《藝術學研究》 2013 年 9 月，第十二期，頁 129-170
一個現代的展示櫥窗： 1930 年代上海的《時代畫報》 （Modern Miscellany）
沈揆一
大開本的月刊《時代畫報》（Modern Miscellany）於 1929 至 1937 年間出版，橫跨了國民政府大力提倡建立一個新的、現 代中國之方案的時期。跟著推翻最後一代王朝後的二十年政治混 亂，這本雜誌似乎為國家進步的新潛力而歌頌。它是一個上海文 化世界的展示櫥窗，並透過視覺影像來探討中國已然成為一個現 代社會的許多層面。藉由運用醒目的圖像設計、引人注目的封面 圖像、最新的版面、新的文字編排與字體設計、以及先進的印刷 技術，《時代畫報》既成功地代表了中國的視覺文化現代化，其 本身也是當中的一部分。該雜誌將當代文化中最具視覺性效力的 層面引介給國內觀眾，試圖向外界展示一個現代國度。《時代畫 報》同時也引領了一股新的趨勢，運用令人驚豔的圖像去呈現當 前世界與國家活動、名人與電影明星的新聞、影評、體育新聞、 藝術展覽、女性時尚、以及連環畫與漫畫。
本文曾發表於宜蘭佛光大學人文學院歷史學系主辦「萬象更新國際學術研討 會：現代性、視覺文化＆二十世紀中國」（Through the Kaleidoscope: Modernity, Visual Culture and Twentieth-Century China）議程Ⅲ（2013 年 5 月 29 日）。 美國加州大學聖地牙哥分校視覺藝術系教授暨中國研究中心主任。
《藝術學研究》第十二期（2013.09）
本文認為，在其存在期間，由著名的藝術家與作家們所編纂 的《時代畫報》，傳達了當時上海一些文藝界人士的文化理想， 其共享了建立一個新的現代的社會和國家的使命。然而在《時代 畫報》所展示的，不是空洞的政治宣傳，而是當時上海文化界的 期望與建構現代國家的政府努力的共現。
（翻譯：張維晏，作者修訂）
關鍵字：《時代畫報》、現代、現代性、視覺文化
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Kuiyi Shen, A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai
A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai
Kuiyi Shen
The large-format monthly Shidai huabao 時代畫報 (Modern Miscellany) was established on October 10, 1929, by the China Art Publishing House (Zhongguo meishu kanxing she 中國美術刊行社) and was the second biggest pictorial published in Shanghai, after Liangyou 良友 (The Young Companion), which began publication in February of 1926. Its publication period corresponded to construction of a new greater Shanghai city at Jiangwan 江灣, an initiative launched by the municipal government, and to an ambitious effort by the Nanjing government 南京政府 to reestablish the new Chinese nation. Sadly, it concluded with the destruction of the newly built Shanghai civic complex by Japanese bombing in 1937, and thus serves as a kind of testimony to the short-lived exhilaration of Shanghai’s 1930s golden age.
At the beginning Modern Miscellany was entitled Shidai huabao in Chinese (Fig. 1), which emphasized both modernity and visuality. Key people behind its initiation were three cartoonists, the brothers Zhang Guangyu 張光宇 (1900-1965) and Zhang Zhengyu
The author is Professor in the Department of Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego; Director of Chinese Studies Program. 《藝術學研究》第十二期（2013.09）
張正宇 (1904-1976), along with Ye Qianyu 葉淺予 (1907-1995). Over its eight years of existence, from 1929 until 1937 (concluding with volume 8, no. 12), Shidai’s title, editors, and format changed several times. In its fourth issue, Shidai huabao merged with Shanghai manhua 上 海 漫 畫 (Shanghai Sketch). Since then, it changed its Chinese title to Shidai 時代 (Fig. 2). It also expanded from a monthly to a bi-weekly journal. Its first issue was edited by artist Zhang Guangyu and the writer Ye Lingfeng 葉靈鳳 (1905- 1975). In the second issue Zhang Zhengyu and Ye Qianyu joined the editorial team.
The lives and careers of the young artists themselves demonstrate the myriad attractions and possibilities this metropolis could provide to its newcomers. The cartoonists Zhang Guangyu, his second brother, Cao Hanmei 曹涵美 (1902-1975, adopted by his maternal uncle, thus his name change), and his third brother Zhang Zhengyu, were natives of Wuxi 無錫 in Jiangsu 江蘇, and sons of a traditional Chinese doctor.1 When the oldest, Zhang Guangyu, was fifteen, he was sent to Shanghai to work as an apprentice in a grocery store. Across the street from the store was a famous modern theater (Xinwutai 新舞臺) at which renowned Peking opera stars often
1 Zheng Jiazhen 鄭家振, “Zhang Guangyu, Cao Hanmei, Zhang Zhengyu yimen sanjie” 張光宇、曹涵美、張正宇，一門三傑 (Zhang Guangyu, Cao Hanmei, Zhang Zhengyu, three great men from one family), Xianggang Manhua Chunqiu 香港漫畫春秋 (Comics and Cartoons of Hong Kong) (Hong Kong: Sanlian shudian, 1992), p. 73.
