The Visual As Memory: Women, Nation, and Political Cartoons in China's War of Resistance against Japan

In recent years, scholars in and outside China have recognized that popular culture played a significant role in mobilizing the Chinese people to participate in the War of Resistance against Japan and in constructing a modern state.  However, previous studies on the war and popular culture, especially those on the political cartoons, have focused broadly on their relation to anti-Japanese nationalism without enough attention to gender.  Examining political cartoons published during the war, my study shows that wartime political cartoons played not only an important role in mobilizing Chinese people for supporting the War of Resistance, but also provided a gendered interpretation of the war and served as powerful visual repositories of memory that articulated how the war should be remembered.