# Shanghai Modern & Yuefenpai

> The commercial art of treaty-port Shanghai. Calendar posters (yuefenpai) given away by tobacco, pharmaceutical and cosmetics firms took over the New Year print's place on the wall, pairing glamorous women in qipao, softly modelled in Zheng Mantuo's rubbed-brush watercolour technique, with ornamental borders, calendars and products. In the 1920s–30s pictorials, cartoons and 'art lettering' (meishuzi) absorbed Art Deco geometry into a cosmopolitan Chinese modernism.

- Period: 1910–1949
- Where: East Asia
- Origin: Shanghai, China
- Branch: Pictorial & machine age
- Also known as: Yuefenpai (calendar posters), Haipai commercial art, Shanghai Art Deco
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/shanghai-modern/

## How it works

- Centre one idealised figure, usually a fashionable modern woman, modelled with soft, photographic gradation.
- Frame the picture with an ornamental border that carries the brand, the product and the calendar.
- Blend Western shading and perspective with Chinese auspicious motifs, gardens and landscapes.
- Design headline characters as geometric 'art lettering' (meishuzi) with Deco stems, inlines and stepped strokes.
- Pair powdery pastel skin tones with saturated jewel accents and gold.
- On magazine and book covers, cut type and image on bold diagonals with flat colour planes.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (defining)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (occasional)
- [Diagonal axis](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagonal-axis/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (characteristic)
- [Illusion of depth](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/illusion-of-depth/) (characteristic)
- [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining)
- [Ornamented display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornamented-display/) (characteristic)
- [Brush & pen calligraphy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/brush-and-pen-calligraphy/) (occasional)
- [Eclectic mixing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/eclectic-mixing/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Gradients](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/gradients/) (characteristic)
- [Pastel](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pastel/) (characteristic)
- [Jewel & metallic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/jewel-and-metallic/) (characteristic)
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Naturalistic depiction](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/naturalistic-depiction/) (defining)
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (characteristic)
- [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (characteristic)
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Borders & frames](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/borders-and-frames/) (defining)
- [Floral & vegetal](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/floral-and-vegetal/) (characteristic)
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (occasional)
- [Geometric tessellation](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-tessellation/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (defining)
- [Straight photography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/straight-photography/) (occasional)
- [Comic & cartoon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/comic-and-cartoon/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Lithography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/lithography/) (characteristic)
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (characteristic)

### Tone & intent
- [Romantic & sensual](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/romantic-and-sensual/) (characteristic)
- [Luxurious & glamorous](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/luxurious-and-glamorous/) (characteristic)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional)

Avoids: Ornament-free, Non-representational, Modular grid, Rebellious & subversive, Photocopy & distress, Typography only

Palette: #f1d9c4, #b8322f, #1f5f5b, #c8a24a, #2a2a3a, #e9c6c9

Typefaces: Meishuzi (Republican-era 'art lettering' display characters), Songti (Song/Ming printing type), Brush calligraphy titles (kaishu and xingshu), Art Deco Latin display faces in bilingual branding

Known for: Zhou Muqiao (early calendar-poster painter); Zheng Mantuo (rubbed-brush watercolour 'cabi shuicai' beauties); Hang Zhiying & Zhiying Studio (founded 1922, with Jin Xuechen and Li Mubai); Xie Zhiguang; The Young Companion (Liangyou) pictorial (1926–45); Modern Sketch (Shidai manhua, ed. Lu Shaofei, 1934–37); Zhang Guangyu

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Nianhua & Chinese Folk Print](https://stylogeny.com/styles/nianhua.md) (c. 1100–present)
- Influenced by: [Art Deco](https://stylogeny.com/styles/art-deco.md) (1910–1939)
- Led to: [Lianhuanhua Picture-Story Books](https://stylogeny.com/styles/lianhuanhua.md) (1925–1990)
- Alike in its design choices: [Indian Calendar & Bazaar Art](https://stylogeny.com/styles/calendar-art-india.md) (1878–present), 74% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Australian Travel Poster (ANTA Era)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/australian-travel-poster.md) (1929–1959), 69% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Cuban Tobacco Lithography (Habilitaciones & Marquillas)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/cuban-tobacco-lithography.md) (1845–present), 67% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Mexican Calendar Chromo (Cromos calendáricos)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/mexican-calendar-chromo.md) (1930–1970), 66% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Spanish Bullfight Poster (Cartel Taurino)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/cartel-taurino.md) (1879–present), 64% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Giallo Mondadori Covers (I Libri Gialli)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/giallo-mondadori.md) (1929–present), 63% alike

## Real works

- [Xiehe Trading Company Calendar Poster](https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O485613/): Zhou Muqiao, 1913–14, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (FE.478-1992)
- [Calendar poster advertising DuPont dyes](https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O106473/): Unidentified artist (signed 'Zhiguang' 之光 with a seal); printed by The Commercial Press, 1926, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (FE.479-1992)
- [Poster for Hatamen cigarettes](https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O76095/): Ni Gengye, c. 1930, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (FE.482-1992)
- [The Young Companion (Liangyou 良友), no. 6, cover](https://archive.org/details/liangyou-1926.07.15): Liang Dingming (cover painting); Liangyou Printing Company (publisher; founder Wu Liande), 15 July 1926, Internet Archive (liangyou_magazine collection; no holding library stated)
- [Advertising poster for Hatamen cigarettes (seated woman with peacock-feather fan)](https://www.europeana.eu/item/2021009/_9E91FA1901B0548ED472E58F1CEDB27E): Unidentified artist (signed in the picture), 20th century (museum record); probably 1920s on costume and format, Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), Finnish Missionary Society collection (VKSLS8945; via Europeana)

## Sources

- Ellen Johnston Laing, Selling Happiness: Calendar Posters and Visual Culture in Early-Twentieth-Century Shanghai (University of Hawai'i Press, 2004)
- Leo Ou-fan Lee, Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930–1945 (Harvard University Press, 1999)
- Scott Minick & Jiao Ping, Chinese Graphic Design in the Twentieth Century (Thames & Hudson, 1990)
- chineseposters.net, 'Hang Zhiying' (https://chineseposters.net/artists/hangzhiying)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Shanghai Modern & Yuefenpai”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/shanghai-modern/