IN the history of modern Chinese literature and art, the name Guo Jianying is scarcely mentioned - even though he was a close friend of the "New Feeling Writers", who included Liu Na'ou, Shi Zhecun and Mu Shiying, and painted many illustrations for their books.

Guo was a controversial artist and often thought of as a "decadent" cartoonist because his works were mainly concerned with Shanghai women.

Considering the stigma attached to discussing women's private desires and sexuality throughout Chinese history, his art - which boldly depicted women's thoughts and bodies - makes him a surprising exception in modern Chinese literature and art.

Guo Jianying was not a full-time professional writer or artist. In 1931, after he graduated from Shanghai's St. John's University, he worked in a bank for several years and then became Chinese Consul in Nagasaki. But he gave up his political career and went to Taiwan at the end of the 1940s. In Taiwan, he was the chief manager of the Taiwan First Bank. In 1979, when he was the chairman of the board of a leaseholding company, he died in Taiwan. To look at his life from this perspective, few would believe that Guo was also a successful artist.

But his life had another side. When he lived in Shanghai, he was the chief editor of a women's magazine, "Ladies' Pictorial". The magazine gave him an opportunity to show his talent for sketching and painting. He published many of his own works and made his name as a "New Feeling Writer who uses a paintbrush". The fame came partly from his close relationship with the "New Feeling" writers, and partly from his works themselves.

Many of Guo's art works were cartoons and sketches. But through the simple lines that made up his drawings, he brought to his readers images of Shanghai's women that were both alive and delicate. In his art, Shanghai women are modern and fashionable: they have abandoned traditional concepts and have totally indulged themselves in the "vanity fair" of Shanghai. Unlike pornography, Guo's pictures showed the energy and sparkling beauty of young, modern Shanghai women.

Moreover, most of Guo's pictures have their own stories to tell, and Guo wrote them himself. Many of his pictures were accompanied by several lines of captions describing the pictures. The words sometimes were dialogues spoken by the characters in the pictures; sometimes they were just his comments. But the few lines changed the pictures into amusing but profound stories.

It is easy and relaxing for people to read and appreciate Guo's works. But above all, his art provides easy access for people today to explore the inner world of the women of old Shanghai. (Star News)