"這一名稱不為人知…[因此]會徽的藝術處理，吸取了中國古代磚刻瓦當 和肖形印藝術特色，以渾厚、樸茂、誇張的造型筆法塑造了一頭中國漫畫神龍，寓 意是中國這條睡龍正在覺醒，漫畫這條龍也正在覺醒. 102 Whether, indeed the term manhua was unknown to most people is a matter of debate, considering the apparent popularity of Feng Zikai’s work from as early as May, 1925, however Gan makes a good 102 Zhongguo manhua shi 中國漫畫史 [A History of Chinese Comics] (Shandong Huabao Chubanshe 山東畫報出版社, 2008), 109–10. 48 argument for the connection between the image of China as a sleeping dragon, and Chinese cartoonists as the agitators who saw themselves working to stir the dragon from its slumber.103 Gan finally found the smoking gun that reveals the actual founding date of the Manhua Society. Overlooked or perhaps forgotten by Lu Shaofei, Ye Qianyu, Wang Dunqing, etc, the following notice was posted in the Shenbao on December 7, 1926: MANHUA SOCIETY FOUNDED A number of artists with rich imaginations from Shanghai have formed a drawing club, for which they have chosen the name the “Manhua Society.” Regarding the nature of the club, it differs greatly from other drawing clubs. In the next few days a manifesto will be published. The members are (by stroke count in the character of the family name): Ding Song, Wang Dunqing, Hu Xuguang, Zhang Guangyu, Zhang Zhenyu, Huang Wennong, Ye Qianyu, [and] Lu Shaofei. The club address is Zhejiang Rd, Ningbo Rd, No. 65, Floor 3, No. 40. 漫畫會之成立 上海現有數位思想豐富之畫家組織一畫會、定名漫畫會、按漫畫會之性質、與其他 畫會逈異、不日將有宣言發表、發起人以姓氏筆劃為次、丁悚·王敦慶·胡旭光·張光 宇·張振宇·黃文農·葉淺予·魯少飛·會址浙江路寗波路六十五號三層樓第四十號。104 This date is also supported by a short essay by Huang Wennong, published in the third issue of The Shanghai Life (Illustrated), dated December 1, 1926, in which Huang mentions an informal meeting of the Manhua Society with Wang Dunqing, Ye Qianyu, and Zhang Zhengyu earlier that month: We drove out to Caojiadu, in the Western part of Shanghai, that colony of many square-miles in area north of the [Huangpu] River. 105 The way they live there is really different from us Shanghai 103 In personal communication, Timothy Cheek has compared this analogy to the work of historian John Fitzgerald, who argues that Chinese politics, and Sun Yat-sen and the KMT, “awoke” in a similar way during the 1920s. Cheek suggests that the Manhua Society might be seen as early example of mass mobilization, albeit in the world of commerce rather than politics, connected (as argued by Fitzgerald) through the League of Leftwing Writers. See John Fitzgerald, Awakening China: Politics, Culture, and Class in the Nationalist Revolution (Stanford University Press, 1998). 104 “Manhuahui zhi chengli” 漫畫繪製成立 [Manhua Society Founded], Shenbao 申報, December 7, 1926. 105 Caojiadu (literally, ‘Cao Family Ferry’) was famous for having a large number of older Western villas mixed in with newer industrial infrastructure. It was also close to St. John’s campus, located just north of Jessfield Park (today’s Zhongshan Park), on the banks of the Wusong River, and so would have been a familiar haunt for Wang Dunqing. See Lu Hanchao, Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century (University of California Press, 1999), 279. 49 folk. We spent the better part of a day talking to them and after we got back home we elected Wang Dunqing to pick a topic to remember the day by, [while] I happily provided three casual illustrations, which we put up in the biggest Western-style restaurant in town. We also discussed some of the affairs of the ‘Manhua Society,’ It’s too bad our comrades weren’t there—Ding Song, Zhang, Hu, Lu, Ji—otherwise I would have a great deal of interesting news to report to our readers. 我們…坐了汽車到滬西的曹家渡, 那處數方里的江北殖民地, 他們生活, 絕對不和上 海人同化, 我們費了半天的光陰, 和他們交際, 回來公推王敦慶選一篇記事, 我很高興, 隨意繪了三方插畫, 並且在鎮上一家規模最宏大的番菜館裏, 議論一些「漫畫會」的 事情, 可惜尚有五位同志— 丁松, 光宇, 旭光, 少飛, 小波. —沒有同去. 否則還有許多 有趣味消息報告讀者呢.106 From this account, and the notice posted in the Shenbao, it seems clear that the driving forces behind the Manhua Society were Huang Wennong, Wang Dunqing, and Ye Qianyu, with the support of Ding Song, Zhang Guangyu, Hu Xuguang, Lu Shaofei, and Ji Xiaobo. This impression is further strengthened by the manifesto, published as promised, 14 days later on December 21, 1926: MANHUA SOCIETY PUBLISHES MANIFESTO On Saturday, in Shanghai, the Manhua Society convened an ad hoc meeting at their headquarters. On this day they discussed and passed the following resolutions, one by one: [1] within the year, this society should organize a formal founding meeting, and we recommend that Ding Song and Zhang Guangyu handle this matter [2] the manifesto drafted by Huang Wennong and Wang Dunqing has also already been approved by the entire body of the society, and is included herein: Recently, drawing clubs have been established like flower buds in the spring, like the surging tides in autumn. Does this mean that the future of art is bright? Or is it a case of making use of unity to cultivate a grand reputation for a given group? Nobody can say for sure, but in the case of our little group at least, we’ve come together purely out of mutual interests and ambitions. Each and every one of us must find a balance between our innate abilities, intelligence and experience. In our artwork, we must express our romanticism, for the sake of advancing the human mind. In other 106 Huang Wennong 黃文農, “Fa hua gao yihou” 發畫稿以後 [A Sketch After Submission], Shanghai Shenghuo 上海生活, December 1, 1926, 1. 50 words, we want to make this human society of ours into new soil for the tiller. Whether or not the products of our hearts and blood will able to be thought of as a labor of art, and whether or not it will measure up to our ideal goal is not a question that can be answered objectively. Although it is something which cannot be measured at present, it is our hope—and our pledge—is to work together to plant good seeds in this time of artistic immaturity. In the future, when it comes time to reap the fruits of our labors, probably not a single member of our group will be willing to go forth and enjoy them. 漫畫會發表宣言 上星期六日、漫畫會在會所內召集臨時會議、是日將章程逐條討論、並均通過、 又該會准於本年內、開正式成立大會、推定丁悚·張光宇·辦理其事、黃文農、王敦 慶·擬稿之宣言、亦經到會全體之認可、茲特錄載於次、近來畫會的創設、好像春 之花蓓蕾着、秋之潮澎湃着、這是繪畫藝術界前途的光明嗎、或是要假團結力的作 用來樹黨稱雄呢、誰也不能給我們一個透澈的定斷、可是我們幾個人的組合、完全 因為是志趣相投、就是我們之中的各個份子、都要全平自己的天性、智力和經騐、 在我們的藝術作品上表現、我們的浪漫主義、使人類的思想向上、換句話說、就是 要使這個人類社會、成為我們所開拓的新土地、然而我們的心與血的結果、能不能 够被認為藝術上的工作、和能不能够達到我們理想上的目的、那是一種客觀上的問 題不可、旦不能在此時量到、不過我們的願望、——也是我們的誓語、——是要在 這幼稚的繪畫藝術期間、同心努力、播下良好的種子、也許將來的收穫、我們沒有 一個份子情願去享受的。107 From this overtly apolitical manifesto (authored by the most political members of the society, Huang Wennong and Wang Dungqing), and in light of what we know about the Manhua Society members, it is fun to imagine an early gathering of the group: Ye Qianyu singing opera stanzas for the Zhang brothers and Ding Song, while Wang Dunqing and Ji Xiaobo, both dressed in equally bad suits, argue politics off in a corner. A small group of young children play on boxes of the latest issue of China Camera News piling in the corner, while their mothers stand close by, making small talk. At the table, 107 In addition to being printed in Shenbao on December 21, 1926, the Manhua Society Manifesto was also reprinted in Issue #157 of China Camera News on December 25, 1926. See “Manhuahui fabiao xuanyan” 漫畫會發表宣言 [Manhua Society Publishes Manifesto], Shenbao 申報, December 21, 1926. 51 Huang Wennong sits busily sketching away, oblivious to the food prepared by Tang Suzhen, Zhang Guangyu’s pretty young wife, and her mother. Meanwhile, the awkward Lu Shaofei introduces himself in Shanghai dialect to Hu Xuguang, who responds in the same. Later, Zhang Meisun and Ding Song reminiscence about their art classes at the the Tushanwan orphanage, and Ji jokes with Ye, saying, “Looks like the kid from Tonglu is all grown up now.” Ye rolls his eyes and looks at Huang Wennong, who just shrugs. The Northern ExpThe Northern ExpThe Northern ExpThe Northern Expeditioneditioneditionedition The arrival of the Northern Expedition in Shanghai on March 22, 1927, fundamentally changed the lives of the Manhua Society members. As Ye writes in his autobiography, his own opinion of the Northern Expedition was largely colored by the rising political awareness which followed the May 30 Movement Even though I didn’t directly participate in the “May 30” Movement, I experienced the anti- imperialist sentiment that it stirred up first hand. The lesson in patriotism and democracy that I learned really shook me to my core, and inspired my utmost support for the grand revolution of the Northern Expedition that was launched by the United Front [between the KMT and the Communist Party]. “五 卅”運動我雖未直接參加，可是由此引起的反帝革命情緒，我卻親身感受到。 這真是一次驚心動魄的愛國家、愛民族的教育，我由此而對國共合作興師北伐的大 革命產生了極大的同情。108 In Ye’s account, there is a palpable sense of not wanting to be left out of this once in a lifetime chance to become a part of history. Born too late to be May 4th radical, and too scared, perhaps to take part in the May 30th riots, the Northern Expedition was just the sort of opportunity an ambitious young man like Ye Qianyu would have been looking for to make his mark on the world as a cartoonist. Launched in June, 1926, just over a year after the events of May 30, 1925, the Northern Expedition was the culmination of Sun Yat-sen’s dream of re-unifying China under a single government. Backed by the Soviets, in mid-1926 the KMT found itself split into three rival factions: the left, led by 108 Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 59. 52 Wang Jingwei 汪精衛 (1883-1944) who favored collaboration with the communists; the right, led by Lin Sen 林森 (1868-1943) and Hu Hanmin 胡漢民 (1879-1936), who advocated rather the opposite; and Chiang Kai-shek in the middle, in control of Whampoa Academy and the NRA. Although divided ideologically, they were united in their goal to take back China from the warlords and foreign powers. Rather than attacking Sun Chuanfang directly, the KMT had first gone north into Hubei via Hunan, attacking the forces of Chuanfang’s Zhili ally Wu Peifu in Wuhan. After the fall of Wuhan to the Northern Expedition Army in September, 1926, Chiang sent his troops south, to Nanchang, where they attacked and subdued the forces of Sun Chuanfang, taking the city on September 19. Managing to hold the city for only four days, they retreated north, into Hubei, and south, into Jiangxi. After arriving at the front in early October, Chiang led his forces into the city a second time on October 20, holding the city only briefly before retreating again. Finally, in early November Chiang managed to defeat Sun, taking Nanchang for the third and final time on November 8, 1926.109 Meanwhile, back in Wuhan, Wang Jingwei had been busy building a coalition government between the leadership of the KMT and that of the CCP, declaring Wuhan the new capital of the ROC on January 1, 1927. Initially, Chiang ignored the provocation, maintaining an outwardly neutral position between Jingwei on the left, and by Lin Sen and Hu Hanmin on the right. Working with undercover agents who enlisted the help of both the Green Gang and the CCP, Chiang and the United Front planned their takeover of Shanghai, with the city finally falling on March 22 following a series of general strikes and fierce fighting with holdouts of the Zhili clique. Shortly afterwards, under the scrutiny of the foreign powers, Chiang Kai-shek set up a rival capital with the support of the KMT’s right-wing faction in Nanjing. After Shanghai fell to the KMT in late March, Chiang wasted no time establishing a police force to govern the Chinese controlled portions of the city in cooperation with the Green Gang and the CCP. Taking their name from Wusong 吳淞, a strategically important port at the confluence of the Huangpu and the Yangtze, and the traditional abbreviation for Shanghai, Hu 滬, the Songhu Police Department 淞 109 According to Soviet accounts of the siege, Sun relied heavily on Soviet adviser, Vasily Blyukher (1889-1938) to help orchestrate the final assault on Nanchang. At one point, Sun was said to have been so distraught that he was threatening to kill himself. See Vera Vladimirovna Vishni ͡akova-Akimova, Two Years in Revolutionary China, 1925-1927 (Harvard Univ Asia Center, 1971), 250–52. 53 滬警察廳政治部, set up their headquarters in Yeshiyuan 也是園 [Also a Garden], a famous literati garden in the Chinese walled city just south of the International Settlement. Thanks no doubt to his fame as a political cartoonist for The Crystal and The Eastern Miscellany, Huang Wennong managed to obtain a position as head of the Art Department 藝術股長 in the propaganda department of the new KMT office, inviting the much younger Ye Qianyu, whom he had met one year earlier through Zhang Guangyu’s Camera News, to join him. 110 Shortly thereafter, Ji Xiaobo, relying perhaps on his connections with former Tongmenghui member turned anti-warlord publisher, Zhu Xilang, also took a position in the same department.111 After only three days in Yeshiyuan, Huang told Ye that he was planning to transfer to the political office of the Navy 海軍政治部 and that he wanted Ye to come with him. Ye recalls asking Huang if they should tell Ji Xiaobo and the others that they were leaving, but that for whatever reason, Huang told him to keep their transfer a secret. After transferring, they both received promotions, with Huang becoming a captain 上尉 and Ye becoming a lieutenant 中尉, something which may have rankled Ji Xiaobo.112 In the Navy they met Cai Shudan, another artist who had been assigned to their department. Meanwhile, on the basis of his experience working for the Minxin Film Company, Lu Shaofei had also secured employment in the KMT’s propaganda apparatus, finding a position the Political Office of Central Command 總司令部政治部 in Nanjing following the arrival of Chiang Kai-shek’s National Revolutionary Army on March 23, 1927.113 Looting and anti-imperialists riots (likely supported by the posters of Lu Shaofei) followed shortly thereafter, but were quickly suppressed by British and American gunships. 110 “Songhu Jingting Zhengzhibu Zhiyuanwei Ding” 淞滬警廳政治部職員委定 [Songhu Police Station Political Office Staff Set], Shenbao 申報, April 22, 1927. 111 Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 60. 112 Ibid. 113 Some sources erroneously record that Lu joined the Guominjun 國民軍 (Nationalist Army) and not the Guomingjun 國命 軍 (National Revolutionary Army). While the Guominjun had in fact arrived in Nanjing at one point, it was in January, 1925, as part of the Guominjun Anhui-Fengtian Expedition under the leadership of Zhang Zongchang, driving out the warlord Qi Xieyuan, Lu was still in Shenyang at this time. Qi Xieyuan had captured Jiangsu province from Lu Yongxiang following the Jiangsu-Zhejiang War of late 1924, the same conflict which had trapped Ye Qianyu and his friends in Xiamen. By the fall of 1925 Sun Chuanfang had forced Zhang Zongchang and the Guominjun out of Shanghai and Nanjing. See Bi Keguan and Huang Yuanlin, Zhongguo Manhua Shi, 113. 54 Less than a month after the NRA arrived in Shanghai, however, Chiang launched a bloody counter-offensive against the left-wing of the KMT and the CCP, with the help of Du Yuesheng and the Green Gang, whose predatory labor system of “bosses” and “disciples” was in direct competition with the communist labor unions. Dubbed the “April 12 Shanghai Massacre” by the CCP, some 5,000 to 10,000 communists and suspected communists were killed in Shanghai. At the time the city had a population of about 3 million, of which roughly 400,000 are estimated to have been factory workers.114 It is unclear when Lu Shaofei, Huang Wennong, Ye Qianyu, and Ji Xiaobo left the National Revolutionary Army. Bi Keguan and Huang Yuanlin indicate that all but Ji Xiaobo either resigned or were forced out directly after the Shanghai Massacre of April 12, 1927.115 This is directly contradicted by Ye Qianyu, who recalls that the Shanghai branch of the Political Office of the Navy was disbanded in August, 1927, due to Chiang Kai-shek’s concerns that it had been infiltrated by communists.116 Ye’s testimony is backed up by the historical record, with an April 22, 1927, announcement in the Shenbao noting that Huang Wennong and Ye Qianyu had joined the staff of the newly formed political office of the Songhu Police Station.117 Furthermore, meeting notes from the seventh meeting of the Manhua Society held June 7, 1927, note that Ye Qianyu was absent having been mobilized to join the 17th Army 十七軍 of the NRA in Fujian. 