Narrative Structure and Emotional Expression in Feng Zikai's Female-Themed Cartoons

Abstract This paper focuses on the cartoons of female characters created by Feng Zikai in the period 1922-1945 and places them in the context of socio-cultural change in China in the twentieth century. Although the focus on the biographical interpretation has been the predominant approach to the existing scholarship, this article deals with a crucial issue, namely the foregrounding of the visual and narrative mechanisms. In addition, it merges three-level iconological model with visual semiotics and feminist narratology, creating a Visual-Gender Analytical Model (VGAM) according to which the micro level (formal analysis spatial stratification, symbolic contrast, figuretext interaction) and macro level (ideological critique gender politics, cultural transformation) are systematically connected. Based on a collection of more than 5,525 cartoons, the research uses a systematic analysis through case studies. By employing spatial stratification, symbolic contrast and figure-text interaction, these cartoons renegotiate gender roles and make the daily life a vibrant space of gender negotiation. The results show VGAM moves iconological and semiotic analysis to non-Western popular visual media, and offers a framework of micro-macro that is related to visual form and ideological production. This model serves to bridge descriptive observation and theoretical explanation, providing a replicable tool for decoding gender narratives.