Visualizing Modern China: Image, History, and Memory, 1750–Present Read online

  In its earlier period of production, Yangliuqing pictures were primarily sold in towns and cities, and rural residents had to go to the urban centers to purchase them. In Dream of the Red Chamber, for example, when the country woman Liu Laolao (Grandma Miu) visited the fabulous garden of the extremely wealthy Jia family, she comments:

  We country folks go to the cities to invite pictures when the New Year arrives. Sometimes when we are free from work [and looking at the pictures], we all say that it would be nice to go into the pictures for a visit. But we also think that the pictures are fabricated, how could there be real places like these? Who would expect that when I come to this garden today, I realize that this place is ten times better than the pictures. Someone has to make a picture according to this garden, and I can take it home to show them. They will be satisfied even if they die.13

  Dream of the Red Chamber was written in the early 1750s, during the Qianlong reign. This was the heyday of Yangliuqing New Year’s picture when the businesses focused on refined pictures at high production costs and targeted urban residents as their major customers. The nineteenth century witnessed a growth of the rural market for New Year’s pictures, which, ironically, marked the starting point of the decline of both the town Yangliuqing and its refined art. Responding to the expanding and diversifying market, the pictures began to diverge into three categories: rough, fine, and extra fine. The more refined pictures served elite urban consumers, and the rougher ones went to the rural market. Usually, a new market was established by the refined pictures first, which were followed by the rougher kinds. Consequently, although some Yangliuqing pictures maintained their previous refinement, it was obvious that in order to make the pictures affordable to farmers, the producers had to lower labor and material costs by simplifying designs and using lower quality colors and papers. Drafting was no longer done by top level artists, but often by beginners.

  This expansion of the rural market also led to reorganization of production in the Yangliuqing area. The earliest production was mainly concentrated in the town Yangliuqing itself. Each spring, the painting shops printed ink outlines onto paper, and distributed these to villagers—many were women—who filled in the colors and painted the faces. The pictures were then returned to the shops, where golden color was added to the most refined paintings, and some were mounted.14 The most prolific shop produced over one million paintings through year-round production, and hired about one hundred families to fill in colors.15 With the growing popularity of the rougher pictures, which were much easier to make, some of the villages began to produce their own pictures, instead of simply accepting Yangliuqing’s outsourcing. And the production of pictures became a year-round business in the whole area surrounding Yangliuqing. Pictures to the Northeast were shipped in June or July, while those going to Shaanxi and Gansu, because of the longer distance, were shipped in February or March. From October to mid-December, a picture market was run in Chaomidian, a town near Yangliuqing, at which time each picture shop rented hotel rooms in the area to display their products. Small peddlers went there to purchase the pictures wholesale and took them to towns and villages for retail sale. At the end of each year, temporary shops or booths were set up to sell New Year’s pictures.16 Although Yangliuqing still occupied the top position in terms of the quality of their pictures, it was losing its competitive edge over others in terms of quantity, and this tendency was exacerbated by changes in the region’s geopolitical economy.17

  A New Geopolitical Economy

  In the late Qing, impacted by some of the major events in modern Chinese history, Yangliuqing began to lose its geographical privileges. In 1842, the final battles of the Opium War were fought in Zhenjiang, where the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River met. The British cut off all grain shipment, which played a key role in forcing Emperor Daoguang to quickly sign the Treaty of Nanjing. From 1853, the Taiping army occupied Nanjing and Anhui for the next ten years and grain shipment was again interrupted. But it was the abolishment of grain shipment on the Grand Canal, the development of Tianjin as a treaty port, and the construction of railways that replaced the Grand Canal that permanently brought about the decline of Yangliuqing picture production.