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Kuiyi Shen, A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai performed. Zhang Guangyu went to the theater at every opportunity, but what attracted him most was the opportunity to watch the artist Zhang Yuguang 張聿光 (1885-1968) paint theatrical backdrops. He admired this very much and became Zhang’s painting disciple. After he worked for Zhang Yuguang for several years he was introduced to the Gaoting Record Company in Shanghai (Gaoting changpian gongsi 髙亭唱片公司) to design the covers for record albums. He also started to paint covers for the monthly magazine Ziluolan 紫羅 蘭 (Violet), which was edited by Zhou Shoujuan 周瘦鵑 (1895- 1968), as well as designing advertisements and calendar pictures (yuefenpai nianhua 月份牌年畫) for the British American Tobacco Company.2 At that time, in every pack of cigarettes, one would find a card depicting a Peking opera mask. Most were painted by Zhang Guangyu.
During that period Zhang Guangyu also helped his uncle by working in a small printing company. Because of the expanding business, he brought his brother Zhengyu to Shanghai to work in the printing house. Soon the two brothers acquired many cartoonist friends in Shanghai, including Ye Qianyu, Huang Wennong 黄文農 (1903-1934), Lu Shaofei 魯少飛 (1903-1995), Ding Song 丁悚 (1891-1972), and Wang Dunqing 王 敦 慶 (1899-1990). Zhang
2 Please see Ellen Johnston Laing, Selling Happiness: Calendar Posters and Visual Culture in Early-Twentieth-Century Shanghai (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2004).
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Guangyu became interested in publishing, and suggested they publish a tabloid called Sanri huabao 三 日 畫 報 (Three Days Pictorial). In 1927 they established the earliest cartoonists’ society in China called the Manhuahui 漫畫會 at Ding Song’s house.3
With the support from friends of the Manhuahui, the Zhang brothers and Ye Qianyu, Lu Shaofei, Huang Wennong, Wang Dunqing, and Cai Shudan 蔡 輸 丹 established the China Art Publishing House in a small bookshop on Shandong Road 山東路 at a place called Maijiaquan 麥家圈. This group of cartoonists first published the weekly Shanghai manhua (Shanghai Sketch), which they authored, illustrated, edited, designed, published, and distributed themselves. Its style was casual and humorous, with primary emphasis on comics and cartoons, and its intended audience was Shanghai’s expanding lower middle class. Its most popular feature was Ye Qianyu’s satirical comic, Wang Xiansheng 王先生 (Mr. Wang), which described the travails of a down-to-earth provincial character named Mr. Wang as he struggled to accommodate himself to Shanghai’s new urban life.4
3 See Bi Keguan 畢克官 and Huang Yuanlin 黄遠林, Zhongguo Manhuashi 中國漫 畫史 (History of Chinese Comics) (Beijing: Wenhua yishu chubamshe, 1986); and Kuiyi Shen, “Lianhuanhua and Manhua––Picture Books and Comics in Old Shanghai,” in John Lent ed., Illustrating Asia: Comics, Humor Magazines and Picture Books (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2001), pp. 100-120. 4 Ye Qianyu 葉淺予, Wang xian sheng he xiao Chen 王先生和小陳 (Mr. Wang and Little Chen) (Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1986).
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Kuiyi Shen, A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai
In November, 1929, this group of cartoonists sought to expand their publishing ambitions to found a pictorial magazine, Shidai huabao, with the aim of taking market share away from the highly successful pictorial magazine Liangyou, which had already been in existence for more than three years. The Young Companion’s audience extended well beyond its publication site of Shanghai, and even included Chinese living abroad.
The first several issues of Shidai huabao were published by this group of artists, and the format of Shidai very much followed that of its competition, The Young Companion. Like the editors of The Young Companion, in the early days they usually placed a large photo of a beautiful woman on the cover. As a pictorial magazine they obviously tried to use the most effective visual means to attract the attention of audiences, including such a tried-and-true subject. Its fresh contents, colorful cover image, dynamic lay-out and typography soon received enthusiastic response from readers.
The contents of Shidai mainly aimed to suit Shanghainese taste, that of a rising middle class with enthusiasm for, and even fantasies about, a modern, Western style of life in the Chinese city. After years of civil strife among the warlords, China had only recently established its first unified central government since the fall of the Qing dynasty, and had entered a relatively peaceful period of reconstruction. The eagerness to embrace any activity or effort that might mark the building of a new nation, which was shared by
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intellectual circles of the period, is visible in many of the layouts that appear in Shidai.
The political consciousness reflected in Shidai, however, is quite vague. Almost all its features represented the urban life of Shanghai. Its founders were mainly artists, and what they sought to capture in society, at least in part, was its visual beauty and aesthetic stimulation. At that time in Shanghai, American magazine Time was well known in Shanghai, which was called Shidai in Chinese. The English title for the Shanghai Shidai, however, was Modern Miscellany. For these editors, Shidai meant “modern” or “modeng 摩 登” in Chinese, or in the words of Leo Lee, “manifesting a clear penchant for the modern or contemporary epoch.”5 “Modeng” was used to mean youth, life, beauty, foreign, Western, and progressive. Many features play with the terms modern and shidai, such as Shidai shenghuo 時代生活 (Modern Life) (Fig. 3), Shidai nanxing 時代男 性 (Modern Men) (Fig. 3), Shidai nuxing 時 代 女 性 (Modern Women) (Fig. 4), Shidai funu 時代婦女 (Ladies) (Fig. 5), Shidai xuesheng 時代學生 (Modern Students) (Fig. 6), Shidai ertong 時代 兒童 (Modern Children), Shidai kexue 時代科學 (Modern Science) (Fig. 7), Shidai zhishi 時代知識 (Modern Knowledge) (Fig. 8), Shidai junbei 時代軍備 (Modern Military Forces) (Fig. 9), Shidai jiating yu zhuangshi 時代家庭與裝飾 (Modern Interior Design),
5 Leo Ou-fan Lee, Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930-1945 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 246.
