Visual Modernity in Advertising Symbols in Republican China: A Visual Analytics Study Based on the China Machine Federation Journal (1930–1937)

Ye Lin; Yue You; Kelin Li; Xi Mao

doi:10.59528/ms.dh2026.0422a1

Authors

Ye Lin School of Design, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China 0009-0005-1951-7872
Yue You School of Design, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
Kelin Li Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, Shanghai, China 0000-0002-2512-534X
Xi Mao School of Design, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China 0009-0004-0358-7780

10.59528/ms.dh2026.0422a1

Abstract

Advertising in the 1920s and 1930s functioned as a primary vehicle of modern commercial communication in China, and its visual language shifted in noticeable ways during this period. This paper focuses on advertisements published in the China Machine Federation Journal (1930–1937), a periodical issued by the Shanghai Association of Mechanized National Products Manufacturing Factories. Instead of treating modernity as an abstract label, the study breaks it down into observable dimensions such as visual form, gender representation, textual discourse, global imagery, and social function in order to transform those elements into analyzable data. An interactive visual analysis system is built to examine how these elements appear across thousands of advertisements. What emerges is not a simple story of Western influence but a more uneven process wherein modern visual strategies are adopted, adapted, and sometimes resisted, all within a framework tied to nationalist industrial promotion. The result is a form of localized modernity shaped as much by commercial pragmatism as by cultural negotiation.

Keywords:

China Machine Federation Journal advertising in Republican China visual modernity visual symbols localized modernity

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Author Biographies

Ye Lin, School of Design, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

Ye Lin, Student, School of Design, East China Normal University

Yue You, School of Design, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

Yue You, Student, School of Design, East China Normal University

Kelin Li, Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, Shanghai, China

Kelin Li, Lecturer, Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance

Xi Mao, School of Design, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

Xi Mao, Associate Professor, School of Design, East China Normal University.

Visual Modernity in Advertising Symbols in Republican China: A Visual Analytics Study Based on the China Machine Federation Journal (1930–1937)

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Abstract

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Author Biographies

Ye Lin, School of Design, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

Yue You, School of Design, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

Kelin Li, Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, Shanghai, China

Xi Mao, School of Design, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

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