{"id":5056,"date":"2024-07-13T14:39:27","date_gmt":"2024-07-13T06:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acas.world\/?p=5056"},"modified":"2024-07-22T13:01:27","modified_gmt":"2024-07-22T05:01:27","slug":"the-end-of-satire-liao-bingxiongs-slippery-poem-pictures-and-the-1957-rectification-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acas.world\/zh\/2024\/07\/13\/the-end-of-satire-liao-bingxiongs-slippery-poem-pictures-and-the-1957-rectification-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"A Parting Shot: Liao Bingxiong\u2019s \u201cSlippery Poem-Pictures\u201d and the 1957 Rectification Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John A. Crespi<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Hundred Flowers Movement, launched in May 1956 and culminating in Mao Zedong\u2019s call to critique the Chinese Communist Party during the Rectification Movement of May and June 1957, was a bonanza for China\u2019s manhua<\/em>. During that span of about a year, China’s cartoonists were granted free rein to take aim at the favorite target of satirists everywhere: their own ruling regime.<\/p>\n

Or so it seemed. Today, of course, we know that the Rectification Movement ended abruptly with the Anti-rightist Movement, when Mao cut off the flood of criticism he had himself summoned by persecuting untold thousands of intellectuals. How far did China\u2019s manhua <\/em>artists push the boundaries of critique when responding to the call to \u201crectify\u201d the party? It is hazardous to generalize; an extensive study of manhua<\/em> through this period is waiting to be undertaken. Here I offer a brief look at just one prominent example of a manhua<\/em> caught in the ideological crossfire: Cantonese artist Liao Bingxiong\u2019s \u5ed6\u51b0\u5144 (1915-2006) \u201cSlippery Poem-Pictures\u201d (dayou cihua<\/em> \u6253\u6cb9\u8bcd\u8bdd), published on page 5 of China\u2019s leading satirical art magazine, Manhua Semi-monthly <\/em>(Manhua banyue kan<\/em> \u6f2b\u753b\u534a\u6708\u520a), on July 8, 1957.[1]<\/a>  <\/p>\n

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Figure 1: Liao Bingxiong\u2019s \u201cSlippery Poem-Pictures,\u201d original Chinese with English scanlation.<\/p>\n

Figure 1 shows two versions of \u201cSlippery Poem-Pictures\u201d: the original Chinese above and a scanlation below. The scanlation, in which the Chinese text has been digitally replaced by an English translation, captures, I hope, at least some of Liao’s caustic verbal humor.[2]<\/a> The manhua<\/em> as a whole comprises four non-bordered panels. In each, Liao complements the drawing with two four-line stanzas of rhymed doggerel, and in two instances also provides a few lines of background information. The title of the manhua<\/em> addresses \u201cthe dogmatists.\u201d An example of the period\u2019s Maospeak, dogmatism \u6559\u6761\u4e3b\u4e49 refers to ideologically motivated, and widely resented, strictures that Chinese communist bureaucrats imposed on political and cultural work. The four panels of \u201cSlippery Poem-Pictures\u201d call out absurdities of official interference specific to the realm of culture. Moving clockwise from the top left panel, these include application of Stanislavskian method acting to folk opera, in this case the Legend of the White Snake<\/em>; the reduction of visual artists to \u201crobots\u201d of policy; excessive editorial cuts to literary writing, and a theoretical tract proposing a class-based aesthetics of color.<\/p>\n

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Figure 2: The first four panels of \u201cSlippery Poem-Pictures,\u201d as featured on the cover of Manhua Semi-monthly<\/em> no. 90 on June 8, 1957.<\/p>\n

