 |
 |
 |
By the late 1970s, a new body of laws was
promulgated in order to create a system of socialist legality. Included
was the first PRC Penal Code, containing the rules that were to
prohibit a repeat of the burning, smashing and looting, as well as the
indiscriminate prosecution of often innocent victims that had become
practice during the Cultural Revolution.
|
|
|
The new rules were propagated in various ways, including a cartoon-like Illustrated Penal Code of the PRC
(Shanghai 1982), containing many useful, easy-to-understand
illustrations. Moreover, a number of multiple-sheet educational "comic
strip" posters was published, both in colour and black-and white, to
deepen popular understanding of the new laws and regulations.
 |
 |
These strips often recounted true events of the
recent past, usually of (young) women being victimized by men, either
for material gain or for carnal pleasure. Of these laws, the
newly-formulated rules that applied to the protection of the rights of women and children were
portrayed most frequently, shedding light on a persistent dark aspect of Chinese society.
 |
 |
 |
It seems that despite past pronouncements to the
contrary and despite the professed equality of all, the official
guarantee of the social position of these two demographic groups in
particular needed extra attention, leaving no doubt about the fact that
women and children continued to be victimized by males. As a whole, the
body of posters related to these subjects functions as a catalogue of
male chauvinist, male 'feudal,' or simply male criminal behaviour.
 |
 |
Given the traditional Chinese appreciation of
bright colouring, it is interesting to note that the materials were
published in a simple black-and-white cartoon-style. The quirky
close-ups and meticulous attention to the depiction of non-peopled
spaces are quite reminiscent of the Corto Maltese stories by the late Italian cartoonist Hugo Pratt.
 |
 |
This is particularly the case with the two-sheet
'Son lives in the "Golden Bell Hall", mother dwells in the "sheepfold"'
above, recounting the story of a son living the good life in a spacious
appartment, no doubt as a result of the modernization policies, while
he neglects his mother, who is forced to live in a stable.
However, it is not merely gender crime that is
addressed. Combatting corruption started to receive attention in the
early 1980s as well, and has been high on the agenda of both crime
busters and party rectifiers until the present day.
s.r.landsberger@let.leidenuniv.nl
|
search this site!  |
International Institute of Social History