The 19th-century Chinese cartoons with a revolutionary message for Singapore

THEY MAY BE mostly associated with lighthearted humour today, but cartoons were serious business in China in the late 19th century, as a new generation of artists responded to the turmoil of the era by reaching out to the masses with this emerging medium. As reforms and revolution took aim at imperial rule, Chinese in the diaspora also became exposed to the pointed satirical and social messages embedded in political cartoons. Publications launched by revolutionaries and émigré Chinese artists introduced the genre to places like Singapore, where it would soon evolve to address local concerns.

About 150 cartoons and related images and artefacts are on display at Singapore’s Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, organised in collaboration with the Memorial Museum of 1911 Revolution in Guangzhou.

Most were first published between the late 19th century and the early 20th century, a tumultuous period of history that began with China’s defeat in the first Sino-Japanese War and ended with the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

While humorous sketches, satirical drawings and allegorical pictures already existed in China before this period, the exhibition focuses on the emergence of modern political cartoons – these works were typically published in newspapers and explicitly created to engage a mass audience and spur political change. Common themes included the threat of foreign colonial powers, the corruption of the Qing government and the revolutionary movement that aimed to overthrow their rule, and the rapacious warlords that tussled for power after the fall of the Qing dynasty.

The same themes played out in Singapore, where Chong Shing Yit Pao, a newspaper launched by the local branch of underground resistance movement Tong Meng Hui was the first to publish political cartoons (most likely created in China) in 1907.