Beyond Comicality: Feng Zikai’s Manhua in Modern China

This research project reexamines the manhua of Feng Zikai 丰子恺 (1898–1975), challenging the prevailing interpretation of his work as primarily humorous or satirical. By situating Feng’s artistic practice within the broader historical, political, and cultural transformations of early twentieth-century China, the study argues that his manhua transcends mere comic intent and constitutes a sustained philosophical inquiry into the ethical, spiritual, and aesthetic functions of art. Through a contextual and comparative approach, the thesis traces Feng’s artistic evolution across three major phases—from his formative training under Chinese scholars, to his engagement with manga and Western painting in Japan, to his mature work during the turbulent Republican Era—revealing how he reconciled the tensions between tradition and modernity, and between moral introspection and social engagement. Analyzing both his paintings and writings from the 1910s to the 1940s, this study foregrounds Feng’s commitment to a humanistic vision rooted in cultural hybridity. By examining his major themes—poetry, childhood, social life, and nature—the thesis demonstrates that Feng’s manhua constitute a unique artistic discourse that resists binary classifications, and instead offer a “third category” of manhua that integrates Buddhist values, literati aesthetics, and modernist visual strategies.