Abstract
This chapter analyses the humoristic features of Zhang Leping’s comic strip serial San Mao Joins the Army (SJTA) published in 1945 and of its film adaptation released in 1992. SJTA follows the adventures of the little child San Mao as a soldier during the Sino-Japanese War. The aim of this chapter is to analyse how Zhang Leping employed humor and satire in the original strips of SJTA in order to propose a nuanced and multi-layered version of the War of Resistance free from the pompous tones of wartime propaganda, while the more recent cinematographic version of the story supported the Chinese Communist Party’s artistic principle to communicate a clear and straightforward political message to the public.
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Notes
- 1.
San Mao Joins the Army, produced by Zhongguo Shanghai dianying zhipianchang (中國上海電影製片廠), dir. Zhang Jianya, 1992. In 2010 the story of the little soldier San Mao became also a TV cartoon serial, broadcast on CCTV.
- 2.
For some examples of wartime propaganda cartoons representing Japanese soldiers, see San Mao’s official website: http://www.sanmao.com.cn/father/antiwar/manhua.html. Last accessed 5 December 2015.
- 3.
First published in the monthly magazine Knife and Brush (Dao yu bi, 刀與筆) in 1939 and in the pictorial of Frontline Daily (Qianxian Ribao, 前線日報) between 1939 and 1940.
- 4.
This strip appeared for the first time in Resistance Cartoons, in 1938.
- 5.
Reprinted in Yang Guo’s Baishi Leping, 46.
- 6.
The Wandering Life of San Mao appeared in the influential newspaper Dagong bao 大公報 between 1947 and 1949.
- 7.
Zhang Leping speaking about SJTA as reported in Feng (2006, p. 13).
- 8.
This strip was originally published in Shen bao in 15 May 1946. It was censured by the CCP after 1949, and substituted with a different image.
- 9.
Shen bao, 23 June 1946.
- 10.
San Mao fights against the Japanese on five occasions: in strips from 14–15 May, 24–28 June, 28 July, 10–12 August and 21–30 August 1946.
- 11.
Wang Yunsheng, Ti «Sanmao Liulangji» 題 «三毛流浪記», (‘About The Wandering Life of Sanmao’), Dagong bao, 23 March 1948.
- 12.
Strip published on 20 June 1946 in Shen bao.
- 13.
Originally published in Shen bao, 4 October 1946.
- 14.
San Mao Stands Up was published in Liberation Daily (Jiefang Ribao, 解放日報) between 5 May and 23 July 1951. Other San Mao strips were also published in Liberation Daily and in children’s magazines such as Children’s Time (Ertong Shidai, 兒童時代).
- 15.
The film can be watched at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy0-ma-G6ws.
- 16.
SJTA was cleared for publication in Taiwan in 1988. In the Taiwanese version of the story, several strips depicting Nationalist officials mistreating San Mao were censured (Feng 2006, pp. 34–35).
- 17.
Originally published in Shen bao, 20 August 1946.
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Pozzi, L. (2018). Humor, War and Politics in San Mao Joins the Army: A Comparison Between the Comic Strips (1946) and the Film (1992). In: Tam, Kf., Wesoky, S. (eds) Not Just a Laughing Matter. The Humanities in Asia, vol 5. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4960-6_3
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