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Fengyang guniang (Maidens of Fengyang)
This woodcut, by an artist called Fang Wenxing, was reproduced in Zhonghua huabao (Chinese Pictorial) 1.4 (November 1943). The importance of the muke (woodcut) form to artistic practice in occupied China has been almost entirely overlooked in the literature. The muke form has hitherto been associated with the art of resistance in China, despite being an important part of “occupation” visual cultures as well.
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Weixin zhengfu zhixia zhi minzhong shenghuo (The life of the masses under the Reformed Government)
This series of unattributed photographs is taken from the Daminhui publication Xin Zhongguo (New China) 3.1 (January 1940). They are used here to present scenes of life under the rule of the Reformed Government (Weixin zhengfu), or RGROC, which was a “client regime” established in 1938. The RGROC was eventually amalgamated with Wang Jingwei’s RNG in March 1940. The top image is entitled “xian’ge bu chuo” (“studying never stops, even in times of strife”); the middle image is entitled “qiu shou fengdeng” (gathering the autumn harvest); the image at the bottom of the page is entitled “fuxing jianzhu” (renovating buildings). All three are typical images of the sort that the Daminhui promoted in the period between 1938 and 1940, but also display a clear influence from Manchukuo propaganda photography from earlier in the 1930s.
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Qingxiang biaoli guan (Within and beyond Rural Pacification)
In this artistic representation of a village which has undergone Rural Pacification, peasants are shown going about their business within the walls of a “pacified” village. Outside the village walls, resistance fighters starve to death and inflict violence upon local residents. The image is taken from the periodical Zhongguo manhua (Chinese Cartoons) 2.1 (October 1942). This was the house magazine of the Chinese Cartoon Associations (Zhongguo Manhua Xiehui).
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RNG troops by a riverbank
A group of RNG soldiers walks along an unidentified river bank. Possibly part of the Rural Pacification (qingxiang) campaigns.