月份牌廣告畫與近代中國的煙草業競爭(1920s-1930s）

Abstract

Calendar posters did not appear in China until the late nineteenth century, and it was not until the 1920s that major new industries emerged. These included tobacco, medicine, cosmetics, insurance and food. Big business thus coincided with the heyday of calendar posters. These posters were usually composed of three major elements: the advertisements for the merchandise; the artwork; and the actual calendar. They became popular in almost every Chinese city and even in overseas Chinese communities. When British American Tobacco, Ltd. (B.A.T.) started to operate in China in 1902, it developed a strategy to eliminate all potential competitors. Therefore, an advertising war was declared with its rival the Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Co., Ltd. In order to cater to the needs of their clients, painters of calendar posters wisely created different new images of the ”modern Chinese girl,” which successfully drew the attention of the general public. These images promoted Chinese girls as sporty, healthy, scholarly, successful in business, and even sexy, all regarded as revolutionary qualities for women. Since calendar posters differed from other modes of advertising such as newspapers, as they relied heavily on graphics rather on text, painters had to use their designs to project their image of the ”modern girl.” For example, the image of the ”smoking girl” was used to attract female smokers. This tactic on the one hand reflected the art talent of the painters, but on the other indicated the design was completely driven by commercial reasons. In the past, little attention was given to these calendar posters, but they have now become one of the major visual art materials for the study of Chinese modernity and the history of Chinese women. Based on 284 selected calendar posters of the tobacco industry, this article discusses how the images of “modern Chinese girl” were created from the keen competition between the two tobacco giants in modern China.