118 The closing of the political office in August would have spelled the end of Ye and Huang’s careers, but not Lu’s in Nanjing, or Ji, who was still working in the Songhu Police Department based in Yeshiyuan, and seems to have continued to work for the government, eventually joining the Department of Education as a censor in 1929.119 According to Ye, meanwhile, after the political office of the Navy disbanded, Huang transferred to the Political Office of Central Command in Nanjing to work with Lu, before both men returned to Shanghai in late 1927.120 Bi and Huang probably knew this, but included the erroneous 114 Brian G. Martin, The Shanghai Green Gang: Politics and Organized Crime, 1919-1937 (University of California Press, 1996), 82–85. 115 Bi Keguan and Huang Yuanlin, Zhongguo Manhua Shi, 77, 114, 117. 116 Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 60. 117 “Songhu Jingting Zhengzhibu Zhiyuanwei Ding.” 118 “Ge tuanti xiaoxi.” 119 Bu Wuchen, “Gaoshou manhuajia Ji Xiaobo.” 120 Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 97. 55 information to protect the reputations of the Manhua Society members. For his part, Ye Qianyu obliquely dismisses his critics saying, “For guys like us, who only had a head for art and not politics, when we read the news in the newspaper and heard things on the grapevine, all that we could conclude was that revolution wasn’t as simple as we had thought.” 我們這些只懂藝術不懂政治的頭腦, 看了聽了報 上的河流傳的消息, 只覺得革命沒那麼簡單.121 While claims like this sound reasonable enough, they also suggest that Ye was practiced at making light of his association with the KMT after many years of living in politically dangerous climate of the PRC. Whatever bad blood existed between Ji Xiaobo and Ye Qianyu from their days as master and student seems not to have affected Ji’s willingness to publish the work of Ye’s friend and benefactor, Huang Wennong. According to Lu Shaofei, it was Ji’s connections at Glorify China Press 光華書店 that made it possible for the Manhua Society to publish their first publication, Huang Wennong’s Collected Satirical Cartoons.122 Lu’s account is supported by the meeting notes for the seventh meeting of the Manhua Society, held June 7, 1927, which mentions that two new members of the Manhua Society, Ji Xiaobo’s coworkers at the Songhu Police Station, Zhang Meisun and Cai Shudan, were said to be arranging the publication of Huang Wennong’s Collected Satirical Drawings.123 Although some sources report that this book was published in the fall of 1927, it doesn’t appear to have been published until December of 1927, since the cover features the Manhua Society emblem of a curled dragon (See Fig. 4.1), designed by Zhang Meisun in late November of that year, and the words “the first publication of the Manhua Society.” 124 Although Bi Keguan and Huang Yuanlin refer to Lu Shaofei’s Cartoon Travels in the North as the second publication of the Manhua Society, in fact this book of sketches (many of which had been the featured at the Fourth Annual Aurora Art Club Exhibition in August, 1925) was not published until May 121 Ibid., 60. 122 Bao Limin, “Ye Qianyu yu Lu Shaofei (shang),” 22. 123 “Ge tuanti xiaoxi.” 124 See Bi Keguan and Huang Yuanlin, Zhongguo Manhua Shi, Picture Appendix, 61, and Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Wennong Fengci Huaji” 文農諷刺畫集 [Huang Wennong’s Collected Satirical Drawings], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫 藝術卷 (Shanxi Renmin Meishu Chubanshe 陝西人民美術出版社, November 2000), 651–52. 56 15, 1928.125 The last official meeting of the Manhua Society for which we have records, meanwhile, was held November 6, 1927: REGULAR MEETING NOTES FOR THE MANHUA SOCIETY The day before yesterday (the 6th), the Manhua Society held their fourteenth regular meeting at their club headquarters on Rue Admiral Bayle. Present at this meeting were Zhang Meisun, Ji Xiaobo, Lu Shaofei, Ding Song, Zhang Guangyu, Ye Qianyu, Wang Dunqing, Zhang [Zhang], Huang Wennong. Aside from auxiliary member Cai Shudan being in Ningbo, and Hu Xuguang taking an absence due to illness, all members arrived on time. First, chairperson Ding Song announced that he would be stepping down. After reporting the motions of the previous meeting, members began discussing various matters, regarding the development of the Manhua Society, with all members participating in a productive discussion. Zhang Meisun was encouraged to carve a club emblem and Wang Dunqing was appointed chairperson for the next meeting. Various members shared their latest work, of which there was relatively more than last time, and at around 5pm the meeting was concluded. 漫畫會常會紀 漫畫會前日（六號）於貝勒路三十號會所、開第十四次常會、到會者張眉孫·季小 波·魯少飛·丁悚·張光宇·葉淺予·王敦慶·張振宇·黃文農、除外埠會員蔡輪丹在寗、胡 旭光因病請假外、全體均准時到會、首由丁悚主席致開會辭、報告上屆議案後、開 始商議各種問題、關於會務發展、咸有切實之討論、又推張眉孫彫刻會徽、王敦慶 為下屆主席、各會員所交新作品、較上次更多、會議至五時始散。126 Two final notices appear in late December, 1927, announcing at the forthcoming January 1, 1928 publication of Shanghai Sketch by “Manhua Society members” Wang Dunqing, Huang Wennong, and Ye Qianyu, with assistance from Ding Song and Zhang Guangyu. To my knowledge, no further Manhua Society notices were published, leading me to conclude that although individual members of the Manhua 125 Bi and Huang also include a second collection of Huang Wennong’s work A Collection of Drawings for the New Year 初一 之畫集 (1929, publisher unknown) as having been published by the Manhua Society. See Bi Keguan and Huang Yuanlin, Zhongguo Manhua Shi, 82, 85. 126 “Manhua hui chang hui ji” 漫畫會常會紀 [Regular Meeting Notes for the Manhua Society], Shenbao 申報, November 9, 1927, 15. 57 Society continued to work together on various publications, the organization itself informally disbanded shortly thereafter, in the spring of 1928. 58 Chapter 5Chapter 5Chapter 5Chapter 5 : : : : The Breaking of the FellowThe Breaking of the FellowThe Breaking of the FellowThe Breaking of the Fellowshipshipshipship Since no former member of the Manhua Society has gone on record to explain why the Manhua Society gradually drifted apart in late 1927 and early 1928, I looked at the evidence left behind and reconstruct a plausible sequence of events, like a crime scene investigator using various clues the perpetrators left behind. That no Manhua Society member has seen fit to comment on the dissolution of the group seems strange, given the importance placed on its formation as, in the words of Bi Keguan, “the first civil cartoon society in Chinese history.”127 From the evidence, it seems that at least in part an internal schism (or schisms) broke the group apart from the inside. For one, the checkered relationship between Ji Xiaobo and Ye Qianyu seems to have colored his interactions with the rest of the group.128 Lu Shaofei, on the other hand, seems to have had an especially close relationship with Ji up until late 1929, when the Ji seems to have mostly stopped publishing cartoons after being hired as a censor for the Ministry of Education.129 Huang Wang also withdrew from the group, and the cartooning world in general in the spring of 1928 after a falling out with Zhang Zhengyu, publishing leftist cartoons two years later under various pseudonyms, while Ding Song, meanwhile, seems to have distanced himself from the group following an obscenity trial in late 1928.130 Finally Hu Xuguang seems to have quit cartooning entirely in 1928, finding employment as set decorator in the film industry instead.131 127 Bi Keguan and Huang Yuanlin, Zhongguo Manhua Shi, 85. 128 See Chapter 1. 129 “Shi Xuanchuan Bu Shisi Ci Buwu Huiwu” 市宣傳部十四次部務會務 [14th Meeting of the City Propaganda Department], Shenbao 申報, September 26, 1928, 13. 130 Ye Qianyu mentions both incidents in his autobiography. See Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 63， 67–68. The obscenity trial was also covered in the media, something which Ye credits as bringing new readers to the magazine. See “Shanghai Manhua Bei Kong” 上海漫畫被控 [Shanghai Sketch Accused], Shenbao 申報, October 5, 1928, 16; “Shanghai Manhua Bei Kong An Panjue Fayuan Xuanpan Wuzui Bufang Jiang Ti Shangsu” 上海漫畫被控案判决 法院宣判無罪 捕房將提上訴 [Shanghai Sketch Accusation Judgement: Court Rules Not Guilty, Concession Police Station to Appeal], 申報, October 17, 1928; Shanghai Manhua An Shangsu Kaishen 上海漫畫案上訴開審 [Appeal Heard for Shanghai Sketch Case], Shenbao 申報, November 16, 1928; “Shanghai Manhua Wuzui Bufang Shangsu Hou zhi Panjue” 上海漫畫無罪 捕房上訴 後之判决 [Shanghai Sketch Not Guilty: Followup on the Appeal at the Concession Police Station], Shenbao 申報, November 22, 1928. 131 In April, 1928, it was announced that he was making the sets for an adaption of Journey to the West, and in May Hu Xuguang was said to be working on a new film for the Great China Lily Film Company 大中華百合公司. See “Juchang Xiaoxi” 劇塲消息 [Theater News], Shenbao 申報, April 2, 1928, 18; “Juchang Xiaoxi” 劇塲消息 [Theater News], Shenbao 申報, May 8, 1928, 25. 59 At the same time, while it is true that four prominent members of the Manhua Society (Ji, Wang, Ding Song, and Hu) left the group to pursue other projects, as did other more minor members (Zhang Meisun and Cai Shudan), the bonds between the remaining five members of the Manhua Society (Ye, Huang, Zhang, Zhang, and Lu), however, seem to have grown even stronger throughout 1928, while at the same time allowing new collaborators to emerge. This reflects the fluid nature of membership in the Manhua Society that is attested to in their early meeting notes which note that, “…our group has adopted an open format and we welcome new comrades to join. There is no established procedure for soliciting new members, so interested parties are encouraged to contact us” 該會取公開態度、歡迎同志加入、但 無徵求會員之手續、願入會者、可與該會接洽云.132 Shanghai Sketch IShanghai Sketch IShanghai Sketch IShanghai Sketch I To understand the breakup of the Manhua Society, we need to go back to the summer of 1927, just after the arrival of the Northern Expedition in Shanghai that spring. Having spent June and July of 1927 in Fuzhou, the provincial capital of Fujian (some 250 kilometers north of Xiamen) Ye found himself without a job. In December, his former boss in the Political Office of the Navy recruited him to create an illustrated magazine mocking British imperialism in support of a trade union strike at British-American Tobacco. Ding Song and Zhang Guangyu were both working at BAT at the time, Zhang having left his job as an industrial designer at the Chinese-owned Shanghai Mofan Factory in early 1927. Ye recruited Wang Dunqing to help create content for the magazine, focusing on the Opium Wars. Although the protest was ultimately suppressed by BAT management, the first issue of their magazine (which ultimately took the form of a broadsheet) seems to have been a success. According to Ye, however, just as they were preparing to publish a second issue, however, the KMT government stepped in and shut them down. 133 This collaboration led to the creation of a new publication in late 1927, with the addition of the newly unemployed Huang Wennong, called Shanghai Sketch. “At the time, there were three of us working together: Huang Wennong provided the drawings, I was charge of doing all the odd jobs, and Wang Dunqing was in charging of editing.” 當時我們三人合伙，黃文農供畫，我管跑腿，王敦慶管編 132 “Ge tuanti xiaoxi.” 133 Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 61. 60 務.134 ‘All the odd jobs’, in this case seems to mean taking care of printing and distribution. If one looks at the announcements posted in the Shenbao, and the actual publication itself, however, it is clear that Ye contributed a great deal of his own art, in addition to his other responsibilities: A DATE HAS BEEN SET FOR THE NEW PUBLICATION SHANGHAI SKETCH Manhua Society members, Wang Dunqing, Huang Wennong, Ye Qianyu, three united comrades from the world of art and literature, will be distributing a pictorial magazine that uses five-color rubber blanket offset printing. Every three days a new issue will be released under the name, “Shanghai Sketch.” The objectives of this periodical are to use words and pictographic art to encourage Chinese industry, beautify present day society, and conduct the revolutionary spirit. The contents of each issue will be one set of long-running humorous cartoons, and one set of short- running cartoons. The beautiful printing will include more than 20 satirical drawings, joke drawings, etc. while he text will include miscellaneous social commentary, short stories, interesting accounts, etc. Regarding the preparation of the pictographic materials and the selection of texts, there has already been over a year of preparation so the works we will publish are, without exception, vastly different from those published in normal pictorial magazines and three-day papers. This periodical will be published December 31, Year 16 [1927]. 新刊上海漫畫出版有期 漫畫會會員王敦慶·黃文農·葉淺予·三君、集合文藝界同志、將發行一種畫報、 以五彩橡皮版精印、每三日出版一期、命名“上海漫畫、”其宗旨在以文字及圖畫藝 術、主吹國內工業、美化現有社會、傳導革命精神、逐期內容、有長期及短期滑稽 活動畫各一套、美的裝束畫諷刺畫笑畫等約二十餘幀、文字方面、有社會雜評短篇 小說及富有趣味之記載等、對於圖畫材料之籌備、文字風格之揀選、已達一年之久、 故將來錄登作品、無不與尋常畫報及其他三日刊有所逈異、聞該報准定於十六年十 二月三十一日出版。135 134 Ibid., 62. 135 “Xin kan shanghai manhua chuban you qi” 新刊上海漫畫出版有期 [A Date Has Been Set for the New Publication Shanghai Sketch], Shenbao 申報, December 25, 1927, 本埠新聞二 section. 61 Five days later, the following notice appeared, which mentions that Ding Song and Zhang Guangyu were also attached to the project, in addition to the translators Wang Qixu 王啟煦 (pennames Wang Kangfu 王抗夫, Wang Yizhong 王藝鐘, Wang Jushi 王弆石, n.d.)136 and Ji Zanyu 季贊育 (n.d.), and the artists Chen Qiucao 陳秋草 (1906-1988) and Fang Xuegu 方雪鴣 (n.d.) : SHANGHAI SKETCH TO BE PUBLISHED REGULARLY The soon to appear five-color “Shanghai Sketch,” will be serialized by Manhua Society members, Wang Dunqing, Huang Wennong, Ye Qianyu, together with comrades of the art and literature world, such as Ding Song, Zhang Guangyu, Wang Qixu, Ji Zanyu, Chen Qiucao, Fang Xuegu, etc. writing and editing. The content of the first issue will include Huang Wennong’s “Get on the Horse and Drop Anchor,” Ye Qianyu’s “Standard Sizes”, and new fashion drawings; Wang Dunqing’s “Long Live the Tramp” and “That Girl Man Yu”; and Wu Handu’s marvelous explanation for “Why the Revolution Has Yet to Succeed”, etc. The textual and graphic content will be by and large humorous, with an eye to improving readers’ vision, and the warm approval of society at large. This publication will be published January 1, Year 17 [1928]. 上海漫畫定期出版 行將出世之五彩“上海漫畫”、係由漫畫會會員王敦慶黃文農葉淺予集合文藝界同志、 如丁悚張光宇王啟煦季贊育陳秋草方雪鴣等、執筆編輯、其第一期內容有黃文農之 上馬及拋錨、葉淺予之大小標凖及新裝畫、王孰慶之小癟三萬歲及曼瑜這姑娘、吳 厂獨之革命尚未成功之妙解等、文字與圖畫材料均以幽默為主體、想可調劑讀者之 眼光、而受社會熱烈之歡迎、該報准於十七年一月一日出版云。137 136 Under his various pennames, Wang Qixu translated major works of socialist literature including Hermynia Zur Mühlen’s 1925 collection Fairy Tales for Workers Children translated into English by Ida Dailes as Meigui Hua 玫瑰花(The Rose- bush), Shanghai Chunye Shudian 上海春野書店, 1928; Aino Kallas’ 1924 short story collection The White Ship translated into English by Alexander Matson, with a forward by John Galsworthy, as Dao Chengli Qu 到城裡去 (Into Town), Shanghai Nanqiang Shuju 上海南強書局, 1929; and Jack London’s 1908 novel The Iron Heel (Shanghai Taidong Tushuju 上海泰東 圖書局, 1929). Finally, in 1932, he edited Duan Pian Xiaoshuo Nian Xuan 短篇小說年選：1931 (Best Short Stories: 1931, Shanghai Nanqiang Shuju 上海南強書局). 137 “Shanghai manhua dingqi chuban” 上海漫畫定期出版 [Shanghai Sketch to Be Published Regularly], Shenbao 申報, December 30, 1927, 本埠新聞二 section. 