  Until the development of grain shipment on the ocean and by railroads, the amount moved on the Grand Canal amounted to 3/4 of that shipped throughout the entire country. In the Ming and the Qing dynasties, the majority of commercial centers concentrated along the Grand Canal. In North China, almost all the prosperous towns and cities were located along the Canal. In 1855, the Yellow River shifted its bed northward from Henan Province to Shandong Province. The Canal was destroyed, and shipment on it was interrupted. By then, ocean shipment had increased due to the introduction of improved ships. In 1872, China’s first modern commercial shipping company was established in Shanghai, and part of the grain destined for the capital city of Beijing was shipped on the sea. The Qing government also began a new policy that converted the grain shipped from the south to the north into silver, which was then used to purchase grain in the Beijing area. Consequently, only a small portion of tax grain was shipped on the Canal. By 1901, the Qing government converted all tax grain shipments into cash collection and stopped grain shipment on the Canal all together. The government-sponsored shipment of grain from the south to the north that had lasted for several hundred years was terminated, and the Grand Canal lost its primary function. In 1904, the office that had supervised the shipment was abolished. The local government was no longer interested in maintaining the Canal, and a portion of the Canal in Shandong Province was filled by mud and sand and was no longer useable.

  To make the situation even worse for Yangliuqing, in areas that were Yangliuqing’s most important markets, a new transportation system centered on the railroads replaced the existing one focused on waterways. The railroad system redrew the micro-geography of the Tianjin region and had major impacts on the production of New Year’s pictures, to the disadvantage of Yangliuqing. Not being directly on the route of any of the railroads, the cost for paper and pigments, which were so crucial to the picture business, increased, and the marketing of the pictures was affected negatively. Before the mid-nineteenth century, Yangliuqing had relied on getting its paper and pigments from the south via the Grand Canal. With the demise of the Grand Canal, materials from the south were shipped first from Suzhou to Shanghai, then by sea to Tianjin, and then to Yangliuqing. Later, if they were to be transported by the train, they had to be sent to Nanjing first where they boarded the train to Tianjin. The other source for paper and pigments was imports from overseas, especially Germany. Whether originating in Suzhou or Germany, painting supplies now arrived in Tianjin first. With the cost for transportation added, they were more expensive for the picture producers in Yangliuqing than for the major printing factories in Tianjin. The unequal treaties of the late nineteenth century allowed imported goods to be transported and sold in inland China free of tax after a 2.5% customs, while Chinese goods still carried a significant rate of transportation and sales taxes. This made paper and pigments even cheaper in Tianjin than in Yangliuqing. In particular, paper and pigments from Suzhou, which Yangliuqing relied on to make the refined pictures that distinguished it from other producers, began to cost more than imported materials for the pictures as a result of the new transportation system and tax laws.

  Yangliuqing’s advantage over other places was the high quality of its pictures. In order to lower the cost of production, many picture shops switched to less costly paper and pigments imported from abroad. As Yu Fei’an explained, Yangliuqing’s artists “had to apply careful calculations and strict budgeting to ensure that their product was good and that it would be easy to distribute. For their colors, they carried out precise research and analysis on which kinds were easy to obtain, which kinds were inexpensive yet gave good results, which kinds were convenient to use, which would be relatively opaque, and whether they remained unchanged over time, and only after this was it decided which kinds of materials we
re to be used.”18 Chinese pigments were refined from plants and minerals and were soft and subtle in appearance, while imported colors were chemically manufactured, vibrant but harsh. Imported paper could not create the same effects as the paper from Suzhou. To maintain the quality of their pictures, Yangliuqing could not switch to imported paper and pigments for their refined pictures; if the pictures were to be produced at a compromised quality, Yangliuqing would not enjoy any advantage over other towns and villages, or Tianjin.

