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Political Art and Posters
Shaoqian Zhang
LAST MODIFIED: 28 AUGUST 2018
DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780199920082­0152
Introduction
Underlying all political arts and posters are questions about social­political culture and its creation of visual art. Consequently, more and more scholars have taken an interdisciplinary
approach in which the study of political art and posters combines a variety of issues in art history, social­political history, and communications studies, including artistic practice, aesthetic
influences, production and distribution techniques, reception (the impact of political art on the target audience), and politics and government. As purveyors of political messages, the arts
have had a long history in China and are closely intertwined with other cultural and religious practices. Political elements are pervasive in Chinese landscape paintings, nianhua (New
Year pictures), portrait paintings, and architecture. Yet, the practice of mass­produced political art and posters was a modern phenomenon, significantly determined by technological
developments in production and circulation. By the end of the 19th century, Western cultural influences, entering through treaty ports, brought modern printing techniques into China,
giving birth to a modern press and launching the production of commercial posters that would prepare the nation to embrace a culture of mass­produced political art. The production of
modern political art and posters in China was closely associated with war and revolution, and it demonstrated a critical connection between endemic visual sensibilities and evolving
politics. Various political movements in the 1910s and 1920s endorsed the practice of using political illustrations, cartoons, and propaganda posters to influence mass audiences.
Techniques for producing and distributing political posters were further refined in the course of the Second Sino­Japanese War and the Civil War of the 1930s and 1940s. After the
foundation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, political art and posters were a ubiquitous accompaniment to daily political development, reaching a culmination of the form
during the Cultural Revolution. The PRC period also witnessed the institutionalization of the format, through the Ministry of Culture. Popular themes included the happiness and
prosperity of life in a Communist society, the cult of party leaders and their policies, and the condemnation of state enemies and other targets of political campaigns. As a form of visual
persuasion, Chinese political posters have exhibited a variety of artistic influences, both domestic and foreign, including nianhua, paper cuts, pre­1949 advertisement posters, Japanese
woodblock prints, Art Deco, German expressionism, Russian constructivism, and socialist realism. This article prioritizes works of political art and posters as products of “social, political
and military history,” focusing on mass­produced art whose goal is to influence the general population, especially political posters (xuanchuanhua). These have been produced by a
variety of techniques, from woodblock and lithography to digital forms on the Internet. But a few basic works on Chinese modern and contemporary art with political elements are also
referenced. The bibliography focuses almost exclusively on modern and contemporary political images, covering diverse media such as paintings, posters, woodcuts, cartoons
(manhua), and illustrations. It privileges political posters over other genres, and it touches briefly on traditional nianhua and paper cuts. It neglects entirely certain types of political art,
namely, architecture and urban planning, maps, cinema, television, drama, photography, and contemporary Chinese art by individual artists or political activists.
General Overviews
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There are two primary approaches to reading political art and posters. The first is to treat them as fine art objects with political elements; the other is to employ moderate or minimal
visual analysis and treat them as xuanchuanhua (political poster), symbols and reflections of specific social­historical situations. Most xuanchuanhua books and articles place much
heavier emphasis on the post­1949 period, especially the Cultural Revolution. This section divides the overview books and articles into two categories: one on art and the other on
xuanchuanhua.
Comprehensive Art Overviews
As far as comprehensive overviews are concerned, Zhongguo xiandai meishu quanji is an impressive anthology on works of modern art, featuring many political paintings. Andrews and
Shen 1998, Andrews and Shen 2012, Andrews 2000, Lü 2010, Sullivan 1996, and Wang 1997 recognize political art as one of a variety of art genres in China in the 20th and 21st
centuries. Andrews 2000 focuses exclusively on paintings. Cook, et al. 2014 relates modern Chinese history and politics through a variety of visual media.
Andrews, Julia Frances. Between the Thunder and the Rain: Chinese Paintings from the Opium War through the Cultural Revolution, 1840–1979. San Francisco: Echo Rock
Ventures, 2000.
A collection of essays on different topics in Chinese painting from 1840 to 1979. It details the development of Chinese modern art and the negotiation between traditional Chinese and
Western art elements. Some paintings, especially the ones produced after 1949, have strong political elements. Published in association with the Asian Art Museum, Chong­Moon Lee
Center for Asian Art and Culture.
Andrews, Julia Frances, and Kuiyi Shen. The Art of Modern China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.
A comprehensive and systematic study of modern Chinese art history that traces its evolution chronologically and thematically from the end of the 19th century to the present day.
Andrews and Shen also explore political elements and issues of cultural nationalism in this work. A good choice for a textbook.
Andrews, Julia F., and Kuiyi Shen, eds. A Century in Crisis: Modernity and Tradition in the Art of 20th­Century China. New York: Guggenheim, 1998.
This book examines the different artistic experimentations and innovations from 1850 to the present day, with essays on various genres by a number of scholars. It contains articles on
Shanghai School paintings, modern calligraphy, commercial art, woodblock prints from the 1920s and 1930s, modern guohua (traditional ink and color paintings), socialist realist
paintings, and other contemporary works. Strong on social and political issues in art.
Cook, James A., Joshua Goldstein, Matthew D. Johnson, and Sigrid Schmalzer, eds. Visualizing Modern China: Image, History, and Memory, 1750–Present. Lanham, MD:
Lexington, 2014.
This book interprets modern Chinese history through visual imagery. Topics are varied, and the political ones include art in rebellion and war, representation of modern sports, film
propaganda and censorship, youth in the Cultural Revolution, and Internet culture.
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Lü, Peng. A History of Art in 20thCentury China. Milan: Charta, 2010.
Major survey of 20th­century Chinese art, translated from a 2009 Chinese text; discussions on political art are sparse and scattered here and there throughout the book. Encyclopedic
and impractical as a textbook, this text is most useful as a reference work. Bibliography is a good source for Chinese publications.
Sullivan, Michael. Art and Artists of Twentieth­Century China. Berkley: University of California Press, 1996.
This book deals with the rebirth of Chinese art in the 20th century under the influence of Western art and culture. Three chapters, “The Woodcut Movement,” “From Peace to Liberation,”
and “Cartoon and Caricature,” feature discussions on art and politics.
Wang, Ban. The Sublime Figure of History: Aesthetics and Politics in Twentieth­Century China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.
Covering a wide range of materials from fiction, poetry, aesthetics, and political discourse to memoirs, film, and historical documents, this work also analyzes such important cultural
features and events as Western influences on the formation of modern Chinese aesthetic discourse, modernist writings, revolutionary cinema, the Cultural Revolution, and New Wave
fiction.
Zhongguo xiandai meishu quanji
中国现代美术全集. 10 vols. Tianjin, China: Tianjin renmin meishu chubanshe, 1997.
An extensive anthology of works of modern art. Most works produced in the PRC were government sponsored, highly political, and were mass produced. This anthology neglects the
underground art world and places too much emphasis upon state sponsored artists.
Comprehensive Xuanchuanhua (Political Poster) Overviews
For books specifically focusing on xuanchuanhua, Chen and Wen 2010 provides a comprehensive overview. Ginsberg 2013 addresses Chinese political posters in the context of Asian
propaganda. Wang 2014 looks at both commercial and political posters. Usually organized chronologically, overview books tend to be highly descriptive and heavily illustrated.
Chen Guangbiao
陈广彪 and Wen Jingen 温晋根. Zhongguo xuanchuanhua shihua中国宣传画史话. Guiyang, China: Guizhou Jiaoyu chubanshe, 2010.
A comprehensive overview that includes the origins of Chinese political posters and features posters from the end of the late 19th century to the 1930s and political images produced
during the Second Sino­Japanese War. The volume provides a more comprehensive examination of political posters produced from 1949 to the present day; poorly edited, however, and
contains a number of errors in dating of posters.
Ginsberg, Mary. The Art of Influence: Asian Propaganda. London: British Museum Press, 2013.
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This book is an illustrated contextual overview of Asian propaganda art covering the period from approximately 1900 to 1976 (the end of the Cultural Revolution and Mao’s death).
Features Chinese propaganda posters from both the Republican and PRC periods.
Wang Yuqing
2014.
王宇清. Zhangcai tiehong: 1915–1976 meishu zhangtie yu xiandai Zhongguo张彩贴红: 1915–1976美术张贴与现代中国. Beijing: Zhongguo qingnian chubanshe,
A comprehensive overview of Chinese political posters from 1915 to 1976, this book aims to compare and contrast posters produced during the Republican and PRC periods. It
overemphasizes the difference between the two periods. It also includes examples of commercial posters. It is an excellent visual catalogue, yet presents biased political opinions.
Guide to Sources and Exhibition Catalogues
A great many of the publications devoted to Chinese political art and posters were published in the form of catalogues of collections and exhibitions. This section offers some guidance
on archival, exhibition, and auction sources. Access to sources is a major issue in researching political art and posters. Unfortunately, Chinese political posters are scattered all over the
world, with little consistency in terms of chronology or artistic style. Most collections carry very few posters from the Republican period.
Archives and Collections
The Hoover Institute and Archives of Stanford University features a chronologically comprehensive collection and is a suitable place to begin browsing Chinese political posters, ranging
from the late Qing dynasty to the 1980s­era People’s Republic of China. The Chinese Collection at Hoover contains more than 300 posters. The Shanghai Propaganda Poster Center,
founded by Yang Pei Ming, also features political posters from both the Republican and PRC periods (Young and Ming 2013). For posters of the People’s Republic period, the collections
of Stefan Landsberger and the International Institute of Social History (IISH, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) currently maintain over 5,000 pieces. Landsberger and van der Heijden 2009
is an extensive guide to these two collections. A number of public, private, and university museum collections also feature posters from the PRC period, including the collection of
Gerhard Pommeranz­Liedtke (Jirka­Schmitz 2011), the Collection of Michael Wolf (Min, et al. 2008), University of Westminster, Chinese Poster Collection (Hill 2004), Ashmolean’s
collection of Chinese prints (Vainker and He 2007), the British Museum Collection of Mao badges (Wang 2008) and the Museum of Chinese Revolution’s Collection (Zhongguo geming
bowuguan 2003).
Hill, Katie, ed. The Political Body: Posters from the People’s Republic of China [in the 1960s and 1970s]. London: University of Westminster, Chinese Poster Collection,
2004.
A visual catalogue featuring the Chinese Poster Collection of the University of Westminster. Posters are from the Cultural Revolution period. Database can also be accessed online.
Jirka­Schmitz, Patrizia. Chinese Vintage Posters from the Collection of Gerhard Pommeranz­Liedtke (1953 to 1958) and Other Owners (1965 to 1976). Cologne: Hanstein
Verlagsgesellschaft, 2011.
A catalogue of the early PRC posters at the collection of Gerhard Pommeranz­Liedtke.
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Landsberger, Stefan, and Marien van der Heijden. Chinese Posters: The IISH­Landsberger Collections. New York: Prestel, 2009.
Opening with a brief introduction to the history of graphic arts propaganda in China, this book introduces posters from the IISH­Landsberger Collections, presented chronologically. Most
of these posters represent images of key political issues in the PRC, such as political movements, iconic leaders, economic reforms, and China’s current status as one of the most
rapidly developing countries. Database can also be accessed online.
Min, Anchee, Duo Duo, and Stefan R. Landsberger. Chinese Propaganda Posters: From the Collection of Michael Wolf. Cologne: Taschen, 2008.
This book represents Michael Wolf’s massive PRC Chinese propaganda poster collection. It is structured to correspond with the chapters of Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book. It also
includes a large number of posters of the 1980s, illustrating those showing the influences of market reform and economic development.
Vainker, Shelagh, and Weimin He. Chinese Prints 1950–2006 in the Ashmolean Museum. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2007.
A catalogue of the collection at the Ashmolean of Chinese prints from 1950 to 2006. Included are a few prints from the pre­1949 period. The catalogue is also available online.
Wang, Helen. Chairman Mao Badges: Symbols and Slogans of the Cultural Revolution. London: British Museum, 2008.
This book presents the British Museum collection of Mao badges and offers a reference guide for navigating through the symbols and slogans of the Cultural Revolution in different
media. It is a descriptive and illustrated catalogue, with lists and appendixes of useful information.
Young, Pearl, and Yang Pei Ming, eds. Chinese Propaganda Poster Collection. Shanghai: Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Center, 2013.
This is a visual catalogue of the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Center, featuring posters from 1910 to 1990 and corresponding to Yang Pei Ming’s collection. The Shanghai Propaganda
Poster Center is a private museum funded by Yang Pei Ming. In addition to political (propaganda) posters, a large number of commercial posters are also presented.
Zhongguo geming bowuguan
中国革命博物馆, ed. Zhongguo geming bowuguan cangpin xuan 中国革命博物馆藏品选. Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 2003.
A large picture album featuring the objects collected at the Museum of the Chinese Revolution, including books, works of fine art, and photography.
Collections of Images Online
Online resources for political posters are essential to the study of the topic. The most well­known of these for posters are the collections of Stefan Landsberger with the International
Institute of Social History (IISH) and Yang Pei Ming (Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Center), both of which have quite extensive historical coverage. The Hoover Institute & Archives
has digitalized more than 330 of its Chinese poster collections. London’s Bloomsbury Auctions also holds an online catalogue of over 500 Chinese PRC political posters. The Collection
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of Chinese Prints of the Ashmolean Museum focuses on the new nianhua and woodcuts. With around 800 images, the University of Westminster Chinese Poster Collection is a good
source for the Chinese posters from the Cultural Revolution.
