Xie Yitai, this is very interesting.
Today, Wikipedia gave him such a resume: 1871-1938, the character Chong'an, the number Kangru, the ancestral home of Kaiping County, Guangdong Province, born in Sydney, Australia, overseas Chinese family, proficient in English. At the age of 16, he moved to Hong Kong with his family and studied at Queen's College in Hong Kong. Later, he joined the Xingzhong Association and successively participated in the Guangzhou Uprising and the Huizhou Uprising instigated by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and at the same time frequently spoke in the newspapers to publicize the revolution. However, in his view, there is no enthusiasm in the air, not really patriotic, only hard research on science, improve The knowledge of Chinese and foreign literature and martial arts, is the only way to be patriotic.
Xie's father, Xie Richang, ran the Taiyi Import and Export Company in Australia; his mother, Guo, was the first Chinese woman to live in Australia. Born in such a family, Xie Yitai received a very good education from an early age, and his life seems to be at least two "big things" that make people think about it today.
The first "big thing" happened around 1899. This year, Xie Yitai designed the "China" airship. The airship is made of aluminum as the main material, and the hull is suspended under the airbag. There are propellers driven by electric motors in front of and behind the boat, pushing the airship forward. Prior to this, there was such a background: in 1894, after the news of the success of western airships reached Hong Kong, it aroused the interest of Xie Mutai in studying airships. His experience in studying had made him good at mathematics and handicrafts, so why couldn't he design one for China? So, from this year on, he began to develop the airship, and it took nearly 6 years until the design was completed. However, when he dedicated the airship "China" he designed to the Qing Dynasty government at the time, he was met with such 3 words - no one paid attention.
The second "big thing" happened around 1898 or 1899. This year, Xie Yitai painted a painting - "The Map of the Situation". The background of the painting is a map of China, the beasts in the painting respectively hint at the imperial powers that divided China at that time, and the image is exaggerated to depict the reality that the Qing government was slaughtered by others and the country was in a critical situation of survival. The upper left of the painting is inscribed with a poem: "Sleep deeply and soundly in my China, that knows patriotism is to love the family." The people know that it is advisable to wake up now, and they should not wait for the soil to split like a melon. After it came out, Xie Yitai encountered such 3 words - very lively.
The general outline of the very lively is mainly that the appearance of the "Situation Map" immediately attracted the attention of Chinese and foreign newspapers and periodicals. First, in 1899, Yang Quyun, then president of the Hong Kong Xingzhong Association in Japan, wrote to Xie Toei asking for further revisions to the manga, first by coloring it and then by making it funny. Secondly, the painting was published in Japan and sent as a revolutionary propaganda to revolutionary party organizations scattered around the world. Finally, the painting has also been printed as a "colorful and distinct" single poster for sale many times, selling well all over the country and having a great impact.
Judging from the current information, the specific details of the liveliness at that time were mainly in:
1. In the years from the advent of the "Situation Map" in 1898 (or 1899) to 1904, the editors and publishers of various newspapers and periodicals made many revisions to the comics and their drawings according to the development of the situation, even with various illustrations. For example, the original work used snakes to represent Britain, while the original print of the "Map of the Situation" in the National Archives of Washington, D.C., was changed to represent Britain with tigers, and the bad behavior of Manchu Qing officials who were still drunk and drunk when their strong neighbors were surrounded by them was added;
2. In 1903, the version contained in the inaugural issue of "Russian Police News" was renamed "Partition of China Map", the plate basically preserved the appearance of the original work, but deleted the English letters in the original picture and the "funny" image of the Manchu Qing officials, and attached the article "Current Situation", which gave a detailed introduction to this picture, and specially introduced the circulation of this picture, in order to deepen the reader's understanding of the picture: Although we Chinese know a lot, there are still a lot of unknowns, so it is specially published on the first day. The police heard the head, please ask our forty million Chinese, all open their eyes to see, think about it, I am afraid that I will have to hurry up and think about it unconsciously."
In the end, comic master Liao Bingge called such comics "anti-imperialist and anti-sealed comics for the country and the people". However, this seems to be not over, around 2000, "The Map of the Current Situation" was compiled into the third volume of the junior high school textbook "Chinese History", at this time, the debate also began, it seems to be more lively.
This is because the "Map of the Current Situation" shows the serious crisis faced by China at the end of the 19th century (after the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War) that was divided into beans by the imperialist powers, and timely, profoundly, and vividly displayed in front of the people, which played the role of a warning bell. The bear represents Russia, the dog represents Britain, the toad represents France, the eagle (i.e. the shrew) represents the United States, the sun represents Japan, and the sausage represents Germany. It vividly reflects the historical reality that the feudal empire has been reduced to a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country. Therefore, there is more debate about what these "animals" are. We synthesized the data and found that it is mainly manifested in the following aspects:
1. Is the British "dog" a "dog" or not, or is it a "tiger"?
2. Is the German "sausage" a "sausage" or a "snake"?
3. Below Guangdong, a shrimp is drawn on the left side of Hong Kong, but it is too small and has been neglected for a long time, will it be an allusion to Portugal (occupation of Macau)?
……
Such controversy, speculation, or discovery is always constant, and what is not disputed or speculated is that the three figures representing the Qing government on the map, one holding a copper coin in his hand, is a corrupt official who is plundering the people's wealth; one is looking for pleasure regardless of the safety of the nation; there is another sleepy person, holding a rope in the net, and one person in the net is chanting "ZhiHu Zhi Ye"; and the other is practicing martial arts next to the horse, revealing that the dim and incompetent Qing government used words to imprison words, eight strands of literature, and other means to oppress the freedom of thought, fool and enslave the people.
Is this normal? It can be said to be normal, but somehow we want to say "abnormal" out loud in this "normal". After thinking about it for a while, I feel that "abnormal" is mainly manifested in the following 3 aspects:
1. Airships are quiet and comics are hilarious, so can we say that we have a partial hobby in our nature?
2. Qing Dynasty people were quiet and animals were very lively, can it be said that we often neglected the transformation of "people" because of our enthusiasm for "animals"?
3. The overall meaning of "Situation Map" is quiet, and the part is that "dog" is "tiger" is very lively, is it possible to say that we often ignore the overall situation because of details? If there is no one leaf to know the autumn, will it lead to a leaf hiding the eyes and not seeing the Mountain?
So, how to read this "Situation Map"!