National Tragedy And Spiritual Mobilization: The Cartoon Corps And Its Cartoons During The War Of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression

In August 1937,in order to publicize the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression(hereafter referred to as War of Resistance),there formed a Cartoon Corps spontaneously,which was affiliated to the Political Training Division of the Military Commission and later the Third Department of the Ministry of Political Affairs,both of the National Government of the Republic of China(hereafter referred to as the Nationalist government).This Cartoon Corps of War of Resistance(hereafter referred to as WR Cartoon Corps)was the backboneof Shanghai cartoon communityin the 1930 s.As the publicity campaign launched by this group forms a picture of wartime Chinese culture and re — constructs the effort that cartoonists have made in participating in social change,WR Cartoon Corps has attracted scholarly attention increasingly in recent years.Given that previous studies didn’t have a sound grasp of WR Cartoon Corps,in particular the interplay between its publicity orientation and cartoon creation,this study aims to avoid the generalization of established discourse and rediscover the subjective choices behind WR Cartoon Corps’ practice.The historical potential energy in War of Resistance context gives initial impetus to cartoonists’ actions;rationality behind their actions,therefore,can only be fully explained by returning to the field.This study takes cities of Shanghai,Nanjing,Wuhan,Guilin,and Chongqing as the temporal and spatial anchor points for exploring WR Cartoon Corps’ activities.By collecting historical materials,this study recreates the mirror image of the complete journey of formation,development,migration and disbandment of WR Cartoon Corps,and explores how external challenges and intrinsic aspirations have shaped the cartoonists’ specific behavior at different stages.In particular,it investigates YE Qianyu,ZHANG Leping,LIANG Baibo and other important members of WR Cartoon Corps from various perspectives,and considers the new issues that War of Resistance brought to the cartoonists and their creations.Firstly,the formation of subjectivity in WR Cartoon Corps pointed to their initial mindset.Behind its formation was not only an implicit desire to re—establish the legitimacy of cartoon genres,but also a link to the emotional entanglements of YE Qianyu and LIANG Baibo.WR Cartoon Corps,inextricably linked to the school of Modern Sketch before,was exposed to the foreign culture for a long time and built a wide network of contacts.Through commercial art practice in modern culture,they accumulated a great wealth of visual experience and knowledge about modernity,demonstrating their important position in Shanghai cultural genealogy in the 1930 s,which forms the background of this study’s subject matter.Secondly,Nanjing,as the first stop for WR Cartoon Corps to start their work,witnessed how they overcame the anxiety of “desperate attempt to save the country”and endeavored to take possible actions.Faced with a highly institutionalized social environment,they changed their affiliation several times and transformed from being a “private citizen” to a literary and artistic group affiliated to the Nationalist government.Led by publicity tasks,WR Cartoon Corps changed its work paradigm to one with equal emphasis on reproduction ofold works of art and mass collaboration,so as to improve the efficiency of image production.In addition,the move of cartoons to the outdoors as well as the shift of subject matter towards the utilitarian purpose constituted a fruitful sample of practice during this period.Thirdly,as WR Cartoon Corps was affiliated to the Third Department of the Ministry of Political Affairs,they became more “official” than other cartoonist groups of the same period.The identity of “cultural official” became a realistic basis for YE Qianyu and others to intervene in politics and realize their literary ideals.Their activities during this period indicated how administrative power behind literary and artisticpublicity was exercised during the beginning of War of Resistance.By exploring the wartime scenes,the author takes a fresh look at how WR cartoons intervened in media cooperation in an open and liberal manner during the Defense of Wuhan,focuses on the literary trend of “art for the people”,and uncovers the lesser—known wartime phenomenon of “mobile publicity”.As WR Cartoon Corps did not always have harmonious values,the cartoonists were once again confronted with a choice of life paths,which not only reveals the initiativeof historical subjects at different stages,but also suggests the fate of this group.At the same time,Cartoons of War of Resistance,the official organof WR Cartoon Corps,was born in Wuhan.It was both a successor to Salvation Cartoons and a wartime revival of Modern Sketch.By interpreting the visual characteristics of images in this publication,it could be revealed that modern discourse originating in Shanghai,folk resources at home,and rising nationalist sentiments intertwined together to form the overall orientation of WR Cartoon Corps’ creations,while the negative impact on their creations by instrumentalism also emerged.Finally,this study focuses on WR Cartoon Corps’ migration to Guilin and Chongqing during the later stages,and considers the interplay between the influence of the times and self—expression.It explores the historical messages behind such artistic phenomena as cooperation between cartoon and wood engraving as well as the return of sketch to the art world;it presents how cartoonists were able to nurture the possibility of their own artistic transformation by making the best of a tough situation;it also considers how cartoonists struggled to make a choice between providing publicity and pursuing aesthetics.Based on the summary of economic hardships and political pressures of WR Cartoon Corps,this study stares their fate of a quiet demise.In conclusion,this study revisits the valuable history of cartoonists using the brush to publicize War of Resistance,explores the cultural paradigm in which the context of national tragedy and the goal of mobilization were intertwined,connects a number of topics including competition in the art world,identity change,audience acceptance,creation mechanism,media collaboration and stylistic shift,and unfolds the re—construction of subjectivity of cartoonists under the impact of the wartime context.The Cartoon Corps of the War of Resistance(WR Cartoon Corps)becomes a clue to this period of history,brings new possibilities for us to understand the literary practices in the beginning of War of Resistance,and allows the cartoonists who have contributed to the times to make their voices heard in the writing of history.