Ashmolean Museum. Ashmolean’s Collection of Chinese Prints. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum.
The Ashmolean Museum’s online collection includes more than 120 xuanchuanhua, woodcuts, and the new nianhua from 1950 to 2006. It shows the images in chronological order and
also provides a reference website for the political artists.
Bloomsbury Auctions. Chinese Propaganda Posters. London: Bloomsbury Auctions, 2013.
An online catalogue of more than 500 posters of the PRC period at London’s Bloomsbury Auctions.
Hoover Institution Library & Archives. Hoover’s Chinese Poster Collection. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
With more than 330 online images of Chinese political posters, the Hoover Collection surprisingly includes some rare posters from China’s Republican period. The pitfalls to be
encountered in its online collection are: (1) Images are not organized in a user­friendly manner; (2) Users have access only to image snapshots. For larger digital images in higher
resolution, it is necessary to submit request forms.
International Institute of Social History. IISH­Stefan Lansberger Collections. Amsterdam: International Institute of Social History.
The largest and most well­known online collections for Chinese political posters. It features more PRC posters than Republican period examples. This online collection also includes
several essays and a site dedicated to the bibliography of Chinese political art.
Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Center. Yang Pei Ming’s collection. Shanghai: Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Center.
The second largest and best­known online collections for Chinese political posters. It also includes woodcuts, yuefenpai and clothes. In addition to digital images in high resolution, the
website also showcases several exhibitions based on Yang Pei Ming’s collection.
University of Westminster. The University of Westminster Chinese Poster Collection. London: University of Westminster.
The University of Westminster’s Chinese Poster Collection presents around 800 posters spanning from the 1950s to the 1980s. Most of the collection dates from the 1960s to the 1970s,
therefore it is a good source for studying the Cultural Revolution period. The images are grouped according to the topics of the posters.
Exhibitions
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A number of exhibitions of political art and posters in China and overseas have been held. Some of these exhibitions resulted in publications, both online and in hard copies. In the
1970s, China’s State Council held large­scale exhibitions on various political themes, which resulted in a number of publications (Guowuyuan wenhuazu meishu zuopin zhengji xiaozu
1973, Guowuyuan wenhuazu meishu zuopin zhengji xiaozu 1975a, Guowuyuan wenhuazu meishu zuopin zhengji xiaozu 1975b, Guowuyuan wenhuazu meishu zuopin zhengji xiaozu
1978). A number of overseas exhibitions have featured political posters produced during the Cultural Revolution (Bell 2008, Huo and Powell 1996). With a wide array of artifacts, Murck
2013 showcases an unusual exhibition, celebrating a 1968 gift of mangoes from Pakistan.
Bell, Elizabeth, ed. Art and China’s Cultural Revolution: A Guide to the Exhibition. New York: Asia Society, 2008.
An exhibition catalogue with essays on the Cultural Revolution. The exhibition includes both “red art”—works that were mass produced as posters—and “black art”—works that did not
reflect the political ideology of the government. The exhibition website is available at the Asia Society.
国务院文化组美术作品征集小组, eds. Jinian Mao zhuxi ‘Zai Yan’an wenyi zuotanhuishangde jianghua’ fabiao sanshi
纪念毛主席 在延安文艺座谈会上的讲话’ 发表三十周年美术作品选. Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1973.
Guowuyuan wenhuazu meishu zuopin zhengji xiaozu
zhounian meishu zuopinxuan
‘
This book is about an exhibition held by China’s State Council to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Chairman Mao’s “Talks at the Yan’an Conference on
Literature and Art.” The majority of images in this catalog are oil paintings, including ink paintings, with a small number of woodblock prints.
国务院文化组美术作品征集小组, eds. Shanghai, Yangquan, Lüda gongren huazhanlan zuopin xuanji 上海, 阳泉, 旅大工人
Guowuyuan wenhuazu meishu zuopin zhengji xiaozu
. Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1975a.
画展览作品选集
This book covers an exhibition held by China’s State Council in 1975. The theme centers on images of workers, in various media, including Chinese traditional paintings, oil paintings,
woodblock prints, and political posters. With socialist realism as the major art genre, this catalog is lavishly illustrated.
国务院文化组美术作品征集小组, eds. Qingzhu zhonghua renmin gongheguo chengli ershiwu zhounian meishu zuopin
庆祝中华人民共和国成立二十五週年美术作品展览作品选集. Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1975b.
Guowuyuan wenhuazu meishu zuopin zhengji xiaozu
zhanlan zuopin xuanji
This book covers an exhibition held by China’s State Council in 1975. The theme centers on celebrations for the twenty­fifth anniversary of the PRC. In addition to oil paintings and ink
paintings, this catalogue also includes a large number of the new nianhua.
國務院文化組美術作品征集小組
Guowuyuan wenhuazu meishu zuopin zhengji xiaozu
, eds. Qingzhu zhongguo renmin jiefangjun wushi zhounian meishu zuopin zuopinxuan
. Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1978.
慶祝中國人民解放軍五十週年美術作品選
This book covers an exhibition held by China’s State Council in 1978. The theme centered on images of the People’s Liberation Army, in various media, including Chinese paintings, oil
paintings, woodblock prints and political posters.
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Huo, Shitao, and Patricia Powell, eds. Mao’s Graphic Voice: Pictorial Posters from the Cultural Revolution. Madison, WI: Chazen Museum of Art, 1996.
This is an exhibition catalogue of pictorial posters from the Cultural Revolution held at the Chazen Museum of Art. In addition to reproductions of posters, background information on the
Cultural Revolution is also included.
Murck, Alfreda, ed. Mao’s Golden Mangoes and the Cultural Revolution. Zurich: Verlag Scheidegger & Speiss, 2013.
Catalogue for an exhibition of a wide variety of artifacts from a campaign celebrating a 1968 gift of mangoes from Pakistan, with accompanying essays.
Reference Books
The reference books for Chinese political art and posters include dictionaries and illustrated encyclopedias of Chinese visual symbols (Davis 2009, Eberhard 1988), bibliographic
information (Lent 1996), artist indexes (Sullivan 2006, Laing 1998), term glossaries (Barker 1995) and art yearbooks (Zhongguo meishuguan 1993, Wang 1948).
Barker, David. An English­Chinese Glossary of Printmaking Terms. Belfast: University of Ulster Press, 1995.
A dictionary of important printmaking terms, with parallel English and Chinese text.
Davis, Edward, ed. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture. London: Routledge, 2009.
This work contains nearly 1,200 entries written by a team of specialists on diverse cultural subjects in contemporary China, from experimental artists and underground cinema to political
jokes. Along with more traditional subjects and biographical entries, these are indexed under eighteen categories for easy thematic reference.
Eberhard, Wolfram. A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought. London: Routledge, 1988.
A dictionary of more than 400 Chinese visual symbols, essential to understanding Chinese cultural and political life.
Laing, Ellen Johnston. An Index to Reproductions of Paintings by Twentieth­Century Chinese Artists. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1998.
This volume includes entries for around 3,500 Chinese artists, along with lists of their works, from the 1920s to the 1980s.
Lent, John A. Comic Art in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Latin America: A Comprehensive, International Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996.
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A comprehensive bibliography of the comic art of these regions, including animation, caricature, comic books, political cartoons, and other forms of animation. It contains 10,200 entries,
organized by region, country, and identifying characteristics.
Sullivan, Michael. Modern Chinese Artists: A Biographical Dictionary. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
This biographical dictionary provides approximately 1,800 entries for Chinese artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. It is illustrated with portraits and photographs of more than seventy
leading artists.
Wang, Kangchang
王扆昌. Zhongguo meishu nianjian 1947中国美术年鉴1947. Shanghai: Shanghai wenhua yundong weiyuanhui, 1948.
Published in 1947, this was the first yearbook of Chinese art. It covers art from the Mid­Qing dynasty (1736–1911) to the Republican period. Includes information on 111 art schools and
communities, fifty­one essays, and a guide to art exhibitions.
Zhongguo meishuguan
中国美术馆, ed. Zhongguo meishu nianjian 1949–1989 新中国美术年鉴1949–1989. Guilin, China: Guangxi meishu chubanshe, 1993.
Yearbook of influential artworks, artists, art schools, and art societies from 1949 to 1989. Translated as: “Yearbook of Chinese, art, 1949–1989.”
Primary Sources
A wealth of primary sources for Chinese political art and posters is available. Artists’ talks and opinions were published contemporaneously in newspapers, journals, and magazines of
the relevant period. There are also anthologies collecting talks and comments of these artists and politicians.
Journals and Magazines
Modern and contemporary artists have also occasionally published essays about their own art practices or those of their associates. Such articles have been included in China’s major
art journals, Renmin huabao
[China Pictorial], Meishu
[Fine Art] and Meishu Yanjiu
[Art Research] since the 1950s. China has also produced several national
journals focused on woodcut art, which usually feature political themes: Banhua
[Printmaking] and Banhua Yishu
[Printmaking Art] were published in the late 1950s. Jinri
Zhongguo
[China Today], formerly titled Zhongguo Jianshe
[China Reconstructs], a monthly magazine founded by Song Ching­ling in 1952, also has published a
number of Chinese artist statements.
人民畫報
今日中國
Banhua
美術
中國建設
版畫
美術研究
版畫藝術
版畫.
Translated as: “Printmaking.” An essential magazine on printmaking, published by Renmin meishu chubanshe in Beijing.
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Banhua Yishu
版畫藝術.
Political Art and Posters - Chinese Studies - Oxford Bibliographies
Translated as: “Printmaking art.” An essential magazine on printmaking, published by Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe in Shanghai.
今日中國. 1952–.
Jinri Zhongguo
Translated as “China today.” A monthly magazine founded by Soong Ching­ling in association with Israel Epstein, published in Chinese and foreign languages, to promote the knowledge
of China’s culture and social affairs.
Meishu
美術. 1950–.
Translated as: “Fine art.” Founded by Zhongguo wenlian
Meishu Yanjiu
中國文聯 (China Federation of Literary and Art Circles), and a bimonthly art journal.
美術研究. 1957–.
Translated as: “Art research.” Founded by China Central Academy of Fine Arts and suspended during the Cultural Revolution, it is now a bimonthly art academic journal.
人民畫報. 1950–.
Renmin huabao
Translated as: “China pictorial.” A monthly magazine instrumental in promoting the Cultural Revolution during the 1960s and 1970s. In addition to the Chinese edition, others are
available in different languages.
Anthologies and Important Talks
In addition to artist essays, anthologies of primary texts produced over nearly the entire span of modern and contemporary Chinese art (Shui and Lang 1999) or covering a specific
period (Zhong and Jin 1987, Zou and Li 1962) are available. Important politicians, including Chou 1960, Lin 1960, and Mao 1983 also gave influential talks or wrote essays on the
relationship between art and politics. Xuanchuanhua cankao ziliao huibian is a guidance book for the masses on how to produce xuanchuanhua.
Chou, Yang [Zhou Yang]. The Path of Socialist Literature and Art in China. Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1960.
Report delivered by Zhou Yang to the Third Congress of Chinese Literary and Art Workers on 22 July 1960 addressing the future direction of art and literature in China.
Lin, Mo­han [Lin Mohan]. Raise Higher the Banner of Mao Tse­tung’s Thought on Art and Literature. Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1960.
Report delivered by Lin Mohan on his understanding and support of Mao’s thoughts on art and literature.
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毛澤東
Mao Zedong
. “Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Art and Literature” (1942): A Translation of the 1943 Text with Commentary by Bonnie S. McDougall. Ann Arbor, MI:
Center for Chinese Studies, 1983.
Extremely influential talks by Mao Zedong, which prefigured the Chinese Communist Party’s art policy over the following decades. Mao points out the necessity for art to serve the
people and politics. An immediate impact on Chinese art, resulting from this talk, was the burgeoning of folk art throughout China. Mao’s Yan’an talks were reevaluated after his death.
Shui Tianzhong
水中天, and Lang Shaojun 郎绍君, eds. Ershi Shiji Zhongguo Meishu Wenxuan二十世纪中国美术文选. Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 1999.
Collection of essays on art theories and ideas by artists and scholars of 20th­century China. Containing essays on 20th­century Chinese artists and their thoughts on traditional and
Western art, modern art movements, etc. The editors have arranged the articles in a rough chronological order.
Xuanchuanhua cankao ziliao huibian
宣傳畫參考資料匯編. Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1953.
A guidance book on producing propaganda posters. It also provides examples of propaganda posters.
Zhong Jingzhi
钟敬之, and Jin Ziguang. Yan’an wenyi congshu 延安文艺丛书. Changsha, China: Hunan wenyi chubanshe, 1987.
Totaling sixteen volumes, this work covers different aspects of art and literature in Yan’an during the 1940s.
Zou Ya
鄒雅, and Li Pingfan, eds. Jiefangqu muke 解放區木刻. Beijing: Beijing renmin chubanshe, 1962.
Selection of woodcuts in the zones controlled by the Communist Party, along with artists’ essays.
Overviews by Period
Overviews by period usually fall into three categories: political art of the Republican period, PRC art in general and the art of the Cultural Revolution in particular. Few overviews on
political art of the Republican period are available. Some books offer concise overviews of political art through exploration of a particular art school/genre or a specific political topic.