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Kuiyi Shen, A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai
Shidai xiju 時代戲劇 (Modern Theater), Shidai renwu 時代人物 (Modern Characters) (Fig. 10), and Shidai manhua 時 代 漫 畫 (Caricature of Today) (Fig. 10), both photographically and in clever essays.
The magazine’s very poetic mission statement, which was probably written by editor Ye Lingfeng, showed the rather romantic ambitions of these young artists and writers:
The giant wheel of the universe turns ceaselessly, following its iron law. The throne of the flower, who yesterday looked down with such arrogance, today, has been seized by others.
The poet mourns the short duration of his happy dream, the goddess of beauty (Venus) laments that youth passes so quickly.
We create this Modern Miscellany to fill this huge void. We will try to wrest from the hands of the universe’s cruelty everything that will be destroyed, and save it. Let the youth of this era forever live in a bright, beautiful garden, and never suffer decay from the spinning of time.
No matter how much life and the world will be changed by the heartless universe, everything here will survive forever.
Dear readers, please come together to protect this newly
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opened garden.6
Here we learn that the mission of Shidai was to protect and illuminate the beauty of the modern era. The interest of the Shidai editors in modernity did not encompass everything that happened in their day, such as current affairs or politics. Rather, they sought to explore the character of modern urban life. The editors and feature writers were a group of “modeng” people who never let anything modern out of their hands. Zhang Kebiao 章克標 (1900-2007), in his article, “Modeng,” defined the modern as follows:
In English “modern” means jindai 近代 and xiandai 現代, and it is pronounced “modeng.” A “modeng” is so full of the modern spirit, that he or she is a brand new modern person….
Generally speaking, “modeng” is modern. Therefore “modeng” must be new and opposed to the old-fashioned. Destroying traditional morality and customs, looking down on preexisting beliefs, and ignoring conventions are necessary for the “modeng.” Therefore we also can say that “modeng” must be innovative, revolutionary, and progressive. Everything new is good. Old is not good. This must be the faith of the “modeng” person….
However, in certain times or under certain circumstances, “modeng” also has its own form. When capitalism develops,
6 Shidai huabao 1.1 (1929): n.p.
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Kuiyi Shen, A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai for example, only then does the working class appear, and class struggle raises its head. At a certain moment and location, “modeng” also has its own character. The “modeng” of 1932 is different from that of 1832; the “modeng” of Shanghai is also different from that of Paris….
This epoch, today, is said by some to be great, by some to be insignificant, by some to be the renaissance of the nation, and by others to have reached the most extreme state of national crisis. We don’t care what it is, but we know the characteristics of today’s “modeng (modernity).” It has an existence beyond the great, the insignificant, prosperity, or suffering that is the expression of the spirit of the times….
The modern era is a high-speed era. Airplanes, automobiles, telephones, telegrams have shortened space and extended time. Everything’s change has become very fast. The modern cannot afford to rest—only the rapid is modern….
Progress is the heart of the “modeng.” Now there are people who are dissatisfied with some aspects of the “modeng.” That is their mistake. In this era, although things change very quickly and dramatically, thus making people lose their sense of direction, progressive people will always try to go forward. Sometimes a person might, like Don Quixote, tilt at windmills, but if he still intends to be progressive, we cannot
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on this basis deny that he is “modeng,” and we should admire his modernity even more.
I categorically praise anything “modeng,” regardless of whether it is a modern girl, modern magic, or modern cuisine. If it truly has modern color, I will always worship it, because we are modern people. People of today differ from those of ancient times in this way: the ancients worshipped their ancestors and the gods, but modern people worship the future. The future belongs to their progeny and the machines that will dominate future trends. Because that era has not yet arrived, we should worship “modeng,” because it is a pioneer, leading the race, and should have our respect. Come on! Come on! Let’s sing a hymn to the “modeng.”7
Based on Zhang Kebiao’s description, what Shidai portrayed were the multifarious visual and cultural phenomena of the 1930s, along with the trends and fantasies of its middle class readers, as a unique form of modernity was constructed in the metropolis of Shanghai. Among features that readers were offered were female beauties with Western hair styles, make-up, clothing, and leather shoes, international and domestic news, exotic foreign scenes and strange customs, sports, Hollywood and Shanghai movie stars, art
7 Zhang Kebiao 章克標, “Modeng 摩登 (Modern),” Shidai 2.6 (1931): 18.
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Kuiyi Shen, A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai exhibitions, city people’s daily life, art photography, fashion, essays and short stories by famous writers, cartoons, and advertisements.
The editors and feature writers of Shidai may be divided into two basic groups. One is the cartoon artists and the other is the writers. The two shared the same tastes and concerns. Even as early as the Shanghai manhua era, as Ye Qianyu recalled: “Of the guests who came to our place…among the writers most often were those from Xiandai 現代 (Modern): Ye Lingfeng, Mu Shiying 穆時英 (1912-1940), and Shi Zhecun 施蟄存 (1905-2003).”8 The friendships between the artists and writers, according to Ye Qianyu, began before the establishment of Shidai, during the Shanghai manhua period. It is not surprising that Ye Lingfeng joined the cartoonists as editor for the first issue of Shidai.