62 Given what we know about the publication, which only managed to put out one issue and featuring the work of the three founders, this announcement seems to have been an attempt to drive up sales by cashing in on the name recognition of Ding Song and Zhang Guangyu. The others seem to have been friends of Wang Dunqing, and may have been included for similar reasons. The printing costs for the magazine were provided on credit, thanks to Wang Dunqing’s relationship with the printer. Printed as a single-side broadsheet designed to be folded into quarters, Ye Qianyu recalls that the publication was met with confusion by newspaper distributors who didn’t know how to market it.138 Although illustrated broadsheets were common during the 1910s and early 1920s in Shanghai, most were double-sided, rather than single-side like Shanghai Sketch. Given the quality of the work, however, combined with the name recognition of Huang Wennong, it seems suprising that it attracted so little interest on the part of newspaper sellers. According to a notice posted in the first issue of Shanghai Sketch, however, there was also a problem with the printer: NOTICE FROM THE EDITOR Daxin Printing Company, the press undertaking the printing of this publication, urgently requires the installation of new equipment. Therefore after publishing this issue, we must temporarily stop publication for one issue. We absolutely will not have further delays and hope that our readers can forgive us. 本社啟示 承印本報之大新印刷公司、因急於添裝新機、故於本期出版後，鬚暫停刊一期。絕 不延滯。望讀者原諒。139 A second notice explains that new long-running cartoon strip by Huang Wennong was originally intended to be serialized in this issue, but that they were unable to get the printer set up in time, so it would have be delayed until the next issue.140 Access to quality printing presses would continue to be a problem for the cash-poor members of the Manhua Society going forward into the future, forcing even the 138 Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 62. 139 “Ben she qishi yi” 本社啟示 一 [Notice from the Editor (1)], Shanghai Manhua 上海漫畫, January 2, 1928, 2. 140 “Ben she qishi er” 本社啟示 二 [Notice from the Editor (2)], Shanghai Manhua 上海漫畫, January 2, 1928, 2. 63 most prolific and talented members to supplement their incomes as cartoonists with work in advertising, fashion, and commercial publishing. Perhaps due to these technical and financial difficulties, by all accounts the first issue of Shanghai Sketch was a commercial flop, and a second issue never appeared. In his autobiography, Ye Qianyu recalls being forced to recoup their losses by selling the entire print run to a paper recycler, and that Wang Dunqing likely provided the majority of the financial capital, since the two other partners were both unemployed.141 As a schoolteacher, Wang was relatively well off, but would have hardly been in the position to bankroll a periodical with no audience, as evidenced by his publishing the first issue of magazine on credit. Likewise, although about half of the four pages of the broadsheet are taken up by ads for Chinese-produced goods like Dog Head Brand silk stockings 狗頭牌絲襪 and Jade Lion cigarettes 玉 獅香煙, it seems unlikely they would have paid much to advertise in a small magazine with an unproven track record. Given their limited funds, therefore, it seems probable that the publisher cut Ye, Wang, and Huang off when the money earned from advertisers and recycling the first issue failed to cover the printing costs. Dr. FixDr. FixDr. FixDr. Fix----ItItItIt and the Pioneer Syndicateand the Pioneer Syndicateand the Pioneer Syndicateand the Pioneer Syndicate On the same day that Ye Qianyu, Wang Dunqing, and Huang Wennong’s venture was launched, a new daily four-panel cartoon strip, Dr. Fix-It改造博士 appeared in the Shenbao, featuring the eponymous Dr. Fix-it, an inventor who makes strange devices to solve everyday problems. Produced by the Pioneer Syndicate 中國第一畫社所制 for the long-running Shenbao supplement Unfettered Talk 自由 談 edited by Zhou Shoujuan 周瘦鵑 (1895-1968), Dr. Fix-It was the brainchild of Ji Xiaobo, and co- written by the famous comic writer Xu Zhuodai 徐卓呆 (1881-1958), with illustrations by Lu Shaofei.142 Although Lu had worked as a freelance cartoonist for the Shenbao throughout the early 1920s, Dr. Fix-It was his first regular feature for the newspaper. Zhang Meisun, another Manhua Society member and veteran Shenbao contributor, and Qin Lifan 秦立凡 (n.d.) were also involved with the project, drawing backgrounds and lettering the speech bubbles, respectively. The following words of explanation were included alongside the first strip of Dr. Fix-It, published January 1, 1928: 141 Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 62. 142 Lu Yaodong 陸耀東, Dangbo Sun 孫黨伯, and Tang Dahui 唐達暉, eds., “Ziyou Tan” 自由談 [Unfettered Talk], Zhongguo Xiandai Wenxue Da Cidian 中國現代文學大辭典 (Gaodeng Jiaoyu Chubanshe 高等教育出版社, 1998), 441. 64 SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM OUR PAPER Our office has recently been taking stock of the newspapers of our nation, with an eye to increasing the number of humorous drawings to catch the interest and improve the spirits of our readers. Previously, we provided relatively few drawings of this type. Therefore starting on January 1, Year 17 of the Republic [1928], we will include the humorous drawing of Dr. Fix-It, to be published daily in Casual Chat, a series produced by the Pioneer Picture Syndicate, with all rights retained by this publisher, and all credit owed to them. 本刊特別啟事 本館近鑒吾國報紙, 對於增加閱者興趣及愉快之滑稽畫,尚少提倡。爰自民國十七一 月一日起, 採用《改造博士》滑稽畫一種, 逐日刊登自由談, 系中國第一畫社所制, 所 權亦系該社所有, 特並聲明。143 Figure 5.1 The first Dr. Fix-It 改造博士 Shenbao Sunday, January 1, 1928, 26. According to Lu Shaofei, Ye may have held a grudge against Ji Xiaobo for arranging to have Dr. Fix-It published more than four months earlier than Ye Qianyu’s now famous Mr. Wang 王先生 (See 143 “Ben kan tebie qishi” 本刊特別啟事 [Special Announcement from Our Paper], Shenbao 申報, January 1, 1928. 65 Fig. 4.6), making Dr. Fix-It the first serialized cartoon strip in China.144 If Ji Xiaobo had approached the unemployed Ye Qianyu, instead of Lu Shaofei, then it is possible that Standard Sizes, or another strip, could have been launched four months earlier on the pages of the Shenbao and taken off there, rather than dying a quiet death on the pages of Shanghai Sketch I. This could explain why Ye Qianyu chooses not to mention Dr. Fix-It in his autobiography. I am somewhat skeptical, however, of Lu Shaofei’s claim that Dr. Fix-It was the first serialized Chinese cartoon strip. As early as 1926, for example, The Young Companion serialized a multi-issue comic strip, The Good Couple 一對好夫妻 credited to Kaixin 開心 [Happy], which was likely a pseudonym for more well-known artist.145 Figure 5.2 The first Mr. Wang 王先生 Shanghai Sketch II, March 21, 1928 144 Bao Limin, “Ye Qianyu yu Lu Shaofei (shang),” 24. 145 Christopher G. Rea points out that in the mid-1920s Xu Zhuodai co-founded a film company called the “Kaixin Film Company” 開心影片公司, and that first chapter of Lu Xun’s short story The True Story of Ah Q appeared in a column called Happy Talk 開心話. Seeing that Kaixin was then a common pseudonym for writers and cartoonists, it is also possible that Kaixin was a penname for Ji Xiaobo, since it appears that was the sole contributor of manhua to The Young Companion before the appearance of The Good Couple. Although the art style differs substantially from the few works which I have been able to uncover which are credited to Ji, like Dr. Fix-It, The Good Couple centers on the relationship between a husband and his wife. 66 Although Ye Qianyu, according to Lu Shaofei, didn’t find out about the cartoon until it had already been published, most of the other members of the Manhua Society were probably aware of the project early on. Aside from fellow Manhua Society members Lu Shaofei, Zhang Meisun, and Ji Xiaobo (the latter two also working in the same office as Ye and Huang Wennong), Xu Zhuodai also likely knew Ding Song and the Zhang brothers. Qin Lifan, meanwhile, had published cartoons by Zhang Guangyu, Huang Wennong and Lu Shaofei in the first issue of Pacific Pictorial 太平洋畫報, published four years earlier in 1925.146 Zhou Shoujuan, meanwhile, had worked closely with Ding Song in the 1910s, drawing a number of memorable covers for Shoujuan’s entertainment magazine The Saturday 禮拜六. To have had a project like this concealed from them, especially when it coincided with their own venture’s failure to launch, would have been hurtful at the very least. Coming at the hands of a colleague and (for Ye) mentor figure like Ji Xiaobo would have made it even worse. More fundamentally challenging to the group, perhaps, were the ideological differences which existed between the two publications. Whereas the domestic comedy of Dr. Fix-It was clearly meant to be taken as light-hearted entertainment, features such as Wang Dunqing’s essay, “Long Live the Tramp!” in Shanghai Sketch I seems to carry a darker note of subversion beneath the humor. Similarly, cartoons by both Huang Wennong and Ye Qianyu feature overt sexual innuendo: in Huang’s “Jump on the Horse and Drop Anchor,” a man waits in an open top car in the rain for his friend, who is busy romancing his young mistress (See Fig. 4.3); while in Ye’s “Standard Sizes,” a “little wife” (i.e. mistress) is compared to a “big wife” (See Fig. 4.4). This ribald humor is juxtaposed with drawings of attractive women in the latest fashions and even one artistic nude on the back cover, holding a lightbulb in an advertisement for Prosperity Electronics Supply 福來電料行. 146 “Taipingyang Huabao Chuban Yuwen” 太平洋畫報出版預聞 [Pacific Pictorial to Be Published], Shenbao 申報, May 27, 1926, 21. 67 Figure 5.3 Huang Wennong “Jump on the Horse and Drop Anchor” 上馬及拋錨 Shanghai Sketch I, January 1, 1928, 3. Figure 5.4 Ye Qianyu “Standard Sizes”大小標凖 Shanghai Sketch I, January 1, 1928, 2. 68 Later that year, almost certainly in response to the relaunch of their competitor, the Pioneer Syndicate launched a second strip, The Romantic Adventures of Mr. Mao 毛郎艷史, dealing with the romantic adventures of a young man in the big city (See Fig. 4.5). Eventually a two more strips were launched: The Traveler 旅行家, an apparent copy of Ye Qianyu’s Mr. Wang, the main character a tall, thin man dressed in a long gown, (See Fig 4.6), and Brother Tao 陶哥兒, starring a naughty child (See Fig. 4.7). This last strip would go to become their most popular after Dr. Fix-It, with both seeing reboots well into the 1930s. The pressure to create new material everyday seems to have pushed the Pioneer Syndicate to their limit, however, because by September, 1928, they were posting notices in Unfettered Talk seeking story ideas for new comic strips.147 Figure 5.5 The Romantic Adventures of Mr. Mao 毛郎艷史 Shenbao, June 1, 1928. Figure 5.6 The Traveler 旅行家 Shenbao, August 8, 1928. 147 “Zhongguo di yi hua she qiu tougao” 中國第一畫社徵求投稿 [Pioneer Syndicate Seeks Submissions], Shenbao 申報, September 19, 1928, 21. 69 Figure 5.7 Brother Tao 陶哥兒, Shenbao, September 14, 1928. A long column by Xu Zhuodai followed shortly thereafter, thanking readers for the apparent flood of letters while lamenting that the submissions were, by and large, useless.148 This notice reveals several important differences between Shanghai Sketch and the Pioneer Syndicate. First, and most obviously, Shanghai Sketch was clearly the more salacious of the two, relying more heavily on sexual innuendo and the female form to entice readers. (Even then, the first installment of Dr. Fix-It takes place in the master bedroom, with Dr. Fix-It installing a temperature sensitive blanket that automatically covers his shapely wife, who wears a short and tight-fitting Western style dress.) Secondly, Ji Xiaobo and Zhou Shoujian’s Pioneer Syndicate offered no credit to its young artists, Lu Shaofei, Qin Lifan, Zhang Meisun, or even the much older and more well-known Xu Zhuodai. This differed starkly with Shanghai Sketch, which listed the names of its artists and writers not only in notices in the Shenbao, but also throughout the publication itself, giving credit where credit was due. This was not, in fact, an innovation unique to the Shanghai Sketch, however. With the exception of illustrations for children’s magazines and advertisements, most artwork reprinted in magazines and periodicals during the 1920s and earlier gave credit to the artist via his chop or signature, at the very least. The Shenbao went even further, often including the name of the artist and title of the artwork in typeset characters alongside reproduced drawings and paintings, as is the case with Shanghai Sketch. If anything, Pioneer Syndicate was unique in choosing not to give credit. When combined with the sanitized humor, the choice to not give the artists and writers credit indicates that Ji Xiaobo and Zhou Shoujuan saw manhua not only as tool to boost sales, but also as a new form of entertainment which could be mass produced by a team of faceless artists and writers, “with all 148 Xu Zhuodai 徐卓呆, “Duiyu di yi she tougaozhe shuo ji ju hua” 對於第一畫社投稿者說幾句話 [A Few Words on the Submissions to the Pioneer Syndicate], Shenbao 申報, October 26, 1928. 70 rights retained by this publisher, and all credit owed to them.” 149 Given his long tenure at Unfettered Talk and other periodicals before that (where he had worked closely with Ding Song), seems likely that Zhou Shoujuan had learned that when artists and writers became well-known, they could begin to demand higher rates for their work. It is unclear whether or not Ji Xiaobo was still working at the Songhu Police Station in 1928, although it seems unlikely given that Ye, Huang, and Lu all left or were forced out of their various positions in late 1927. On the other hand, Ji’s joining of the censorship committee of the Department of Education in November, 1929, indicates he maintained close ties with his contacts in the KMT government.150 Around this same time Dr. Fix-It and the other Pioneer Syndicate strips were cancelled. Despite comments by Jack Chen (relying on information provided by a clearly embittered Wang Dunqing) to the contrary in 1937, however, Ji continued to produce humorous (but apolitical) cartoons well into the 1930s and 40s.151 Shanghai Sketch IIShanghai Sketch IIShanghai Sketch IIShanghai Sketch II In the spring of 1928, not long after the failed launch of Shanghai Sketch I, Zhang Guangyu and Zhang Zhengyu approached Huang, Wang and Ye about joining forces to relaunch their broadsheet as a full-fledged magazine. Taking what they had learned from both China Camera News and The Shanghai Life, the new and improved Shanghai Sketch II would include a mix of fashion, current events, and political commentary. Taking inspiration from Dr. Fix-It perhaps, and also the American comic strip Bringing Up Father, it would also feature a serial cartoon strip by Ye called Mr. Wang 王先生. Named after Wang Dunqing, who Ye claims rejected the title, Shanghainese 上海人, since it had been featured in Shanghai Sketch I, and was therefore unlucky.152 149 “Ben kan tebie qishi.” 150 Mentioned in Bu Wuchen, “Gaoshou manhuajia Ji Xiaobo.” See also “Shi Xuanchuan Bu Shisi Ci Buwu Huiwu.” 151 See Chen, “China’s Militant Cartoonists” and Bu Wuchen, “Gaoshou manhuajia Ji Xiaobo.” 152 No such cartoon or column appears in the Shanghai Sketch I, indicating that Ye’s memory may have failed him. Christopher G. Rea points out that Ye also relied a fair amount of Shanghai stereotypes, domestic humor, and stock humor, such as henpecked husbands, in addition to traditional Chinese joke books like the Expanded Treasury of Laughs 笑林廣記. See Christopher G. Rea, “A History of Laughter: Comic Culture in Early Twentieth-Century China” (Columbia University, 2008), 219; Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 64, 111. 