Overview of the Republic of China
There are very few books on political art of the Republican period except Huang 2006. However, Croizier 1988 offers concise overviews of political art of the Republican period through
exploration of a particular art school/genre or a specific political topic.
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Croizier, Ralph C. Art and Revolution in Modern China: The Lingnan (Cantonese) School of Painting, 1906–1951. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
By focusing on the Lingnan School of painting, this book explores the connection between the Republican revolutionary moments and China’s modern art history.
Huang, Ke
黃可. Zhongguo xin minzhuzhuyi geming meishu huodong shihua中国新民主主义革命美术活动史话. Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 2006.
This book is a survey of political art movements led by the Chinese Communist Party and left­wing intellectuals from 1912 to the end of 1949. The emphasis of the book is on the
emergence of revolutionary art, or art for revolution. Includes more discussion on historical discourse than visual analysis.
Overview of the PRC
For political art of the PRC period, Andrews 1994 is an excellent book with which to start. Other books, including Galikowski 1998 and Laing 1988, trace the different generations of PRC
artists and analyze the relationship between art practices and changing government policies. Chiu and Zheng 2008 focuses on the diversity of PRC art in terms of genres and media.
Similarly, Tang 2015 emphasizes the diversity of individualistic styles within the PRC art scene. The emphasis of Chang 1980 is visual analysis of paintings. Holm 1991 tracks and
analyzes the Chinese Communist Party’s cultural policy. Kraus 2004 explores the impact of the market on the once­comprehensive system of state patronage of the arts in the PRC.
Andrews, Julia Frances. Painters and Politics in the People’s Republic of China, 1949–1979. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
This is an excellent book that examines the art and art policy of the early PRC period. It gives a clear picture of the political map of the Chinese art scene.
Chang, Arnold. Painting in the People’s Republic of China: The Politics of Style. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980.
This book traces the development of a variety of painting styles during the PRC period, including traditional Chinese, Western, socialist realism, Chinese folk, and syntheses. Most of
these carry either overt or indirect political messages. Zhang explores the dynamics between “the popularization of art” and “raising the aesthetics of the masses” in art practice in the
PRC. Insightful visual analysis.
Chiu, Melissa, and Sheng Tian Zheng. Art and China’s Revolution. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.
This book focuses on political art produced from the 1950s to the 1970s. Highly illustrated with a spectrum of artworks, including oil paintings, scroll paintings, artist sketchbooks, and
posters. The authors argue against reducing the art of this period simply to “propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party,” and that it should be considered as an integration of politics
with individual creativity, displaying significant aesthetic sophistication and diversity.
Galikowski, Maria. Arts and Politics in China, 1949–1984. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1998.
The book examines the complicated relationship between art and politics during the PRC period. It focuses on three essential issues: the institutionalization of art practice, the
ideological frameworks behind artwork, and political movements or campaigns that greatly influenced Chinese artists of the period.
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Holm, David L. Art and Ideology in Revolutionary China. Oxford: Clarendon, 1991.
This book explores the development of the Chinese Communist Party’s cultural policy and its propagandizing of a mass audience with a high rate of illiteracy. Relying on a number of
primary sources, the author investigates the relationship between policy formation and artistic practices. Good book for the social­historical background of political art.
Kraus, Richard. The Party and the Arty in China: The New Politics of Culture. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
Kraus’s book concerns cultural and artistic life in the PRC and its relationship to state politics and the cultural market. Exploring a variety of genres in art, the author examines key issues
in art and politics, including propaganda, censorship, and the market.
Laing, Ellen Johnston. The Winking Owl: Art in the People’s Republic of China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
The Winking Owl consists of nine chapters on different topics in Chinese art between 1949 and 1976, and it offers a survey of generally proliferating art genres and features intensive
discussion on the relationship between political issues and art practices. It proceeds chronologically from the woodcut movement of the 1930s to the construction of the Chairman Mao
Memorial Hall in 1976–1977. Brief biographies of key artists are included.
Tang, Xiaobing. Visual Culture in Contemporary China: Paradigms and Shifts. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Examining a variety of art media from woodblock prints to oil paintings, Tang’s book explores key theoretical issues in contemporary Chinese visual culture (1949–present). Tang argues
that contemporary Chinese visual culture is too diverse and complex to be understood in terms of a simple binary of government propaganda and dissident art.
The PRC Xuanchuanhua
Most books on the PRC xuanchuanhua are visual catalogues following different themes. Bajon 2001 and Yin 2015 are Mao Zedong–related image catalogues. Fraser 1977 offers a
selection of the PRC xuanchuanhua. Guo 2012 is a catalogue of political posters featuring sports and physical education. Covering posters of various topics, Wang 2009 devotes half its
space to the 1980–2009 posters.
Bajon, Jean­Yves. Les années Mao: Une histoire de la Chine en affiches, 1949–1979. Paris: Les Éditions du Pacifique, 2001.
A brief survey of political posters from 1949 to 1979; through examining the imagery of Chairman Mao, the author tracks down a thirty­year history.
Fraser, Stewart, ed. 100 Great Chinese Posters: Recent Examples of “the People’s Art” from the People’s Republic of China. New York: Images Graphiques, 1977.
A collection of 100 Chinese political posters from the PRC period, with beautifully reproduced large­format images.
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郭磊. Jili Zhongguo: xin Zhongguo tiyu xuanchuan tudian激励中国: 新中国体育宣传画图典（1952–2012). Beijing: Dangdai Zhongguo chubanshe, 2012.
A visual catalogue of political posters featuring the theme of sports from 1952 to 2012. It divides the history of PRC physical education into five phases, accompanied by the relevant
illustrations. Poorly edited. Translated as: “Inspire China: New China sports posters, 1952–2012.”
Wang, Yutao, ed. A Portrait of the History: Propaganda Posters in the New China. Hong Kong: Peace Book, 2009.
This collection, published for the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the PRC, devotes half its space to the 1980–2009 period absent from most books in this section. Poorer quality
printing, but an interesting selection.
殷双喜
Yin Shuangxi
, ed. Mao zhuxi: jinian Mao Zedong danchen 121 zhounian yingxiang jingdian. Meishu juan
Renmin meishu chubanshe, 2015.
毛主席: 纪念毛泽东诞辰121周年影像经典：美术卷. Beijing:
A visual catalogue of paintings, posters, photography and nianhua, with Mao Zedong as the primary subject matter. Translated as: “Chairman Mao: Classic images commemorating Mao
Zedong’s 121st birthday; Fine arts volume.”
Overview of the Cultural Revolution
For political art specific to the Cultural Revolution, King 2010 and Wang and Yan 2000 can serve as great introductions to the study of the topic as they explore a wide spectrum of
political art. Kraus 1991 is an excellent source for understanding ever­changing official policies toward the arts during the Cultural Revolution. Lago 2009 analyzes the power of images
in the Cultural Revolution and how they activated new social identities through political communication.
King, Richard, ed. Art in Turmoil: The Chinese Cultural Revolution, 1966–76. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2010.
Bringing together authors from different disciplines (history, art history, and visual arts), this book explores the visual and performing arts of China’s Cultural Revolution, including
paintings, propaganda posters, political cartoons, sculpture, folk arts, private sketchbooks, opera, and ballet. It also investigates the influence of the art of the Cultural Revolution on
contemporary art.
Kraus, Richard. “Arts Policies of the Cultural Revolution: The Rise and Fall of Culture Minister Yu Huiyong.” In New Perspectives on the Cultural Revolution. Edited by
Christine Wong, William A. Joseph, and David Zweig, 212–242. Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1991.
By recounting the biography of Chinese artist­politician Yu Huyong, this article traces the development of the art policies of China’s culture minister during the Cultural Revolution.
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Lago, Francesca dal. “Activating Images: The Ideological Use of Meta­pictures and Visualized Meta­texts in the Iconography of the Cultural Revolution.” Modern Chinese
Literature and Culture 21.2 (Fall 2009): 167–197.
Lago analyzes the rhetoric and function of political imagery and large formatted texts in the Cultural Revolution. She also examines the complicated system of the Chinese Communist
Party’s massive dissemination program for propaganda, and how the power of images was released through this kind of political communication. With in­depth visual analysis of a few
selected posters, Lago demonstrates how poster artists were able to guide the audience into absorbing the intended messages.
Wang Mingxian
王明贤, and Yan Shanchun. Xin Zhongguo meishu tushi, 1966–1976 新中国美术图史 – 1966–1976. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishi chubanshe, 2000.
One of the best written and illustrated collections in Chinese, this book focuses on all aspects of political art during the Cultural Revolution, including the professional practice of art, the
art of the Red Guards, the art of the intellectuals, and the art of peasants and workers, in a variety of media, including paintings, sculptures, and posters. It also takes a theoretical
approach and includes discussion on art practice and social ideologies. Translated as: “The illustrated fine art history of the People’s Republic of China, 1966–1976.”
Overview of the Cultural Revolution Xuanchuanhua
Evans and Donald 1999 is an excellent visual catalogue of Cultural Revolution posters. Coupled with essays on the social­historical contexts, Cushing and Tompkins 2007 arranges the
Cultural Revolution posters according to their themes. Valjakka 2008 examines Cultural Revolution posters produced to inspire fear and horror. Leese 2011 is a pioneering work on the
Mao cult and the representation of Mao.
Cushing, Lincoln, and Ann Tompkins. Chinese Posters: Art from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2007.
Beautifully illustrated with more than 150 political posters from the Cultural Revolution, this book organizes the images through different themes such as cultural celebration, industrial
development, agricultural production, and revolutionary heroes. It also offers background on the social and political contexts and production of the posters.
Evans, Harriet, and Stephanie Donald. Picturing Power in the People’s Republic of China: Posters of the Cultural Revolution. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999.
Bringing together scholars from various disciplines, this richly illustrated book provides illustrations of the Cultural Revolution through political posters. Most articles follow
interdisciplinary analysis, with less emphasis on visual analysis.
Leese, Daniel. Mao Cult: Rhetoric and Ritual in China’s Cultural Revolution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
This book examines the cult of Mao during the Cultural Revolution. By analyzing archival documents and political pamphlets, Leese traces the history of the Mao cult, both within the
party and at the grassroots level.
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Valjakka, Minna. “Inciting Mental Terror as Effective Governmental Control: Chinese Propaganda Posters during the Cultural Revolution, 1966–1976.” In Terror and the Arts:
Artistic, Literary, and Political Interpretations of Violence from Dostoyevsky to Abu Ghraib. Edited by Matti Hyvärinen and Lisa Muszynski, 165–184. Basingstoke, UK:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
This article examines the political posters produced during the Cultural Revolution, the goal of which was to arouse fear and terror. Through visual analysis, the author demonstrates the
power of posters as tool of political control.
Political Art by Period
This section is devoted to books and articles on political art and posters from different periods. The works cited do not necessarily serve as an “overview” of a certain period. The
coverage of topics is broad and diverse, yet the popular political research topics from each period are readily apparent.
The First Sino­Japanese War
The First Sino­Japanese War accelerated the production and distribution of mass­produced art and posters in both China and Japan, especially the latter. Fröhlich 2014 reconstructs this
war’s illustrated history with pictures from both sides of the conflict. Taking a comparative approach, Tsuji 2011 compares the Japanese woodblock prints depicting the war with their
Chinese counterpart, nianhua. Nishio 2006 examines the role of everyday visual objects in educating the target audience.
Fröhlich, Judith. “Pictures of the Sino­Japanese War of 1894–1895.” War in History 21.2 (2014): 214–250.
By comparing the pictures of the First Sino­Japanese War from China and Japan, this article argues that Japan triumphed not only on the battlefield, but also in the “picture war,”
adopting more of the iconography that was familiar in the West.
西尾林太郎. “Ishibumi, gangu, hanga ni hyōgen sare, kiroku sareta Nisshin sensō: arata na kyōzai to shiryō o motomete” 碑・玩具・版画に表現され、記録され
た日清戦争 新たな教材と資料を求めて Gendai Shakai Kenkyūka kenkyū hōkoku 現代社会研究会研究報告 1 (2006): 71–88.
Nishio Rintarō
:
This article examines the role visual images played in educating the masses about the First Sino­Japanese War, as they appeared in everyday objects such as monuments, toys, and
prints. The emphasis is on the Japanese side, and the author only briefly addresses the situation in China.
辻千春. “Nitchū ryōkoku no hōdō hanga: 19­seikimatsu ni arawareta nishikie to nenga ni miru Nisshin sensō no kakikata o chūshin ni” 日中両国の報道版画: 19
世紀末に現れた錦絵と年画にみる日清戦争の 描き方を中心にNagoya Daigaku Hakubutsukan hōkoku 27 (2011): 17–43.
Tsuji Chiharu
This well­informed article compares and contrasts the representation of the first Sino­Japanese War in mass­produced images from both sides: namely, the Japanese Ukiyo­e and the
Chinese nianhua. It compares the production processes for these images as well as their reception on both sides. Translated as: “Contrastive study of the Japanese color woodblock
print (
錦絵) and the Chinese New Year picture (年画) around First Sino­Japanese war, 1894–1895.”
