People’s Republic of China 1949–1978

Diversification of forms, add elements for political propaganda

赞云:万里寻夫说孟姜，冰清玉洁岂寻常!贞心不负当初约，传得声名千载芳。 诗云:为造长城逼喜良，捐身殉节动悲伤，彼美孟姜真可敬，甘心立志逆君皇。 ——《孟姜女万里寻夫集》17

Zanyun praises Meng Jiang, who searched for her husband thousands of miles away. Her purity and chastity were extraordinary, and her faithful heart upheld her initial promise, spreading her fame for thousands of years.

The poem goes as follows: “To build the Great Wall, Qi Liang was coerced; She sacrificed herself, deeply saddened. The beautiful Meng Jiang was truly admirable, with a determined heart to resist the emperor’s will.”

Meng Jiang Searches for Her Husband Across a Thousand Miles

The Meng Jiang Baojuan compiled after the founding of New China has a full composition and few blank spaces, aiming to capture the moment of a climactic scene and showcase the plot with higher artistic value. The scroll highlights the scene where Meng Jiang and Qi Liang get married, with a bustling crowd of people, musical instruments, and singing, creating a sharp contrast between the joyous atmosphere and the later bleak and desolate situation after Qi Liang’s arrest.

In plot Meng Jiang searches for her husband and gender contrast is emphasized. In front of three strong male officials, Meng Jiang is a weak and helpless woman who has no money to pass the checkpoint and can only sing sad songs and endure the officials’ criticism, showing the inner misery of her character.

These illustrations meet the aesthetic taste of the public and moving towards commercialization and entertainment.

In this version, the plot has not changed much, but there is an added storyline of empathy for the workers who helped build the Great Wall alongside Qi Liang. It can be seen that at this time, the storytelling has shifted towards catering to the inner aspirations of labourers.

During the prosperous period of Chinese comic books, people’s entertainment lives were relatively simple, and comic books became an important reading material for many young people and even adults because of their educational and entertaining qualities. Due to the diverse artistic expressions of comic books, the subject matter has traditional Chinese cultural and historical characteristics, which distinguishes it from comic works in other countries and has a unique artistic expression.