Shaoqian Zhang is an assistant professor of art history at Oklahoma State University. She received her BA from Beijing University, and her MA and PhD from Northwestern University. Her research subjects range from traditional East Asian architecture to contemporary art in China., but she is particularly interested in the evolution of Chinese political prints from the end of the 19th century to the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Dark and Bright Art: Woodcuts in the Aftermath of War

By Shaoqian Zhang

Fig. 1. Cover Page of Woodcuts of War-time China. Reproduced from Zhonghua muke xiehui 中華全國木刻協會(The Association of Chinese Woodcuts), Kanzhan banian muke xuanji 抗戰八年木刻選集 Woodcuts of War-time China (Shanghai: Kaiming shudian, 1946).

In a talk given at Jinan University in Shanghai in 1927, the leftwing artist Lu Xun (1881–1936) argued, “contemporary art describes our society, and even we are written into it. Previous art, like a fire across a river, had little to do with us Read More