A Chinese artist, a cartoon boy, and a former French Concession house
by Maura Elizabeth Cunningham
Zhang Leping (1910–1992) was a Chinese cartoonist, most famed for his Sanmao the Orphan comics. In the late 1920s, Zhang moved from his coastal hometown to Shanghai, where he quickly found work as a commercial artist and cartoonist. He debuted the Sanmao the Orphan comics — China’s first cartoons produced specifically for young children — in 1935 and drew them until 1937, when the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War led Zhang to leave Shanghai as a member of a cartoonist propaganda troupe. He traveled all over China during the war, finally returning to Shanghai in 1945, and quickly returned also to his Sanmao character, producing a new series of cartoons that depicted Sanmao as a child recruit in the corrupt Nationalist army. Zhang’s biggest hit came in 1947, with the serial publication of The Wandering Life of Sanmao, a narrative about the trials and tribulations of life on the streets for Shanghai’s orphan children.
Subscribe to continue reading
Subscribe to get access to the rest of this post and other subscriber-only content.