Annotation

Zhishi yige manhua shidai was the second comic magazine to emerge in post-war Hong Kong. Its approach, however, was very different from that of Manhua manhua. While the latter was essentially light-hearted, this magazine, as Liao Bingxiong writes in an ‘Epilogue’ featured in its pages, used comic strips as a vehicle to call for the eradication of ‘sin, carnage, hatred, poverty and disasters’ and so for a hastening of the ‘crumbling’ of its era. Its stories were chiefly satirical and targeted at the rule of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT), but also included self-mocking, light-hearted short fiction by Huang Guliu using fictitious reporters’ reports. The sharp contrast of its content from other post-war comic magazines such as Manhua manhua reflected the diversity of outlooks found in the era.