The first volume of Shidai, because cartoonists dominated the editorial board, was much more like an art and photography magazine than like a general interest pictorial. The lack of literary features and those about more general issues contrasts with what readers might find in The Young Companion. In addition, although the magazine received an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from many readers, the romantically inclined founding artists were
8 Ye Qianyu 葉淺予, “Shanghai manhua bianjibu de pengyoumen 上海漫畫編輯部 的朋友們 (Friends in the Editorial Team of Shanghai Sketch),” in Ye Qianyu zixu 葉淺予自敘 (Auto-Biography of Ye Qianyu) (Beijing: Tuanjie chubanshe, 1997), p. 105.
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unable to manage the financial aspects of the business.
Fortunately, their long-time friend, the writer Shao Xunmei 邵 洵美 (Zau Sinmay, 1906-1968),9 agreed to take over the magazine beginning with the fourth issue, and for the purpose established his own publishing company, the Modern Press (Shanghai shidai tushu gongsi 上海時代圖書公司), which not only published, but eventually printed and distributed magazines and books. 10 Shao Xunmei encountered the bi-weekly magazine Shihou 獅吼 (Lion’s Roar), edited by Teng Gu 滕固 (1901-1941) and others, when he stopped in Singapore on his return from study in Europe in 1926. He admired its aesthetic literary approach and paid a visit to Teng Gu upon his return to Shanghai. He soon became a key member of the Shihou literary society and began his career as an editor and publisher at Shihou magazine in 1927.11 The following year he established the Jinwu shudian 金屋書店 (La Maison d’Or), and began publishing Jinwu yuekan 金屋月刊 (Golden House Monthly) in 1929. The company’s was located across the street from Shao Xunmei’s home on Jing’ansi Road 靜安寺路 (now Nanjing West Road 南京西路).
9 For his English publication, see Sinmay Zau, “Confucius on Poetry” 孔子論詩, T’ien Hsia Monthly 天下月刊 7 (1938): 137-150. 10 Zhang Kebiao, “Shao Xunmei he shidai shudian” 邵洵美和時代書店 (Shao Xunmei and Shidai Book Company), in Chen Fukang 陳福康 and Jiang Shanqing 蔣山青 eds., Zhang Kebiao wenji 章克標文集 (Essays by Zhang Kebiao), (Shanghai: Shanghai shehui kexueyuan chubanshe, 2003), vol. 2, pp. 147-153. 11 See Zhang Kebiao, “Huiyi Shao Xunmei” 回 憶 邵洵美 (Memory of Shao Xunmei), Shanghai Tan 上海灘 (Shanghai) 5 (1989): 35.
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Kuiyi Shen, A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai
The bookstore soon became a center for literary people in Shanghai. His publishing efforts lost money, but enabled Shao Xunmei to meet many people in literary circles and gain publishing experience.12
By the time Zhang Guangyu approached him to run the magazine, Shao Xunmei had begun developing his own idea of the unique role of the pictorial magazine. “We want to increase the interest of readers, but also to give illiterate people something they might learn from the pictures.”13 He believed that images could reach places that texts had never been and could not go. Shao sought to create a kind of refuge for his readers, to give them through his magazine an enjoyment that would relieve the pressures of their work. “Pictorial magazines may be the best way to satisfy people’s eyes, to relax their nerves, and to nourish their spirits…[although to us] running a pictorial magazine is a battle and a sacrifice.”14
In order to improve the printing quality of the pictorial images, Shao Xunmei sold part of his personal real estate and used $500,000 to buy the most advanced German printing press and accessories then available. Shao Xunmei set up his new printing factory near the wharf, in the northeastern part of the city and even moved his home
12 Leo Lee provided very colorful stories of Shao Xunmei 邵洵美 and his friend Ye Lingfeng 葉靈鳳 in his Shanghai Modern, Chapter 7. 13 Shao Xunmei, “Huabao zai wenhuajie de diwei” 畫報在文化界的地位 (The Position of the Pictorials in the Culture World), Shidai 6.12 (1934): n.p. 14 Ibid., also see Shao Xiaohong 邵綃紅, Wo de baba Shao Xunmei 我的爸爸邵洵 美 (My Father Shao Xunmei) (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 2005).
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from the center of Shanghai to the present Lintong Road 臨潼路 in Yangshupu 楊 樹 浦 area, a block away from the new printing factory.15 With the new equipment, he used top quality paper, which made Shidai and his subsequent magazines particularly beautiful publications. His production was considered the best in China in its day. Indeed, his printing press was considered to be of such high quality that it was shipped to Beijing for use by China Pictorial (Renmin huabao 人民畫報) after 1949.
After Shao Xunmei took over the magazine, he engaged more writers, including Zhang Kebiao, Heiyin 黑嬰 (Zhang Bingwen 張炳 文, 1915-1992)16, and Lin Weiyin 林微音 (1899-1982), as contributors to Shidai. These writers, although stylistically quite varied, had a similar aesthetic. All were influenced by French and British writers such as Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), and Paul Verlaine (1844-1896), and all targeted urban youth as
15 Zhang Wei 張偉, “Yijie shusheng de chuban shiye” 一介書生的出版事業 (A Writer’s Publishing Career), Xinmin Evening News 新民晚報, December 24, 2006; also see Zhang Kebiao, “Shao Xunmei gao chuban shiye” 邵洵美搞出版事 業 (Shao Xunmei’s Publishing Business), in Hubin lueying 滬濱掠影 (A Glimpse at Shanghai) (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 1994), pp. 33-35. 16 Heiying 黑嬰 is a pen mane used by Zhang Bingwen 張炳文, or Zhang Youjun 張 又君, a native of Mei County 梅縣, Guangdong 廣東. The pen name was first used for his novel, “Diguo de nüer” 帝國的女兒 (A Daughter of the Empire), published in Shenbao yuekan 申報月刊 (Shenbao Monthly) 2.3 (March 1933). About Zhang Bingwen 張炳文, see Wu Xiaoli 巫小黎, “Heiying, Ye Zi, yu Wuming wenyi” 黑嬰、葉紫與無名文藝 (Heiying, Ye Zi, and Anonymous Literature), Zhongguo xiandai wenxue yanjiu congkan 中國現代文學研究叢刊 (Series of Research on Chinese Modern Literature) 2 (2003): 207.
