The Fuming Image: Cartoons and Public Opinion in Late Republican China, 1945 to 1949

Abstract

When Cantonese cartoonist Liao Bingxiong (1915–) mounted his show, The Cat Kingdom (Maoguo chunqiu), at the Sino-Sovfet Cultural Association (Zhong-Su wenhua xiehui) in Chongqing—China's wartime capital—in March 1946, he was prompted by more than an artistic urge: He intended to issue a strong criticism of the Guomindang (Nationalist) government for its inability to deal with the country's rapidly deteriorating situation. The show was an overwhelming success, “creating a sensation in this hilly city,” in the words of one contemporary artist. The show was greeted with equal enthusiasm when it was put on later in other cities, such as Chengdu and Kunming. Such a favorable reception reflected both the artistry of Liao's works and, more important, the relevance of cartoons as a powerful tool for airing opinion.

The politics of care during COVID-19: The visibility of anti-virus measures in Wuhan

“…Cartoons were used to mobilize people to fight against the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) because they were accessible to illiterate people and portrayed symbolism, history, and emotion even more powerfully than words. 37 Cartoon images can also form an innocuous facade for messages with a forceful intent, since they are often perceived to be 'cute' and 'friendly'. 38 Scholars of Japanese cuteness (kawaii) culture, which produces the type of cartoon images that we see on the Chinese propaganda posters, argue that cuteness does not only help to communicate forceful messages, but that by eliciting affective feelings such images also make viewers more attentive and improve their performance in tasks that require caution.…”

Politics of visual discourse in China: the corruption cartoon

“…Parodied officials of the Qing Dynasty appeared in newspapers and magazines since 1875 (Bi and Huang, 2006;Ku, 2012;Li, 1998). During the first half of the 20th century, political upheavals provided fertile material for cartoonists, including the collapse of the Qing Dynasty (1911), the New Culture Movement (mid-1910s to 1920), the Anti-Japanese War (1931)(1932)(1933)(1934)(1935)(1936)(1937)(1938)(1939)(1940)(1941)(1942)(1943)(1944)(1945), followed by the civil war between the Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Communist Party (CPC) between 1946 and 1949 (Hung, 1994(Hung, , 2011. Up to that point, cartoon aesthetics and other cultural influences from Europe, the USA, and Japan had played a major part in the flourishing of political cartoons in China (Bi and Huang, 2006;Lent and Xu, 2017;Li, 1998).…”