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The Founding of the Republic
The most favored topic for this category is the emergence of the political symbolism catering to the new political structure of the nation­state. Harrison 2002 explores various political
symbols and ceremonies in the early Republican period, while Chen 2007 and Laing 2003 focus upon male and female clothes in the early Republican period and their political
symbolism.
Chen, Yunqian
陳蘊茜. “Shenti zhengzhi: guojia quanli yu zhongshanzhuang de liuxing 身體政治：國家權利與民國中山裝的流行. Academic Monthly 學術月刊9 (September
2007): 139–147.
This article deals with the popularity of the Sun Yat­sen jacket and the formation of modern body politics as well as the cult of leadership. Translate as: “Body politics: The power of the
nation­state and the popularity of the Sun Yat­sen uniform.”
Laing, Ellen Johnston. “Visual Evidence for the Evolution of Politically Correct Dress for Women in Early Twentieth Century Shanghai.” NANNÜ 5.1 (2003): 69–114.
This article examines the evolution of Chinese female modes of dress in the early 20th century. Laing argues that the image of the Chinese female came to figure as the privileged
signifier of the modern nation.
Harrison, Henrietta. The Making of the Republican Citizen: Political Ceremonies and Symbols in China, 1911–1929. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Harrison argues that, through the use of political ceremonies and symbols, national discourses could reach into the everyday lives of citizens during the Republican period. This book
uses visual sources to illustrate the political history of 1911–1929.
The Northern Expedition
The Northern Expedition promoted the first collaboration between the Chinese Nationalist Party (Guomindang, GMD) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The alliance between
the two parties allowed the Soviet­supported CCP to play a vital role in the propaganda domain. Zhang 2016 and Wang 2004 explore the political posters and cartoons of both
belligerents during the Northern Expedition; Zhang also traces the history of mass­produced political imagery prior to the Northern Expedition. Wu 2008 focuses exclusively on the GMD,
with an emphasis on the Communist influence over the production of political art.
Wang Qisheng
王奇生. “Beifa zhong de manhua yu manhua zhong de beifa北伐中的漫画与漫画中的北伐. Nanjing daxue xuebao南京大学学报 5 (2004): 79–89.
This article analyzes a number of political cartoons produced during the Northern Expedition on both sides of the conflict. It examines the political strategies of the conflicting forces
through their mass­produced cartoons. Translated as: “The cartoons in the Northern Expedition and the Northern Expedition in the cartoons.”
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吴继金. “Beifa zhanzheng zhong de meishu xuanchuan北伐战争中的美术宣传.” Junshi geming lishi yanjiu军事革命历史研究 2 (2008): 163–168.
Wu argues that the Chinese Communist Party played a vital role in producing pictorial propaganda during the Northern Expedition. These political images played an important role in the
Guomindang’s military success.
Zhang, Shaoqian. “Visualizing the Modern Chinese Party­State: From Political Education to Propaganda Agitation in the Early Republican Period.” Twentieth­Century China
41.1 (2016): 52–80.
This article examines the mass­media campaign launched by the alliance between the Guomindang and the Soviet Communists during the Northern Expedition. Soviet­inspired
propaganda posters flourished during the Northern Expedition, offering a novel approach to engagement with the masses to facilitate the state’s policies. This paper also examines the
differences and similarities between these and earlier printed political images.
The Second Sino­Japanese War
The Second Sino­Japanese War witnessed intensive utilization of visual propaganda from both sides. Kangri zhanzheng shiqi xuanchuanhua is a lavishly visual catalogue on political
posters produced by the Chinese during the Second Sino­Japanese War (Zhongguo guojia bowuguan 2015). FitzGerald 2013 and Hung 1994 explore Chinese wartime art in various
media. Kawase 2000 and Zhang 2014 examine the “pictorial combat” between China and Japan. Kawase 1999 and Edwards 2013 explore a particular type of political pictures produced
by the Chinese side during the war, namely anti­war nianhua and sexualized anti­Japanese cartoon imagery. Sullivan 1986 focuses on the artists and their political activities in wartime
Chengdu.
Edwards, Louise. “Drawing Sexual Violence in Wartime China: Anti­Japanese Propaganda Cartoons.” Journal of Asian Studies 72.3 (2013): 563–586.
This article looks at the leading Chinese cartoonists of the period and how they were able to ignite the spirit of resistance among Chinese audiences through the use of sexualized
imagery. Edwards argues that the representation of sexual violence against Chinese women could arouse spectators and become effective as propaganda during the Second Sino­
Japanese War.
FitzGerald, Carolyn. Fragmenting Modernisms: Chinese Wartime Literature, Art, and Film, 1937–49. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2013.
FitzGerald traces the evolution of Chinese modern literature, art, and films throughout the Second Sino­Japanese War. By applying close readings to these works of art, she argues for
an unprecedented aesthetic fluidity, which became possible because of relaxed government control and the innovative experimentation of writers and artists.
Hung, Chang­tai. War and Popular Culture: Resistance in Modern China, 1937–1945. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
A comprehensive study of the Chinese popular culture during the Second Sino­Japanese War. Hung examines different cultural forms, including drama, cartoons, and newspapers, and
their appeal to the masses to galvanize support for the war. Hung also explores how both the Nationalists and the Communists took advantage of popular culture, albeit through different
approaches.
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川瀬千春
毛沢東 「延安文芸座談会の講話」 前後の 「抗戦年画」 制作
Kawase Chiharu
. “Mō Takutō `en’an bungei zadan­kai no kōwa’ zengo no `kōsen­nenga’ seisaku ni tsuite
.” Kokusai kaihatsu kenkyū fōramu
11 (1999): 109–127.
について
国際開発研究フォーラム
This article demonstrates the changes in the approaches of Chinese political artists to the task of influencing the masses to resistance via visual propaganda during the Second Sino­
Japanese War. The author argues that Chinese propaganda artists, influenced by the Yan’an conference, became more sympathetic to the aesthetic habits of the lower classes,
previously formed through exposure to the nianhua format.
川瀬千春
Kawase Chiharu
. Sensō to nenga: “Jūgonen sensō” ki no Nitchū ryōkoku no shikakuteki puropaganda
Matsudo, Japan: Azusa Shuppansha, 2000.
戦争と年画「十五年戦争」期の日中両国の視覚的プロパガンダ.
A very resourceful book on the visual propaganda contest between China and Japan during the Second Sino­Japanese War. Kawase argues that the Japanese relied on the visual
motifs found in nianhua and yuefenpai, whereas the Chinese were more focused upon the use of modern woodcuts.
Sullivan, Michael. “Recollections of Art and Artists in Wartime Chengdu.” The Register of the Spencer Museum of Art 6.3 (1986): 6–19.
This article deals with art­related activities in Chengdu during the Second Sino­Japanese War. Sullivan demonstrates how art was transformed into a political weapon through the anti­
invasion campaign.
Zhang, Shaoqian. “Combat and Collaboration: The Clash of Propaganda Prints between the Chinese Guomindang and the Japanese Empire in the 1930s–40s.”
Transcultural Studies 1 (2014): 95–133.
Based on original archival research of primary historical documents and visual analysis of propaganda images produced during the Second Sino­Japanese War, this article examines the
war of propaganda prints between the Japanese militarists and the Guomindang during the late 1930s and 1940s.
Zhongguo guojia bowuguan
中国国家博物馆. Kangri zhanzheng shiqi xuanchuanhua抗日战争时期宣传画. Shanghai: Shanghai rennmin chubanshe, 2015.
Compiled by the National Museum of China, this work includes nearly 300 political images, including woodcuts, New Year pictures, political cartoons, propaganda flyers, etc. Featuring
artists from the Guomindang­controlled areas as well as the Yan’an base of the Chinese Communist Party.
1949–1965
Scholarship on political art of the early PRC period is diverse in its choice of topics. Andrews 1990 examines the relationship between guohua and contemporary political movements.
Hung 2011 demonstrates the effect of Mao’s politics on early PRC cultural and artistic production. Shen 2000 is essential for understanding political posters before the Cultural
Revolution. Dayuejin tuhua cankao ziliao is a visual catalogue of political posters associated with the Great Leap Forward.
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Andrews, Julia F. “Traditional Painting in New China: Guohua and the Anti­rightist Campaign.” Journal of Asian Studies 49.3 (August 1990): 555–577.
Andrews examines the debates over stylistic preferences in Chinese pictorial arts of the 1950s. One trend favored Soviet art and realism, while an opposing current advocated traditional
Chinese folk art. The struggle between the nativist and Soviet approaches shaped Chinese pictorial art from the beginning of the PRC period until Mao’s death in 1976.
Dayuejin tuhua cankao ziliao
大躍進圖畫參考資料. Tianjin, China: Tianjin meishu chubanshe, 1958.
A collection of political prints from China’s Great Leap Forward movement, mostly political posters.
Hung, Chang­tai. Mao’s New World: Political Culture in the Early People’s Republic. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011.
Based on archival sources, government documents, visual materials, memoirs, and interviews with surviving participants in political events, Hung examines a number of political­cultural
projects launched by the Chinese Communist Party to reinforce its rulership during the early PRC period, including the reconstruction of Tian’anmen Square, the New nianhua campaign,
the construction of a national cemetery, and the rewriting of official histories. Huang argues that all of these projects exemplified the party’s efforts to turn the PRC into a propaganda
state.
Shen, Kuiyi. “Publishing Posters before the Cultural Revolution.” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 12.2 (2000): 177–202.
Shen analyzes the political posters of the early PRC period and presents the history of the propaganda department of China’s largest publisher, Shanghai People’s Fine Art Publishing
House. He also explores the use by the Communists of woodblock­printed posters during the Second Sino­Japanese War and their continuing refinement of the technique during the
Chinese Civil War.
Miscellaneous Topics on Cultural Revolution Art
This section is dedicated to political art produced during the Cultural Revolution on a variety of topics other than overviews or political posters. Renmin meishu chubanshe 1973, Renmin
meishu chubanshe 1974, Renmin meishu chubanshe 1977a, and Renmin meishu chubanshe 1977b are visual catalogues of the art of the Cultural Revolution, divided according to
different political themes. Opletal 1997 is a visual catalogue of Mao­related artworks from a private collection.
Renmin meishu chubanshe
人民美术出版社, eds. Gongnongbing xingxiang xuan 工农兵形象选. Vol. 2. Tianjin, China: Tianjin renmin meishu chubanshe, 1973.
See also Vol. 3 (1975). Selection of art works showcasing exemplary workers, peasants and soldiers, primarily featuring posters.
Renmin meishu chubanshe
chubanshe, 1974.
人民美术出版社, eds. Ba pi Lin pi Kong de douzheng jinxing daodi meishu zuopinxuan 批林批孔的斗争进行到底美术作品选. Beijing: Renmin meishu
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A selection of art works dedicated to vilifying Lin Biao and Confucius, poorly printed.
人民美术出版社, eds. Gaoju Mao zhuxide weida qizhi shengli qianjin meishu zuopinxuan 高举毛主席的伟大旗帜胜利前进美术作品选. Beijing:
Renmin meishu chubanshe
Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1977a.
Selection of art works dedicated to the images of Mao, mostly featuring oil and ink paintings.
人民美术出版社, eds. Yijiuqiwunian quanguo nianhua, shaonian ertong meishu zuopin zhanian 一九七五年全国年画少年儿童作品展. Beijing:
Renmin meishu chubanshe
Renmin Meishu Chubanshe, 1977b.
An exhibition catalogue of the nianhua artworks created by children during the Cultural Revolution.
Opletal, Helmut, ed. Mao, Kitsch und Propaganda: Die Sammlung Helmut Opletal. Vienna: Galerie Atrium ed Arte, 1997.
A catalogue of such propaganda artworks as Mao badges, the Little Red Book, and propaganda posters in Helmut Opletal’s private collection.
Post­Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution exerted a tremendous impact on the production of art going forward. van Dijk 1992 and van Dijk and Schmid 1994 examine its impact on Chinese fine art
development shortly after the Cultural Revolution ended; Koppel­Yang 2002 explores how a few contemporary Chinese artists addressed the Cultural Revolution in their artwork. Denton
2000 examines Communist museum strategies and political paintings featuring revolutionary themes. Kraus 1991 investigates the issues of politics, modernity, and traditionalism through
the art of calligraphy. Kraus 1983 deals with the post­Cultural Revolution government policies, and their conflicts with the market. Emphasizing the individualistic traits of each artist, Tang
2015 investigates the socialist topics in contemporary Chinese art.
Denton, Kirk A. “Visual Memory and the Construction of a Revolutionary Past: Paintings from the Museum of the Chinese Revolution.” Modern Chinese Literature and
Culture 12.2 (Fall 2000): 203–235.
This essay analyzes a group of paintings on revolutionary themes housed in the Museum of the Chinese Revolution in Beijing. Denton first examines the museum space and its
exhibition strategies, in which the paintings function as visual testimonies to moments in China’s revolutionary past, and then engages in visual analysis and reveals how these paintings
define certain political figures as well as concepts of time.
Koppel­Yang, Martina. “Zaofan Youli/Revolt Is Reasonable: Remanifestations of the Cultural Revolution in Chinese Contemporary Art of the 1980s and 1990s.” Yishu:
Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 1.2 (Fall 2002): 66–75.
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Koppel­Yang interprets some contemporary Chinese art as a witty strategy to represent the famous revolutionary slogan “Revolt is reasonable” (zaofan youli). This remanifestation of the
slogan indeed demonstrates the subversive and rebellious attitude of the Red Guards, who were convinced that the critique of, and revolt against, institutionalized thought and practice
were entirely reasonable.