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Kuiyi Shen, A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai readers. Their writing became the major part of the magazine’s text. There is no doubt that Shao Xunmei played a decisive role in the contents and appearance of Shidai after he assumed control.
This difference may be seen beginning with the fourth issue, which is also the first issue of volume two. From the fourth issue, Shidai huabao absorbed Shanghai manhua and changed its name to Shidai. This name was used throughout its subsequent publication life. From that time, Shao Xunmei devoted himself to the publishing industry. Over the course of time, his Modern Press published over a dozen very influential literature, art, photography, and film magazines. He invited the writer Lin Yutang 林語堂 (1895-1976) to edit the bi-weekly magazine Lunyu 論語, and the Beijing photographer and film-maker Zong Weigen 宗維賡 and Gong Tianyi 龔天衣 to edit Shidai dianying 時代電影 (Modern Cinema). Among his other magazines were Wanxiang 萬象 (Phenomena), Renyan 人 言 (Words), Shiritan 十日談 (Fortnightly Chat), Shidai (Modern Miscellany), Wenxue shidai 文學時代 (Modern Literature), Shidai manhua 時代漫畫 (Modern Sketch), and Shidai shying 時代攝影 (Modern Photography).
In its golden age, in the early 1930s, Shidai brought together a group of the most talented and enthusiastic commercial artists and cartoonists in China, including the Zhang brothers, Ye Qianyu, Wang Dunqing, Lu Zhiyang 陸志癢 (1910-?), Lu Shaofei, Ding Song, Hu Kao 胡考 (1912-1994), Huang Wennong, Zheng Guanghan 鄭光漢
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(1909-1971), and the photographers Lang Jingshan 郎靜山 (1892- 1995), Shen Yiqian 沈逸千 (1908-1944),17 and others. Among them, Ye Qianyu’s involvement lasted longest. His already very popular comic strip, “Mr. Wang,” was further developed for Shidai, and later became one of the most famous comics in China. In addition to the writers mentioned above, many of Shao Xunmei’s other writer- friends, such as Xu Zhimo 徐志摩 (1897-1931), Shi Zhecun, Huang Zhenxia 黄震遐 (1907-1974), Ye Lingfeng, and Mu Shiying, also contributed essays and short stories to Shidai.
The editorial board was always on the look-out for novel special features, and even helped Kodak with a world-wide amateur photography contest.18 Stirred up by the nude model controversy at the Shanghai Art Academy of several years earlier, 19 they ran a racy series: “A Comparison of Nudes of the World.”20 With such a large number of artists on the editorial team, modern art was a key part of the publication. The magazine constantly introduced masterpieces of modern Western art and the most current trends in foreign
17 About Shen Yiqian 沈逸千, see Kuiyi Shen, “Visualizing War-Time China: A Case Study of Artist and Journalist Shen Yiqian,” an unpublished paper presented at the annual meeting of Association for Asian Studies, 2006. 18 See Shidai 2.5 (1932) advertisement, n.p. 19 About the controversy, see Julia Andrews, “Luotihua lunzhen ji xiandai zhongguo meishushi de jiangou” 祼體畫論爭及現代中國美術史的建構 (The Nude Painting Controversy and the Construction of Modern Chinese Art History), in Haipai huihua yanjiu 海派繪畫研究 (Studies on the Shanghai School of Painting) (Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 2001), pp. 117-150. 20 Shidai 2.5 (1932): n.p.
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Kuiyi Shen, A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai modernism (Fig. 11). It was also one of the most firm promoters of Chinese modernist art movements, especially the Storm Society (Juelanshe 决瀾社) 21 (Fig. 12), a group comprised of Paris and Tokyo-trained modernists such as Pang Xunqin 龐薰琹 (1906-1985) (Fig. 13), Ni Yide 倪貽德 (1901-1970), and Qiu Di 丘堤 (Schudy, 1906-1958). 22 The magazine reported every exhibition of this group and their activities.23
Besides fine art, Shidai also published multi-page features that systematically introduced modern domestic and foreign music, architecture, dance, photography, film, and literature. On its pages one could see the simultaneous appearance of modernist art forms in China and abroad. The magazine also established several regular columns. News columns, such as Banyue dashiji 半月大事記 (Major Events of the Fortnight), Mingren xingzong 名 人 行 踪 (In the Footsteps of Modern Celebrities), and Dongnan xibei 東南西北 (Around the World), appeared beginning with the first issue of volume two. The literary features Shidai tanhua 時代談話 (Modern Conversations) and Shidai sixiang 時代思想 (Modern Thought)
21 About the Storm Society, please see Ralph Croizier, “Post-Impressionists in Pre- War Shanghai: The Juelanshe (Storm Society) and the Fate of Modernism in Republican China,” in John Clark ed, Modernity in Asian Art (Canberra: Wild Peony, 1993), pp.135-154. 22 Kuiyi Shen and Julia F. Andrews, “Schudy, the Storm Society, and China’s Early Modernist Movement,” in Schudy 丘堤 (Nanjing: Jiangsu Education Publishing House, 2006), pp. 62-76. 23 Shidai 5.4 (1933), 6.12 (1934) and 8.10 (1935): n.p.
