Romance and Rebellion in Republican China

These Old Picture Papers Showcase Rebellion and Romance in Republican China

Story FM

How picture newspapers in the early 20th century reflected changing views on freedom and love

Although now largely disappeared from history, “pictorials” were a common source of information during China’s Republican period , from 1912 to 1949. These were widely circulated picture-based newspapers, typically featuring large numbers of photos and cartoons paired with close-set characters about the size of ants. They were essentially the WeChat public accounts of their time.

In 2000, Zhou Licheng, a researcher at the Tianjin Municipal Archives, found 10 old pictorials at a secondhand book store . They opened for him a new window into the entertainment and public life of the Republican period.

Today, Mr. Zhou walks us through his new book, Marriage Stories from Old Pictorials , using the stories of three Republic-era women to uncover a past world of love, freedom, and rebellion.

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A brief history of pictorials

1875—

China’s first pictorial was a religious publication out of Shanghai, Children’s Monthly . These early pictorials were printed in large type on thin, translucent paper. Their illustrations have a strong hand-drawn character.

1920—

The well-known journalist Ge Gongzhen (戈公振) founded the Pictorial Times , the first publication to primarily feature photos. It was printed on coated paper, which has held its color well and feels just like modern magazine paper.

February 1926—

The first issue of the Good Friends Pictorial featured China’s first screen star, Hu Die (胡蝶), on the cover. Holding fresh flowers and smiling sweetly, her image left a deep impression, making Good Friends a major publication almost overnight.

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Outlandish courtship ads

There was another distinct phenomenon in the pictorials of that era: the appearance of large numbers of matrimonial ads from young men and women.

The Republican period was marked by ideological shifts. This was particularly striking when it came to the issue of marriage.

For example, Peking University president Cai Yuanpei (蔡元培) posted a matrimonial ad in 1900. He listed five criteria for his ideal marriage: The woman must not have bound feet; she must be literate; the man must not take a concubine; the woman may remarry after the man’s death; and a couple may divorce if they do not make a good match.

These conditions appear to have been ahead of their time. In contrast, most of the marriage ads posted by men upheld the expectations set out in Confucian ethics.

On the other hand, marriage ads posted by women were less common—perhaps just one for every ad posted by men. Women of the time had similar criteria for men as they do today , emphasizing occupation, wealth, appearance, and interests.

But Mr. Zhou’s book also mentions a few women who had alternative requirements.

For example, in a 1928 issue of Shen Bao, a young lady from an official family had this request as to a man’s origins: “Aside from Shanghai, any province or county is acceptable. Willing to travel to provinces as distant as Yunnan or Guizhou.”

It appeared that this woman’s father had warned her against the fickleness of Shanghai men before he died, and advised her to find men from other regions.

The courtship process was rather complicated for women. After the initial recruitment, they would spend a month interviewing and deliberating, finally exchanging photos with a suitable match by mail. If the pairing didn’t work out, each side would remain discreet about the experience for the sake of her virtue.

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‎‎‎‎‎A Republican Romeo and Juliet

Tragic love stories were a staple in the newspapers of the time—the sadder, the better.

For example, the story of the dancer He Die (贺蝶) and local scion Yang Huaichun could have been a Republican Romeo and Juliet .

Yang Huaichun was a Suzhou native, fair-skinned, elegant, and charming. His father was of some local renown. Although the family wasn’t extremely wealthy, he was the only son among three branches of the lineage, so both parents naturally doted on him. At the time, he worked at the China Quangong Bank in Shanghai and relied on his family’s support. When he met He Die in a dance hall, it was love at first sight. Their affections quickly reached a boiling point.

So He Die’s mother became her shadow, accompanying her to and from the dance hall to close off any opportunity for Yang Huaichun to get close to her. The couple wasn’t daunted, but down below tragedy was brewing.

On December 18, 1938, wearing a silver-white qipao and a pair of silver-white heels, He Die left the house calmly.

When the hotel staff found their bodies, there was a suicide note, two diamond rings, two empty Lysol bottles, and a pile of bank notes on the table next to them, amounting to 213 yuan. The suicide note explained that this was settlement money for the He family. It continued, “As both parties were willing to die together, I hope neither party will sue.”

Many papers reported heavily on the joint suicide of He Die and Yang Huaichun, and a public controversy ensued.

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The consort’s revolution

The May Fourth Movement shook the foundations of traditional matrimony. Young people, led by intellectuals, advocated for a freer and more equal system. After generations of enforced passivity, many women were roused to action.

