Paper Spirit (Comic star of the 1930s)

Author: Wu He
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: The three comic characters created by Yao—"The Ox-Nosed Man," created by Gao Longsheng—"A Dou," and "The Bee Group" created by Liang Baibo—were as famous as Ye Qianyu's "Xiao Chen and Mr. Wang," Zhang Leping's "Sambo" in the 1930s and 1940s, and were once extremely popular, household names. Especially "The Ox-Nosed Man," almost made it onto the silver screen as an animated film before the war, but the project was abandoned due to the conflict. Over the past 50 years, for various reasons (such as Huang Yao and Liang Baibo leaving mainland China), these comic stars disappeared and were forgotten. Reencountering these paper spirits, we find that they are not outdated, even quite conscious of their time, and their portrayal and drawing techniques are exceptionally skillful. Their stories still move us and continue to inspire us. Huang Yao and his "The Ox-Nosed Man"—Huang Yao's "The Ox-Nosed Man" first appeared in Shanghai's News Daily in May 1934. Although it came out later than Ye Qianyu's "Mr. Wang," it was published about a year earlier than Zhang Leping's "Sambo," Liang Baibo's "Bee Miss," and Gao Longsheng's "A Dou." Especially "The Ox-Nosed Man" was known for its productivity, consistently using both serial and standalone comic formats, and was published in a wide variety of venues, including not only newspaper supplements and comic magazines but also literary, film and theater, general, and children's magazines. Before the 1937 Anti-Japanese War, The Ox-Nosed Man had already published nine standalone volumes. The earliest one was published on September 18, 1935, by the Qunzhong Book Company, in a 16-page format, collecting 30 serial comics, each accompanied by a standalone comic at the bottom. The following year, Huang Yao established the "Ox-Nosed Man Society" and republished the book as a collection, releasing it together with the second collection on April 4, 1936 (Children's Day in the Republic of China). The third collection and The Blessing Collection were published on October 10 of the same year (National Day in the Republic of China), and the fourth collection and If Collection (Part 1) were released on April 1, 1937. The fifth collection and If Collection (Part 2) were published on July 10, 1937, and a month later, the "August 13th War" broke out in Shanghai. These eight volumes of The Ox-Nosed Man were all square 24-page books, with each collection containing about 40 pages. The first to fifth collections mostly featured serial comics, while The Blessing Collection and If Collection (Part 1 and Part 2) were standalone comics. The character of "The Ox-Nosed Man" was extremely flexible and adaptable, capable of transforming in countless ways. In The If Collection, he could become Guan Yu, Wu Song, Jiang Taigong, Mencius, Zhang Fei, Sun Wukong, the Ming Emperor, Confucian scholars, extras, directors, temporary actors, Pan Jinlian, and film actresses, among others. Yet, no matter how he changed, he remained fundamentally an ox-nosed man. Why did Huang Yao create "The Ox-Nosed Man"? In summary, it was to promote domestic products and to educate children. In the 1930s, the Chinese were mocked as the "Sick Man of East Asia," with their country being swallowed up by foreign powers. Especially after Japan's imperialists occupied Manchuria and invaded North China, the national crisis was unprecedented. Every person unwilling to become a slave to foreign powers faced the urgent issue of survival. In Shanghai's concessions, the arrogance of foreigners and the flood of foreign goods were shocking. Movie theaters and comic stalls were filled with imported characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Popeye. Huang Yao resolved to create a purely domestically produced comic character to resist and counter these influences. It was precisely because of this motivation that "The Ox-Nosed Man" had a Chinese appearance, with Chinese actions and humor, and was drawn with Chinese ink brushes.
—Wei Shaochang