My Friend Remembers the Past: A Picture Magazine and an Era

Author: Ma Guoliang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-01-01
Features: This is a memoir about a publication, woven together with characters and stories to form a history. In China, it seems no other publication has been recalled or described in such a way. deserves this treatment. Having disappeared for many years, this is its injustice. Once people have the chance to reread it, they will discover its beauty. This beauty does not fade with time; on the contrary, when romantic cultural nostalgia becomes widespread, and illustrated publications suddenly become a publishing trend, the memories of naturally come to the forefront, making it possible for it to meet readers in a beautifully illustrated and interactive way.
Mr. Ma Guoliang’s Memoirs of , although a personal recollection of the magazine, as the only surviving "" (veteran of ), he vividly recounts the founding of with fresh brushstrokes and a straightforward narrative, revealing many little-known facts about the literary world, and vividly recreating the cultural landscape of 1930s Shanghai. He writes a unique "history of the magazine," undoubtedly possessing irreplaceable historical and research value.
magazine and Mr. Ma Guoliang
Chen Zishan, from the streets, brought back Memoirs of —A Magazine and an Era, and read it late at night, feeling both joy and sorrow. The joy was that this important literary memoir, after being written for fifteen years, was finally published and presented to readers in such a beautifully illustrated and interactive form. The sorrow was that the author, Mr. Ma Guoliang, had passed away across the ocean and could not see the publication in his lifetime. I think he left this world with deep regrets.
Mr. Ma Guoliang’s name cannot be found in most general dictionaries of modern Chinese literature. Literary historians seem to have forgotten him. He was born in 1908 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, to a modest family. He came to Shanghai, the "," before finishing middle school. He first studied art before being introduced by a classmate, Liang Desuo, who was then the editor-in-chief of magazine, to work at the Publishing Company, thus beginning his vibrant literary career. He made diverse attempts in literary creation, excelling in essays, essays, novels, and film scripts. In the 1930s, he published essay collections such as Last Night’s Song, For Women, Leisurely Sketches, and the novel Lulu, and his many excellent essays were included in The Great Series of New Chinese Literature (1927–1937). But his greater contribution to modern Chinese literature and cultural history was becoming the third of the "three great editors of " after Liang Desuo and Zhao Jiabi, succeeding Liang Desuo as the editor-in-chief of in August 1933.
As Mr. Ma Guoliang said in the preface to Memoirs of , was a large-scale, comprehensive magazine in the 20th century, ten years ahead of the American LIFE magazine in setting trends. For the history of world illustrated publications, was the "true pioneer." The birth of was naturally inseparable from the foresight of Wu Liande, the founder of Publishing Company. He not only created the popular magazine that appealed to both the refined and the masses but also, with sharp eyes, hired the then-unknown Liang Desuo to replace the famous writer Zhou Shoujuan as the editor-in-chief of , ushering the magazine into a new stage of development. After Ma Guoliang succeeded Liang Desuo, he led into its golden age. Under their efforts, became a hub for reporting major political, economic, military, social, and cultural events of the time in a vivid, illustrated form, exerting a profound influence on the Chinese and overseas Chinese world.
was not a purely literary publication, but in the 1930s, the representative writers of Chinese literature—Lu Xun, Hu Shi, Mao Dun, Xu Daofu, Tian Han, Feng Zikai, Lao She, Shi Tieshen, and Mu Shiying—almost all enjoyed appearing in , whether through their works, photographs, or handwriting. The extent of its influence is evident.
Because balanced news and culture, combining diversity and mass appeal, it was an outstanding representative of Shanghai urban culture in the 1930s. In recent years, it has attracted increasing attention from scholars both at home and abroad who study modern Chinese literature and Shanghai cultural history. Many master’s and doctoral theses have been written on . Professor Lee Orlovesky of Harvard University, in his new book Shanghai Modern—A New Urban Culture in China, devotes considerable space to discussing and the urban desires it "created" through its cover designs, celebrity photos, trendy fashion, and various advertisements. I fully agree with Lee’s view that the story of lies in its conscious promotion of "modernity" in the 1930s, helping to construct Shanghai’s urban culture. Thus, it not only marks a significant chapter in the history of modern Chinese journalism but also takes a historic step in presenting the process of modernization in China itself.
I myself have often flipped through , and each time I discover something new, gaining fresh insights. Mr. Ma Guoliang’s Memoirs of , although a personal recollection of the magazine, as the only surviving "," he vividly recounts the founding of with fresh brushstrokes and a straightforward narrative, revealing many little-known facts about the literary world, and vividly recreating the cultural landscape of 1930s Shanghai. He writes a unique "history of the magazine," undoubtedly possessing irreplaceable historical and research value. Although some chapters remain unfinished due to its initial serialization, it is already rare.
As early as 1987, this memoir was serialized in the Hong Kong magazine upon its revival and attracted attention. Unfortunately, it was not available in mainland China at the time. I have met Mr. Ma Guoliang only twice, and coincidentally, both encounters were related to this Memoirs of .
The first was in spring 1990, when I visited Hong Kong for the first time. Professor Zheng Ziyou, a renowned expert in rhetoric, hosted a banquet at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the oldest among the guests was Mr. Ma Guoliang. He had then moved to Hong Kong and served as an advisor to the revived magazine. During the banquet, we discussed this serialized Memoirs of , and Professor Huang Jizhi and Mr. Huang Jundong, both from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, highly praised it. I suggested that he compile it into a book for a wider readership, to which he replied that he wasn’t in a hurry and still needed to revise and expand it. Four years later, I returned to Hong Kong and learned that he had moved to the United States due to a leg condition and was in Hong Kong for treatment. Seizing the opportunity, I went to his residence in Kowloon with Mr. Fang Kuanglie, a Hong Kong expert in literature and history, for a long afternoon of conversation. I told him that scholars in Shanghai had already compiled and published his essay collection The Essence of Life, which he had not known about beforehand, and he was still very happy. The topic naturally turned back to Memoirs of , and he expressed some sadness, as publishing in Hong Kong was no longer feasible, and the situation in mainland China was also not optimistic. With the passage of time, the people and scenes described in the book had long faded away—would anyone still read it? I could only reassure him that there would surely be a way, as books like Zhao Jiabi’s Memoirs of an Editor had also been published.
Unexpectedly, after returning to the United States, Mr. Ma Guoliang entrusted the manuscript to Brother Li Hui, who, in turn, did not fail him by recommending the precious manuscript to Beijing’s Sanlian. Thus, this Memoirs of , reflecting the author’s cultural interests and nostalgia, was finally brought to life.
Although Mr. Ma Guoliang did not live to see it, if he knew his wish had finally been fulfilled, he would surely smile from beyond the grave.
Wenhuibao