71 In addition to the former Manhua Society members, the new magazine would feature three photographers: Lang Jingshan 郎静山 (1892-1995), an advertising agent for Tiger Balm who would go on to great fame as a photographer; Hu Boxiang 胡伯翔153 (1896-1989), an artist for British-American Tobacco, where Zhang Guangyu and Ding Song also worked; and Zhang Zhenhou 张珍侯 (? - ?), a successful businessman who worked in import and export.154 Given Wang’s radical political views, the mundane commercial nature of the new enterprise may have frustrated him, and he probably did not care much for the backgrounds of the three photographers who seem to have mostly been recruited due to their relatively large (at least by looking at their job titles) fiscal resources. Unhappy with the arrangement at Shanghai Sketch II, Wang Dunqing argued with Zhang Zhengyu, leaving after the first meeting of the magazine. Shortly thereafter the first issue of the new Shanghai Sketch II was published on April 21, 1928. Reinvented as a double-sided broadsheet printed on both sides and folded into quarters, it was only 8 pages long including the cover, illustrated by Zhang Guangyu. A modest success, new issues came out weekly thereafter, distributed every Saturday. According to Ye, Zhang gave him a position as assistant editor on the magazine, which was produced in the back room of an old church in Majiajuan 麥家圈, near the intersection of Fuzhou Road and Shandong Road.155 Located just north of the walled Chinese city centered around Yu Garden 豫園 and the City God Temple, where Lu Shaofei’s father plied his trade as a portraitist, Foochow Road was one of the most notorious thoroughfares in the International Settlement, 153 In his autobiography, Ye Qianyu misremembers Hu Boxiang as Hu Boxu 胡伯诩. See Chen Xueyong 陳學勇, “Shanghai manhua yu Shanghai Manhua” 上海漫畫會與《上海漫畫》 [Shanghai Manhua and Shanghai Manhua], Zhongguo Lunwen Wang 中國論文網, n.d., http://www.xzbu.com/5/view-4269506.htm (accessed February 24, 2015). 154 Chen Xuesheng 陳學聖, “Modeng Shanghai de Lang Jingshan” 摩登上海中的郎靜山 [Modern Shanghai’s Lang Jingshan], Zhongguo Meishu Guan 中國美術館, n.d., http://www.namoc.org/xwzx/zt/langjingshan/langjingshan5/langjingshan6/201405/t20140507_276688.htm (accessed September 12, 2015). 155 In his autobiography, Ye Qianyu misremembers the name of the area as Maijiayuan 麥加園. In fact the, area was named Maijiajuan 麥家圈 after the founder of the London Missionary Society Press 墨海書館, English protestant missionary Walter Henry Medhurst, whose Chinese name was Maidousi 麥都思. Mai 麥 refers to Medhurst, jia 家, meaning ‘family,’ acts as a possessive particle, and juan 圈 means ‘sty’ or ‘pen,’ apparently referring to the fact that Medhurst’s first press was powered by an ox. See Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 63; Zhang Zonghai 張宗海, “You Mohai Shuguan Er Xing de Lao Jie - Maijiajuan” 由墨海書館而興的老街——麥家圈 [An Old Street That Began with the London Missionary Society Press - Maijiajuan], 上海市地方志辦公室, n.d., http://www.shtong.gov.cn/node2/node71994/node71995/node72000/node72014/userobject1ai77393.html (accessed September 18, 2015); Zhang Xiantao, The Origins of the Modern Chinese Press: The Influence of the Protestant Missionary Press in Late Qing China (Routledge, 2007), 106–8. 72 with a large number of restaurants, teahouses, and theatres; it “was also traditionally home to bookstores (including the three biggest and most famous: Zhonghua, World, and Great East), whorehouses, and opium dens, as well as being home to the American Club, built in 1924 in American Georgian colonial style with bricks imported all the way from America.”156 The very second issue of Shanghai Sketch features a cover by Lu Shaofei, working under the (rather transparent) pseudonym, Lu Liaoliao 魯了了 (See Fig. 4.9). Lu would continue to be a regular contributor to the magazine throughout 1928, providing numerous drawings of fashionable women. Perhaps due to contractual obligations with the Pioneer Syndicate, or perhaps because of the sexually explicit nature of some of the work published under that name, he continued to use his pseudonym until June, with occasional cartoons under his name appearing in Shanghai Sketch II as early as the third issue.157 156 French, The Old Shanghai A-Z, 108. 157 Given that at least one notice in the Shenbao lists Lu Liaoliao and Lu Shaofei as separate artists, it seems more probable that Lu was more concerned about hurting his reputation than he was about offending Ji Xiaobo or Zhou Shoujuan. See “Chubanjie Xiaoxi” 出版界消息 [News in the World of Publishing], Shenbao 申報, April 30, 1928, 19. 73 Figure 5.8 Lu Liaoliao [aka Lu Shaofei] “The Destiny of Love” 愛的命運 Shanghai Sketch II, Issue #3, May 5, 1928. 74 Figure 5.9 Lu Liaoliao [aka Lu Shaofei] "Young Girl and Married Woman" 少女與婦女 Shanghai Sketch II, May 12, 1928. Figure 5.10 Lu Shaofei “New Styles for Early Summer” 初夏的新裝 June 2, 1928. Shanghai Sketch II is an important publication, not only because it represents one of the first truly successful projects by the members of the Manhua Society, but also because it introduced cartoons to a new generation of artists and writers, in a very real way passing on the torch of the previous generation of 75 cartoonists such as Shen Bochen and Ding Song. Among these artists were artists such as Xuan Wenjie 宣 文傑 (1916-1998), who worked as an assistant on Shanghai Sketch II and later publications, and Ding Song’s son, Ding Cong 丁聰 (1916-2009), who would go on to become a major cartoonist in his own right.158 158 Ye Qianyu mentions working with Xuan Wenjie in his autobiography, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 65. 76 Chapter 6Chapter 6Chapter 6Chapter 6 : The Legacy: The Legacy: The Legacy: The Legacy Over the years which followed its founding in 1926, the Manhua Society would come to be seen as forming an important part of the history of cartooning in China. Writing in the English language magazine ASIA Monthly some eight months after the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese War in May, 1938, Jack Chen described the fate of the Manhua Society in vivid language: Since this was not a fair weather art, it did not attract those in search of fame or fortune. On the contrary, it offered poverty and hard knocks. The history of the first group of cartoonists is typical. Out of ten members, one died with enough money to pay for his funeral; one joined the government and secured a job that kept him from doing embarrassing cartoons, one disappeared after publishing a particularly pointed anti-Kuomintang cartoon, six managed to hold together, to be joined by a seventh who had been in hiding for four years during the bitterest persecution of Leftists: after the fall of the Wuhan government in 1927 and the split of the united front between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang. Their survivors met [in 1934] at the home of their dead friend, whither that all unknowingly come on the same mission–to give him a regular funeral. Of the seven, three had steady jobs that paid fifty dollars gold a month, and they earned perhaps fifty more by extra work. These are the best paid cartoonists in China. The rest scrape along as best they can, editing, teaching, doing odd jobs. And yet–making cartoon history.159 While it is easy to identify the first Manhua Society member mentioned as Huang Wennong, who died of ruptured stomach ulcer on June 21, 1934, the others are less obvious. Clearly, Ji Xiaobo is the most likely candidate for having joined the government, and the six who held together most likely refers to Ye Qianyu, Zhang Guangyu, Zhang Zhengyu, Lu Shaofei, Ding Song, and Hu Xuguang or Zhang Meisun. Huang Wang seems to have been the only out-and-out leftist in the group, although the dates for going into hiding seem wrong, since he was active throughout 1927 and early 1928, and again in 1930, with a four year period of inactivity from 1931 to 1934. This corresponds with the crackdown against the League of Left-Wing writers, of which he was a member, in February, 1931. The author of the pointed anti-KMT cartoon is more difficult to identify, but it may have been a younger member of the staff at Shanghai Sketch II, such as Xuan Wenjie, or someone less directly connected, such as Huang Shiying. 159 Chen, “China’s Militant Cartoonists,” 308. 77 Birth of the ModernBirth of the ModernBirth of the ModernBirth of the Modern Riding high on their success, on October 10, 1929, Shanghai Sketch Press上海漫畫社, Zhang Zhengyu convinced his older brother to rename their press the China Fine Arts Periodical Press中國美術 刋行社 and launch a second periodical, the monthly pictorial Modern Miscellany 時代畫報, to be co- edited by Zhang, and the modernist writer, Ye Lingfeng 葉靈鳳 (1905-1975).160 Designed to compete with the wildly successful pictorial Young Companion 良友畫報, the inspiration for Modern Miscellany came after the Singaporean distributer for both Shanghai Sketch and Young Companion lost distribution rights to the latter. The distributor’s representative in Shanghai, Wang Shuyang (who had met Ye in 1925, when he interviewed him for the job at Three Friends Co.), approached Ye Qianyu and Zhang Zhengyu with this business opportunity, and Zhang managed to convince his older brother against of the urgings of their three partners. Shortly thereafter, Lang Jingshan, Hu Boxiang, and Zhang Zhenhou withdrew from the partnership in protest, forcing them to move their office from the church to an alley near the intersection of Nanjing Road and Zhejiang Road, just minutes from the Bund.161 As a result, the second issue of Modern Miscellany was delayed until late February of the next year, and the third issue was not published until May. To solve their cash flow problems, Zhang Guangyu and company announced in the June 7, 1930, issue of Shanghai Sketch that the publication would be merging with Modern Miscellany and the publication schedule changed to bimonthly.162 On June 16, 1930, the first merged issue of Shanghai Sketch and Modern Miscellany was published, with the title shortened to Modern 時代.163 160 “Liang Da Kanwu zhi Fengxing” 兩大刋物之風行 [Two Popular Publications], Shenbao 申報, October 22, 1929, 16. 161 Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 70. 162 “Yuezhe zhuyi ben kan zi xia qi qi yu Shidai Huabao hebing xiangqing qing yue di er ye!” 阅者注意 本刊自下起期起與 時代畫報合併為半月刊 詳情請閱第二頁! [Note to Our Readers: Starting with Our next Issue, this Magazine Will Join with Modern Miscellany and Be Published Bi-Monthly. See Page Two for More Details!], Shanghai Manhua 上海漫畫, June 7, 1930, 8. 163 Although he provides an overview of the transition from Shanghai Sketch to Modern Miscellany to Modern, Ye Qianyu is rather sketchy on the exact dates for when the various publications began and ended. Thankfully, in 2007 Wang Jingfang completed a dissertation on Shao Xunmei’s contributions to the publishing industry, providing more precise dates. See Wang Jingfang 王京芳, “Shao Xunmei he Ta de Chuban Shiye” 邵洵美和他的出版事業 [Shao Xunmei and His Publications] (Ph.D., East China Normal University 華東師範大學, 2007), 88. 78 Meanwhile, in 1930 Ji Xiaobo and Ye Qianyu seem to have made steps toward burying the hatchet when Ji Xiaobo convinced the owner of Chenbao 晨報 [Morning Post] to launch a pictorial supplement which would serialize Ye Qianyu’s popular cartoon, Mr. Wang. Despite already working full- time as an editor at the bimonthly Modern Miscellany, Ye agreed, receiving 100 yuan per month for his strips, and two pin-up advertisements which the publisher requested in exchange for publishing the cartoon.164 Despite Jack Chen’s sarcastic comment in late 1938 that “[Ji Xiaobo] joined the government and secured a job that kept him from doing embarrassing cartoons,” then, it seems possible that Manhua Society parted amicably, having served its purpose of launching the careers of its members. Publication problems with Modern continued to persist, but as luck would have it, China Fine Arts Periodical Press had attracted the attention of the wealthy socialite and erstwhile poet, Shao Xunmei 邵洵美 (1906-1968), who was looking for an investment to change the declining fortunes of his large and profligate family.165 In November, 1930 he officially joined the editorial staff of Modern, providing the necessary capital to have the magazine printed on the latest rotogravure presses rather than relying on the outdated copperplate etching that they had been using before.166 A notice in Modern Issue 12 (Vol 1) announced Improvement in Printing and Picture Plates Starting with Issue 1, Vol. 2, we will begin using photogravure, plus two-color plates, three-color plates, seven-color plates, etc. The paper we use will also be changed to specially produced foreign- made photogravure paper, in what could be called a pioneering step in China. 印刷及圖版之改良 164 Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 72–73. 165 For an concise account of Shao Xunmei’s life and times, see Jonathan Hutt, “Monstre Sacré: The Decadent World of Sinmay Zau 邵洵美,” China Heritage Quarterly 22 (June 2010), http://www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/features.php?issue=022&searchterm=022_monstre.inc (accessed July 31, 2015). Throughout his essay Hutt refers to Modern as Epoch, a translation that does not seem to have been used by Zhang Zhengyu or the other publishers of the magazine. As John A. Crespi points out, “epoch” or “era” would be a much more literal translation of shidai in English. See “China’s Modern Sketch: The Golden Era of Cartooning 1934-1937,” MIT Visualizing Cultures, 2011, http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/modern_sketch/ms_essay01.html (accessed July 31, 2015). 166 Wang Jingfang records that Xunmei’s name first appears on the list of editors for Modern Issue 1 (Vol. 2), published November, 1930. See “Shao Xunmei he Ta de Chuban Shiye,” 90. 79 從二卷一期起改用影寫版印行並添加 雙色版、三色版、七色版等, 紙張亦改用特向 外洋定造之影寫版專用紙, 可稱國內獨步167 As promised, the next issue of Modern, published on November 16, 1930, featured a large number of photographs, with much better contrast and fine detail. Over the next year however, due to the limited number of rotogravure presses in Shanghai at the time, Modern continued to suffer from delays, and quality declined as well. Finally, in the summer of 1931, Shao Xunmei managed to buy his own German- made rotogravure press for $50,000 US dollars, which was to be the foundation of his new venture, the Modern Press時代印刷公司, and in the sixth issue (Vol. 2) of Modern, China Fine Arts Periodical Press announced that they would be taking a two month hiatus to set up their new press.168 Renting a factory on Pingliang Road平涼路 in Yangpu district, between the Japanese controlled Hongkou district and the Huangpu River, Shao soon found himself cut off from his investment when this part of the International Settlement was occupied by Japanese troops arriving via gunboat in January, 1932.169 Figure 6.1 Logo of the Modern Press 時代印刷有限公司 designed by Zhang Guangyu in 1931.170 167 “Yinshua ji tuban zhi gailiang” 印刷及圖版之改良 [Improvement in Printing and Picture Plates], Shidai 時代, October 1930, Issue 12 (Vol. 1). 168 “Bianwan yihou” 編完以後 [After Editing], Shidai 時代, August 1931, 26. 169 See Wang Jingfang, “Shao Xunmei he Ta de Chuban Shiye,” 89, and Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 71. 170 Zhang Guangyu 光宇 張, Jindai Gongyi Meishu 近代工藝美術 [Modern Commerical Art] (China Fine Arts Periodical Press 中國美術刋行社, 1932) cited in Crespi, “China’s Modern Sketch: The Golden Era of Cartooning 1934-1937.” For more on this important work, originally serialized in Modern, see Tang Wei 唐薇, “Zhang Guangyu Xiansheng yu Jindai Gongyi Meishu” 张光宇先生和《近代工艺美术》 [Mr. Zhang Guangyu and Modern Commercial Art], Zhuangshi 裝飾 (July 2, 2010), http://www.izhsh.com.cn/doc/9/689.html (accessed September 10, 2015). 