Source: Associaton for Chinese Animation Studies (7/13/24)
A Parting Shot: Liao Bingxiong’s “Slippery Poem-Pictures” and the 1957 Rectification Movement
By John A. Crespi
The Hundred Flowers Movement, launched in May 1956 and culminating in Mao Zedong’s call to critique the Chinese Communist Party during the Rectification Movement of May and June 1957, was a bonanza for China’s manhua. During that span of about a year, China’s cartoonists were granted free rein to take aim at the favorite target of satirists everywhere: their own ruling regime.
Or so it seemed. Today, of course, we know that the Rectification Movement ended abruptly with the Anti-rightist Movement, when Mao cut off the flood of criticism he had himself summoned by persecuting untold thousands of intellectuals. How far did China’s manhua artists push the boundaries of critique when responding to the call to “rectify” the party? It is hazardous to generalize; an extensive study of manhua through this period is waiting to be undertaken. Here I offer a brief look at just one prominent example of a manhua caught in the ideological crossfire: Cantonese artist Liao Bingxiong’s 廖冰兄 (1915-2006) “Slippery Poem-Pictures” (dayou cihua 打油词话), published on page 5 of China’s leading satirical art magazine, Manhua Semi-monthly (Manhua banyue kan 漫画半月刊), on July 8, 1957.[1]