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Comics And Nationalism In Postwar Chain And Japan.

Kristina Velis
Final
History of the Far East
Nov 30th 2008

                                Comics and Nationalism in Post-War China and Japan

From the author Lu Xun on the usefulness of comics as propaganda: "Not long ago, in the review Modern Age, I read an article by Su Wen, the art critic, condemning the comics from an aesthetic point of view..... In the art histories to which we are accustomed to we find no reproductions from comic books, and in exhibitions we see only such things as Rome at Twilight or Western Lake at Dusk. Obviously, comic books are considered too low-brow to belong to such respectable company. But if you visit the Vatican you will find that all the marvelous frescoes fundamentally tell stories from the Old Testament and the Acts of the Apostles.   When an art historian reproduces one of them under the title "The Creation of Adam" or "The Last Supper," no one considers it vulgar or propagandistic. And yet the originals are fundamentally cartoons of a propagandistic nature.....And both the life of Buddha and the anecdotes of Confucius are obviously propagandistic publications, in which pictures are meant to stimulate the reader's interest. When such pictures are numerous enough one can understand the story without reference to the text at all." [1]
The new nationalism of China and Japan after World War two and the Communist Revolution of 1949 creates and shows itself in many ways.   One of these ways that has become more important in modern times is the Comic or Manga as it is called in Japan.   Japan has taken the American art form and made it their own, expressing their culture and nationalism in their Manga.   The Chinese, while not taking Comic to heart as a national product. still used the art form to express and promote nationalism and communism to their common people.   What is the importance of comics in the nationalism of Japan and China?   How did these countries develop their nationalistic ideas in the comics they published?...

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