“العُنف لا يتناسب مع هذا العالم الهزلي،
لأن هذا هو ما يبحث عنه الطغاة، نحن لا نأخذ الأمر بعينِ الجد، لا نرد على عنفهم بالعنف،
ولكننا نحاول أن نكون هزليين أكثر منهم، ادفعهم لكي يجربوا السخرية، في أرضنا تلك سنحقق
انتصاراتنا الكبرى” - ألبير قصيري - العنف والسخرية
Welcome to
'Enemy of the People'
Title: Wenwu jia nu - Slaves in war and literature
Artist:: Lu Xi'an 呂西安
Created:1955
Media: cartoon magazine cover
Source: Manhua 53 April 195
Zi zhao silu - Driving onself into a dead end
Title: Zi zhao silu - Driving onself into a dead end
Artist: Yang Keyang 楊可楊
Created: c. 1954-5
Media: poster
Source: Courtesy of the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre
Notes
A typically injured and mutilated Chiang is shown here as nothing more
than a leverage through which Americans try to uproot the People's Republic of
China. They do with this with a flimsy piece of wood labelled 'Mei Jiang
tiiaoyue' (The US-Chiang Treaty), referring to the Sino-American Mutual Defense
Treaty, signed in December 1954 and in response to the Offshore Islands Crisis
of earlier that year
Title: Untitled
Artist: Mi Gu 米谷
Created: 1950 1 August
Media: Magazine cover
Source: Manhua 3
Notes
Early post-Liberation images of Chiang emerging from the mainland often
presented Chiang in proximity to other prominent 'enemies', such as landlords
or Americans. Like anti-Chiang images produced by the Japanese during the war,
such work also frequently presented Chiang as having been physically mutilated
(in this case, missing a hand), and losing clothes (e.g., wearing only a single
boot). The ubiqitous head wound so common to anti-Chiang imagery is also seen
here. It was also common to geature Chiang below or underneath images of 'the
people' (in this case a People's Liberation Army soldier - this issue being
published on 1 August, the anniversary of the founding of the PLA
Mi Gu was one of the most prolific of communist artists to produce
Chiang caricatures during the Chinese Civil War and the early post-1949
periods. He was also a regular contributor to Manhua (Cartoons) - a publication
that rarely went an issue without the inclusion of a caricature of Chiang in
some capacity in the early 1950s
Women yiding yao jiefang Taiwan
Title: Women yiding yao jiefang Taiwan
Artist: Zhongyang Gongyi Meishu Xueyuan (Central Academy of Art and
Design)
Created: 1958
Media: Poster
Source: Courtesy of the Landsberger Collection
Notes
In a classic example of perspectival distortion (a common feature of
Soviet propaganda), a half-naked Chiang tried in vain to shield himself from
the united strength of Chinese soldiers, peasants and workers
The poster was one of many images to be produced in the aftermath of the
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1958. Indeed, the Central Academy of Art and
Design (whose artists collectively produced this image) were tasked with
producing various images that could be used throughout the country for
propagandistic purposes in this particular year. The academy provided many
similiar images for distribution through publications such as Yiding yao
jiefang Taiwan xuanchuanhua cankao ziliao (Reference materials for propaganda
posters for the liberation of Taiwan) (Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1958)
Title: Shizi jia - Cross
Artist: Zhang Zhengyu 張正宇
Created: 10 October 1935
Media: cartoon
Source: Duli Manhua (Oriental Puck) 2 - 1935
Notes
In this image, Chiang and his rival within the KMT, Wang Jingwei, are
both depicted as bearing individual crosses. The fedora and cape were standard
items
of clothing often used in satirical depictions of Chian gin the mid-1930s
Jin xing jijiu - Undertaking an emergency procedure
Title: Jin xing jijiu - Undertaking an emergency procedure
Artist: Kukryniksy
Media: cartoon
Source: Sulian zhengzhi fengci manhua xuanji (A collection of political
and satirical cartoons from the Soviet Union) (Shanghai, 1958)
Notes
In this particularly humourless image, the Soviet Kukryniksy team
portray Chiang as a head atop a set of spare parts and prosthetics, with Dean
Acheson asking for further spare parts to be inserted. The image was almost
certainly produced in
Qiang zhi ku shi - Forcing them into oppression
Title: Qiang zhi ku shi - Forcing
them into oppression
Artist: unknown
Created: c. 1937-8
Media: leaflet - ink on paper
Source: British Museum: 2006,0117.0.1-109
Notes
A red-skinned Stalin forces a bed-ridden and bloodied Chiang to look
upon his troops, forced at gunpoint to fight as officers take money from their
men
Note the markedly mangaesque depiction of Soong May-ling in this image