Manhua Modernity
Chinese Culture and the Pictorial Turn
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of California Press
Published:22nd Jan '21
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
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From fashion sketches of smartly dressed Shanghai dandies in the 1920s, to multipanel drawings of refugee urbanites during the war against Japan, to panoramic pictures of anti-American propaganda rallies in the early 1950s, the polymorphic cartoon-style art known as manhua helped define China's modern experience. Manhua Modernity offers a richly illustrated, deeply contextualized analysis of these illustrations across the lively pages of popular pictorial magazines that entertained, informed, and mobilized a nation through a half century of political and cultural transformation. In this compelling media history, John Crespi argues that manhua must be understood in the context of the pictorial magazines that hosted them, and in turn these magazines must be seen as important mediators of the modern urban experience. Even as times changed—from interwar-era consumerism to war-time mobilization to Mao-style propaganda—the art form adapted to stay on the cutting edge of both politics and style.
"Crespi’s book is a valuable addition to available studies in the fields of East Asian visual culture, print culture, art, and cartoons—areas that so often seem to be sidelined by grant-giving bodies and academic boards."
* Modern Chinese Literature and CultuISBN: 9780520309104
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 15mm
Weight: 318g
236 pages