Women’s Images In "Modern Sketch" (1934-1937)

As the comic publication with largest circulation and longest running time in 1930 s,the influence of "Modern Sketch" is undoubtedly profound.It is not only attributed to the personal artistic charm of the founder Zhang Guangyu and his important position in the hearts of old cartoonists,but more importantly,it carries many younger cartoonists’ gratitude to the "Modern Sketch" magazine and its editor-in-chief Lu Shaofei for their support in the comic circles.However,it is curious that,facing enormous number of gender portrayals,praisers dismissed them as negligible and shelved them without comments,while critics considered such content to be bad,vulgar and pornographic,and only criticized them.The extensive social themes in "Modern Sketch" make it a carrier of the memory of the times,and there is a natural substantive connection between it and the historical context.The women in the comics are in the collision of old and new values,in the mixture of tradition and modernity,in the turbulent political situation in the country,and in the internal and external troubles.The nation is in crisis,and the voices of the outside world are getting stronger and stronger,and they are constantly influencing,intervening,and transforming them.Their visual image can be said to be a product of the times.It is unfair to scrutinize the female images in "Modern Sketch" without considering the historical context of the time at that time.It is also unfair to judge these female figures in one way solely based on their political or artistic aspect.Whether it is artistic or ideological,the investigation and judgment of women’s images in publications should remain in the 1930 s.It is the insistent goal of establishing the connection between the visual cultural image and the historical situation when the author examines and discusses the female images in this paper.This paper is divided into four chapters.The first chapter mainly introduces the social public opinion,the background of the times and the historical context surrounding the "Times" group and the publication of "Modern Sketch".The first section in the first chapter begins with "The Year of the Magazine",explaining the prosperity of the publications in the 1930 s,an important historical period when the "Modern Sketch" was published.Based on the establishment of the comic society and the founding activities of relevant members,the historical reasons why there were so many comic publications in Shanghai at that time were sorted,as well as the relationship between the "era" groups behind it.The second section mainly elaborates the public opinions on women’s issues in that era when "Modern Sketch" was involved.Through the discussion of women’s topics in the influential magazines "Lin Loon Magazine" and "The Young Companion" at that time,it outlines the sociocultural factors that could influence the contemporaneous cartoons on female images.The second chapter mainly focuses on the main expressions of female images in cartoons,discussing some other means of expression of female images by cartoonists apart from expressing them from a critical standpoint.This chapter uses three subsections titled Viewing and Power,Body and Desire,and Temptation and Danger to explore some important tendencies of expression involved in the creation of female images in comics,and the reasons behind these tendencies.The third chapter is the core of this paper,which focuses on the main female characters in "Modern Sketch".Starting from the female images of cartoon modern girls,working women,married women,etc.,dozens of representative cartoon works are analyzed by using the research method of iconography.Combining the perspectives of consumer culture and male discourse,it discusses the complex relationship between the female image and the social culture and historical situation at that time.The fourth chapter places the contradictions of female images under the background of modern women’s pursuit of freedom,liberation and equal rights,and seeks the social reasons for the formation of female images and the internal and external driving forces that promote the evolution of female images in cartoons.