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were added somewhat later.
In 1931, after the Japanese invasion of northeastern China, and particularly after the Shanghai war of 1932, which brought the conflict to the doorstep of Shanghai’s intellectuals, it became difficult to completely ignore the national crisis. To the essentials of “modeng” now was added a new meaning. As Zhang Kebiao wrote in 1932:
There are no two characters that have been so badly misunderstood as “modeng.” People only know that “modeng” is the phonetic transcription of the English word “modern,” but the term has the meaning of the spirit of the times. Now in society people only use these two characters to mean fashionable. There is nothing wrong with fashion, but fashionable has some negative connotations. Considering “modeng” to be fashionable gives “modeng” negative connotations….
The signification of “modeng” is not the shallow meaning given it by people in society today. “Modeng” has its own true, deep meaning…People should know that modern not only means wearing new clothes, putting on make-up, or spraying perfume, but if one wants to be a modern youth one must be baptized in the modern spirit. Then one’s behavior,
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thought, and heart will naturally fit the modern.” 24
While maintaining its modernist features, Shidai began running articles not limited to “shallow fashion,” including those on China’s military and economic situation that seem at first rather discordant for an art and leisure-oriented publication. The threatened loss of the economic basis of modern society that Shidai’s editors and readers enjoyed in Shanghai, however, made these current realities a tangible part of life.
After the 1931 loss of Manchuria 滿洲, which held China’s most important natural resources, particularly coal and wood, it was considered essential by activists to find alternative sources for the materials needed for the industries of Shanghai and the nation. The largely unexplored northwest became the focus of urgent efforts to raise awareness of the dire necessity of protecting resource-rich regions from further invasion by Japan. In 1932 Shidai sponsored a group of artists from Shanghai Art Academy who had organized a National Crisis Propaganda Team to travel to the northwest and the northeastern battle front. Shidai appointed the head of the team, Shen Yiqian, as a special correspondent for the magazine.25 At every place they stopped, they exhibited propaganda pictures about the cruelty of the Japanese army and the suffering of the Chinese people in the
24 Zhang Kebiao, “Xiang dancun xingjing” 向 單 純 行 進 (Go Forward to the Simplicity), Shidai 3.5 (1932): n.p. 25 See note 17.
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occupied northeast. 26 Over the next several years the magazine published many special issues and long features devoted to the observations of the team during their travels in the northwest.27
Like many other mass media publications of the period, Shidai 時代 devoted several issues to special reports on the Shanghai War of 1932, North-East Volunteer Army 28 (Fig. 14), student demonstrations against imperialism (Fig. 15), and the Xi’an 西安 coup of 1936, during which Jiang Jieshi 蔣介石 was briefly held hostage by Zhang Xueliang 張學良 (1901-2001) and Yang Hucheng 楊虎城 (1893-1949) and which finally turned China towards a full- scale anti-Japanese war.29 With rising patriotic sentiment (Fig. 16), the movement to use Chinese goods (tichang guohuo 提倡國貨) and reject foreign, especially Japanese, products accelerated and spread throughout the country.30 In Shidai, however, which did not abandon use of pretty cover girls even in its effort to support boycott of foreign products, patriotism sometimes looks like a fashion statement. In the arts of this, Shidai began publishing more traditional Chinese
26 Shidai 3.5 (1932). 27 See Shidai 4.4 (1933), 5.1 (1933), 5.3 (1933), 6.5 (1934), 6.7 (1934), 7.10 (1935), 8.4 (1935), and 8.5 (1935), 8.8 (1935), 8.10 (1935), and 114 (1937). 28 See “Dongbei yiyongjun zhuanhao” 東北義勇軍專號 (Special Issue on the Northeast Volunteers), Shidai 3.9 (1933). 29 Shidai 114 (January 1937). 30 See two special issues, “Guohuonian tujian” 國貨年圖鑑 (Illustrated Yearbook of National Products), Shidai vol. 5, no. 5 and no. 6 (January 1934), which dedicated to the movement to use Chinese goods.
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Kuiyi Shen, A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai paintings,31 archaeological finds,32activities of traditionalist art societies,33 and several major Chinese ink painting exhibitions that were sent abroad,34 all of which assumed a new culturally nationalistic slant in the years after the 1931-1932 Japanese incursions.
In the first half of the 1930s, Shao Xunmei continued to expand his publishing business. However, most of his literature magazines and books could not make any profits. Although he “did not disappoint with it and willing to take the loss,” by the end of 1935, Shidai claimed bankruptcy. They invited Liang Desuo 梁得所 (1905-1938) to take over the magazine. Shao Xunmai steped down, and left Ye Qianyu and Zhang Zhenyu on the editorial board. Liang Desuo first served as the advisor, then became the editor in 1936.
