The wax and wane of calendar pictures

Early pictures on the art papers were usually based on the traditional themes of Chinese painting: scenery, young ladies, and drama characters, to name a few. Later on, renowned and virtuous young women became frequent images. In keeping with the social fashion of the day, the effeminacy and gentility of the lady figures were eternal, so the calendar was also named “beautiful woman calendar”. The ladies’ images represented the artistic tide of their own times. Ladies of early calendars look reserved and delicate, but starting in the 1920s, the ladies begin to dress in a fashionable way. After 1940s, the ladies appear even more modern by wearing watches, playing the piano, riding motorcars and playing golf. The change vividly reflects the evolution of China’s social aesthetic taste.

Calendar pictures not only achieved the purpose of promotion, but also fulfilled the populace’s great hunger for beauty. The picturesque cards portray great beauties, and also inspire people to pursue a beautiful life. Thus their impact is far-reaching. The thing is, some people took the pictures home to decorate their houses, while others collected the rare ones to give them out as special presents.

The heyday of calendar pictures ended immediately after the invasion by Japan and the subsequent closing of many national enterprises. Though some companies also issued some similar pictures after the restoration of peace, the works could hardly rival their early counterparts in both innovativeness and quality. Then, in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the spreading of these pictures was banned because they were seen as the residue of feudalism. By the 1970s, much more hi-tech printings, digital ads and desk-calendars had appeared as a result of scientific development. As a result, calendar pictures gradually faded away, leaving us only the vintage smile and the yellowed memory of the prosperous age to which they belonged.

Whether the calendar pictures are works of art has long been debated, but time has honored the pictures at great value. Though having lost their function as advertising, the calendar pictures are doing well on the antique market. The well-known litterateur Lu Xun is a big collector of calendar pictures. Some portrayals of prominent figures such as Sun Zhongshan and Li Yuanhong, which were meant to be printed as calendar pictures, are now preserved in the Museum of Ethnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and are designated as cultural relics in Grade One under state protection. Today, the Shanghai International Auction Company has completed the auction of more than 50 calendar picture articles since 1997. In 2005, they sold the original picture Peacocks, a work of Xie Zhiguang, at an amazing price of 1.32 million.

As the historic relics of that special time, calendar pictures represent the vicissitude of modern China, as a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country. They record the development of Chinese commercial culture, provide precious historic information of the evolution of Chinese modern clothing, and fill in the blanks in Chinese art history about modern pop art. Though people today no longer yearn for the grace and charm of the calendar pictures, their nostalgic affection for the parting days will continue forever.