80 At the time, Hongkou was known as “Little Japan,” due to its large number of Japanese residents who moved to the district following the establishment of a Japanese consulate there in 1873. In 1876, Japanese residents of Hongkou built a Buddhist temple in the district, further solidifying its status as a de facto Japanese concession.171 Directly to the north and west of Hongkou, meanwhile, lay the Chinese district of Zhabei. Containing the terminus to the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway, Zhabei proved to be an attractive location for industrialists, with one of the largest Chinese publishers, the Commercial Press, choosing to build their sprawling 80 acre campus there in 1907. By 1930, 29% of printing presses in Shanghai were based in Zhabei district, in addition to 42.6% of textile manufactures, 23% of the chemical industry, 22.4% of the food industry, and 16% of electromechanical manufacturers.172 On September 18, 1931 an explosion occurred near an important South Manchuria Railway line in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang. Later revealed to have been orchestrated by Japanese soldiers, the confusion provided the Kwantung Army with the necessary casus belli to order an invasion of Manchuria, claiming it was necessary for the protection of Japanese economic interests in the region. Ongoing Chinese boycotts of Japanese goods, in particular cotton, had been making it increasingly difficult for Japanese industrialists to operate in China, even with the protections afforded to them by numerous territorial concessions granted first by the Qing and later by successive warlord governments. Although Manchuria had been under the control of the Japanese-backed Fengtian clique for over two decades, economic collapse due to military overspending had left the clique weakened and unable to stand up against Chiang Kai-shek’s 蔣介石 Northern Expedition 北伐 of 1926-1928. Frustrated that their interests in Northern China were not being protected, the Imperial Japanese Army assassinated the leader of the Fengtian clique, Zhang Zuolin, later staging the “attack” in Shenyang when his son, Zhang Xueliang, surprised the world by pledging support to Chiang Kaishek and the Nationalists. As Manhua Society founding member Wang Dunqing explained six years later, in 1937, during the politicized period of the Second Sino-Japanese War (and in a strident paraphrase by noted anti- imperialist and leftist, Jack Chen), the outrage created by this conspiracy was integral to the formation of manhua periodicals: 171 Mo Yajun, “‘Little Japan’ in Hongkou: The Japanese Community in Shanghai, 1895-1932” (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004), 35–36. 172 Christian Henriot, “A Neighbourhood under Storm Zhabei and Shanghai Wars,” European Journal of East Asian Studies 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2010): 293. 81 …the one event which had done the most to develop cartooning in China was the “Manchurian incident.” This was a tragic farce in the grand manner. Adequate comment on it was only possible in the form of caricature. For it meant simply that a vast territory containing thirty million people was occupied because a rail and two sleepers had been damaged by a grenade. The young revolutionary students reacted to this politically in their demonstrations, artistically in their cartoons. 173 The Mukden Incident occurred during a general boycott of Japanese goods that had begun in July, 1931, following the Wanpaoshan Incident, in which Chinese farmers had clashed with Korean immigrants in Manchuria, leading to violent anti-Chinese riots in Korea (at the time under Japanese colonial rule) and Japan.174 Although by no means the first anti-Japanese boycott, with strikes and protests ongoing from the May 30 Incident of 1925, it was the first to gain the overt support of the KMT government. The Mukden Incident in the fall added fuel to the fire of anti-Japanese sentiment, and by the end of the year it was estimated Japanese imports to China had declined by nearly a quarter.175 In Shanghai, the boycott was particularly fierce, with Time magazine providing the following account from October, 1931: In Shanghai such sniveling, furtive Chinese storekeepers as dared to offer Japanese goods for sale last week were roughly pounced upon by Chinese "police" of the self-appointed Anti-Japan Association and locked up in improvised jails. Gibbering with terror, the unpatriotic storekeepers were flung prostrate on the floor before Anti-Japan Association "judges," kowtowing and howling for mercy. The "judges" imposed and actually collected "fines" up to $10,000 Mex. ($2,500) for the "crime" of selling Japanese goods. Convicted shopkeepers who said they could not pay were kicked back into Anti-Japan Association jails, kept there on persuasive starvation rations. This queer kind of justice, flagrantly illegal in every way, was everywhere upheld by Chinese public opinion, the opinion of one-fourth of mankind.176 173 Chen, “China’s Militant Cartoonists.” 174 Ibid. 175 See “Memorandum on the Chinese Boycott of Japanese Goods,” Memorandum (Institute of Pacific Relations, American Council) 1, no. 4 (March 30, 1932): 1 and A Synopsis of the Boycott in China: The Chinese Government Encourages and Directs the Anti-Japanese Boycott. The Anti-Japanese Boycott by China is Tantamount to an Act of War. (The Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 1932). 176 “Boycott, Bloodshed & Puppetry,” Time 18, no. 17 (October 26, 1931): 22. 82 On January 18, 1932, a protest by Japanese Buddhist monks against the Chinese boycott was staged outside the main Three Friends Co. factory in Zhabei. According to later accounts, to create an incident, a Japanese intelligence officer by the name of Ryukichi Tanaka 田中隆吉(1896-1972) hired local Chinese thugs to attack the monks, one of whom died of his injuries. Two days later, a Japanese paramilitary group burned down two buildings at the Three Friends factory in retaliation. Meanwhile, Japanese residents of Shanghai were petitioning their government for military intervention, and the Japanese military began demanding that the mayor of Shanghai, Wu Tiecheng 吳鐵城 (1888-1953), oversee the suppression of anti-Japanese groups in Shanghai. Despite the mayor’s capitulation, the situation continued to escalate. Japanese residents were evacuated and the Japanese navy began to send marines into Hongkou where they were stationed in a local park. On the evening of January 28, 1932, the Japanese marines launched an offensive into Zhabei from their base in Hongkou, ostensibly to rescue Japanese residents still trapped in Zhabei, where they clashed with the 19th Route Army of the NRA. Originally from Canton, they had been stationed in the city by Sun Fo and Chiang Kai-shek to protect Chinese interests, but few expected them to last long in the face of the Japanese assault.177 In response to the surprisingly fierce resistance put up by the 19th Route Army, the Japanese military employed heavy aerial bombing and artillery shelling which was to destroy some 80% of the structures in Zhabei, including some 896 factories.178 Due to the turmoil of the so-called “Shanghai Incident” of 1932, which was concluded with a truce on March 3, the seventh issue (Vol. 2) of Modern did not come out until June, 1932, some ten months after the previous issue. Three months later, under Shao Xumei’s influence, China Fine Arts Periodical Press launched a new literary magazine, The Analects Fortnightly 論語半月刊, edited by the popular writer Lin Yutang 林語堂 (1895-1976). Lin Yutang was known for his advocacy of the use of humor to save the Chinese nation from totalitarianism, writing in 1937, It seems to me that the worst comment on dictatorships is that presidents of democracies can laugh, while dictators always look so serious—with a protruding jaw, a determined chin, and a pouched lower lip, as if they were doing something terribly important and the world could not be saved, except by them.179 177 For a detailed account of the Shanghai Incident of 1932, see Frederic, Policing Shanghai, 1927-1937, 187–94. 178 Henriot, “A Neighbourhood under Storm Zhabei and Shanghai Wars,” 310. 179 Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living (Reynal & Hitchcock, 1937), 78. 83 Lin’s visual sense, on good display in this passage, and his skewering of the serious politicians of the world would have put him in good company with Ye Qianyu and the other members of the Manhua Society. Like Wang Dunqing, he was fluent in both Chinese and English, having attended St. John’s for a time before going abroad to the US to study at Harvard. Like Huang Wennong, Ye Qianyu, Ji Xiaobo, Cai Shudan, and Zhang Meisun, meanwhile, Lin had worked for the Nationalist government following the Northern Expedition, but like most of the Manhua Society members he quickly became disillusioned with the KMT. Finally, much as the members of the Manhua Society eventually rejected the older term “satirical drawings” in favor of “manhua,” Lin Yutang famously promoted his own brand of comedy under the banner of youmo 幽默, a transliteration of the English word “humor.” 180 In the early 1930s, Lin found himself a target of criticism from Lu Xun, who found fault with his flippant xiaopin wen 小品文 or “little prose pieces,” to use the translation used by the leading English- language of scholar of the form, Charles Laughlin.181 Lu Xun disparaged Lin’s little prose pieces as “little decorations” 小擺設 or, to use Kirk Denton’s memorable translation, “bric-a-brac for the bourgeoisie.”182 Described most simply by Laughlin as “an essay genre…that emerged in the 1920s and reached the peak of its popularity shortly before the War Against Japan broke out in 1937,” xiaopin wen developed in parallel with manhua, which as we have seen also emerged in the 1920s and, coincidentally enough, would peak in popularity in the mid-1930s. It is perhaps not surprising then, that manhua pioneer Feng Zikai was a prominent author of xiaopin wen, for which he favored the term suibi 隨筆, or ‘casual essay,’ mirroring his use of the term manhua, or ‘casual drawing.’183 Lin Yutang, primarily a writer, also dabbled in cartooning, for example publishing a humorous illustration of Lu Xun beating a drowning pug in the Peking Press Supplement京報副刊 on January 23, 180 For a discussion of Lin Yutang and his concept of humor see Chapter 6 of see Christopher G. Rea’s The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China (Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015). 181 For an analysis of the xiaopin form, see Laughlin’s monograph The Literature of Leisure and Chinese Modernity (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008). 182 Kirk A. Denton, “Lu Xun Biography,” MCLC Resource Center, 2002, http://u.osu.edu/mclc/online-series/lu-xun/ (accessed October 5, 2015). 183 Albeit at the suggestion of Zheng Zhengduo. See Barmé, An Artistic Exile, 89. 84 1926 (See Fig. 6.2).184 This somewhat incongruous image was apparently in response to series of back and forth essays between Lin and Lu Xun criticizing the academic Chen Yuan 陳垣 (1880-1971) for supporting the closure of the Women’s College in Beijing. When Lin urged his friend to show restraint by saying, ‘one shouldn’t beat a drowning dog,’ 不打落水狗 Lu Xun jokingly responded that Chen Yuan was a ‘pug,’ 叭儿狗 which “…were so smug they behaved more like cats than dogs, [so] it was necessary to push them into the water and also give them a sound beating.”185 Figure 6.2 “Picture of Mr. Lu Xun Beating a [Drowning] Pug” 魯迅先生打叭兒狗圖 Lin Yutang, Peking Press Supplement 京報副刊, January 23, 1926. One year later, Shao Xunmei launched a 10-day periodical, The Decameron 十日談, edited by Zhang Kebiao 章克標 (1900-2007), featuring political commentary by Shao Xunmei and others, with cartoons by Zhang Guangyu and other members of the original Manhua Society on the cover.186 According to Shao 184 Chen Zishan 陳子善, “Lin Yutang de Manhua” 林語堂的漫畫 [Lin Yutang’s Cartoons], Wenhuibao 文彙報, August 1, 2015, http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:7rNh0hwaOzgJ:whb.news365.com.cn/bh/201508/t20150801_210 9885.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us (accessed October 3, 2015); “Lu Xun Xiansheng Da Baergou Tu” 魯迅先生打 叭兒狗圖 [Picture of Mr. Lu Xun Beating a Pug], Peking Press Supplement 京報副刊, January 23, 1926. 185 Paraphrased by Gloria Davies in Lu Xun’s Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2013), 225. 186 Wang Jingfang records that the editor of Decameron was Yang Tiannan 楊天南. See “Shao Xunmei he Ta de Chuban Shiye,” 126 85 Xunmei’s daughter, The Decameron was meant to supplant Modern, which was often delayed due to publishing problems and therefore unable to comment on current events in a timely fashion.187 In November, 1934, Shao Xunmei and Zhang Guangyu’s younger brother, Cao Hanmei, each contributed 2000 yuan to purchase China Arts Periodical Press and found a new publisher, with Zhang Guangyu, Zhang Zhengyu, and Ye Qianyu all receiving an equal share in the new partnership.188 Using a similar name in English as his previous project, the goal of Modern Publications 時代圖書公司 are perhaps indicated their ambitions best through their Chinese name, which literally translates as “Modern Picture Book Company.”189 True to their name, Modern Publication would go on to publish a series of art books, including a reprint of Huang Wennong’s Collected Satirical Drawings and Things a Young Lady Must Know 小姐須 知 , a 1932 collaboration between Shao Xunmei, who supplied the text, and Zhang Guangyu, who provided matching illustrations of beautiful young women. Apparently something of a joke, Things a Young Lady Must Know was made up of a series of short lines such as, “If you wear this flower, you must know that this flower is beloved by all.” 您如戴這朵鮮花時，要知這鮮花是人人所愛的 and “When you talk to your lover in the cold of winter, it’s best to sit close to the stove, to make yourself appear more coy.” 您與情人談話時，在冬令，宜近火爐，可以增嬌羞之美. In the forward, meanwhile, Shao added a note stipulating that the book was only to be sold to young, unmarried women, and that male customers buying the book should provide the name and address of a young lady on whose behalf they were claiming to buy the book. 190 Other books published by Modern Publications include a 187 Xiao Hong 綃紅, “Cong Shi Ri Tan Kai Tianchuang Shuoqi” 從《十日談》開天窗說起 [On the Skylight Opened by The Decameron], Bolan Qunshu 博覽群書 (February 7, 2011), http://epaper.gmw.cn/blqs/html/2011- 02/07/nw.D110000blqs_20110207_4-04.htm?div=-1 (accessed October 3, 2015). 188 Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 70. 189 Again, the most literal translation of shidai is actually “epoch.” For the context in which it is used here as the name of a series of companies and magazines with a different, and consistent official English translation for the word, however, “modern” is a more logical translation. 190 Yao Sufeng 姚蘇鳳 (1906-1974) is said to have written a parody of this book titled Things a Young Lad Must Know, which contains the line, “When you talk to a young lady, whatever you do, don’t let your Wuxi or Changzhou accent slip out.” 與小姐們交際時，千萬不可露無錫及常州宜興等處的土音. Zhang Guangyu was, of course, originally from Wuxi, and Shao Xunmei’s family originally hailed from Changzhou, See“Xiaojie Xu Zhi yu Xiaoye Xu Zhi” 《小姐須知》與《少爺須 知》 [Things a Young Lady Must Know and Things a Young Lad Must Know], Shafengjing Ji de Boke 煞風景集的博客, August 22, 2011, http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5e8246090100tr3h.html (accessed October 2, 2015). 86 collection of Mr. Wang cartoons, and a series of travel drawings by Ye Qianyu, titled Ye’s Collected Quick Sketches 淺予速寫畫集.191 Much has been made of the fact that before partnering with the former members of the Manhua Society, Shao Xunmei was originally involved with the much more highbrow literary publication, the Crescent Moon Monthly 新月月刊 from 1928 to 1933. Originally founded with friend and fellow poet, Xu Zhimo 徐志摩 (1897-1931), regular contributors to the Crescent Moon Monthly included luminaries such as Hu Shi 胡適 (1891-1962), Liang Shiqiu 梁實秋 (1903-1987), and Shen Congwen 沈從文 (1902-1988), in addition to Lin Yutang. Jonathan Hutt argues that, Rather than catering to a limited number of friends and colleagues, Shao’s was now aiming at the city’s increasingly sophisticated petty-bourgeoisie hungry for entertainment and enlightenment. Publications such as The Young Companion had proven that a huge market existed for this particular brand of lifestyle publication and Shao was keen to capitalise on their success. In severe financial distress, Shao had but one option left open to him; kowtow to the vulgar.192 Wang Jingfang, however, argues that Shao Xunmei had much more noble goals in mind, citing a short essay by Xunmei titled, “The Cultural Status of Illustrated Magazines” 畫報在文化界的地位, published in the October, 1934, issue of Modern. Xunmei defends his choice to publish illustrated magazines by making the case that highbrow periodicals have failed to capture the attention of the vast majority of Chinese, not because they do not understand them, but because they serve no practical purpose. Illustrated magazines, according to Xunmei, had the advantage of attracting illiterate readers who, having enjoyed the pictures, would be enticed to learn to read the text as well.193 Wang further argues that Xunmei influenced Modern and the other China Fine Arts Periodical Press publications to become more cultured, by including essays and interviews with famous figures such as Lin Yutang, discussed previously, public intellectual Hu Shi 胡適, painter Lu Xiaoman 陸小曼, educator 191 Ye Qianyu also recalls that Zhang Guangyu’s groundbreaking 1935 collection Folk Love Songs 民間情歌 was published by the Modern Press. Although originally serialized in Modern, the collection seems to have been published by the Zhang brother’s Independent Press in 1935. See Tang Wei 唐薇, “Minjian Qingge Hua Ji Tan Yuan” 《民間情歌》畫集探源 [Exploring the Sources of Folk Love Songs], Baiyaxuan 百雅軒, n.d., http://baiyaxuan.com/longhair/show/tack-46-544.html (accessed October 2, 2015) and Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 72. 