Shanghai Manhua

Zhang Guangyu: Degenerate, 23 Nov 1929

Among the artists who established Shanghai Manhua, several had worked together on the small, short-lived journal Sanri Huabao (Three Day Pictorial), including Ye Qianyu and the brothers Zhang Guangyu and Zhang Zhenyu. The journal was shut down when Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition reached Shanghai in April 1927.[1]

Out of work, cartoonists Ye Qianyu, Huang Wennong, and Lu Shaofei published a dedicated publication for manhua named Shanghai Manhua (Shanghai Sketch). The first effort resembled a propaganda poster and was a failure. Undeterred, the original three, joined by eight more artists, including the Zhang brothers, Ding Song, and Wang Dunqing, formed the Shanghai Sketch Society (also translated as Shanghai Manhua Society) in the autumn of 1927.[1] It was China's first association dedicated to manhua and a major event in the history of Chinese comics.[6]

Although the society had no formal structure, the two eldest and most established artists, Zhang Guangyu and Ding Song, were regarded as its leaders. The society was registered and often met at Ding Song's home on Rue Amiral Bayle (now South Huangpi Road).[7]

Under the leadership of Zhang Guangyu, who recruited sponsors including the wealthy poet Shao Xunmei,[1] the association relaunched Shanghai Manhua on 21 April 1928.[7] It proved very popular: about three thousand copies of each issue were printed, which was considered a large amount for the 1920s.[1]

Lu Shaofei: Recent Empresses, from issue 15 (29 July 1928). Left to right: empresses of Shanghai's brothel district, movies, dance hall girls, prostitutes, and of the wives of physiognomists

In 1930, a Singapore-based businessman made a proposal to Zhang Guangyu and Zhang Zhenyu for starting a new pictorial magazine to compete with the popular monthly The Young Companion (Liangyou). The Zhang brothers agreed, but several partners in charge of photography objected.[8] As a result of the dispute, Shanghai Manhua was shut down in June 1930 after publishing 110 issues.[7] The manhua team of the magazine moved with the Zhangs to the newly established Shidai (Epoch) Publishing Group, which went on to publish a series of magazines including Modern Sketch, the centerpiece of China's golden era of cartoon art.[5]

In May 1936 Zhang Guangyu re-established Shanghai Manhua, while many of the original members were then working with Modern Sketch.[3] Together they organized the highly successful First National Cartoon Exhibition in September and formed the National Association of Chinese Cartoonists in the spring of 1937. The blossoming movement, however, was brought to a halt by the Japanese invasion a few months later.[3]