Liang Desuo, a native of Guangdong 廣東, entered in Shanghai Liangyou Press in 1926 when he was only twenty-one. Although according to his colleague at the time he was very quiet and shying, 35 his talent soon was discovered by the founder of Liangyou, Wu Liande 伍聯德 (1900-1972). Next year, Wu made a very brave decision. He pointed Liang, a twenty-two years old young man to replace the well-known writer Zhou Shoujuan 周瘦鵑 (1895-1968) as the editor
31 Shidai 111 (1936), 112, 113, and 114 (1937): n.p. 32 Shidai 5.4 (1933), and 7.9 (1935): n.p. 33 Shidai 6.7 and 6.10. (1934): n.p. 34 Shidai 5.8 (1933), 6.5 (1934), and 7.12 (1935): n.p. 35 See Ma Guoliang 馬國亮, Liangyou yijiu 良友憶舊 (Memories of Liangyou) (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2002).
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of the magazine. Liang did not disappoint Wu. He soon made the magazine became an influential pictorial in the metropolis Shanghai, and earned a very high reputation in the publishing world. Liang Desuo stayed as the editor in The Young Companion for six years. He edited sixty-six issues of the magazine, from its thirteenth to seventy-nine issue. In August 1933, Liang, however, made a shocking announcement that he decided to leave The Young Companion and establish a new press, Dazong Press 大眾出版社, and publish a new pictorial, Dazong huabao 大衆畫報 (Masses Pictorial), with his friend Huang Shikuang 黄式匡. 36
It was not surprise that Liang Desuo brought all his experience at The Young Companion to the new magazine. The editorial strategy, layout, and design were very similar to The Young Companion. Liang kept the cover of the magazine with beautiful women’s image, but changed images from the photos of beautiful ladies to paintings of beauties. He invited a well-known commercial artist, Fang Xuehu 方雪鴣, and an American-trained painter, Liang Taoyun 粱韜雲, to paint the cover images. The first issue of Dazong haubao appeared in November 1933 and was immediately welcomed by Shanghai readers. He also invited famous writers, including Laoshe 老舍 (1899-1966), Shi Zechun (1905-2003), Zhang Tianyi 張天翼 (1906-
36 Xie Qizhang 謝其章, “Bei yiwang de Liang Desuo he ta de Dazong huabao” 被 遺忘的梁得所和他的大眾畫報 (The Forgotten Liang Desuo and His Masses Pictorial), Shoucang paimai 收藏拍賣 (Collection and Auction) 12 (2006): 34-35.
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1985), Yuan Muzhi 袁牧之 (1909-1978), Ouyang Shan 歐陽山 (1908-2004), and Du Heng 杜衡 (Dai Kechong 戴克崇, 1907-1964), to write essays. Painters, such as Huang Miaozi 黄苗子 (1913-2012) and Li Xudan 李旭丹, also did illustrations for the pictorial. The Dazong Press 大眾出版社 also published several other magazines, such as Xiaoshuo banyuekan 小說半月刊 (Short Novel Biweekly), Kexue tujie yuekan 科學圖解月刊 (Science Illustration Monthly), Wenhua 文化 (Culture), and Shishi xunbao 時事旬報 (Ten Days News).
The Dazong Press, however, ended its business in May 1935 because of the financial reason and the unstable political and social situation at the time. Therefore, at this moment, Shidai’s invitation was immediately accepted by Liang Desuo.
Liang took over Shidai in 1936 and edited the pictorial for about a year. Shidai under his management basically kept its tradition. However, it finally closed in 1937 after the Sino-Japanese war started. Liang Desuo also died in 1938 in his hometown.
Although political features occupied a quite important position in the magazine during this period, Modern Miscellany remained a magazine devoted primarily to entertainment. Even the serious political issues, under the brushes or lenses of the magazine’s artists, often acquired a humorous tone. Most of the features still contributed to the fantasy modern urban life sought by many Shanghai sojourners.
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As was written in a 1932 feature article, “Shanghai Lizan” 上海禮讚 (Praise for Shanghai), “Metropolitan life is craved by modern people — skyscrapers, asphalt streets, speeding automobiles, beautiful ladies, and a fast pace. The metropolis is the Mecca of modern people.” 37 (Fig. 17) Movie stars, fashion, modern art, modern design, sports, cartoons, and gossip dominate the pages of Shidai. Until the magazine concluded publication in 1937, after the war broke out, the magazine still continued to paint a rosy picture, with its fantasy of a bright future.
Shidai (Modern Miscellany), published between 1929 and 1937, spanned a period during which the Nationalist government vigorously promoted its agenda of building a new, modern China. After two decades of political chaos that followed overthrow of the last dynasty, the magazine seemed to celebrate the new potential for national progress. It was a showcase of the cultural world of Shanghai, and explored through visual images the many ways in which China had become a modern society. By using striking graphic design, compelling cover images, up-to-date layout, new typography and lettering, and sophisticated printing technology, Shidai both successfully represented, and was itself part of, China’s modernizing visual culture (Fig. 18). The magazine introduced the most visually powerful aspects of contemporary culture to its domestic audience, but at the same time, by use of English captions,
37 Shidai 5.1 (1933): n.p.
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Kuiyi Shen, A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai tried to show a modern nation to the outside world. Shidai led a new trend of using stunning images to present current world and national events, news of celebrities and film stars, movie reviews, sports news, art exhibitions, women’s fashion (Fig. 19), and comic strips and cartoons (Fig. 20).
Shidai, edited throughout its existence by well-known artists and writers, conveyed the cultural ideals of Shanghai’s literary circles. Its contributors shared the nation’s mission of building a new modern China. What was printed on the pages of Shidai, however, was not government propaganda, but demonstrated the convergence, for a time, of the hopes of Shanghai’s cultural world with the political agenda of the new national government.