192 Hutt, “Monstre Sacré: The Decadent World of Sinmay Zau 邵洵美.” 193 Wang Jingfang, “Shao Xunmei he Ta de Chuban Shiye,” 99–100 87 Cai Yuanpei 蔡元培, and entrepreneur Wang Xiaolai 王曉籟. Additionally, aside from cartoonists, Shao convinced artists such Xu Beihong 徐悲鴻, Pan Xunqin 龐薰琴, An Ge’er 安格爾, Chang Yu 常玉 to contribute to his magazines.194 Whether these efforts were merely a smokescreen for Xunmei’s more mercantile interests, or examples of a genuine attempt to raise the level of popular discourse is of course debatable, but it is nevertheless interesting to consider the possibility that there was an element of altruism behind the co-author of Things a Young Lady Must Know. The Manhua BoomThe Manhua BoomThe Manhua BoomThe Manhua Boom On January 24, 1934, a new monthly Modern Publications manhua magazine, Modern Sketch 時 代漫畫 was launched with Lu Shaofei as the editor. Modern Sketch would prove to be one of the longer lived manhua periodicals, putting out 39 issues in the 42 months between its first issue on January 24, 1934 and its last on June 20, 1937, with each issue containing 32 pages of cartoons, photographs and essays, in addition to a full color front and back cover.195 194 Ibid., 106. 195 Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Shidai Manhua (Shanghai)” 时代漫画 (上海) [Modern Sketch (Shanghai)], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝術卷, November 2000, 599–600. 88 Figure 6.3 Cover of the first issue of Modern Sketch by Zhang Guangyu, featuring the “Don Quixote of Manhua” 漫畫的堂 吉訶德 by Zhang Guangyu, January 24, 1934 To explain the cover of the first issue of the first issue of the new periodical (see Fig. 6.2) Lu included a short note titled “Editor’s Filler” 編者補白: On all sides a tense era surrounds us. As it is for the individual, so it is for our country and the world. Will things always be this way? I for one don’t know. But since the feeling won’t go away, one desires an answer, and the more one fails to find it, the more that desire grows. Our stance, our single responsibility, then, is to strive! As for the design on the cover of this first issue, it shall be our logo. Its meaning: Yield to None. 目下四圍環境緊張時代，個人如此，國家世界亦如此。永遠如此嗎？我就不知道。 但感覺不停，因此甚麼都想解決，越不能解決越會想應有解決。所以，需要努力！ 89 就是我們的態度。責任也只有如此。這一期的封面的圖案，以後用做我們地表示， 表明『威武不屈』的意思。196 Like Ye before him, Lu was also extremely productive, contributing a large number of his own cartoons and essays to his magazine. Modern Sketch was not without controversy however, running into a 3 month ban from the KMT government’s Central Office of Propaganda 中央宣傳部 February, 1936 for cartoons by Wang Dunqing which were said to “slander the government, damage international relations, and slander political leaders” 污蔑政府,、妨碍邦交、污辱领袖.197 The same month saw additional bans on Zhang Guangyu’s Oriental Puck 獨立漫畫 (launched in September, 1935, following the appearance of the Zhang brother’s new publishing house, Shanghai Oriental Puck Press 上海獨立出版), and Huang Shiying’s Manhua and Life 漫畫和生活.198 Manhua and Life was the latest iteration in a long string of manhua periodicals launched by Huang Shiying, beginning with the launch of the 32-page Manhua Life 漫畫生活 on September 20, 1934.199 Originally a spinoff of German-speaking social progressive Wu Langxi’s吳朗西 monthly art and literature journal Arts & Life 美術生活, Manhua Life was co-edited by Zhong Shanyin 鐘山隱,a Sichuanese landscape painter who also worked on Arts & Life, and the cartoonists Huang Ding 黃鼎, Zhang E張 諤.200 In addition to cartoons, thanks to Wu Langxi’s connections (much like how Zhang Guangyu was able to leverage Shao Xunmei’s social status for Modern), Huang Shiying was able to boost the prestige, and likely the sales, of Manhua Life by publishing essays from famous writers such as Lu Xun (who had 196 Lu Shaofei 魯少飛, “Bianzhe Bubai” 編者補白 [Editor’s Filler], Shidai Manhua 時代漫畫, January 1934, 38 translated by John A. Crespi in “China’s Modern Sketch: The Golden Era of Cartooning 1934-1937.” 197 Ding Xi, “Shidai Manhua (Shanghai).” 198 Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Duli Manhua” 獨立漫畫 [Independant Manhua], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫 藝術卷, November 2000, 603; Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Manhua he Shenghuo” 漫畫和生活 [Manhua and Life], Meishu Cilin 美 術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝術卷, November 2000, 603–4. 199 Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Manhua Shenghuo” 漫畫生活 [Manhua Life], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝 術卷, November 2000, 600–601. 200 Arts & Life was published from April 1, 1934 to August 1937, total of 41 issues, and originally published by either Three- One Press 三一印刷公司 or Three Person Press 三人印刷公司. One of founders of this company, Jin Youcheng 金有成, appears to have been the owner of a rubber shoe factory. I have not been able to find the profession of the other, Yu Xiangxian 俞象賢. Most sources record that Manhua Life was printed and distributed by 美术生活杂志社, so it seems likely that at some point this company took over from the original publisher. See 90 been fiercely critical of both Shen Bochen and Lin Yutang), Mao Dun 茅盾 (1896-1981), and Lao She 老舍 (1899-1966).201 Like Lu Shaofei and the cartoonists behind Modern Sketch, Huang Shiying and his staff had big ambitions for their little periodical, writing in the preface to their first issue: Life is a big stage. We are all playing roles in a tragicomedy, and, at the same time, we are the audience for a tragicomedy. Even though the program changes every day, it never departs from the tragicomic mode. Let us open today’s program and take a look: the chaos of war, unemployment, famine, starvation, all occupy the grand stage of this tumultuous era. The lives of the masses in this era really are too cruel. And yet, in another corner of the stage, there exists a small minority who dance for joy at the mouth of the volcano. Such are the contradictions which exist in the world unfolding before our eyes. But we believe that this discord should disappear, and that sooner or later it will disappear. 世 界是一個大舞臺。人人是扮演悲喜劇的角色，人人又是悲喜劇的觀眾。舞臺上 的節目雖然天天在變更，但總走不出悲喜劇的範圍。我們且翻開今天的節目來 看 看：戰亂、失業、災荒、飢餓的大悲劇占據了這動亂時代的大舞臺。生長在這個時 代的大眾的生活實在是太悲慘了。然而在舞臺的另一角卻有少數在這火山口上跳 舞享樂的人們。這樣展開在我們眼前的世界是充滿著何等的矛盾。不過我們相信這 不調和的現象是應該消滅的，遲早是會消滅的。202 Fittingly, the cover of the first issue of Manhua Life, titled “The Cry of Life,” 生活的呼號 featured an emaciated Chinese man on his knees in the ruins of a demolished city, hands raised into the air, with a mouth open so wide that it obscures the rest of his face. For contemporary readers, ruined city would have immediately brought to mind the devastation wrought by the 1932 Japanese bombings in Zhabei. The pointed critiques in Manhua Life were not overlooked by KMT censors, however, who began 201 Interestingly, Zheng Zhenduo, the original publisher of Feng Zikai, who is thought to have coined the term ‘manhua’ was also a contributor to the magazine. 202 Shiying Huang 黄士英, “Kaichangbai” 開場白 [Prologue], Manhua Shenghuo 漫畫生活, September 20, 1934. 91 removing content from the magazine as early as the second issue. To draw attention to the censorship, the editors choose to leave blank spaces where the three offending cartoons would have been printed. 203 Figure 6.4 “The Cry of Life,” 生活的呼號 Manhua Life, Issue 1, September 20, 1934. On June 21, 1934, Huang Wennong died of a ruptured stomach ulcer and the former Manhua Society members pooled together to pay for his funeral. Abandoned by his wife following the death of their child, Huang had drifted away from the cartooning world in the years prior to his death, with his last printed work being the Modern Publications reprint of his collected works.204 Huang’s spirit of satirical troublemaking was shown to alive and well, however, when a young cartoonist named Hu Kao 胡考(1912-1994) threw his hat into the ring five months later on November 15, 1934, with a new Modern Publications periodical titled The Spectator旁觀者, which was banned after its first issue.205 In addition to cartoons by Ye Qianyu and excerpts from founding Left League member Tian Han’s new musical, Storm on the Yangtze 揚子江的暴風雨, likely of particular interest to 203 Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Manhua Shenghuo” 漫畫生活 [Manhua Life], Meishu cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝 術卷 (Shanxi Renmin Meishu Chuban She 陝西人民美術出版社, November 2000), 600–601. 204 Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian, 97. 205 Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Pangguanzhe” 旁觀者 [The Spectator], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝術卷, November 2000, 601–2. 92 censors was a two-page spread of famous faces creativity rendered in fruit and vegetables, titled “Heads of State” 元首 (See Fig. 6.5): Art is always so mundane, and yet always so miraculous! What materials are these depictions of our god-like head of states made of? It turns that Wu Zhihui is made of: an apple, mung bean sprouts, and dried soybeans. Zhang Xueliang is: a pomelo, watermelon seeds, and soybean hulls. Chiang Kai-shek is: a turnip head, grains, and watermelon seed shells. Hu Hanmin is: a pear, Liangxiang chestnuts, and watermelon seeds. Lin Sen is: a lemon, fava beans, red beans, and a corn tassel. Sun Ke is: a skinned water chestnut, and lotus seed pods. 藝 術是永遠的平凡，也是永遠的奇跡！這些神似元首的造像又是甚麼材料？ 原來 吳稚暉的是：蘋果，綠豆芽，黃豆。 張學良的是： 文旦，西瓜子，毛豆莢。蔣介 石的是：蘿卜頭，谷粒，西瓜子殼。 胡漢民的是： 洋梨，良鄉栗子，西瓜子。 林 森的是： 檸檬， 豆板，赤豆，玉蜀黍的鬚。 孫科的是：去皮的荸薺，蓮子。206 206 “Yuanshou” 元首 [Heads of State], 旁觀者, November 15, 1935. 93 Figure 6.5 “Heads of State” 元首, The Spectator, November 15, 1934. In February, 1935, the monthly Masses Manhua 群众漫畫, co-edited by Cao Juren 曹聚仁 and Wang Minqi 江毓祺 was launched.207 In April of the same year, Cai Ruohong 蔡若虹 and Zhuang Qidong 莊啟東 took over editorship of Manhua Life, with Cai also launching his own periodical in the same month, Manhua Manhua 漫畫漫話.208 Two more manhua periodicals were launched in April, 1935: Movies, Manhua 電影漫畫, co-edited by Gu Fengchang 顧逢昌 and Zhu Jinlou 朱金樓 (1913-1992); and Manhua Phenomenon 現象漫畫 edited by Wan Laiming 萬籟鳴, Zhou Hanming 周漢明, and Xue 207 Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Qunzhong Manhua” 群众漫畫 [Masses Manhua], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫 藝術卷, November 2000, 602. 208 Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Manhua Manhua” 漫畫漫話 [Manhua Manhua], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫 藝術卷, November 2000, 602. 94 Ping 薛萍.209 In May, 1935, Zhu Jinlou launched Chinese Manhua 中國漫畫 and that very same month, Wan Laiming and Xueping’s Manhua Phenomenon folded after putting out just two issues, along with the Cao Junren and Wang Minqi’s only slightly longer lived Masses Manhua, which published 3 issues in total.210 In July, 1935, Cai Ruohong’s Manhua Manhua folded, and Manhua Life folded two months later in September, 1935, having put out a total of 13 issues. Meanwhile, on September 25, 1935, Zhang Guangyu launched Independent Manhua 獨立漫 畫.211 Two more manhua periodicals were launched in October, 1935: Popular Manhua 大眾漫畫, edited by Zhang Hongfei 長鴻飛, and 新世代漫畫 New Era Manhua, co-edited by Chen Liufeng 陳柳鳳 and Chen Mingxun 陳明勛.212 Neither survived to put out a second issue. November saw one final periodical for 1935, 漫畫和生活 Manhua and Life, edited by Zhang E and Huang Shiying.213 CensorshipCensorshipCensorshipCensorship and Warand Warand Warand War In February, 1936, both Lu Shaofei’s Modern Sketch and Zhang Guangyu’s Independent Manhua were ordered to cease publication by the KMT government’s Central Office of Propaganda. Zhang E and Huang Shiying’s Manhua and Life ceased publication the same month, likely for the same reason. In April, 1936, Modern Sketch was temporarily replaced with Manhua World 漫畫界, edited by Wang Dunqing, while Huang Shiying and Liu Yongfu launched Life Manhua 生活漫畫.214 On May 7 of the same year, 209 Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Dianying Manhua” 電影漫畫 [Movies, Manhua], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫 藝術卷, November 2000, 602; Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Xianxiang Manhua” 現象漫畫 [Manhua Phenomenon], Meishu Cilin 美 術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝術卷, November 2000, 602. 210 Yihai Jiang 蔣義海, ed., “Zhongguo Manhua” 中國漫畫 [Chinese Manhua], Manhua Zhishi Cidian 漫畫知識辭典 (Nanjing Daxue Chubanshe 南京大學出版社, 1989), 68–69. 211 Ding Xi, “Duli Manhua.” 212 While New Era Manhua is listed on the Chinese Manhua Database 中國漫畫專題庫 website sponsored by the National Digital Culture Network 全國文化信息資源共享工程 it does not appear to have made it any of the major Chinese art or publishing encyclopedias. See “[Zhongguo Manhua Zhuanti Ku] - Quanguo Wenhua Xinxi Ziyuan Gongxiang Gongcheng” [中 國漫畫專題庫]-全國文化信息資源共享工程 [[Chinese Manhua Database] - National Digital Culture Network], n.d., http://www.bjgxgc.cn/manhua/ (accessed October 2, 2015). 213 Ding Xi, “Manhua Shenghuo.” 214 Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Shenghuo Manhua” 生活漫畫 [Life Manhua], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝 術卷, November 2000, 604. 95 Zhang Guangyu re-launched Shanghai Sketch as Shanghai Puck (in Chinese, however, the name was unchanged) to replace Oriental Puck which had managed to run for 9 issues.215 In June, Zhu Jinlou’s Chinese Manhua published its last issue, having put out a relatively impressive 14 issues. Huang Shiying and Liu Yongfu’s Life Manhua also put out its last issue in June 1936, having published 3 issues total. When Modern Sketch was re-launched by Lu Shaofei in June 20, 1936, Manhua World also continued to be published as a separate periodical. September 5, 1936 saw the launch of Huang Shiying’s Global Manhua 漫畫世界, which only lasted for a single issue, and on December 5, 1936 Wang Dunqing’s Manhua World published its last issue, for a total of 8 issues.216 Ironically, just as cartoons magazines were beginning to shut their doors, popular interest in the art form was hotter than ever, with the founding of the National Manhua Artist Association (NMAA) 中華 全國漫畫作家協會 in the spring of 1937. Founded by former Manhua Society members Wang Dunqing, Ye Qianyu, Zhang Guangyu, and Lu Shaofei, the NMAA included a large of younger manhua artists such as Cai Ruohong, Huang Miaozi 黃苗子, Liao Bingxiong 廖冰兄, Lu Zhixiang 陸志庠, and Hua Junwu 華君武. In an announcement, they pledged to “unite the cartoonists of the nation, promote manhua art, and make Chinese manhua into a tool for social education” 團結全體漫畫家、共同推進 漫畫藝術，使漫畫成為社會教育工具.217 Eventually, branches of NMAA would be founded in Guangzhou, Xian, Wenzhou, and Hong Kong, among other cities. In March, 1937, as one of the first activities sponsored by NMAA, Wang Dunqing launched Friends of Manhua 漫畫之友.218 Not to be outdone, Zhang Guangyu and Ye Qianyu published an extra large format manhua periodical Puck 潑克, while Huang Yao 黃堯 (1917-1987) and Zhang Leping 張 215 Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Shanghai Manhua (Shanghai Banyuekan)” 上海漫畫(上海半月刊) [Shanghai Sketch (Shanghai Bimonthly)], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝術卷, November 2000, 604. 216 Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Manhua Shijie (Shanghai)” 漫畫世界(上海) [Global Manhua (Shanghai)], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝術卷, November 2000, 604. 217 Zhang Shaosi 章紹嗣, “Zhonghua Quanguo Manhua Zuojia Xiehui” 中華全國漫畫作家協會 [National Manhua Artist Association], 中國現代社團辭典 (Wuhan: Hubei People’s Press 湖北人民出版社, 1994), 180–81, Wuhan. 