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к 150-летию академика В. В. Бартольда (1869–1930). Ч. 2 39 Секция XV. Источниковедение и историография Китая Historiography of China Maria A. Guleva (St. Petersburg Polytechnic University; FAAS, St Petersburg University, St Petersburg) Soldiers, skulls, and scythes: premonitions of a new world war in Chinese cartoons in the mid-1930s 1 Chinese cartoon magazines flourished in the mid-1930s, with well over a dozen titles including the term manhua 漫畫 , “cartoon”. Such magazines were produced for commercial and ideological reasons and their contents ranged widely between everyday life and great events. The ever-changing situation inside and outside of China, the unpredictable development of domestic and international politics as well as the growing sense of a nearing global catastrophe marked many cartoons as they reflected some aspects of their authors’ and readers’opinions. The 1930s were indeed a turbulent decade for China: Japanese invasion caused separation of Manchuria in 1931/1932; one-party (Guomindang) government attempts to counterbalance Communism brought the country to the brink of a civil war and, besides militarizing society and politics, caused heavy financial and administrative repercussions. At the same time, Chinese public was well aware of the events in other parts of the world, with Abyssinia crisis and Spanish Civil War in the focus of the attention of Chinese mass media. Cartoon magazines (e.g. Shidai Manhua 時代漫畫 , Dongfang Manhua 東方漫畫 , Duli Manhua 獨立漫畫 , Manhua he Shenghuo 漫畫和生活 , Manhuajie 漫画界 , Manhua Manhua 漫畫漫話 , Manhua Shijie 漫畫世界 , Wanxiang 萬象 , Zhongguo Manhua 中國漫畫 , etc.) produced a vivid, imaginative response to the current affairs, adding colour and shape to the formal textual newsprint. 1 The reported study was funded by RFBR and DFG according to the research project № 17–21–49001 (“Chinese perceptions of Russia and the West during the 20th century: changes, continuities and contingencies”).