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Works Cited Chinese and Japanese Languages
Andrews, Julia 2001 “Luotihua lunzhen ji xiandai zhongguo meishushi de jiangou” 祼體畫論爭及中國現代美術史的建構 . Haipai huihua yanjiu 海 派 繪 畫 研 究 . Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe. Bi Keguan 畢克官 and Huang Yuanlin 黄遠林 1986 Zhongguo manhuashi 中國漫畫史. Beijing: Wenhua yishu chubamshe. Ma Guoliang 馬國亮 2002 Liangyou yijiu 良友憶舊. Beijing: Sanlian shudian. Shao Xiaohong 邵綃紅 2005 Wo de baba Shao Xunmei 我的爸爸邵洵美. Shanghai: Shanghai shudian. Shidai huabao 時代畫報. 1929-1937 Zhongguo meishu kanxing she 中國美術刊行社. Xie Qizhang 謝其章 2006 “Bei yiwang de Liang Desuo he ta de Dazong huabao” 被遺忘的梁得所和他的大眾畫報. Shoucang paimai 收藏拍賣 12 (2006): 34-35. Ye Qianyu 葉淺予 1986 Wang xian sheng he xiao Chen 王先生和小陳. Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe. 1997 “Shanghai manhua bianjibu de pengyoumen”上海漫畫 編輯部的朋友們. Ye Qianyu zixu 葉淺予自敘. Beijing:
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Tuanjie chubanshe. Zhang Kebiao 章克標 1989 “Huiyi Shao Xunmei” 回憶邵洵美. Shanghai Tan 上 海灘 (Shanghai) 5 (1989): 35. 1994 “Shao Xunmei gao chuban shiye” 邵洵美搞出版事業. Hubin lueying 滬濱掠影. Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, pp. 33-35. 2003 “Shao Xunmei he shidai shudian” 邵洵美和時代書店. Zhang Kebiao wenji 章克標文集. Ed. Chen Fukang 陳 福康 and Jiang Shanqing 蔣山青. Shanghai: Shanghai shehui kexueyuan chubanshe, vol. 2. Zhang Wei 張偉 2006 “Yijie shusheng de chuban shiye” 一介書生的出版事 業. Xinmin Evening News 新民晚報. December 24. Zheng Jiazhen 鄭家鎮 1992 “Zhang Guangyu, Cao Hanmei, Zhang Zhengyu yimen sanjie” 張光宇、曹涵美、張正宇，一門三傑 . Xianggang manhua chunqiu 香 港漫 畫春 秋 . Hong Kong: Sanlian shudian.
Western Languages
Laing, Ellen Johnston 2004 Selling Happiness: Calendar Posters and Visual Culture in Early-Twentieth-Century Shanghai. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. Lee, Leo Ou-fan 1999 Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of a New Urban
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Culture in China, 1930-1945. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999. Shen Kuiyi 2001 “Lianhuanhua and Manhua—Picture Books and Comics in Old Shanghai.” Illustrating Asia: Comics, Humor Magazines and Picture Books. Ed. John Lent. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. 2006 “Visualizing War-Time China: A Case Study of Artist and Journalist Shen Yiqian.” An unpublished paper presented at the annual meeting of Association for Asian Studies. Shen Kuiyi and Julia F. Andrews 2006 “Schudy, the Storm Society, and China’s Early Modernist Movement.” Schudy 丘堤. Nanjing: Jiangsu Education Publishing House. Ralph Croizier 1993 “Post-Impressionists in Pre-War Shanghai: The Juelanshe (Storm Society) and the Fate of Modernism in Republican China.” Modernity in Asian Art. Ed. John Clark. Canberra: Wild Peony. Wu Xiaoli 吳小莉 2003 “Heiying, Ye Zi, yu Wuming wenyi” 黑嬰、葉紫與無 名文藝. Zhongguo xiandai wenxue yanjiu congkan 中 國現代文學研究叢刊 2. Zau Sinmay 邵洵美 1938 “Confucius on Poetry.” T’ien Hsia Monthly天下月刊 7 (1938): 137-150.
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A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai
Kuiyi Shen
Abstract
The large format monthly Shidai (Modern Miscellany) was published between 1929 and 1937, spanning a period during which the Nationalist government vigorously promoted its agenda of building a new, modern China. After two decades of political chaos that followed overthrow of the last dynasty, the magazine seemed to celebrate the new potential for national progress. It was a showcase of the cultural world of Shanghai, and explored through visual images the many ways in which China had become a modern society. By using striking graphic design, compelling cover images, up-to- date layout, new typography and lettering, and sophisticated printing technology, Shidai both successfully represented, and was itself part of, China’s modernizing visual culture. The magazine introduced the most visually powerful aspects of contemporary culture to its domestic audience, but at the same time tried to show a modern nation to the outside world. Shidai led a new trend of using stunning images to present current world and national events, news of
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celebrities and film stars, movie reviews, sports news, art exhibitions, women’s fashion, and comic strips and cartoons.
This paper suggests that Shidai, edited throughout its existence by well-known artists and writers, conveyed the cultural ideals of Shanghai’s literary circles. Its contributors shared the nation’s mission of building a new modern China. What was printed on the pages of Shidai, however, was not government propaganda, but demonstrated the convergence, for a time, of the hopes of Shanghai’s cultural world with the political agenda of the new national government.
Keywords: Shidai, modern, modernity, visual culture
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