218 Wei Qiao 魏橋 and Zhejiang Provincial Historical Figure Commitee 浙江省人物志編纂委員會, eds., “Wang Dunqing” 王敦慶 [Wang Dunqing], Zhejiang Historical Figures 浙江省人物志 (Hangzhou: 浙江人民出版社, 2005), 370–71, Hangzhou. 96 樂平 (1910-1992) launched Ox-head Manhua 牛頭漫畫 the same month.219 Although both Puck and Ox-head Manhua only lasted for single issue, Friends of Manhua was slightly longer lived, lasting for 4 issues before folding in May, 1937, the same month that Modern Publication’s long running flagship periodical, Modern finally threw in the towel. Shortly thereafter Modern Sketch put out its final issue on June 20, 1937, while Zhang Guangyu’s Shanghai Puck, finished its run on June 30, 1937, with a total of 13 issues.220 On July 7 of the same year, a clash between Japanese and Chinese soldiers on the Marco Polo Bridge outside of Beijing quickly led to a series of escalating battles between KMT forces and the Kwantung Army. Having amassed some 90,000 troops in Northern China and occupied Manchuria, ostensibly to protect Japanese railways and commercial interests, the Kwantung Army (and even more so the over half-million-strong Imperial Japanese Army, and rapidly expanding navy, both with separate air divisions) represented a serious challenge to the mostly rag tag troops in the National Revolutionary Army.221 With the exception of Chiang Kaishek’s German trained divisions, and graduates of the Whampoa Academy, who were mostly concentrated in the southern part of the country, the vast majority of the roughly 1.2 million troops that now made up the NRA were a mix of mercenaries and conscripts that had been brought into the military during the warlord conflicts of the early 1920s and the Northern Expedition of 1926-1928.222 Although China would not officially declare war on Japan until December 9, 1941, by the end of July, 1937, Chiang Kaishek and the Standing Committee of the KMT had voted in favor of launching an all-out “War of Resistance” against the Japanese forces in China.223 Shanghai was a logical choice to open 219 Ding Xi 丁西, ed., “Poke” 潑克 [Puck], Meishu Cilin 美術辭林, Manhua Yishu Juan 漫畫藝術卷, November 2000, 604; “1937 Nian 5 Yue 1 Ri： Niutou Manhua” 1937 年 5 月 1 日：《牛頭漫畫》 [May 1, 1937: Ox-Head Manhua], Huang Yao Foundation, n.d., http://www.huangyao.org/519.html (accessed October 3, 2015). 220 Ding Xi, “Shanghai Manhua (Shanghai Banyuekan).” 221 Hans J. Van de Ven, War and Nationalism in China 1925-1945, Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia (Routledge, 2003), 193. 222 This number is a rough estimate, based on a telegram sent by Chiang Kai-shek in November, 1941. See Ibid., 273–74. 223 The reason that China did not declare war on Japan in 1937 appears to have been to avoid running afoul of the Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1939 which prevented the U.S. government from providing military or financial aid to belligerents, with the goal of preventing the U.S. from becoming involved in World War II. See “Neutrality Acts,” The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military (Oxford University Press, 2002), http://www.oxfordreference.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780199891580.001.0001/acref- 9780199891580-e-5519 (accessed October 5, 2015) and Van de Ven, War and Nationalism in China 1925-1945, 196. 97 a second front in the conflict, given the large concentration of Chinese troops in the Chinese controlled parts of the city in light of the strategic importance of the city, but perhaps just as importantly, the presence of the foreign press. After a Japanese officer was killed in unclear circumstances at the hands of Chinese troops at Hongqiao airport to the west of the city, tensions began to escalate, with the NRA attacking Japanese positions in the city on August 13, 1937.224 The following day, the poorly trained Nationalist air force accidentally bombed Nanjing Road in the international settlement, killing 1,740 civilians and injuring another 1,873.225 Despite being greatly outnumbered, Japanese troops in Shanghai managed to hold out until IJA reinforcements began to arrive by sea in late August.226 In response to the Japanese invasion, on September 1, 1937, Wang Shuyang enlisted Zhang Guangyu, Zhang Zhenyu, and Ye Qianyu to became editors of the New Life Pictorial 新生畫報, soon changing the name to the Resist Japan Pictorial 抗日畫報.227 Wang Dunqing, Ye Qianyu, and the young cartoonists Te Wei 特偉 (1915-2010) and Zhang Leping 張樂平 (1910-1992) meanwhile, mobilized the National Manhua Artist Association to form the National Salvation Cartoon Propaganda Corps 漫畫 界救亡協會 (hereafter the Cartoon Corps) shortly thereafter, which launched its own propaganda periodical Save the Nation Manhua 救亡漫畫 on September 20. Pitched battles continued to be waged in and around Shanghai through September and October, with the NRA finally being forced to withdraw and cede the Chinese-controlled parts of the city center in late October. During the three month long conflict, the Zhang brothers managed to publish 15 issues of the Resist Japan Pictorial, before leaving for the relative safety of Hong Kong. The Cartoon Corps, meanwhile, put out 11 issues of Save the Nation Manhua, with a core contingent joining the Second United Front of the KMT and CCP in Wuhan in January, 1938. As members of the Third Bureau of the Military Affairs 224 “CLASH OF ARMIES. Nanking Force in Action NEAR PEIPING. Heavy Shelling. LONDON, Aug. 11.,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW, August 12, 1937), 9 225 Paul French, “Black Saturday – August 14, 1937,” China Rhyming, n.d., http://www.chinarhyming.com/2015/08/14/black-saturday-august-14-1937/ (accessed October 5, 2015); Carl Crow, Foreign Devils in the Flowery Kingdom (Earnshaw Books, 2007), 283–86. 226 For a detailed account of the Battle of Shanghai, see Van de Ven, War and Nationalism in China 1925-1945, 211–16. 227 Wei Qiao 魏橋 and Zhejiang Provincial Historical Figure Committee 浙江省人物志編纂委員會, eds., “Wang Shuyang” 王叔旸 [Wang Shuyang], Zhejiang Historical Figures 浙江省人物志 (Hangzhou: 浙江人民出版社, 2005), 370–71, Hangzhou. 98 Commission’s Political Affairs Department 軍事委員會政治部第三廳 under the leadership of Chinese Communist Party members Guo Moruo (also a founding member of the Left League) and Zhou Enlai 周 恩來 (1898-1976), the Cartoon Corps launched a new bimonthly periodical, Resistance Manhua 抗戰漫 畫, featuring denouncements of collaborators, exhortations to join the army, and graphic depictions of Japanese atrocities perpetrated on the bodies of Chinese women and children.228 Ultimately publishing 12 issues between January and July, 1938, Resistance Manhua was forced to shut down due to shelling and encirclement campaigns by Japanese forces during the Battle of Wuhan. Lasting nearly four months from June to October, 1938, the Battle of Wuhan set the stage for the long, protracted conflict which was to last until Japan’s surrender following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by U.S. forces in 1945.229 Like the second Battle of Shanghai the previous year, it also demonstrated the fragility of even the most robust of publishing industries, with much of the propaganda efforts during the remainder of the war being forced to resort to public exhibitions and murals in the absence of the necessary printing presses, and at times even ink and paper. 230 ConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusion As we have seen, although the official Manhua Society ended about a year after it began in late 1926, many of the members remained close, and throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s they pooled their resources to fund several short-lived manhua periodicals for which they solicited submissions from amateur and professional artists alike, becoming not only editors, but also gatekeepers, teachers, and patrons for generation of cartoonists which followed, a somewhat ironic role given their relatively humble origins (with the exception of Wang Dunqing). Employed primarily in the advertising and fashion industries, members responded to the worsening of the conflict with Japan by becoming increasingly 228 For an analysis of role depictions of rape and mutilated bodies played in Resistance Manhua and other wartime cartoon propaganda see Louise Edwards, “Drawing Sexual Violence in Wartime China: Anti-Japanese Propaganda Cartoons,” The Journal of Asian Studies 72, no. 3 (August 2013): 563–86. 229 Van de Ven, War and Nationalism in China 1925-1945, 226–27. 230 For first-hand accounts of cartooning during the war, see John A. Lent and Xu Ying, “Cartooning and Wartime China: Part One — 1931-1945,” International Journal of Comic Art 10, no. 1 (April 15, 2008): 76–139. Good examples of the relatively poor quality of wartime printing can also be seen in Huang Yao’s collections from this time period, such as Houfang de Chongqing Er 後方的重慶二 [At the Backlines of Chongqing, Part II] (Iron Press 鐵社, 1938), available online at “August 1938: At the Backlines of Chongqing 2,” Huang Yao Foundation, n.d., http://www.huangyao.org/578.html (accessed October 5, 2015) and Chongqing Manhhua 重慶漫畫 [Chungking in Cartoons] (Guilin: Science Book Press 科學書店, 1943), available at “June 1943 Chongqing Cartoons,” Huang Yao Foundation, n.d., http://www.huangyao.org/776.html (accessed October 5, 2015). 99 political and in their manhua periodicals, one can see a marked shift from boys’ humor and light political satire into outright propaganda. Their example demonstrates that the link between art, commerce and politics in the 1920s and 1930s in Shanghai was a fluid one, with few hard and fast boundaries. English-language historians of modern Chinese visual culture such as Julia Andrews, Adam Cathcart, John Lent, Ellen Johnston Laing, Paul Pickowicz, Kuiyi Shen and others have examined the careers of various manhua artists. Many more scholars have used manhua illustrations to demonstrate the development of the public sphere in Republican China. Other scholars have looked at the political and literary groups of the time, building on the work of Michel Hockx and Kirk Denton.231 John A. Crespi, meanwhile, has published an illustrated introduction to the important manhua periodical Modern Sketch and is in the process of completing a study of selected Chinese pictorial satire magazines from the late 1910s to the 1950s.232 Likewise, Jonathan Hutt has written at length on the life and times of Shao Xunmei, touching upon Modern Press, and more recently, Paul Bevan has published an important monograph which places Shao Xunmei and the members of the Manhua Society and their later collaborators within the global discourse of modern art.233 While I have relied on their work to varying degrees in the course of my research, to my knowledge, however, this is the first English language study to provide a comprehensive account of the formation and immediate legacy of the Manhua Society. Cartoonist and scholar Bi Keguan’s 畢克官 pioneering 1986 Chinese-language studyThe History of Chinese Manhua 中國漫畫史, co-authored with Huang Yuanlin 黃遠林 was the first to highlight the historical importance of the Manhua Society. Thirty years later, this groundbreaking work remains unsurpassed as the most exhaustive and penetrating look at the history of Chinese cartooning. Beginning with a short look at proto-cartoons from the pre-modern period, Bi and Huang document the emergence 231 See Julia F. Andrews, Painters and Politics in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-1979 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), Adam Cathcart, “Chinese Nationalism in the Shadow of Japan, 1945--1950” (Ph.D., Ohio University, 2005), Ellen Johnston Laing, “Shanghai Manhua, the Neo-Sensationist School of Literature, and Scenes of Urban Life,” MCLC Resource Center (October 2010), http://u.osu.edu/mclc/online-series/shanghai-manhua/ (accessed December 15, 2014), Shen Kuiyi, “Lianhuanhua and Manhua--Picture Books and Comics in Old Shanghai”, Liangyou: Kaleidoscopic Modernity and the Shanghai Global Metropolis, 1926-1945 (Leiden: Brill Academic Pub, 2013), and Kirk A. Denton and Michel Hockx, eds., Literary Societies of Republican China (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008). 232 Personal communication, in addition to Crespi, “China’s Modern Sketch: The Golden Era of Cartooning 1934-1937”; John A. Crespi, “Picturing the Purge: Chinese Cartoon Imagery from the 1930s to the 1950s,” EAP Speaker Series (Cornell University: Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, March 12, 2013), Cornell University, http://video.mit.edu/watch/john-crespi-picturing-the-purge-chinese-cartoon-imagery-from-the-1930s-to-the-1950s-part-four- 12364/ (accessed July 31, 2015). 233 Hutt, “Monstre Sacré: The Decadent World of Sinmay Zau 邵洵美”; Bevan, A Modern Miscellany. 100 of humorous drawings 滑稽畫 in the newspapers and pictorials of the late Qing and early Republican period, looking at artists such as Shen Bochen and Ding Song. They show how these works informed the satirical cartoons 諷刺畫 of the politically tumultuous late 1910s, which Bi and Huang refer to as the Era of May 4th Movement五四運動時期. Although this movement began as a series of student protests against territorial concessions given to Japan, it eventually came to be seen as emblematic of a much larger cultural backlash against cultural and social conservatism. Further research is needed on why so many manhua publications were short lived. While we will probably never know for sure how exactly how many manhua periodicals were published, in Chapter 6 of this study I touch on a total of 25 magazines published after the (informal) founding of the Manhua Society in 1928 and before Shanghai fell to the Japanese in November, 1937 (see Appendices Table 0.2 for a complete list). Of these, only a handful were able to survive for 2 to 3 years, with the vast majority closing after 2 or 3 months. John A. Crespi has hypothesized that many magazines were launched with funding sufficient to cover the costs of only one or two issues, being forced to rely on the sales of these first issues to continue printing thereafter. At the same time, for every successful magazine there were any number of titles which failed to find an audience large enough to justify production costs.234 In common with Bi and Huang and many others, however, I believe that the sudden profusion of short-lived manhua periodicals also owes at least some debt to the Manhua Society, whose members would go on to launch nearly two-dozen periodicals. As Bi and Huang argue, the Manhua Society was a group like-minded hobbyists who would go on to become professional cartoonists, united not only by their desire to rid China of both warlords and the foreign imperialists who backed them, but also motivated to foster and develop manhua as an art form. It is productive to examine the Manhua Society artists to the “amateur ideal,” proposed by Joseph Levenson in his essay “The Amateur Ideal in Ming and Early Ch’ing Society: Evidence from Painting.”235 In his study of the post-1949 intellectual Deng Tuo, Timothy Cheek discusses 234 Personal communication. 235 The first draft of this paper was presented at the second meeting of the Committee on Chinese Thought in Newhampshire in 1954. A revised version was presented at the Colloquium Orientologicum at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1956, and the following it was published in John King Fairbank, ed., Chinese Thought and Institutions (University of Chicago Press, 1957). The year after that, Levenson included the essay in his collection Confucian China and Its Modern Fate: The Problem of Intellectual Continuity (University of California Press, 1958). See James Cahill, “Joseph Levenson’s Role In My Development As A Scholar And Writer,” n.d., http://jamescahill.info/the-writings-of-james-cahill/responses-a-reminiscences/197-75- joseph-levensons-role-in-my-development-as-a-scholar-and-writer (accessed January 2, 2016). 