Kraus, Richard. “China’s Cultural ‘Liberalization’ and Conflict over the Social Organization of the Arts.” Modern China 9.2 (April 1983): 212–227.
This article represents the dualism expressed by the government’s dictatorship and bourgeois liberalism in China’s socialist cultural and artistic development after the Cultural
Revolution. The resulting art market, lacking any correspondence between social culture and political culture, ultimately became the weakest spot in China’s art scene.
Kraus, Richard. Brushes with Power: Modern Politics and Chinese Art of Calligraphy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
Kraus’s book examines the fate of Chinese calligraphy, traditionally regarded as a symbol of the elite ruling class and its authority. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources, from primary
documents and interviews with Chinese intellectuals to art exhibitions and television melodramas, Kraus explores the complex relationship among traditionalism, modernity, and political
power in contemporary China.
Tang, Xiaobing. “What Does Socialist Visual Experience Mean to Contemporary Art?” In Visual Culture in Contemporary China. By Xiaobing Tang, 140–174. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 2015.
This chapter of Tang’s book deals with the diverse expressions of contemporary Chinese socialist art. Tang argues that contemporary Chinese socialist art demonstrates a complex yet
dynamic mixture between China’s revolutionary past and present individualistic experience and emotions.
van Dijk, Hans. “Painting in China after the Cultural Revolution: Style Developments and Theoretical Debates (Part II: 1985–1991).” China Information 5.4 (Spring 1992): 1–
17.
One of the first academic articles to examine contemporary Chinese art after the Cultural Revolution and how China’s recent political turmoil has shaped the outlooks for artistic styles.
van Dijk, Hans, and Andreas Schmid. “The Fine Arts after the Cultural Revolution: Stylistic Development and Culture Debate.” In China Avant­Garde: Counter­Currents in
Art and Culture. Edited by Jochen Noth, Wolfgang Pohlmann, and Kai Reschke, 14–39. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1994.
This article demonstrates how China’s recent political turmoil, especially memories of the Cultural Revolution, have shaped the outlooks for artistic styles in contemporary China.
The Modern Woodcut and Printmaking
Modern woodcut is an important format for political art, and it has played an important role in spreading political ideologies during wars and revolutions after the 1930s. The artistic
elements in modern woodcuts have also influenced the art of xuanchuanhua. The art of woodblock printmaking existed in China as early as the 9th century, but it was not until the
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Modern Woodcut Movement of the 1930s and 1940s that artists began to incorporate European woodcut techniques into their practices. The celebrated leftist author Lu Xun (b. 1881–d.
1936), the father of this movement, recognized the effective potential of using the medium to address political issues arousing China. This medium was then elevated to the status of fine
art on a par with oil painting and sculpture.
Overviews on Modern and Contemporary Woodcuts
A number of books offer a comprehensive overview of China’s modern and contemporary woodcut art, and they share similar methodologies and structures. Lu 1987 is one the earliest
catalogues published in the PRC period on Chinese modern woodcuts. Fan 1997 and Li 1996 share many similarities within their literal narratives and image choices. Haas 1977
focuses on the social­historical background against which the modern woodcuts were produced. Qi 1994, Qi 2006, and Qi 2010, altogether, offer the most thorough survey of modern
and contemporary Chinese woodcuts.
Fan Meng
范梦. Zhongguo xiandai banhua shi中国现代版画史. Beijing: Zhongguo qingnian chubanshe, 1997.
A basic survey of the art of Chinese woodcuts, from Lu Xun’s Modern Woodcut Movement to 1989. It also includes woodcuts from Taiwan.
Haas, Jerg. Holzschnitt im neuen China: Zeitgenössische Graphik aus der Volksrepublik China. Berlin: Gesellschaft für Verständigung und Freundschaft mit China, 1977.
A basic survey of the Chinese woodcut art in the PRC period, featuring essays that introduce the social­political background against which the artworks were produced. Translated as:
“Woodcuts in new China: Contemporary graphics from the People’s Republic of China.”
Li Yunjing
李允经. Zhongguo xiandai banhua shi中国现代版画史. Taiyuan, China: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1996.
A basic survey of the art of Chinese woodcuts, from Lu Xun’s Modern Woodcut Movement to the 1990s. The author is an expert on Lu Xun, and he devotes considerable attention to Lu
Xun’s Modern Woodcut Movement.
Lu Di
陆地. Zhongguo xiandai banhua shi中国现代版画史. Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1987.
The earliest PRC publication on Chinese modern woodcuts; a concise survey of the art of Chinese woodcuts, from Lu Xun’s Modern Woodcut Movement to the 1990s, not well
illustrated.
Qi Fengge
齐凤阁. Zhongguo xinxing banhua fazhan shi中国新兴版画发展史. Changchun, China: Jilin meishu chubanshe, 1994.
Focusing on Lu Xun’s Modern Woodcut Movement, this book is an earlier version of Qi 2010. It traces the development of China’s modern woodcut arts.
Qi Fengge
齐凤阁. Zhongguo xiandai banhua shi中国现代版画史. Guangzhou, China: Lingnan meishu chubanshe, 2010.
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This is an exhaustive survey of Chinese prints from 1931 to 1991. The focus is on different movements and groups of prints, such as Lu Xun’s Modern Woodcut Movement, prints from
Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, Sichuan prints, Heilongjiang prints, and more. Many prints in this book are imbued with political elements.
Qi Fengge
齐凤阁, ed. Ai wo Zhonghua: Zhongguo xiandai banhua cangpin ji爱我中华: 中国现代版画藏品集. Beijing: Zhongguo huaqiao chubanshe, 2006.
A nicely printed visual catalogue of over 400 woodcut artworks in modern and contemporary China. The primary focus is on contemporary. Translated as: “For the love of China: A
collection of contemporary Chinese prints.”
Lu Xun and the Modern Woodcut Movement
Many publications about modern woodcuts have focused on Lu Xun and his Modern Woodcut Movement. Tang 2008 is an excellent source for studying both the artistic and the literary
background of this movement. Other books or articles that focus specifically on Lu Xun’s Modern Woodcut Movement include Ma and Li 1985 and Shen 2004. Kotzenberg and Kakitsu
1987 shows the museum’s collection of Lu Xun­influenced woodcut art. Xiao 2013 relates the Chinese woodcuts of the 1930s to both German and Japanese artistic influences.
Kotzenberg, Heike, and Uchiyama Kakitsu. Der revolutionäre Holzschnitt Chinas: Künstler aus dem Umkreis von Lu Xun; Sammlung des Museums für moderne Kunst,
Kamakura. Cologne: Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, 1987.
Selection of the woodcut collection at the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura. Most of these were produced under the influence of Lu Xun’s Modern Woodcut Movement.
Ma Tiji
马蹄疾, and Li Yunjing 李允经. Lu Xun yu xinxing muke yundong鲁迅与新兴木刻运动. Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1985.
This book examines China’s Modern Woodcut Movement in the 1930s. The authors enter into great detail on Lu Xun’s woodcut theories.
Shen, Kuiyi. “The Modernist Woodcut Movement in 1930s China.” In Shanghai Modern, 1919–1945. Edited by Jo­Anne Birnie Danzker, Ken Lum, and Sheng Tian Zheng,
262–289. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2004.
An English­Chinese bilingual publication on Lu Xun’s Modern Woodcut Movement and the Modern Woodcut Society. It focuses on a variety of activities of the Modern Woodcut Society
from art practice and publication to exhibition.
Tang, Xiaobing. Origins of the Chinese Avant­Garde: The Modern Woodcut Movement. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.
Tang’s book is extremely valuable for understanding Lu Xun’s Modern Woodcut Movement. It details how this movement grew out of the broader desire of the cultural elites in the 1930s
to create a distinctly Chinese modernism. He goes into great detail on the emergence of the avant­garde in China’s art and literary circles of the 1920s, examining the theories and
activities that influenced art in many media. Tang also provides a close reading of some of the woodcuts they created.
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Xiao, Tie. “Frans Masereel, Wen Tao, and Woodcut Lianhuanhua in 1930s Shanghai.” CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 15.2 (2013).
Xiao situates the Chinese lianhuahua of the radical woodcut artists during the 1930s into contemporary global political art currents. Xiao argues that the 1930s­era Chinese woodcuts
drew on influences from both the Japanese creative print (hanga) culture and Belgian graphic artists, particularly Frans Masereel.
Woodcuts during the Second Sino­Japanese War
Woodcuts became instrumental for expressing political ideologies by China’s left­wing artists and intellectuals during the Second Sino­Japanese War. Chinese Woodcutters’ Association
1946 introduces various woodcuts with strong political themes produced during the war. Hung 1997 addresses the Communists’ strategies in promoting their agenda through woodcut
exhibitions. Tang 2006 discusses the iconic woodcut by Li Hua and its influence on later woodcut art.
Chinese Woodcutters’ Association. The Woodcuts of Wartime China, 1937–1945. Shanghai: Kaiming, 1946.
This book contains one hundred plates showing woodcuts made as tools of communication and political education during the Second Sino­Japanese War (1937–1945); features an
introduction on the power of woodcuts as propaganda.
Hung, Chang­tai. “Two Images of Socialism: Woodcuts in Chinese Communist Politics.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 39.1 (1997): 34–60.
This article is about the anti­Japanese woodcut exhibition held at the Sino–Soviet Cultural Association in October 1942 to rally popular support for the war. This exhibition gave the
Chinese Communist Party a rare opportunity to display artistic achievements and present its carefully manufactured images of socialism.
Tang, Xiaobing. “Echoes of Roar, China! On Vision and Voice in Modern Chinese Art.” Positions 14.2 (Fall 2006): 467–494.
By tracking down the artistic origins and the intellectual circles of the Modern Prints Society, Tang makes a careful examination of the iconic woodcut image Roar, China! He also
demonstrates how this image was able to spawn later imitations during China’s Second Sino­Japanese War.
Woodcut Technique
Barker 2005 is an essential guide to understanding printmaking techniques. The author also demonstrates the connection between traditional woodcuts (nianhua) and modern and
contemporary printmaking. Speaking from the perspective of a woodcut artist, Li 1954 also addresses these techniques.
Barker, David. Traditional Techniques in Contemporary Chinese Printmaking. Honolulu: University Hawai‘i Press, 2005.
Barker’s book provides an introduction to the history and traditions of woodblock printmaking in China and a comprehensive guide to printmaking techniques, tools, and materials. It also
includes a collection of traditional Chinese prints.
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李樺. Muke banhua jifa yanjiu 木刻版畫技法研究. Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1954.
The artist­scholar Li Hua addresses the technique of making modern woodcuts.
Exhibitions and Collections of Woodcuts
Tang, et al. 2011 is an exhibition catalogue on contemporary Chinese woodcuts. Homann 2009 and Dixon 1996 offer exhibitions on modern Chinese woodcuts with emphasis on the
history of their stylistic developments. Wachs and Finkelstein 2003 features modern woodcuts with political themes. Von der Burg 2003 offers guidance on the woodcuts in Christer von
der Burg’s collection.
Dixon, Christine. The People’s Progress: Twentieth Century Chinese Woodcuts. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1996.
An exhibition catalogue of modern Chinese woodcuts held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Homann, Joachim, ed. Woodcuts in Modern China, 1937–2008: Towards a Universal Pictorial Language. Hamilton, NY: Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, 2009.
This book is an exhibition catalogue on modern and contemporary China’s woodcuts held at the Parker Art Gallery of Colgate University. It includes sixty­seven Chinese woodblock
prints, with artists’ biographies and checklist of the exhibition.
Tang, Xiaobing, Shang Hui, and Anne Farrer. Multiple Impressions: Contemporary Chinese Woodblock Prints. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Art, 2011.
Multiple Impressions examines the works of forty contemporary Chinese printmakers. It is organized by the key themes in Chinese printmaking: “Landscapes Old and New,” “Fellow
Citizens,” and “Layered Abstraction.” Scholars Xiaobing Tang, Shang Hui, and Anne Farrer contributed essays to this book.
von der Burg, Christer, ed. The Art of Contemporary Chinese Woodcuts. London: Muban Foundation, 2003.
A catalogue of China’s contemporary woodcuts from Christer von der Burg’s collection.
Wachs, Iris, and Haim Finkelstein. Poetry, Painting and Politics: Chinese Urban Woodblock Printing Studios in an Age of Revolution, 1949–2000. Beersheba, Israel: Avraham
Baron art Gallery, Ben­Gurion University of the Negev, 2003.
Catalogue of an exhibition held at Avraham Baron Art Gallery, Ben­Gurion University of the Negev (January–May 2003) and the Museum of Art Ein Harod (August–October 2003). Text
is in both Hebrew and English in separate paginations. It covers woodblock prints with political themes.