The most famous example may be the divorce of Consort Wenxiu (文秀) from the last emperor, Puyi (溥仪) —an event that was exhaustively documented in contemporary media.

It was quite inconceivable for a concubine to divorce the emperor. Each party retained a lawyer. Wenxiu proposed several alimony conditions; if Puyi agreed, she wouldn’t take him to court. Puyi’s only condition was that there be no lawsuit.

What they didn’t anticipate was that, on the third day of negotiations, Business News suddenly published a letter from Wenxiu’s older cousin, forbidding her divorce from Puyi. The letter included this sentence: “When a ruler commands his subject to die, the subject has no choice but to die; the righteousness of ruler and subject, the difference between superior and inferior, means we must accept our fates and abide for the duration of our lives!”

With the publication of that letter, the last emperor’s divorce proceedings came into full view of the public.

On September 2, Wenxiu returned fire in the New Tianjin Post: Not only did she have no previous contact with her cousin, but he was also disregarding the laws of the Republic and denying her equal rights. She ended the letter with this barb: “I invite my cousin to read more law books and practice the art of discretion, so as to not violate the laws of the Republic of China.”

After a month of negotiation, Wenxiu and Puyi agreed to an alimony totaling 55,000 yuan, and requested that the formalities be conducted in the shortest time possible.

The day after the proceedings were finalized, Puyi tried to save face. He published this imperial edict as a masthead ad in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai newspapers: “The imperial concubine has abandoned the garden, violating ancestral teachings; she is stripped of her title, reduced to a commoner, by order of the Emperor himself.”

By then, the Qing dynasty had already been over for 20 years.

The February 1933 issues of Yishi Post include six consecutive reports of women filing for divorce. These reports reveal a common fate for women on the lower rungs of society.

For example, a Beiping woman surnamed Li ( nee Wang), confided to a court mediator: “I have been married to Li Zhongyu for six or seven years. He doesn’t support me, has a heroin addiction, and has forced me into prostitution in a Nancheng brothel. I can’t bear to stay with him anymore, and ask for a divorce.”

The mediator asked, “Who will the children go to?” Mrs. Li said, I don’t want them. So the children’s custody went to the father, and the divorce was successful.

Through numerous such reports, it becomes apparent that the courts had a set of principles for mediating these proceedings, rather than uniformly pushing for reconciliation or divorce.

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Remarrying as a widow

Republic-era pictorials actually document many unorthodox and experimental weddings .

There were already aerial weddings and water weddings, as well as group ceremonies. There were weddings that were as simple as a meal between friends, and there were political alliances that took shape as weddings of the century.

Even as ceremonies shifted in form, attitudes toward marriage remained relatively conservative.

In the early days of the Republic, there were in fact no official marriage certificates. Common people who could afford it might post a marriage announcement in the paper, or arrange for a witness to their ceremony.

So Wei Wenxiu announced in the papers that she would be marrying the merchant Wang Kuixuan. Unexpectedly, this ignited a major controversy.

It is said that in order to satisfy the wishes of his new wife, Xiong Xiling shaved off the long beard he had kept for over 10 years. The press made a big deal of this, embellishing the account and celebrating it as a symbol of marital harmony. As the media spread news of the wedding around the country, it became a surprising exemplar.

Another two May-December weddings were held the next month, in each case between an older man and younger woman. These caused an even greater sensation.

This drew the ire of Wei Wenxiu, who did not understand why she, conversely, had to endure separation from her lover. Was it only because she was a woman and a widow?

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Pictorials from the front lines

The latter half of the Republic was a time of social unrest, with troubles brewing within and without. But the upper crust persisted in its old life of luxury, holding grand weddings and celebrations. Meanwhile, the middle and lower classes were caught in the crosshairs of national conflict, worrying about their next meal.

The pictorials of the time reflect this surreal collision of time and space.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, pictorials began to decline in both number and variety.

The war gave rise to different factions and disruptions to transportation, severely impacting the distribution of pictorials. The industry contracted; many of the papers that hosted the angry rebukes of yesteryear folded. Old issues circulated among the public, awaiting rediscovery by people such as Zhou Licheng.

Mr. Zhou’s book has currency even in today’s world. It doesn’t feel like a story from the past; instead, the circumstances and choices of the people represented seem to be in conversation with current events.

When people look at today’s “pictorials” in 100 years from now, who knows what they will make of us?

Images courtesy of Zhou Licheng

This story is published as part of TWOC’s collaboration with Story FM, a renowned storytelling podcast in China. It has been translated from Chinese by TWOC and edited for clarity. The original can be listened to on Story FM’s channel on Himalaya and Apple Podcasts (in Chinese only).