101 Deng’s work as an amateur poet and calligrapher as having been in line with the late-imperial literati ideal that men of letters also pursue hobbies in art and literature, writing that Deng clearly shared the eclecticism and connoisseurship of the Ming dynasty literati, but his aesthetic delight did not extend to their formalism and in no way impeded his commitment to modern values of science and rational bureaucratic organization, not to mention Communist revolution. Equally, Deng’s high cultural pursuits did not interfere with his commitment to help the great majority of Chinese people achieve a better economic and cultural life.236 While several members of the Manhua Society, such as Ye Qianyu and Zhang Guangyu, would go to become important members of the intelligentsia of post-1949 China, becoming calligraphers and artists more in line with the amateur ideal, my own research suggests that while political concerns were not absent from the minds of the founding members of the Manhua Society, these concerns co-existed with economic and financial considerations. The drawings and photographs of nude and semi-nude women, for example, indicates a concern with commercial viability as much as it does a pushing of aesthetic and social boundaries. I have shown that the Manhua Society members began their careers as cartoonists somewhat earlier than Bi Keguan and Huang Yuanlin state, in the early rather than mid- 1920s. By tracking the relationships between the various members of the Manhua Society, and finding links back to the League of Leftwing Writers (on the part of Wang Dunqing), I have also demonstrated that the formation of the Manhua Society was a far more complex process than Bi and Huang record. I first became aware of this discrepancy between the historical record and the accepted narrative, established by Bi and Huang, through the work of Gan Xianfeng. Unlike Bi and Huang, who had the good fortune of conducting long interviews with “living archives” Lu Shaofei and Ye Qianyu, who have since passed away, Gan relied on archival research. 237 In his 2008 popular history of Chinese cartooning (confusingly given the same title as Bi and Huang’s book, The History of Chinese Manhua 中國漫畫史), 236 Timothy Cheek, Propaganda and Culture in Mao’s China: Deng Tuo and the Intelligentsia (Clarendon Press, 1997), 154–55. 237 For an account of Bi Keguan’s research methodology, see Bi Keguan 畢克官, “Why I Research Chinese Cartoon History,” trans. Xu Ying, International Journal of Comic Art 10, no. 2 (October 15, 2008): 421–36. 102 Gan provides evidence from the Shanghai newspaper the Shenbao that the Manhua Society was founded not in the fall or summer of 1927, as commonly claimed, but in December, 1926.238 Like Gan, my own research throughout this study has been primarily based on archives, guided by the oral histories collected by Bi and others. Unlike Gan, however, I am interested primarily in the roughly ten year period leading up to the formation of the Manhua Society, from 1917-1927. For several prominent members of the Manhua Society, such as Ding Song, Ji Xiaobo, and Hu Xuguang, membership seems to have represented the culmination of their careers as cartoonists. I have relied heavily on Ye Qianyu’s autobiography, first published in abbreviated form in 1989, and drawn on Christopher G. Rea’s discussion of Ye in his PhD dissertation on early 20th century Chinese comedy. 239 Thanks in large part to his service as an anti-Japanese propagandist under Guo Moruo during Second Sino-Japanese War, Ye was able to have a long career as an artist and educator in the PRC. He is consequently a relatively well-known figure from the Republican era, as evidenced (and no doubt in part fueled) by the popularity of his autobiography.240 Lacking a bestselling memoir, Lu Shaofei, on the other hand, has suffered somewhat in comparison, despite Bi Keguan’s vote of confidence in his The History of Chinese Manhua. Having worked as a KMT government official during the war, Lu Shaofei seems to have been blacklisted for a time by the post-1949 PRC government, only becoming prominent again in the 1980s. My close reading of these oral histories, authored primarily in the 1980s and 1990s, shows that the historiography of Chinese cartooning in the 1920s and 1930s has been influenced by disagreements 238 Gan Xianfeng, Zhongguo manhua shi, 109. Gan also discusses this common misunderstanding in a 2010 article correcting a number of factual mistakes in an article on the history of manhua written by Wang Jizhong. See Gan Xianfeng 甘險峰, “Zhongguo Manhua De Ji Ge Shishi Wenti - Jian Yu Manhua Chuban Jieduan Zhi Zuozhe Shanque” 中国漫画的几个史实 问题——兼与《漫画出版阶段志》作者商榷 [Several Factual Errors in the History of Chinese Comics: To the Author of A History of Manhua Publishing], 國際新聞界 no. 12 (2010): 124–27. For Wang Jizhong’s original article, see “Manhua Chuban Jieduan Zhi” 漫畫出版階段志 [A History of Manhua Publishing], 編輯之友 no. 4 (2009): 79–80. 239 See Chapter 4 of Rea, “A History of Laughter: Comic Culture in Early Twentieth-Century China.” The first, 116 page edition of Ye Qianyu’s autobiography was titled 十年荒唐夢—— 葉淺予回憶錄 [Ten Years, An Absurd Dream: The Memoirs of Ye Qianyu] (Renmin Ribao Chuban She 人民日報出版社, 1989). Three years later an expanded 534 page edition was released, retitled Xixu cangsang ji liu nian: Ye Qianyu huiyilu 細敘滄桑記流年: 葉淺予回憶錄 [Carefully Narrating the Changes of the Ages, Recording the Passing Years: The Memoirs of Ye Qianyu] (Qunyan Chubanshe 群言出版 社, 1992). The most recent edition, which I relied on during my research, was published in 2006, and is apparently somewhat reduced from the 1992 version, at 407 pages. It was published under the new title Ye Qianyu zizhuan: Xixu cangsang ji liunian. 240 Ye Qianyu’s service as the leader of the National Salvation Cartoon Propaganda Corps 救亡漫畫宣傳隊 is detailed in Lent and Xu Ying, “Cartooning and Wartime China.” 103 between Ye and Lu, and between other members of the Manhua Society. In Chapter 1, I recounted the course of events which led a son of a humble merchant, Ye Qianyu, to choose a career as a cartoonist, focusing on Ji Xiaobo, Ye’s early mentor, whom scholars such as Bi Keguan have largely ignored. Likewise, in Chapter II I introduced Ding Song, Zhang Guangyu, Zhang Zhengyu, and Lu Shaofei, the patrons and (literally in the case of the much older Ding Song, and figuratively in the case of his students, the Zhang brothers and Lu) elder statesmen of the Manhua Society. In Chapter III I discussed the careers of Wang Dunqing, Huang Wennong, and Hu Xuguang, exposing part of the networks of economic and social capital in which the members of the Manhua Society operated. In Chapter IV I discussed the catalyzing influence of the May 30 movement, which had a profound impact on the formation of the Manhua Society, concluding with an account of the North Expedition, which directly proceeded and perhaps contributed to the departure of several key members in late 1927. In Chapter V, I outlined the partial breakup of the Manhua Society, while highlighting two publications which appeared in 1928: Shanghai Sketch and Dr. Fix-it, spearheaded by Ye Qianyu and Ji Xiaobo respectively. Touched on briefly by Bi Keguan and Huang Yuanlin, Dr. Fix-it is an early indicator of the strained relationship that would develop between Ye Qianyu and Lu Shaofei, who worked as the primary illustrator for Ji Xiaobo’s Dr. Fix-it. Although Bi and Huang find it lacking in comparison to Mr. Wang, both seem to have overlooked the fact that Dr. Fix-it appeared some four months before Ye Qianyu’s more well-known work. As I discuss in Chapter V, Shanghai Sketch emerged shortly after when the Manhua Society is commonly thought to have formed, so its editorial board is often conflated with the membership of the Manhua Society itself. For example, shortly after introducing the Manhua Society, Bi and Huang write: After a half year’s time spent in preparation, the full-size color publication Shanghai Manhua was published [by the Manhua Society]. Several key members of the Manhua Society invested almost an entirety of their energies on this project, with some among them investing their entire energies into the task of editing. After the magazine was published, the Manhua Society’s major activities centered around it. 經過半年多的籌備,在一九二八年四月出版了大型彩印漫畫刊物 《上海漫畫》. 畫會是幾個骨幹，幾乎一大部分精力投入這項工作，有的則把全部 精力投入了編輯任務。刊物出版之後，畫會的活動主要是圍繞刊物進行的。241 241 Bi Keguan and Huang Yuanlin, Zhongguo Manhua Shi, 85. 104 This passage is followed by a longer sub-chapter dedicated to the publication, in which it appears that Bi and Huang were not aware that two separate publications titled Shanghai Sketch appeared in 1928. Nor do Bi and Huang acknowledge that neither publication involved a full roster of the Manhua Society (which seems to have partially disbanded in late 1927), as I demonstrate in Chapter V. Particularly striking is that Bi and Huang overlook that the first iteration of Shanghai Sketch, which appeared in January, 1928, was mostly the work of just three members of the Manhua Society: Wang Dunqing, Huang Wennong, and Ye Qianyu. Neither Lu Shaofei nor Ji Xiaobo were involved in this first Shanghai Sketch either, with only Lu joining the second with any regularity after Wang Dunqing’s departure.242 In Chapter VI I looked at the various publications launched by the former Manhua Society members in an attempt to understand the Society’s legacy. One challenge I faced was the impossibility of giving equal weight to every publication that emerged between when Modern Miscellany was founded in 1930 and the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese war. The enigmatic but influential patron of cartoonists, Shao Xunmei, I discuss only in passing. Chapter 6 gives only a general sketch of this tumultuous period.243 In conclusion, I find that the activities of the Manhua Society and its members had real historical impact on the development of Chinese cartooning, primarily because they brought together art and politics under the umbrella of a bewildering number of commercial ventures. As John A. Crespi, John Lent, Christopher G. Rea and many others have argued, the real golden age of Chinese cartooning did not occur until the 1930s, when the spread of modern, high-fidelity print technology in mainland China facilitated a publishing boom of high quality illustrated books and magazines. At the same time, as Jack Chen has emphasized, China also faced an existential threat from Japan and found itself in need of propaganda to demoralize and denigrate the enemy while bolstering nationalism and glorifying self-sacrifice.244 As this study has demonstrated, however, without the advantage of personal relationships and the sheer luck of 242 Ji Xiaobo did contribute art to issue #24 of Shanghai Sketch, published September 29, 1928. He does not appear to have been credited in the magazine itself, however. See “Shanghai Manhua Ershisi Qi Chuban” 上海漫畫二十四期出版 [Issue 24 of Shanghai Sketch Published], Shenbao 申報, September 29, 1928, 15. 243 Another area which I have, by necessity, overlooked is the role some Chinese cartoonists played as collaborators with the Japanese occupiers during the war years. For a fascinating look at this challenging topic, see Jeremy E. Taylor, “Cartoons and Collaboration in Wartime China The Mobilization of Chinese Cartoonists under Japanese Occupation,” Modern China (June 10, 2014), http://mcx.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/07/02/0097700414538386 (accessed October 5, 2015). 244 Chen, “China’s Militant Cartoonists,” 308. John Lent and Xu Ying have also done further research into the activities of manhua artists during this time period. See Lent and Xu Ying, “Cartooning and Wartime China.” 105 being in the right place at the right time it is unlikely that the Manhua Society and its members would have been able to succeed in their project to establish manhua as an art form. Future studies might look beyond the communist takeover of 1949 to explore how the different decisions made by manhua artists during the war years influenced how their legacies were preserved in the PRC, as well as how they were impacted by the Cultural Revolution of the mid-1960s, when the vast majority of the manhua artists found themselves being criticized as outmoded vestiges of the past. Chinese cartooning also flourished in the increasingly global context of the late 1970s and early 1980s; this is another period which would be rewarding to explore, as would the period of the mid-1990s to the present, which has seen the collapse and (stunted) rebirth of the domestic cartooning and animation industries within an increasingly competitive media and entertainment landscape. Given their fall from political favor, much biographical and historical work on manhua artists been concerned with redeeming the damaged or even forgotten reputations of this broken generation of writers and artists active in the 1920s and 1930s. While that is, in part, my intent with this study, I also hope that I have avoided the twin traps of hagiography and teleology which I would argue can be found in the sociological studies of Bi Keguan, Huang Yuanlin, and some of their successors. 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Shenbao 申報, June 9, 1931. “[Zhongguo Manhua Zhuanti Ku] - Quanguo Wenhua Xinxi Ziyuan Gongxiang Gongcheng” [中國漫畫 專題庫]-全國文化信息資源共享工程 [[Chinese Manhua Database] - National Digital Culture Network], n.d. http://www.bjgxgc.cn/manhua/. “Zhongwen biyesheng xiaoxiang bing timing lu” 中文畢業生小像並題名錄 [Chinese Supplement: Pictures of Graduating Students and Biographical Information]. Yuehan Niankan 約翰年刊 (1920). 117 AppendixAppendixAppendixAppendix Appendix A: Tables Appendix A: Tables Appendix A: Tables Appendix A: Tables Table A.1 Major manhua artists and publishers by decade, 1884-1917 Members of the 1926 Manhua Society are marked in bold.bold.bold.bold. Pre-1900 Zhang MeisunZhang MeisunZhang MeisunZhang Meisun 張眉孫張眉孫張眉孫張眉孫 (1884(1884(1884(1884----1975)1975)1975)1975) Sun Xueni 孫雪泥 (1888-1965) Shen Bochen 沈泊塵 (1889-1920) Ding SongDing SongDing SongDing Song 丁松丁松丁松丁松 (1891(1891(1891(1891----1972)1972)1972)1972) Zhou Shoujuan 周瘦鵑 (1895-1968) Feng Zikai 豐子愷 (1898-1975) Wang DunqingWang DunqingWang DunqingWang Dunqing 王敦慶王敦慶王敦慶王敦慶 (1899(1899(1899(1899----1990)1990)1990)1990) 1900-1910 Zhang GuangyuZhang GuangyuZhang GuangyuZhang Guangyu 張光宇張光宇張光宇張光宇 (1900(1900(1900(1900----1965)1965)1965)1965) Ji XiaoboJi XiaoboJi XiaoboJi Xiaobo 季小波季小波季小波季小波 (1901(1901(1901(1901----2000)2000)2000)2000) Hu XuguangHu XuguangHu XuguangHu Xuguang 胡旭光胡旭光胡旭光胡旭光 (1901(1901(1901(1901----1960)1960)1960)1960) Cao Hanmei 曹涵美 (1902-1975) Lu ShaofeiLu ShaofeiLu ShaofeiLu Shaofei 魯少飛魯少飛魯少飛魯少飛 (1903(1903(1903(1903----1995)1995)1995)1995) Huang WennongHuang WennongHuang WennongHuang Wennong 黃文農黃文農黃文農黃文農 (1903(1903(1903(1903----1934)1934)1934)1934) Zhang ZhengyuZhang ZhengyuZhang ZhengyuZhang Zhengyu 張正宇張正宇張正宇張正宇 (1904(1904(1904(1904----1976)1976)1976)1976) Shao Xunmei 邵洵美 (1906(1906(1906(1906----1968)1968)1968)1968) Ye QianyuYe QianyuYe QianyuYe Qianyu 葉淺予葉淺予葉淺予葉淺予 (1907(1907(1907(1907----1995)1995)1995)1995) Cai Shudan Cai Shudan Cai Shudan Cai Shudan 蔡輸丹蔡輸丹蔡輸丹蔡輸丹(n.d.)(n.d.)(n.d.)(n.d.) Huang Shiying 黄士英 (n.d.) 1910-1920 Zhang Leping 張樂平 (1910-92) Cai Ruohong 蔡若虹 (1910-?) Liang Baibo 梁白波 (1911?-1970) 118 1910-1920 (Cont.) Hu Kao 胡考 (1912-1994) Huang Miaozi 黃苗子 (1913-2012) Wang Zimei 汪子美 (1913-2002) Hua Junwu 華君武 (1915-2010) Te Wei 特偉 (1915-2010) Liao Bingxiong 廖冰兄（1915-2006） Ding Cong 丁聰 (1916-2009) Huang Yao 黃堯 (1917-1987) 119 Table A.2 Cartoon periodicals published in Shanghai, by year founded, 1928-1937 Year Publication 1912 The Crystal 晶報 1913 Unfettered Magazine 自由雜誌 The Pastime 游戲雜志 The Saturday 禮拜六 1918 Shanghai Puck 上海潑克 World Pictorial 世界畫報 1919 Comedy Pictorial 滑稽畫報 1925 China Camera News三日畫報 1928 Shanghai Sketch I 上海漫畫 Shanghai Sketch II上海漫畫 1929 Modern Miscellany 時代畫報 1934 Modern Sketch 時代漫畫 Manhua Life 漫畫生活 Observer 旁觀者 1935 Manhua Manhua 漫畫漫話 Movies and Manhua 電影漫畫 Manhua Phenomenon 現象漫畫 Chinese Manhua 中國漫畫 Oriental Puck 獨立漫畫 Popular Manhua 群眾漫畫 New Era Manhua 新時代漫畫 120 1935 (cont.) Manhua and Life 漫畫與生活 1936 Manhua World 漫畫界 Life Manhua 生活漫畫 Shanghai Puck 上海漫畫 Global Manhua 世界漫畫 1937 Puck 潑克 Friends of Manhua 漫畫之友 Ox-Head Manhua 牛頭漫畫 Resist Japan Pictorial 抗日畫報 Save the Nation Manhua 救亡漫畫 1938 Resistance Manhua 抗戰漫畫