The Chinese artist Feng Zikai was born in 1898 in the Zhe Jiang Province. He always loved painting and decided to enhance that knowledge by studying abroad in Japan in 1921. Many of his works after this were inspired by the new Western styles he learned while abroad. His love for all the arts lead him to teaching where he taught music and art in Chun Hui Middle School once back in China. (“The Award and Feng Zikai”). He developed a love and admiration for the spirits of children, and he first became known as an artist with a series of cartoons portraying lovable, mischievous children. (Hung 1994, 137)

Feng Zikai developed his cartoon skills based on the light-hearted topic of children, even modeling his cartoons after his own children. He also added a song or verse among his drawings to make them more poetic and meaningful. (Hung 1994, 137) His style combined traditional Chinese brush strokes with contemporary social settings, including humor and religious purport. (Hung 1994, 138) However, he did not classify himself as a traditionalist, but created more modern pieces that reflect his observation of the world around him. During and after the second Sino-Japanese War, Feng used his platform to reflect wartime ideologies. (Lin 2003, 5) Feng and his family were forced to flee and live as refugees during the Japanese attacks. By living through these experiences, “Feng now believed that art could and should play a major role in saving China.” (Lin 2003, 105) Therefore, Feng created many prints and cartoons related to his suffering, the suffering of the Chinese people, and the corruption that entailed.

In my exhibition, my goal is to focus on the artworks Feng Zikai created during and after the war period, and how much they differ from his prewar artwork. Not only does Feng’s work reflect this time period, but he was also around during the Chinese cultural revolution, and he created many cartoons in secret that reflect his take on that particular time period that might not have been accepted by the strict Communist government. This theme is important, because Feng lived through two of the most important historical phenomenon’s that took place in China during the twentieth century. I want to focus on how war affected his art and the way he viewed the world differently throughout his life. I want to emphasize how Feng was speaking for the people of China during that time through his artwork and how he used his art to resist and arouse nationalism. (Hung 1994, 140)

Feng Zikai, A mother’s head severed. From China Weekly Review 88.6 (8 April 1939): 177. Scroll, ink on paper. Image source: http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft829008m5/

As we can see from this image, Feng is portraying a mother being brutally killed while she is nursing her baby. He includes a poem to the right of the image about the tragic scene. This scene of a child alters greatly from the lighthearted cartoons of children he painted before the war. This image shows the tragic affect the war had on Feng, as well as how he thought it affected the innocent women and children of China.

Citations

Hung, Chang-tai. War and Popular Culture: Resistance in Modern China, 1937-1945. Berkeley:  University of California Press, c1994 1994. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft829008m5/

Lin, Su-Hsing “Feng Zikai’s Art and the Kaiming Book Company: art for the people in early twentieth century China.” Electronic Thesis or Dissertation. Ohio State University, 2003. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/

“The Award and Feng Zikai.” Feng Zikai. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://fengzikaibookaward.org/en/about-the-award/the-award-and-feng-zikai/.

This webpage differed from any previous webpage I had seen before. It is titled, “Feng Zikai’s Chinese Children’s Picture Book Award,” and talks about Feng and his impact on the children of China, something that most Chinese artists did not have. Feng is known for his cartoon art that inspired so many Chinese picture books for children later on, and this webpage emphasizes how important this particular art is to modern Chinese culture. What I especially like about this webpage is that it has a detailed timeline of Feng’s life, as well as when and why he created some of his cartoons and comics. This tells me more of what inspired him to create these unique cartoons.

The Award and Feng Zikai

Figure 1: Feng Zikai “1 want to become an angel. / Soaring high in the sky, / Following the enemy planes, / And grabbing their bombs.” Scroll, ink on paper. Feng Zikai, Jianwen I (August 1, 1928: 2), Guangzhou.

This work by Feng Zikai is one that he created to reflect his own, his family’s, and other Chinese citizen’s experiences during the war against Japan in the mid-twentieth century. This piece is ink on a scroll format and is one of the more traditional pieces that he created. This painting is black and white, with simple detail in the people and the background, yet Feng was not attempting to create some artistic masterpiece. The purpose of this piece as a whole is send a message from Feng to the viewer. (Hung)

As we can see, the emphasis of this work is an angel catching the bomb heading toward the group of Chinese people. Even with the little detail, we can see from their expressions how helpless and frightened they are while stranded in the middle of rural China with no protection. There is a house in the distance, but these people might have left it knowing it will not protect them from the bombings. Most of them are looking up in fear, but I notice one person who is covering their eyes and face, as if they don’t want to see what danger is coming. Other people are not looking above but are looking ahead. This might be because they know this angel has come to save them and they are looking towards a better future. It is interesting that all of the people are huddled together, being there for one another in a time of crisis. Feng is trying to convey that as the Chinese were bombarded with war, they still stuck together in life or death.

The angel is another very important aspect to this piece. One book states, “Feng developed a style and approach all his own by combining traditional Chinese brush strokes with contemporary social settings, often lacing them with humor and religious purport.” (Hung 1994) In this piece, he is using an angel, a common religious symbol to make a point about the war. According to this book, the caption beneath this art piece says, “I want to become an angel, Soaring high in the sky, Following the enemy planes, And grabbing their bombs.” (Hung 1994) The angel seems to represent what Feng wishes he could have done for the people of China, or that the people of China need any angel to save them, whether that be the Chinese government or a miracle. On the other hand, it could mean the only thing that could save them is a divine being, and in other words, nothing can physically save them from the Japanese. The people in this piece could represent Feng’s family, or could represent all of China’s innocent citizens, yet either way, Feng wishes he could stop the madness and save his people.

Sources

Hung, Chang-tai. War and Popular Culture: Resistance in Modern China, 1937-1945. Berkeley:  University of California Press, c1994 1994. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft829008m5/

Feng Zikai, Jianwen I (August 1, 1928: 2), Guangzhou.