Ying Ying de Zao Yu (Ying Ting's Misfortune)

Small Chinese comic-book style booklet. Square 16mo (4 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches). Original pictorial wrappers; 4, 96 pp. Light wear to corners; some toning to leaves; a few losses to corners of last few leaves (pp. 81-96), with no loss to images; paper brittle; overall good. Shanghai (Da zhong mei shu chu ban she/The Masses Artistic Publishing Company) 1949. Small Chinese propaganda booklet in "lianhuanhua" or comic book format, telling the political morality story of Ying Ying, the heroine who grew up in "suffering and depravation" but finds new life in the People's Liberation, with bold black-and-white woodcut illustrations by Keyang to every page. Yang Keyand (1914-2010) studied wood engraving with various masters, and in the 1940's participated in anti-Japanese activities and joined the All-China Wood Engraving Association Movement.

During the Creative Print Movement in 1930s China, the woodblock and its ease of mass-production of images was repurposed to serve new political purposes. Many artists created prints with clear nationalistic messages, while others made images of political protest. The outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 united these two themes in the work of many artists. Very scarce; as of April 2024, WorldCat locates only two holdings in North America.