Arts & Humanities Research Council Logo

Keywords

Taiwan , pens , Uncle Sam

Jiefang manhua xuan (Cartoons of Liberation)

Title: Jiefang manhua xuan (Cartoons of Liberation)
Artist: Unknown
Created: 1950
Media: book cover
Source: Jiefang manhua xuan (Cartoons of Liberation) (Shanghai: Dazhong meishu chubanshe, 1950)
Notes:

This un-accredited cover image from an early 'post-Liberation' collection of cartoons suggests a strong Soviet influence. The trope of pens and brushes being used to physically attack enemies was used in a number of wartime TASS images in the USSR. Here, a mutilated and bloodied Chiang (he is missing a foot and sports a bandage around his skeletal head) is having his eyes poked out by a giant fountain pen (marked with the star of the Chinese communists).