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Calendar Posters (yuefenpai) and Commercial Design
Yuefenpai, literally meaning “advertisement calendar posters,” themselves may not constitute a readily apparent instance of political art or posters. Yet the stylistic elements and means
of circulation of yuefenpai have exerted profound influence on xuanchuanhua. One of the newly emergent printed art forms in modern China before 1949, yuefenpai first became
prevalent in the larger cities. The first yuefenpai were produced by the British American Tobacco Company (BAT), and they initially employed the same illustrative techniques used in the
West. But with the adoption of Chinese motifs, yuefenpai became increasingly popular throughout the country. Along with other commercial design products, yuefenpai not only reflected
rapidly changing social and political conditions in China, but also functioned as projections of an idealized urban lifestyle. Political issues, representations of the “New Woman,” modern
lifestyles, and information about Western culture were, through this medium, placed before the population on a large scale. Laing 2004 provides a useful introduction to understanding
the yuefenpai enterprise. Comprehensive overviews on graphic design and yuefenpai include Chen and Feng 2004, Chen 2001, Minick and Ping 2010. Wu and Li 2014 and Pan 2008
address various design practices, along with cultural­commercial life in Shanghai. Bong, et al. 1996 explores gender issues embedded in yuefenpai, while Zhang 2012 explores social
and political issues related to modern times in yuefenpai.
Bong, Ng Chun, Cheuk Pak Tong, Wong Ying, and Yvonne Lo. Chinese Woman and Modernity: Calendar Posters of the 1910s–1930s. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (H.K.),
1996.
This catalogue includes calendar posters produced from the 1910s to the 1930s, with the major theme focusing on Chinese women. It features not only artworks by a number of famous
calendar artists, but also essays on the social­historical background of yuefenpai, useful for understanding social and aesthetic developments in the early 20th century in China, as well
as issues relating to China’s modern women.
Chen, Chaonan, and Yiyou Feng. Old Advertisements and Popular Culture: Posters, Calendars, and Cigarettes, 1900–1950. San Francisco: Long River, 2004.
This book focuses on advertisement posters, which functioned as promotional giveaways, from 1900 to 1950. A large number of the advertisements include new information on Western
cultural elements, encountered through China’s increasing contact with foreign cultures, a result of which was that these advertising posters functioned somewhat like outlines or study
sheets for learning about Western ideas.
Chen Ruilin
陈瑞林. Ershi shiji zhuangshi yishu 20世纪装饰艺术. Shandong, China: Shandong meishu, 2001.
This book begins with the European­influenced modernist graphics and yuefenpai art, and it traces the development of Chinese decorative art and graphic design. It focuses on the
debates between “fine art” and “graphic art,” “modern” and “traditional,” and “national” and “international” concepts.
Laing, Ellen Johnston. Selling Happiness: Calendar Posters and Visual Culture in Early­Twentieth­Century Shanghai. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004.
Laing studies the Shanghai commercial artists who created thousands of vibrantly colored posters and advertisements that formed an essential part of modern urban life during the
Republican period. She demonstrates that the modern yuefenpai differed from nianhua, in that it was intended for a wider audience. Although Liang does not address political imagery in
the Republican period directly, she identifies the importance of a public community for the consumption of mass­produced art.
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Minick, Scott, and Jiao Ping. Chinese Graphic Design of the Twentieth Century. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010.
This book begins with the basic tradition of Chinese graphics and introduces the European­influenced modernist graphics of the “Shanghai Style,” dominated by Art Deco and the
“Progressive Movement.” The authors also demonstrate the influence of Lu Xun on Chinese graphic design in the 1930s, the socialist realist art of Mao, the influence of folk art
(nianhua), and the graphic images of 1989. Minick and Ping consider modern woodcuts as one branch of China’s modern graphic design.
Pan, Lynn. Shanghai Style: Art and Design between the Wars. San Francisco: Long River, 2008.
This book explores the modern urban aesthetics of Shanghai, emerging from both traditional art and the novel ideas of early­20th­century Western art and design. It covers paintings,
books and magazines, comics and cartoons, advertising, architecture, and interior decoration.
吳詠梅
李培德 (Pui­tak Lee), eds. Tu xiang yu shangye wenhua: Fenxi zhongguo jindai guanggao 圖像與商業文化: 分析中國近代廣告. Hong Kong:
Wu Yongmei
, and Li Peide
Xiangang daxue chubanshe, 2014.
This volume presents a collection of essays on a variety of topics related to China’s modern advertising culture, with special attention on the influence of Japanese commercial culture on
modern China. Political issues include the Chinese female as a symbol of modernity and political elements in commercial posters. Translated as: “Graphic images and consumer culture:
Analysis of modern advertising culture in China.”
Zhang, Shaoqian. “The Supremacy of Modern Time: Reshaping the Image of China in Early Twentieth­Century Calendar Posters.” In Modern Art Asia: Selected Research
Papers. Edited by Majella Munro, 133–152. Cambridge, UK: Enzo Arts and Publishing, 2012.
Through an examination of several calendar posters produced during the late Qing and early Republican periods, this paper argues that China was significantly modernized through
changing concepts of time in an age of mass production. The adoption of modern timekeeping was intended to work both symbolically and practically, to deliver political ideologies and to
sanctify social relations through function and representation.
Illustrations in Pictorial Magazines
Responding to the introduction of Gutenberg printing techniques and lithography, a large portion of political art from the late Qing dynasty to the 1930s existed in formats of illustrations in
newspapers and magazines. Therefore, studies on political art of this category tend to focus attention on the pictorial journals and their influence in China’s large cities, especially
Shanghai. A number of books and articles focus on the political news illustrations in dianshizhai huabao, a Chinese­language magazine published in Shanghai in the late 19th century.
Another favorite topic is Liangyou, a periodical published in Shanghai between 1926 and 1945, and the visual culture of Shanghai in the Republican period.
Dianshizhai Huabao
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Ye 2003 offers the most comprehensive account of this influential pictorial. Cohn 1987 includes fifty illustrations with translated inscriptions from a wide spectrum of topics. Gong 1991
traces the biography of the Dianshizhai huabao news illustrator, Wu Youru. Wagner 2007 locates the artistic elements in Dianshizhai huabao within a global context. Reed 2000 and
Song 2006 discuss both the literature and the pictures in this pictorial.
Cohn, Don, ed. Vignettes from the Chinese: Lithographs from Shanghai in the Late Nineteenth Century. Research Centre for Translation. Hong Kong: Chinese University of
Hong Kong Press, 1987.
This book reprints fifty lithographed illustration from Dianshizhai huabao, and Cohn offers translations for their lengthy inscriptions. Some illustrations in this collection address political
issues such as political news, views on opium dens, and prisons.
Gong Chanxing
龚产兴. “Xinwen huajia Wu Youru; jiantan Wu Youru zhong de jige wenti新闻画家吴友如；简谈吴友如中的几个问题.” Meishu pinglun 美术评论 3 (1991): 66–74.
Gong provides a short biography of the famous news illustrator Wu Youru, along with an account of his choices of artistic style.
Reed, Christopher A. “Re/Collecting the Sources: Shanghai Dianshizhai Pictorial and Its Place in Historical Memories, 1884–1949.” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture
12.2 (2000): 44–72.
Relying on research in primary sources, Reed examines the impact of industrially mass­produced visual culture on modern Chinese society. Focusing on a close reading of images from
the influential Shanghai magazine Dianshizhai huabao (Dianshizhai Pictorial), this article examines both the production and the reception of such mass­produced images.
Song, Gang. “A Paradox In­Between: The Dianshizhai Pictorial and Late 19th Century Chinese Literature.” The International Journal of the Humanities 2.1 (2006): 633–648.
This article examines the literature and pictures published in Dianshizhai Pictorial and argues that the reason for the appeal to a broader audience of Dianshizhai Pictorial stemmed from
the marriage between words and images, reaching out to a lower­class population.
Wagner, Rudolf G. “Joining the Global Imaginaire The Shanghai Illustrated Newspaper Dianshizhai huabao.” In Joining the Global Public: Word, Image and City in Early
Chinese Newspapers, 1870–1910. Edited by Rudolf G. Wagner, 3–96. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007.
Wagner argues that about 7 percent of the images in the first twenty volumes of the Dianshizhai Pictorial were copies from Western pictorials. He therefore argues that, in terms of the
circulation of images, China had been swiftly incorporated into the global system by the end of the 19th century, and modern Shanghai’s dynamic political and cultural structure formed a
hybrid environment in mass communication.
Ye, Xiaoqing. The Dianshizhai Pictorial: Shanghai Urban Life, 1884–1898. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 2003.
Ye’s book examines more than one hundred illustrations from the Dianshizhai Pictorial. By this means, she reconstructs the new political and popular culture of Shanghai at the turn of
the 20th century. Very thorough and informative.
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Liangyou
Kuo 2007 is an informative resource for understanding the wide spectrum of visual culture in Shanghai, a background against which Liangyou were produced the consumed. Waara
1999 reads Liangyou within the context of Shanghai’s commercial and social atmosphere. Pickowicz, et al. 2013 is the most scholarly and comprehensive study on Liangyou. Ma 2002
serves as a memoir of the development of Liangyou.
Kuo, Jason C., ed. Visual Culture in Shanghai, 1850s–1930s. Washington, DC: New Academia, 2007.
This book contains essays on the paintings from the Shanghai School, as well as other forms of visual imagery in Shanghai. By examining this visual culture, the writers explore the
dynamics of the interaction between traditional Chinese and Western culture and the unique experience of Shanghai modernity.
Ma Guoliang. Liangyou yijiu: Yi jia huabao yu yige shidai
良友憶舊: 一家畫報與一個時代. Beijing: Shenshuo dushu xinzhi sanlian shudian, 2002.
Written by the previous editor of the Liangyou Pictorial, Ma Guoliang, this book explores a variety of aspects of this famous pictorial. It includes a number of early photography and
magazine covers, old letters and notes. Translated as: “Memories of Companion: A pictorial and an age.”
Pickowicz, Paul G., Kuiyi Shen, and Yingjin Zhang, eds. Liangyou: Kaleidoscopic Modernity and the Shanghai Global Metropolis, 1926–1945. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill,
2013.
This collection of original essays offers an extended look at the phenomenal influence of the Liangyou Pictorial, and it explores the complex issues surrounding Shanghai modernity from
1926 to 1945.
Waara, Caroline Lynne. “Invention, Industry, Art: The Commercialization of Culture in Republican Art Magazines.” In Inventing Nanjing Road: Commercial Culture in
Shanghai, 1900–1945. Edited by Sherman Cochran, 61–90. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.
This article examines a few Republican period magazines such as Liangyou, Meishu shenghuo, and Shidai huabao and retells the story of consumer culture, art publishing, and politics
during China’s Republican period.
Nianhua
年畫
The value for political education for the Chinese of China’s nianhua
(New Year pictures) has been recognized by a variety of political groups, including the Chinese Imperial Court of
the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), the Imperial Japanese Army, and the CCP leadership. Some nianhua eventually became political posters themselves. To begin with, nianhua functioned
as the most prevalent form of shared art, distinguished by regional variation, among the Chinese people from the time of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). They were made for popular
consumption, offering a means of expressing wishes for prosperity on the occasion of the Chinese New Year. Produced by woodblock printing techniques, they were themselves
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representations of older Chinese beliefs concerning ways to ensure good fortune in the coming year. Despite its obvious link to the most conservative of traditional Chinese customs,
nianhua has continued as a highly versatile form of popular art in the 20th and 21st centuries. A number of scholars, such as Wang Shucun and Ellen Laing, argue that nianhua laid a
solid foundation for modern Chinese political imagery. Gailiang nianhua (reformed niahua), popular in the late Qing dynasty and early Republican period, were imbued with political
elements. The yuefenpai design also absorbed many aesthetic elements of nianhua. The value of nianhua for political education was also officially recognized by the Communists in
Yan’an during the 1940s. After the founding of the PRC in 1949, the new Chinese Communist Party’s Ministry of Culture launched the new nianhua campaign, and the amending of
nianhua was given a high priority. Well­known artists began participating in the production of nianhua, experimenting with this traditional folk art through new political ideologies and
visual expressions.
Overviews on Traditional Nianhua and Gailiang Nianhua
Many Chinese books on traditional and gailiang nianhua are surveys or catalogues. Among them, books by Wang Shucun and Bo Songnian are the ones most frequently referred to (Bo
2008, Wang 1997, Wang 2002). Aying 1954 is the earliest survey of nianhua. Feng 2011 pays more attention to nianhua studios and the technique of producing nianhua. For English
publications, Smith 1992 and Lust 1996 offer survey­like scholarship. For in­depth visual analysis and understanding nianhua in a social­historical context, McIntyre 1997 is an effective
place to start.
Aying
阿英 [Qian Xingcun 钱杏邨]. Zhongguo nianhua fazhan shilue中國年畫發展史略. Beijing: Chaohua chubanshe, 1954.
A concise history of Chinese New Year pictures, this work argues that their origins trace back to Chinese religious prints. The last chapter discusses reformed New Year pictures that
were produced to serve political purposes. Translated as: “A brief history of Chinese nianhua development.”
Bo Songnian
薄松年. Zhongguo nianhua shi 中国年画艺术史. Changsha, China: Hunan meishu chubanshe, 2008.
Generously illustrated, this book is a comprehensive survey of Chinese nianhua, from their origins to the 1980s. While the majority of works in this book are religious prints, the author
includes images of commercial calendar posters and political reformed nianhua. There is also a section dedicated to the new nianhua campaign of the 1950s, and one dedicated to Lu
Xun’s collection and theories on nianhua.
冯骥才, ed. Zhongguo muban nianhua jicheng中国木版年画继承. 22 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2011.