  Among the winners in this new business climate were Chaomidian and Dongfengtai. Artisans in both villages had learned to make woodblock prints from Yangliuqing, and later surpassed Yangliuqing in the quantity of their picture production. A short distance south of Yangliuqing, Chaomidian was producing New Year’s images by the late eighteenth century. Many residents of Chaomidian ran hotels, and made pictures as a sideline, focusing on rough quality prints.19 Chaomidian was a key point on the route between Tianjin and Baoding, a gate to west and northwest China and Mongolia, and even images produced in Yangliuqing were assembled, packed, and shipped from this town to Henan, Shandong, and Baoding. As a result, the picture business developed faster in Chaomidian than in Yangliuqing, and Chaomidian’s production reached about ten times that of Yangliuqing.20

  Chaomidian, however, went through its own decline for reasons similar to those that led to Yangliuqing’s demise. After the railroads were constructed, although Chaomidian still served as the assembling and marketing point for pictures shipped to Henan and Shandong, its connection to Baoding was no longer crucial; being on the Beijing-Hankou railroad, Baoding was now connected to different regions of China than before.21 The pictures destined for west China were loaded on the Beijing-Suiyuan trains to Datong or Guihua, then sent on to Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Xinjiang. By the mid-1920s, although Chaomidian was still producing more pictures than Yangliuqing, the number of picture shops there had declined to 30 from around 60 in 1910, and Dongfengtai had taken its position as the largest picture producer in the region.22

  Dongfengtai was situated northeast of Tianjin, about 65 miles from Yangliuqing. It neighbored the Beijing-Fengtian (Shenyang) railroad (constructed between 1881 and 1912), which was less than 20 miles away, as well as the seaport Tanggu, connected by the Ji Yunhe (Hebei Canal). A Yangliuqing picture shop first established a printing business there in the mid-eighteenth century. In the early twentieth century, when Yangliuqing had already declined, Dongfengtai entered its most prosperous days. All the pictures destined to the Northeast were put on boats in Dongfengtai and then loaded onto the Beijing-Fengtian trains. Dongfengtai dominated the Northeast image trade, and also served as a transfer point for shipment by ocean. There were not only a large number of picture shops there, but also many wholesale picture dealers. Although the town had no electricity, many picture shops tried to mechanize their production, using animals to pull the wood engraving and printing machines. Dongfengtai quickly surpassed both Yangliuqing and Chaomidian in the volume of its production.23

  Reforms

  When China entered its tumultuous late nineteenth century, Yangliuqing pictures reflected current affairs and fundamental changes of the time. When violent conflicts between local Tianjin residents and the missionaries occurred in 1870, for example, Yangliuqing artists printed the picture “Burning the Wanghai Pavilion.” This picture provoked Zeng Guofan (1811–1872), who, as the governor of Zhili was sent by the Qing court to deal with the problem, to comment: “Tianjin area people are as uncontrollable (xiaozhang) as usual. They engraved pictures of killing Westerners on woodblocks and printed them to show their pride.”24 When the Qing government began to advocate girls’ education after 1898, Yangliuqing pictures depicted girls learning reading and writing. Several prints were made of the Boxers fighting Westerners in Tianjin. After the Eight Allied Forces invaded Beijing, one of the Yangliuqing pictures depicted Beijing residents robbing a pawnshop in the chaos, while Figure 4.5 depicts a fleeting moment of Qing victory against said Eight Allied Forces in Tianjin.

  In spite of the presence of these new elements, Yangliuqing pictures through the early twentieth century continued to focus primarily on stable themes that were repeated year after year, and the images narrated long-lasting popular wishes in an agricultural society. When these beliefs and practices began to be considered backward at the turn of the twentieth century, however, the pictures that expressed them became targets of reform and government intervention, especially after the 1911 Revolution (Figure 4.6, see website). The Social Education Department of Tianjin established the Bureau of New Year’s Picture Censorship, which examined all drafts at the picture shops before production. The depictions were divided into “improved” (those benefiting popular education) and “unimproved” (those derived from fictions and historical stories and were irrelevant to conveying modern or “new” knowledge). “Improved” pictures were granted permit for “permanent” production, while unimproved ones were allowed to be produced only temporarily (the argument being long traditions were difficult to eliminate all at once) or, if deemed to undermine healthy customs, were to be banned immediately. The Bureau even dispatched officials to the picture shops and booths to investigate in an effort to ensure that the banned images would not be printed. In the spring of every year, the Bureau called for a meeting of picture merchants to discuss methods of controlling the production of New Year’s pictures.25

  Figure 4.5 The caption at the top reads “Land mines in Tianjin, victory against the aggressor by Admiral Dong.” This picture celebrates a moment of victory by Qing troops against invading Western and Japanese forces sent to put down the Boxer uprising in 1900. The Japanese forces (note the red sun flag) in the center of the image are attacked from both front and back by Qing troops. From: Yangliuqing nianhu, Tianjinshi yishu bowuguan ed. (Wenwu chubanshe, Tianjin, 1984), p. 15.