Even a cursory look at Liao\u2019s \u201cSlippery Poem-Pictures\u201d reveals that it is not, and was not meant to be, subtle. There are, however, certain subtleties to how and when \u201cSlippery Poem-Pictures\u201d came to be published in Manhua Semi-monthly<\/em> at such a decisive political moment. First, it must be noted that these four panels represent only the second half of an eight-panel set. The first four panels, also entitled \u201cSlippery Poem-Pictures,\u201d had been featured on the cover of Manhua Semi-monthly <\/em>thirty days previously, for the June 8, 1957, no. 90 issue, well within the one-month window of the Rectification Movement (fig. 2). By the time the second set of four panels appeared exactly a month later in the July 8 issue, the Anti-rightist Movement was underway and the magazine\u2019s editors had begun to shift ideological gears. For instance, the cover illustration from July 8 depicts a clownish \u201crightist\u201d standing under the bright sun of \u201cSocialism,\u201d but shaded by a giant brown mushroom labeled \u201canti-socialist sentiment\u201d that has sprouted from his presumably decaying brain (fig. 3). The issue\u2019s back cover, meanwhile, caricatures several of the first high-profile targets of the Anti-rightist Movement, such as the People\u2019s University lecturer Ge Peiqi \u845b\u4f69\u7426 and Guangming Daily<\/em> editor Chu Anping \u50a8\u5b89\u5e73. What is more, inside the magazine the editors devoted the entire page opposite Liao\u2019s \u201cSlippery Poem-Pictures\u201d to a 3000-word criticism of Liao\u2019s cover art from issue 90, and in particular two panels that, according to the pseudonymous author, made \u201cdogmatists\u201d look like \u201cscary, ugly, bumbling, irrational thugs.\u201d[3]<\/a> Curiously, nowhere in this essay, or anywhere else in issue 92, do we see any commentary on the second<\/em> set of four panels, which are just as inflammatory as the first four, and were printed prominently on the magazine\u2019s fifth page against a bright yellow background. How, one may well ask, did Liao\u2019s plainly \u201crightist\u201d manhua<\/em> get published during the Anti-rightist Movement?<\/p>\n

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Figure 3: The front cover, drawn by Ye Chunyang \u53f6\u6625\u9633, of the July 8 no. 92 issue of Manhua Semi-monthly<\/em>, in which the second half of \u201cSlippery Poem-Pictures\u201d appeared. The sun is labeled \u201cSocialism\u201d and the mushroom reads \u201cAnti-socialist sentiment.\u201d The figure is saying, \u201cLook, a black sun!\u201d<\/p>\n

The explanation comes down in part to timing and in part to Liao Bingxiong\u2019s own commitment to his satirical art. In terms of timing, from submission deadline to publication, it took about a month to produce each issue of Manhua Semi-monthly<\/em>.[4]<\/a> Thus the content of issue 92, published July 8, had been assembled in mid-June, when the storm clouds of the Anti-rightist Movement were just appearing on the horizon. As for Liao\u2019s role in the matter, a self-criticism by Manhua<\/em>\u2019s editors in issue 93 divulges that Liao had insisted on publishing the second part of \u201cSlippery Poem-Pictures\u201d despite the editors\u2019 concerns that the bottom right panel, showing a bureaucrat \u201cdoctor\u201d sawing off of a writer\u2019s head, was too politically risky. Liao, the editors added, only overcame their misgivings by promising to take full responsibility for any repercussions.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

And repercussions there were. Liao\u2019s drawing of the saw-wielding doctor was included among ten manhua<\/em> criticized in issue 93 under the heading \u201cLearning from Failure: Some Misguided Manhua from Early in the Rectification Period.\u201d The author of the article seals Liao\u2019s fate in the dry, self-righteous tone typical of the period\u2019s official denunciations:<\/p>\n

The extreme prejudice that the author of this manhua<\/em>, Liao Bingxiong, feels toward authorities in literature and the arts is evident in any number of his works. \u201cSawing off the head\u201d as shown here might appear to be just a metaphor satirizing the harshness with which some cadres oversee the cultural realm. But isn\u2019t the harshness Liao levels at the party leadership even more harsh than that?[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

