Paper Sprite: Comic Star of the 1930s

Author: Wu He
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: The three comic characters created by Yao—"The Bull-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 "Sanmao" in the 1930s and 1940s, and were once extremely popular, household names. Especially "The Bull-nosed Man," almost made it onto the silver screen as an animated film before the war, but the war prevented it from happening. For 50 years, due to various reasons (such as Huang Yao and Liang Baibo leaving mainland China), these comic stars disappeared and were forgotten. Revisiting these paper spirits, we find that they are not outdated at all; they even possess a strong sense of their time, and their portrayal and drawing techniques are exceptionally skillful. Their stories still leave us in awe and continue to inspire us. Huang Yao and his "The Bull-nosed Man"—Huang Yao's "The Bull-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 "Sanmao," Liang Baibo's "Bee Lady," and Gao Longsheng's "A Dou." Especially "The Bull-nosed Man" was known for its productivity, consistently using both serial and standalone comic formats. It was published in a wide variety of venues, including newspaper supplements and comic magazines, as well as literary, film and drama, general, and children's magazines. Before the 1937 Anti-Japanese War, The Bull-nosed Man had already published nine standalone volumes. The earliest one was released on September 18, 1935, by the Qunzhong Book Company, in a large format (16k), featuring 30 sets of serial comics, each accompanied by a standalone comic at the bottom. The next year, Huang Yao founded the "Bull-nosed Society" and republished the volume as a collection, releasing it alongside the second volume on April 4, 1936 (Children's Day in the Republic of China). The third volume and The Blessing Collection were published on October 10 of the same year (National Day in the Republic of China), and the fourth volume and If Collection (Part 1) were released on April 1, 1937. The fifth volume and If Collection (Part 2) were published on July 10, 1937. A month later, the "August 13th War" broke out in Shanghai. These eight volumes of The Bull-nosed Man were all square 24k books, with each volume containing about 40 pages. Volumes 1 to 5 mostly featured serial comics, while The Blessing Collection and The If Collection (Part 1 and Part 2) were standalone comics. The design of "The Bull-nosed Man" was extremely flexible and adaptable, capable of transforming in countless ways. In The If Collection, it could become Guan Yu, Wu Song, Jiang Taigong, Mencius, Zhang Fei, Sun Wukong, the Ming Emperor, a Confucian scholar, a supporting actor, a director, a temporary actor, Pan Jinlian, or a film star, etc. However, no matter how it transformed, it never lost its essence—it was always fundamentally a bull-nosed man. Why did Huang Yao create "The Bull-nosed Man"? In summary, it was for two reasons: to promote domestic products and to educate children. In the 1930s, the Chinese people were mocked as the "Sick Man of East Asia," with their own country being eaten away by foreign powers. Especially after Japan's imperialists occupied Manchuria and then invaded North China, the national crisis was unprecedented. Everyone unwilling to become a slave to foreign powers faced the serious issue of survival and resistance. In Shanghai's concessions, the arrogance of foreigners and the flood of foreign goods were shocking. Movie theaters and picture stalls were filled with imported characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Popeye. Determined to create a purely domestically produced comic character to resist this tide, Huang Yao designed "The Bull-nosed Man" with a Chinese appearance, Chinese humor, and Chinese brushwork. -- Wei Shaochang