A comprehensive reproduction of nianhua by region (and regional style) of production (Yangliuqing 杨柳青, Yangjiabu 杨家埠, Wuqiang武强, etc.). One volume covers the nianhua
Feng Jicai
collection in Japan and another the collection of Vasily Alexeyev, an early­20th­century Russian collector and scholar of nianhua.
Lust, John. Chinese Popular Prints. Vol. 4. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1996.
A general survey of Chinese woodblock popular prints from the 17th to the early 20th centuries, focusing on the New Year pictures. The first two chapters describe their invention,
origins, and history. The main themes of the following four chapters are: the printmakers and printshops; society, symbolism and visual pun; categories of popular prints and their display;
and technical terms. Numerous prints produced after the late 19th century feature political elements.
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McIntyre, Tanya. “Chinese New Year Pictures: The Process of Modernisation, 1842–1942.” PhD diss., University of Melbourne, 1997.
An excellent dissertation on the history of nianhua and its transformation in modern times; this dissertation explores the versatility of nianhua in different political contexts before 1949,
with a chapter on the nianhua of the Taiping Rebellion and one on gailiang nianhua.
Smith, Richard J. Chinese Almanacs. Cambridge, UK: Oxford University Press, 1992.
A concise survey of nianhua and yuefenpai, from the traditional period to the early 20th century.
Wang Shucun
王树村. Zhongguo minjian nianhua中国民间年画. Jinan, China: Shandong meishu chubanshe, 1997.
A survey of nianhua, as they became more and more political toward the end of the Qing Dynasty.
Wang Shucun
王树村. Zhongguo nianhua shi 中国年画史. Beijing: Beijing gongyi meishu chubanshe, 2002.
A thorough survey of Chinese New Year pictures, the chapters on the Qing dynasty and the Republican period discuss the political issues featured in the reformed New Year pictures.
Nianhua of a Particular Collection, Period, or Genre
Some books are based on nianhua of a particular genre, period, studio, or collection. Laing 2000 explores the collection of the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, and Laing 2002 selects
nianhua of the famous Muban Collection. Rudova 1988 is a catalogue of the Russian scholar Vasily Alexeyev’s collection. Spee 2010 showcases the popular prints at the British
Museum. Wachs and Chang 1999 is an exhibition catalogue on woodcuts and the new nianhua. Wang Shucun also published books on theatrical and gate guardian nianhua (Wang
2006 and Wang 2008). Laing 2000 deals with the political themes of nianhua during the late Qing dynasty and early Republican period. Flath 2004 focuses on the gailiang nianhua
(reformed nianhua) around the turn of the 20th century.
Flath, James. “The Chinese Railroad View: Transportation Themes in Popular Print, 1873–1915.” Cultural Critique 58 (2004): 168–190.
This article is about the representation of industrial technology, such as the railway and trains, in China’s nianhua prints. Flath argues that rural China took advantage of its own
resources to produce an interpretation of industrial modernity.
Laing, Ellen Johnston. “Reform, Revolutionary, Political, and Resistance Themes in Chinese Popular Prints, 1900–1940.” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 12.2 (2000):
123–175.
This paper identifies some of the political prints produced between 1900 and 1940. It defines their political and social contents and offers detailed visual analysis. Laing also points out
that the value of using nianhua for propaganda and political purposes was recognized long before the Communists in Yan’an turned to this method of reaching the public.
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Laing, Ellen Johnston. Art and Aesthetics in Chinese Popular Prints: Selections from the Muban Foundation Collection. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002.
This book covers eighty­four nianhua prints, ranging from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries, belonging to the London­based Muban Foundation. Images include deities popular in
nianhua, illustrations of operas, as well as contemporary political and revolutionary messages. Laing emphasizes the artistic aspects of these prints. A good source for understanding
political prints of the late 19th to early 20th centuries in China.
Rudova, Maria. Chinese Popular Prints. Leningrad: Aurora Art, 1988.
This catalogue reproduces selections from the collection of nianhua assembled by the Russian scholar Vasily Alexeyev in China during the early 20th century. Alexeyev was one of the
pioneers in the study of nianhua; his collection is now in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. This volume explains the iconography of the prints and provides a brief history of
nianhua.
Spee, Clarissa von, ed. The Printed Image in China: From the 8th to the 21st Centuries. London: British Museum Press, 2010.
Luxuriously illustrated, this book presents a large selection from the entire range of Chinese prints held by the British Museum, one of the most comprehensive collections outside Asia.
This book explores the role of Chinese prints in various cultural contexts, ranging from Buddhism, folk rituals, and festivals to imperial engravings, the anti­war atmosphere of the Modern
Woodcut Movement, and contemporary commercial settings.
Wachs, Iris, and Tsong­zung Chang. Half a Century of Chinese Woodblock Prints: From the Communist Revolution to the Open­Door Policy and beyond, 1945–1998. Ein
Harod, Israel: Museum of Art Ein Harod, 1999.
An exhibition catalogue of 20th­century Chinese woodblock prints, organized by the Museum of Art Ein Harod and curated by Tsong­zung Chang, Shancun Yan, and Iris Wachs. Some
works belong to the Creative Print Movement, which began in the 1930s and became a propaganda vehicle during the Second Sino­Japanese War and Chinese Civil War. Others
include the new nianhua of the 1950s and political prints advocating the Open Door Policy.
Wang Shucun
王树村. Zhongguo nianhua 中国戏出年画. Beijing: Beijing gongyi meishu chubanshe, 2006.
A visual catalogue of Chinese theatrical nianhua, which is a rarely discussed topic.
Wang Shucun
王树村. Zhongguo Minjian Menshen Yishu Shihua中国民间门神艺术史话. Tianjin, China: Baihua wenyi chubanshe, 2008.
A visual catalogue of Chinese gate guardian nianhua.
The New Nianhua
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The two prominent scholars who have devoted the most effort to study of the New Nianhua are James Flath and Hung Chang­tai. Flath usually argues for the connection between the
traditional nianhua and the new nianhua (Flath 2004a, Flath 2004b), while Hung argues for new nianhua as a dramatic break from the past (Hung 2000). Lu 2010 provides a general
overview of the new nianhua produced after 1949.
Flath, James. The Cult of Happiness: Nianhua, Art, and History in Rural North China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004a.
A rigorously researched and excellently written book on the nianhua produced in Shandong, Hebei, and Henan Provinces from about 1880 to 1950. Flath constructs the relationship
between the nianhua to the social, political, and cultural context of North China. With efficient visual analysis, he reconstructs the popular conceptions of domesticity, morality, gender,
society, and modernity. He also examines the new nianhua produced by the Communists, bridging the traditional and the new nianhua.
Flath, James. “‘It’s a Wonderful Life’: ‘Nianhua’ and ‘Yuefenpai’ at the Dawn of the People’s Republic.” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 16.2 (2004b): 123–159.
This article explores the new nianhua campaign in the 1950s. Combining examination of the art and politics with insightful visual analysis, Flath argues that the 1950s new nianhua
blends artistic styles from a number of sources: academic, commercial, and folk art. Therefore, the new nianhua campaign of the 1950s should also be regarded as an experiment in
fusing art styles to coordinate the tastes of art academy elites and those of the masses rather than marking a radical break from the past.
Hung, Chang­tai. “Repainting China: New Year Prints (nianhua) and Peasant Resistance in the Early years of the People’s Republic.” Comparative Studies in Society and
History 42.4 (2000): 770–810.
This article deals with the new nianhua campaign of the 1950s. It argues that because the Communist government neglected the peasants’ aesthetic habits, the new nianhua effort failed
to attract them.
Lu, Keqin. China in New Year Paintings. Beijing: China Intercontinental Press, 2010.
This book is composed of 200 Chinese New Year paintings produced beginning in 1949, and it is divided into three time periods: 1949–1965, 1966–1978, and 1979–2009. These
nianhua illustrate the major political events in China over the past sixty years, in matters relating to the economy, urbanization, industrial and agricultural production, folk customs, and
more.
Manhua
Political cartoons emerged as a highly influential form of mass­produced art in China around the turn of the 20th century, in conjunction with the rise of newspapers and magazines. The
Chinese term, manhua
, adapted from the Japanese term manga in 1925, can be translated as “cartoons” or “impromptu paintings.” They stood out as independent artworks, usually
done by well­known artists. The humor in these political cartoons was also appreciated by China’s newly emerging metropolitan culture. A variety of political movements, including the
漫畫
May Fourth Movement, the Northern Expedition, the Second Sino­Japanese War, the founding of the PRC, and the Cultural Revolution, provided further acceleration to the marriage
between politics and manhua.
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Manhua Overviews
For cartoon overviews written in Chinese, Bi and Huang 2006 and Gan 2008 offer comprehensive overviews that cover both the Republican period and the PRC period. Lent and Xu
2017 is the most comprehensive English overview publication on Chinese comics. John Lent’s other book and articles are useful sources for addressing Chinese manhua in a larger
Asian context (Lent 1995, Lent 1996, Lent 2001). For comic books, Andrews 1997 can provide a good starting point, especially with regard to comics produced during the PRC period.
Hwang 1978 offers a concise overview of early PRC comics, while Chesneaux, et al. 1973 provides several important examples of PRC comic books.
Andrews, Julia F. “Literature in Line: Picture Stories in the People’s Republic of China.” Inks: Comic and Comic Art Studies 4.3 (November 1997): 17–32.
This article presents a thorough survey on the history of Chinese comic books during the PRC period. It is a worthwhile introduction to PRC comics.
Bi Keguan
毕克官, and Huang Yuanlin 黄远林. Zhongguo manhua shi 中国漫画史. Beijing: Wenhua yishu chubanshe, 2006.
This book is a general survey of Chinese cartoons from the late Qing dynasty to the end of the Second Sino­Japanese War, many of which are political cartoons. The authors give
attention to a number of well­known artists, such as Feng Zikai, Huang Wennong, Hua Junwu, Ye Qianyu, and Zhang Leping. It can be used as a reference book.
Chesneaux, Jean, Umberto Eco, and Gino Nediolo. The People’s Comic Book: Red Women’s Detachment, Hot on the Trail, and Other Chinese Comics. Garden City, NY:
Anchor, 1973.
This book features comics published from the founding of the People’s Republic of China to the 1970s. It also demonstrates how the Chinese Communist Party utilized these comics to
promote its political ideologies. Examples include: “San­yuan­li,” “Bravery on the Deep Blue Seas,” “Li Shuangshuang,” “Letters from the South,” and “Lei Feng.” Translated by Endymion
Wilkinson.
Gan Xianfeng
甘险峰. Zhongguo manhua shi 中国漫画史. Jinan, China: Shandong huabao chubanshe, 2008.
An excellent comprehensive survey of Chinese cartoons, ranging from ancient (as early as the Han dynasty) to contemporary China. It contains a few chapters on political cartoons
produced during wars and revolutions, and the book includes political cartoons from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
Hwang, John C. “Lien Huan Hua: Revolutionary Serial Pictures.” In Popular Media in China: Shaping New Cultural Patterns. Edited by Godwin C. Chu, 51–72. Honolulu:
University of Hawai’i Press, 1978.
By examining some influential lianhuahua in modern China, Hwang demonstrates the connection between public opinion and political imagery.
Lent, John A. “Comics in East Asian Countries: A Contemporary Survey.” Journal of Popular Culture 29.1 (1995): 185–198.
A brief survey of contemporary comics in East Asia; this is a useful resource for locating Chinese comics in a semi­global context.
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Lent, John A., ed. Special Issue: Comic Art in Asia: Historical, Literary, and Political Roots. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 7.1–2 (1996).
A brief survey of cartooning in East Asia, with emphasis on the social­historical background.
Lent, John A., ed. Illustrating Asia: Comic, Humor Magazines and Picture Books. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001.
This book examines several topics surrounding Asian comic and serial art, with a number of articles focused on Chinese manhua: “Shaping a Cultural Identity: The Picture Book and
Cartoons in Taiwan,” “Lianhuanhua and Manhua: Picture Books and Comics in Old Shanghai,” “The Corporeality of Erotic Imagnination: A Study of Pictorials and Cartoons in Republican
China,” “Redrawing the Past: Modern Presentation of Ancient Chinese Philosophy in the Cartoons of Tsai Chih­Chung.”
Lent, John A., and Xu Ying. Comics Art in China. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2017.
A scholarly survey of Chinese cartoons, from ancient times to the age of digitalization. It is the most comprehensive survey of Chinese manhua in English.
Feng Zikai’s Manhua
A number of publications on political cartoons focus on the famous cartoonist Feng Zikai (b. 1898–d. 1975), who introduced the term manhua to China. Based on its intensive discussion
of the social­political background against which Feng Zikai produced his cartoon art, Barmé 2002 and Barmé 1989 can serve as profitable starting points for research. Bi 1981 and
Harbsmeier 1984 focus on the artist’s biography and the cultural influence from which Feng drew. Hung 1990 discusses how Feng Zikai utilized manhua as a pictorial weapon during the
Second Sino­Japanese War.
Barmé, Geremie. “An Artist and His Epithet: Notes on Feng Zikai and Manhua.” Papers on Far Eastern History 39 (March 1989): 18–43.
This article relates the story of Feng Zikai and his manhua practice, primarily against the background of the Sino­Japanese War.
