TITLE:
The Transformation of Early Chinese Comics in the Context of Art Deco
AUTHORS:
Wen Wang
KEYWORDS:
Art Deco-Style Comics, Integration of Chinese and Western Cultures, Urban Culture, Modernity, Transformation of comics
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.5,
May
29,
2026
ABSTRACT: In the 1920s and 1930s, Chinese art was in a transitional period marked by the integration of diverse cultures. As an intuitive form of visual narration, comics became an important medium for exposing social realities and conveying public appeals. Taking the Chinese-Western integrated style comics published in major pictorials in Shanghai during the Republican period as the research object, this paper explores the influence of Art Deco on the transformation of early Chinese comics. It clarifies that local Chinese comics were not simple reproductions or passive absorptions of Western Art Deco-style comics, but rather outlined the complex context of urban cultural development through the translation and reconstruction of visual symbols amid the collision of Chinese and Western cultures. The study finds that the interaction between Art Deco and the arts across various fields not only promoted the formal innovation of early Chinese comics but also opened up a modern developmental path for Chinese urban culture, providing an important perspective on the construction of modernity in Chinese art.