Selling Happiness

Laing considers the origin and evolution of modern commercial art in China. Her analysis focuses on the colorful advertisement calendar posters created by artists working in Shanghai during the first half of the twentieth century. Drawing upon a wide range of written sources and private art collections, she provides biographies for 11 major commercial artists and examines the relationships between the marketing and publishing industries. The text is accompanied throughout by b&w artistic reproductions. The author is a research associate at the U. of Michigan's Center for Chinese Studies. Annotation 穢2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)