China 1920s-1970s from Bjarne Tokerud Bookseller

Bjarne Tokerud Bookseller has published a catalogue on China (1920s-1970s) from a Private Collection. Most of these items are in English. There is a mix between those printed in China, mostly for westerners, and those printed elsewhere. The dates in question represent an enormous amount of turmoil and change in China. The period begins with the young but weak Republic of China under Sun-Yat-sen. After his death in 1925, the uneasy cooperation between the Nationalists and Communists broke down, resulting in the Chinese Civil War. After that, Japan invaded and took over China. The Nationalists and Communists cooperated in fighting the Japanese during the war, but once Japan was defeated, the two sides were back at it, fighting each other again. In 1949, the Communists prevailed, driving the Nationalists to Taiwan while the Communists, under Mao, took control. That takes us to 1976 when Mao died and the present generation of new leaders took over. Here, now, are some of the items from this period.

We begin with a time of some disorder and lack of control by the central government, but of relative peace in China before the civil war and Japanese occupation. This is the Report on the Chinese Post Office for the Tenth Year of Chung-Hua Min Kuo [Republic of China] (1921) with which is Incorporated an Historical Survey of the Quarter Century (1896-1921). It was published by Directorate General of Posts in Shanghai in 1922. Item 5. Priced at $850.

Up until 1927 the Nationalists and Communists maintained cooperation, but that came to an end in 1927. The Nationalists, under Chiang Kai-shek, decided to purge the government of the Communists. The result was what is known as the “Shanghai Massacre” and the start of the Chinese Civil War, which continued, except for the period of Japanese occupation, until the Nationalists were driven from the Mainland in 1949. Item 7 is a booklet dated March 1927 entitled The War Disturbances of Shanghai. It contains photographs with notations in English and Japanese of events leading up to the Shanghai Massacre on April 12, 1927. $850.

Item 3 is a collection of 204 postcards of Manchuria and other places in China. They were issued during the Japanese occupation of the 1930s-1940s. The printing location is not given but it may have been Japan. The cards show artistic drawings of landscapes, buildings, and people. $1,000.

Next is an issue of an annual publication, American Legation Guard Peking 1932. It was a publication by and for the U. S. Marine guards protecting the American legation in Peking. Officers and soldiers are pictured in leisure and sporting activities. Numerous advertisements are printed in the back. It would be downhill from here for the legation, with increasing intervention in China by Japan, World War II which drove the Americans out of the country, and after a brief interlude after the war, a repeat of the process as the Communists took control. Item 11. $625.

This item comes from the brief period between the end of the war and the Communist takeover. The title is Three Cheers China. It's from 1946, printed in Shanghai by Festa Paper Manufacturing and Printing. This is a “humorous” folding comic strip by someone named SAM. It depicts American servicemen in China. To say the illustrations of the Chinese are at times demeaning and racist would be an understatement. No one will accuse SAM of being racially sensitive or “woke.” Item 14. $400.

Item 16 contains 11 issues of The Crusader, a newsletter consisting of editions from 1964-1969. Except for the first of these, which was published in Cuba, all were published in China. The publisher was Robert F. Williams, a civil rights leader originally from Monroe, North Carolina, who turned more radical as he witnessed violence in the American South, and later the Detroit race riot of 1943. He headed up the local chapter of the NAACP in the 1950s, although he was later suspended for advocating violence (which Williams denied). What he did advocate as a result of the violence against Blacks by the KKK with little done to stop it was self-defense. Ironically, considering today's politics, he set up a Monroe chapter of the NRA he called the Black Armed Guard to defend his community. In 1961, the result of an incident with the KKK, Williams was charged with kidnapping. He fled the country, first to Cuba and later to China. He grew more radical, advocating violence against the U. S. during the Vietnam War and becoming too extreme for the U. S. Communist Party. Eventually, he did return to America and though immediately arrested, North Carolina dropped all charges against him. $500.

Item 1 is a poster, with no publisher or place listed but I am quite confident it was not published in China. It's headed Ski China. Ski the Mao Style. The date is likely from the 1970s and the Cultural Revolution. It features three stereotypical Chinese in what is meant to imitate a travel poster. They are all skiing on bamboo sticks, carrying a live firecracker, and reading a book. One is titled “Downhill Thoughts by Mao,” another “Slalom Thoughts by Mao,” and the third “Mao's Menu. Mongolian Fondue.” The book covers, naturally, are red, imitating Mao's “Little Red Book,” Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung. $850.

Bjarne Tokerud Bookseller may be reached at 604-633-0001 or bjarnetokerud@gmail.com. The website is www.bjarnetokerud.com.