EVEN after photography emerged in the 19th century, people retained their interest in all kinds of hand drawings. In addition to hand-drawn portraits of beauties executed by masters, there were also many such works completed by ordinary or even anonymous painters. These works still held significance in people's lives.

During the first two decades of the 20th century, poster images of female film stars and other women became popular in the US. They quickly gained another name - "pin-ups" - because people pinned these posters on walls. The trend rapidly came to influence China. Many Chinese painters copied and imitated foreign pin-ups, and developed them into a unique kind of calendar.

At the end of the 19th century, after China was forced to open its doors to foreign countries, foreign products such as cigarettes, clothing and medicines poured into the country. Yet foreigners found they often had a problem getting Chinese to accept their products. At first they promoted their goods through Western-style advertising posters, but found these images were not very effective. So foreign businesses adapted their advertising posters to the traditions of Chinese painting, especially Chinese New Year pictures and farmer's paintings.

At the beginning of the 20th century, especially in Shanghai, Chinese artists took a cue from the popularity of US pin-ups and began making Chinese hand-drawn advertisements - often calendars displaying beauties - to persuade Chinese people to buy foreign products.

Such advertising poster portraits of local beauties eventually became historical mementos of the Shanghai of that time. In these pictures, the most popular film stars and the most advanced fashion styles were shown. Today, people can see what the women celebrities of the past looked like by studying these advertising calendars. Many artists who dedicated themselves to developing these calendars, such as Zhen Mantuo, Zhou Muqiao and Xu Yongqing, painted themselves a place in history.

Today, some of these advertising calendars can still be found in second-hand markets, but most have already entered private collections and several albums of these calendars have been published. As by-products of the foreign goods pumped into China, local advertising calendars provide an alternative record of the modernization of Shanghai.

(Star News)