A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai

《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）

130

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

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.


132

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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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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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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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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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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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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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.



145

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.



147

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.


148

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,



149

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.


150

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 Army28

(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.



151

paintings,31

archaeological finds,32

activities 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).


152

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.



153

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.


154

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.



155

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.


156

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.

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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 .

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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.

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Culture in China, 1930-1945. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard

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Shen Kuiyi

2001 “Lianhuanhua and Manhua—Picture Books and Comics

in Old Shanghai.” Illustrating Asia: Comics, Humor

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Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.

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(Storm Society) and the Fate of Modernism in Republican

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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

A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai

Documents

Transcript of A Modern Showcase: Shidai (Modern Miscellany) in 1930s Shanghai