Struggle

The pioneers of the modern woodcut in China were those adventurous young artists who went abroad to study Western art in the early twentieth century, bringing back new ideas and techniques. During the 1930s and 1940s the turmoil of protest and civil war gave rise to a new woodcut movement influenced by the potent prints of Western artists such as Käthe Kollwitz. Unlike the traditional woodblock prints with their expressions of harmony and propriety, these works graphically convey feelings of suffering and struggle as vividly illustrated in this violent image of individual resistance against the Japanese invasion, in which a small, feeble Chinese woman viciously bites the enemy soldier. Li Shaoyan, a native of Shandong, was a member of the Eighth Route Army during the resistance against the Japanese invasion.

Art Gallery Handbook, 1999. pg.264., The pioneers of the modern woodcut in China were those adventurous young artists who went abroad to study Western art in the early twentieth century, bringing back new ideas and techniques. During the 1930s and 1940s the turmoil of protest and civil war gave rise to a new woodcut movement influenced by the potent prints of Western artists such as Käthe Kollwitz. Unlike the traditional woodblock prints with their expressions of harmony and propriety, these works graphically convey feelings of suffering and struggle as vividly illustrated in this violent image of individual resistance against the Japanese invasion, in which a small, feeble Chinese woman viciously bites the enemy soldier. Li Shaoyan, a native of Shandong, was a member of the Eighth Route Army during the resistance against the Japanese invasion. Art Gallery Handbook, 1999. pg.264.