Curator Natsuko Tajima of the Ome Municipal Museum of Art in Tokyo recently completed a survey of the USC East Asian Library’s unique collection of commercial posters, “Republican-Era Chinese Posters as Seen from the University of Southern California Library Collections.” Jaiwen Zeng, Princeton University doctoral student in Japanese history, translated Tajima’s article. Both scholars have graciously agreed to share the article and its overview of the collection.
The majority of the 43 posters in the USC East Asian Library’s collections date from the 1910s to mid-1920s. Together, they offer a remarkable picture of Chinese commercial culture from the period. Included in the collection are pieces created by prominent poster artist Mantuo Zheng (1888-1961) as well as a number of pieces created by anonymous or unknown artists.
Drawing on her vast expertise with pre-World War II Chinese commercial posters, Tajima analyzed the production techniques and other features of the collection to date the posters, which she believes were collected in present-day Indonesia or possibly along shipping routes linking the Indonesian island of Java with Keelung, Hong Kong, Singapore, and ports in Japan.
This rich, significant collection of posters was recently digitized thanks to a grant from the USC Office of Research & Innovation and can be viewed in the USC Digital Library.
You can view a selection of visually striking posters from the collection in the gallery below.