Barmé, Geremie. An Artistic Exile: A Life of Feng Zikai, 1898–1978. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
This book tells the complex story of Feng Zikai as a cartoon artist and writer emerging from the politically tumultuous decades of the Republican period. Barmé investigates the
development of Feng’s art career and how it relates to contemporary Chinese cultural debates, as well as China’s political history.
Bi, Keguan. “On Feng Zikai’s Cartoons.” Translated by Wang Mingjie. Chinese Literature 8.2 (1981): 73–80.
This article considers the life and art of Feng Zikai, focusing on the artist’s biography.
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Harbsmeier, Christoph. The Cartoonist Feng Zikai: Social Realism with a Buddhist Face. Oslo, Norway: Universitetforlaget, 1984.
Harbsmeier explores different cultural aspects of Feng Zikai’s work as a political cartoonist.
Hung, Chang­tai. “War and Peace in Feng Zikai’s Wartime Cartoons.” Modern China 16.1 (January 1990): 39–83.
This article explores Feng Zikai’s cartoons during the Second Sino­Japanese War. It addresses issues surrounding public opinion and the power of political cartoons.
Manhua and the Second Sino­Japanese War
Numerous scholars have given attention to the role that manhua played during the Second Sino­Japanese War. Bader 1941 and Chen 1945 offer a general onsite observation of the
impact of manhua on the people during the Second Sino­Japanese War. Other works focus on more specific manhua themes expressed during the war: Pozzi 2014 concentrates on the
representation of children in the war. Taylor 2015 explores works produced by “collaborationist” cartoonists. Hung 1994 demonstrates how political cartoons remained a powerful political
tool immediately after the war.
Bader, A. L. “China’s New Weapon: Caricature.” The American Scholar 10 (1941): 228–240.
This article discusses China’s emerging urban manhua, as it began informing the masses on political events. It is an interesting work, given from an outsider’s perspective.
Chen, Jack. “China’s Militant Cartoons.” Asia 45.12 (December 1945): 308–312.
A short essay on Chinese cartoons as a form of political weaponry.
Hung, Chang­tai. “The Fuming Image: Cartoons and Public Opinion in Late Republican China, 1945 to 1949.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 36.1 (January
1994): 122–145.
This article covers an exhibition of the cartoonist Liao Bingxiong’s political cartoons in Chongqing, China’s wartime capital. The goal of the exhibition was to issue criticism against the
Guomindang government and was greeted with enthusiasm by the public. Hung demonstrates how cartoons came to be a powerful political tool during and after China’s wartime
experience.
Pozzi, Laura. “‘Chinese Children Rise Up!’: Representations of Children in the Work of the Cartoon Propaganda Corps during the Second Sino­Japanese War.” Cross­
Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 13 (December 2014).
During the Second Sino­Japanese War, children became a major subject of propaganda imagery. By analyzing images of the wartime magazine Resistance Cartoons, Pozzi shows the
authorities’ expectations of China’s youngest citizens, as well as anti­propagandistic representations of children’s life in modern China.
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Taylor, Jeremy E. “Cartoons and Collaboration in Wartime China: The Mobilization of Chinese Cartoonists under Japanese Occupation.” Modern China 41.4 (2015): 406–435.
A very compelling essay on an understudied subject. By analyzing “collaborationist” cartoonists during the Second Sino­Japanese War, this article explores the nature of the
collaborationist governments, such as that of Wang Jingwei, as well as the development of art and propaganda in modern China.
Shanghai manhua
Another popular topic of manhua studies is the relationship between cartoons and the new urban life in Shanghai. Bevan 2016 offers a comprehensive account of the Shanghai
cartoonists and their cultural circle. Wu 2013 and Laing 2010 explore specific Shanghai cartoon magazines. Modern Sketch and Modern Sketch III: Image Galleries are also available for
online research on Shanghai cartoons: MIT Visualizing Cultures, Colgate University Digital Libraries Collection on Shidai manhua (Colgate University), and Shanghai katong zhi chuang.
Crespi’s articles at the MIT Visual Cultures site provide an overview of the famous Shanghai cartoon magazine, Modern Sketch (Crespi 2011a, Crespi 2011b). Rigby 1999 examines the
Shanghai based Russian cartoonist Georgii Sapojnikoff. Shen 2001 discusses Shanghailianhuanhua from the perspectives of artists’ biographies and the Shanghainese artistic and
cultural taste of those in Shanghai.
Bevan, Paul. A Modern Miscellany: Shanghai Cartoon Artists, Shao Xunmei’s Circle and the Travels of Jack Chen, 1926–1938. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2016.
By exploring the circle of Shanghai cartoonists, Bevan demonstrates how manhua, a new genre of Chinese modern art, became a propaganda tool for China’s left­wing artists.
Colgate University. Modern Sketch (Shidai manhua). Hamilton, NY: Colgate University Digital Libraries Collection.
The site offers scans of all pages of Modern Sketch from January 1934 to March 1937 issues.
Crespi, John. China’s Modern Sketch I: The Golden Era of Cartoon Art, 1934–1937. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011a.
See also “China’s Modern Sketch–II: Nine Thematic Visual Narratives”; “China’s Modern Sketch–III: Image Galleries.” MIT Visualizing Cultures. Three online articles, produced as part of
the MIT Visualizing Cultures Project. Crespi introduces a cartoon journal popular in China’s large cities during the 1930s, Modern Sketch. He also discusses in this pictorial journal the
relationship between the politics of the 1920s and 1930s and the manhua.
Crespi, John. Modern Sketch III: Images Galleries. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011b.
In collaboration with Colgate University’s digital project of the magazine Modern Sketch, Prof. John A. Crespi provides scholarly essays combined with full­color, high­resolution images
from Modern Sketch at MIT’s Visualizing Cultures project.
Laing, Ellen Johnston. “Shanghai Manhua, the Neo­Sensationist School of Literature, and Scenes of Urban Life.” MCLC Resource Center (September 2010).
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By examining the unique 1928–1930 pictorial Shanghai Manhua, Laing showcases contemporary attitudes toward urban life in Shanghai, particularly those of urban women.
Rigby, Richard. “Sapajou.” East Asian History 17–18 (June/December 1999): 103–130.
This article introduced the Shanghai­based cartoonist Georgii Sapojnikoff, a White Russian exile and cartoonist at the North China Daily News, and his artistic career in China. In
showcasing his cartoon art for a variety of topics such as the Northern Expedition, Communists, warlords, and Shanghai, Rigby demonstrates the artists’ opinions on a number of
political issues and reconstructs the social culture of Shanghai.
Shen, Kuiyi. “Lianhuanhua and Manhua: Picture Books and Comics in Old Shanghai.” In Illustrating Asia: Comics, Humor Magazines and Picture Books. Edited by John
Lent, 100–120. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001.
Shen Kuiyi discusses the pictorial literature that was popular in Shanghai. He tracks down a few lianhuanhua cartoonists’ careers and examines some of their works. Shen argues that
the popularity of lianhuanhua in Shanghai during the 1930s stemmed from their ability to cater to the needs of lower­middle­class people in that city.
Wu, I­Wei. “Participating in Global Affairs: The Chinese Cartoon Monthly Shanghai Puck.” In Asian Punches: A Transcultural Affair. Edited by Hans Harder and Barbara
Mittler, 365–388. Berlin: Springer­Verlag, 2013.
This article deals with the monthly magazine, Shanghai Puck, as a part of Punch and Punch­like magazine culture in a global context.
Peasant Painting
Chinese peasant paintings grew out of centuries­long traditions in a variety of peasant arts produced by unidentified artists, including nianhua, embroidery, paper cutting, batik, and
home decorations. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, professional artists were sent by the government to join in and observe agricultural work and rural life in the
countryside. These professional artists then started to train local peasants to become craftsmen. Meanwhile, the intensive use of visual propaganda, and its fantastical depictions of
industrial and agricultural production, further promoted cultural and artistic activities in the rural villages. From this process, peasant paintings have become a prominent form of political
art since the 1950s.
Peasant Painting Overviews
Chen and Cai 2009, Xi 2008, Zheng and Xi 2014, and Zuo 1998 are lavishly illustrated books that offer comprehensive overviews of Chinese peasant paintings in general. Hebei renmin
chubanshe 1975 and Jin 1989 are general surveys of peasant art, including peasant paintings, nianhua, and paper cuts. Wachs 2004 offers a catalogue of Chinese paper cut art. Laing’s
article, “Chinese Peasant Painting,” offers an in­depth analysis of the formation of peasant paintings from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Chen Gang
陈刚, and Cai Fangfang. Xinshidai Zhongguo nongmin hua新时代中国农民画. Chongqing, China: Zhongging taxue chubanshe, 2009.
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A brief survey of peasant paintings. The volume offers an essay on the history of Chinese peasant paintings with mistakes, followed by a catalogue of images.
Hebei renmin chubanshe, eds. Nongcun meishu shouce
农村美术手册. Shijiazhuang, China: Hebei renmin chubanshe, 1975.
Published during the Cultural Revolution, this volume showcases a selection of political arts, ranging from peasant paintings with strong political themes to revolutionary woodcuts.
Jin, Zhilin. L’ésthétique de l’art populaire chinois/Aesthetic Features of Chinese Folk Art: La poupée porte­bonheur/The Good Luck Dolly. Paris: Librairie You­Feng and
Musée Kwok On, 1989.
A catalogue of nianhua and papercut images, with some visual analysis.
Laing, Ellen Johnston. “Chinese Peasant Painting, 1958–1976: Amateur and Professional.” Art International 27.1 (1984): 1–12.
An in­depth analysis of peasant paintings. Laing explains how the peasant painting was elevated to the status of “high art,” on a par with oil painting, ink painting, and sculpture, after
professional artists were sent by the government to bring peasant arts and crafts to prominence. Meanwhile, local leaders attempted to boost their peasant art by every means available,
organizing art meetings, opening free art classes, and promoting peasant painters to administrative positions.
Wachs, Iris. Magical Shapes: Twentieth Century Chinese Papercuts. Tel Aviv: Eretz Israel Museum, 2004.
A selection of the 20th­century Chinese papercuts held by the Eretz Israel Museum. A number of these papercuts, produced after the 1940s, feature political themes.
Xi Jiping
奚吉平. Zhongguo nongmin hua中国农民画. Beijing: Wuzhou chuanbo chubanshe, 2008.
A basic survey of Chinese peasant paintings. It serves as a catalogue of peasant art from Shaanxi, Shanghai, Qinghai, and Chongqing.
Zheng Shiyou
郑士有, and Xi Jiping, eds. Zhongguo nongmin hua kaocha中国农民画考察. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 2014.
The most comprehensive survey of Chinese peasant paintings, nicely illustrated. It goes beyond a basic survey and catalogue of Chinese peasant paintings. With an emphasis on the
primary sources, it includes interviews with individual artists.
Zuo Hanzhong
左汉中, ed. Zhongguo xiandai meishu quanji – nongmin hua中国现代美术全集 ﹣ 农民画. Changsha, China: Hunan meishu chubanshe, 1998.
A comprehensive survey of Chinese peasant paintings. It also offers biographic information for more than twenty artists.
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Huxian Peasant Paintings
Many publications in both Chinese and English focus on peasant paintings produced in Huxian County, as Huxian County in Shaanxi Province was the birthplace of Chinese peasant
arts. Most publications on Huxian peasant paintings do not go beyond basic surveys or exhibition catalogues. He 2015 is the most comprehensive survey in Chinese. Fine Arts
Collection Section of the Cultural Group Under the State Council of the People’s Republic of China 1974 is a catalogue of the Huxian County peasant paintings selected by the CCP’s
state council during the Cultural Revolution. Brett 1976 is the exhibition catalogue for a show on the Huxian County peasant paintings in 1976.
Brett, Guy, ed. Peasant Paintings from Hu County, Shensi Province, China. London: Arts Council, 1976.
Visual catalogue of the peasant paintings from Huxian County. It is based on an exhibition organized by the British Art Council in 1976.
Fine Arts Collection Section of the Cultural Group Under the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, eds. Peasant Paintings from Huhsien County. Peking: People’s
Fine Arts Publishing House, 1974.
Written in English and published during the Cultural Revolution, this book is a comprehensive survey of the peasant paintings from Huxian County. It utilizes a number of propaganda­
like vocabularies.
He Weiping
何卫平. Huxian nongmin hua 户县农民画. Xi’an, China: Xi’an jiaotong daxue chubanshe, 2015.
Selection of peasant paintings from Huxian County from the 1950s to the present day, with essays introducing their history and social­historical backgrounds. It is the most
comprehensive survey in Chinese.
Jinshan Peasant Art
Jinshan is another famous site for producing peasant art. Both Wu 1996 and Morrissey and Mak 2008 introduce the peasant art in Jinshan. Neither of the two contains in­depth analysis.
Morrissey, Tricia, and Ding Sang Mak. Everyday Life: Through Chinese Peasant Art. San Francisco: ThingsAsian Press, 2008.
Everyday Life introduces Shanghai’s Jinshan artists’ peasant paintings, featuring beautiful illustrations with bilingual texts; very comprehensive survey.
Wu, Tongzhang. Peasants’ Painting in Jinshan. Translated by Tan Min and Eric Simpson. Beijing: China Today Press, 1996.
Bilingual publication on peasant paintings in Jinshan. English and Chinese edition.
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