As for Liao himself, he was branded a \u201crightist,\u201d sent to labor in the countryside, and did not publish another cartoon for the next twenty years.[7]<\/a> <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> The magazine was converted from a monthly format, called Manhua yuekan<\/em> (Manhua monthly) to a twice monthly format, Manhua banyuekan <\/em>(Manhua semi-monthly), starting with issue 68 on July 8, 1956.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Here I express my gratitude to Li Jiang (Colgate \u201917)  for assisting with the technical aspects of scanlating this manhua<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Rong Jian \u5bb9\u575a, \u201cDuinei Fengci: Reqingde youmode shuofude piping, jianping Liao Bingxiong tongzhide \u2018Dayou Cihua\u2019\u201d \u5bf9\u5185\u8bbd\u523a\uff1a\u70ed\u60c5\u7684\u5e7d\u9ed8\u7684\u8bf4\u670d\u7684\u6279\u8bc4, \u517c\u8bc4\u5ed6\u51b0\u5144\u901a\u77e5\u7684\u201c\u6253\u6cb9\u8bcd\u753b\u201d (Internal Satire: Persuasive Criticism through Warm Humor, with a Critique of Comrade Liao Bingxiong\u2019s \u201cSlippery Poem-Pictures\u201d), Manhua banyuekan <\/em>\u6f2b\u756b\u534a\u6708\u520a (Manhua semi-monthly), no. 92 (July 8, 1957): 4.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Liao Bingxiong et al., \u201cQuanguo manhua tongren dui benkan tichu yijian\u201d \u5168\u56fd\u6f2b\u753b\u540c\u4eba\u5bf9\u672c\u520a\u63d0\u51fa\u610f\u89c1 (Suggestions for Manhua<\/em> yuekan<\/em> from China\u2019s Manhua Artists), Manhua banyuekan <\/em>\u6f2b\u756b\u534a\u6708\u520a (Manhua Semi-Monthly)<\/em>, no. 91 (June 23, 1957): 8. In this multi-author article, the time lag in publication of Manhua <\/em>is mentioned in comments by the manhua<\/em> artist Ke Ming \u67ef\u660e.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Benkan bianjibu \u672c\u520a\u7f16\u8f91\u90e8 (The Editors), \u201cJiancha womende cuowu\u201d \u68c0\u67e5\u6211\u4eec\u7684\u9519\u8bef (Reflecting on Our Errors),\u201d Manhua Banyuekan <\/em>\u6f2b\u756b\u534a\u6708\u520a (Manhua semi-monthly), no. 93 (July 23, 1957): 2.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Sheng Ming \u76db\u540d, \u201cCong Shibai Zhong Xiqu Jiaoxun \u4ece\u5931\u8d25\u4e2d\u5438\u53d6\u6559\u8bad (Learning from Failure: Some Misguided Manhua from Early in the Rectification Period),\u201d Manhua banyuekan <\/em>\u6f2b\u756b\u534a\u6708\u520a (Manhua semi-monthly), no. 93 (July 23, 1957): 5.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> John A. Lent and Xing Xu, \u201cLiao Bingxiong: \u2018A Chinese Style Man with Universal Values,\u2019\u201d International Journal of Comic Art<\/em> 9, no. 1 (2007): 657, 662-665.<\/p>\n

Bio: <\/strong><\/p>\n

John A. Crespi is a professor of Chinese at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. He is the author of Voices in Revolution: Poetry and the Auditory Imagination in Modern China <\/i>(University of Hawai\u2018i Press, 2010) and Manhua Modernity: Chinese Culture and the Pictorial Turn <\/i>(University of California Press, 2020). His articles on modern Chinese poetry and China\u2019s manhua <\/i>(cartoons and comics) have appeared in a range of edited volumes and scholarly journals. His online publications include the pathbreaking three-part illustrated essay \u201cChina\u2019s Modern Sketch<\/i>: The Golden Era of Cartoon Art, 1934\u20131937,\u201d written for MIT\u2019s Visualizing Cultures project. He is the recipient of two Fulbright awards (2005\u20132006 and 2017).<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t