From Chinese Wood-carving Anti-Japanese Association To Chinese Wood-carving Research Association

After the eruption of the Chinese Anti-Japanese War (Second Sino-Japanese War), within a year, the Japanese had penetrated to most of eastern China. On20December1937, the Nationalists government moved the capital from Nanjing to Chongqing.From then on, Chongqing became the provisional capital in the wartime as well as the political, military, economic and cultural center. Along with the migration of principal Fine Arts Societies and Art Colleges, most well-known artists and workers gathered in Chongqing leading to the result that the movement against Japan through art is more and more active day by day.The wood-carving movement, which aimed at saving the nation from extinction, was welcomed by publics and obtained encouraging feedbacks from many citizens and officials. Since the wood-carving community opened, it has received enormous attention and support. The huge amount of art works practiced and created in Chongqing by predominant artists who have gained great achievements in their creative career boomed the development of this kind of art.In the wartime, the wood-carving community undertook the work of arrangement, exhibition, publication, supplement and research. In the arrangement area, besides the headquarters, the community established the branches and divisions in Guilin, Chengdu, Kunming, Guiyang, Santai and so on; in the area of publication, the community publicized several kinds of books and magazines promoting the propagation of wood-carving;in the area of exhibition, the community held hundreds of conventions under the subject of Anti-Japanese War; in the area of supplement and research, the community provided the needed tools on wood-carving and conducted seminars with the theme of Anti-Japanese WarIn this thesis, I chose two national communities:"Chinese Wood-carving Anti-Japanese Association" and "Chinese Wood-carving Research Association" as my research subjects, concerning on the foundation, development and the movements they held, clearly demonstrated their history until the complete victory of war. The article can be divided into four sections.The first chapter analyzed the condition of novel wood-carving artists and communities in China, including the emergence of wood-carving in Shanghai and "Modern Engraving Society" in Guangzhou. According to the documents, Luxun, as the explorer in novel art, advocated the novel engraving in the era from late1920s to1930s, which evolved into an astonished wood-carving movement.The second chapter concentrates on the foundation of "Chinese Wood-carving Anti-Japanese Association";including the whole process form its rudimentary stage in Wuhan, the migration period from Wuhan to Guilin via Chongqing, and the final dismissed by government. I focused and interested on the documents of editing and publicizing magazines, holding research seminars, conventions and exhibitions by this community.The third chapter mainly discusses the history of "Chinese Wood-carving Research Association". Not only did these two societies have great influences in Chongqing during the wartime, but also they had derived from the same origin. Chinese Wood-carving Research Association, indeed, was the extension and descendant of Chinese Wood-carving Anti-Japanese Association.After the operation of Chinese Wood-carving Anti-Japanese Association was terminated by governor, Chinese Wood-carving Research Association undertook the mission and routine work, and became the most influential society at that time in the area of wood-carving.