  Figure 4.7 shows a reformed New Year’s picture depicting urban scenes of Tangshan, a town near Tianjin. In the 1870s, it had one of the first industrialized coal mines in China. The picture illustrates this new development, and shows Westerners, steam boats, a water fountain, Western-style buildings, trains, etc. The text on the picture explains that while Western novelties in Tangshan had attracted many people to visit the town, many were still unable to do so. The Jianlong shop thus printed this picture to allow people to tour Tangshan while staying in their own homes. Although the picture maintains some of the characteristic charms of earlier Yangliuqing pictures, it reveals the disadvantageous position of rural artists in their efforts to depict urban scenes: The wheels of the train do not appear to be at the right place; and it is impossible to comprehend from the picture how the pulleys and the water fountain would work.

  Figure 4.7 Reformed New Year’s picture depicting the curious new developments in Tangshan. Several Westerners are pictured, identifiable through such details as their dress and facial hair. From: Pan Yuanshi and Wang Lixia, Yangliuqing ban hua [Yangliuqing Prints]. Taipei: Xiongshi tushu gufen youxian gongsi, 1975.

  There is no evidence that these governmental interventions sparked a new vibrancy in the New Year’s picture business. Indeed, the following comment from 1940 vividly depicts the depressed situation of New Year’s pictures, including the “improved” ones, and is worth quoting at length:

  Every year when it reaches the 11th and the 12th months, people from the countryside go to Beijing to buy New Year’s pictures. Although they are only woodblock pictures filled in with colors, children love them. Although they are not elegant, the ordinary people need them. The contents of the paintings are activities of New Year’s celebrations or scenes from dramas. They show either fat pigs opening the gate, or a god of wealth arriving at the door, or monkeys fighting for a straw hat, and mice getting married. When the newspaper Jinghua ribao was published,26 Peng Yizhong advocated support for New Year’s pictures by reforming them, arguing that they can contribute to education. But if we require the pictures to be reformed all the time, they become even worse and look absur
d. All the female students in the pictures have bound feet and carry handkerchiefs but wear American-style hats. There are new-style decorative arches, but the figures wear old-style clothes. In scenes of New Year’s celebration, it is the masters who do the cooking. One cannot help wonder, doesn’t a family this wealthy have any servants? Since the Chinese are not good at reforming them, foreigners see opportunity for profit. Unfortunately the foreign paper changes color easily and turns yellow after the pictures stay on the wall for just a few days. In addition, the scenes and customs in these paintings don’t fit the Chinese taste. Even so, a lot of people still buy them.27 If the producers of woodblock New Year’s pictures still hold on to their tradition, they are in fact giving up their right for profit. If they want to keep this business, they have to choose new drafters, and try to fit in the new times, but avoid overdoing it. If they can do this, the paintings can have a good market.28

  Hopes for a “good market” proved to be wishful thinking. The mid-1920s were waning days for Yangliuqing, and by the mid-1930s production there had declined to near-extinction. A three-hundred-year-old tradition withered within thirty years. Some locally produced New Year’s pictures emerged in villages and towns in other regions of the country, however on much smaller scales and of much lower quality. Only simple door gods continued to be produced to decorate the farmers’ houses until the 1940s. Traditional woodblock-printed New Year’s pictures encountered two challenges: lithographic printing, and later, the coming of calendar posters. Evidence points to a causal relationship between the decline of Yangliuqing New Year’s pictures and the development of lithography and the popularity of calendar posters. This was an early indicator of what was to come: the severance of the continuum between the rural and the urban, and furthermore, the dominance of the urban over the rural, in cultural production.