On September 23, 1937, Ta Kung Pao published Qin Wei's "Victims Beneath the Iron Heel." This illustration depicts the devastation inflicted upon Chinese families — homes destroyed, lives uprooted — under Japanese atrocities.
During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, many artists utilized Ta Kung Pao as a creative platform, expressing the grand narrative of the national struggle through various visual forms, including traditional Chinese painting, printmaking, and political cartoons. Among these, woodcut prints emerged as the most widely adopted and collectively supported medium.
Artists such as Li Qun, Ma Da, Qin Wei, Lu Hongji, Duan Ganqing, Feng Zhongtie, Zhang Hui, and Shang Mozong wielded their carving knives as weapons. With sharp lines and bold strokes, they vividly depicted the courage and defiance of Chinese soldiers and civilians, exposed the brutality and savagery of the Japanese invaders, and carved indelible marks into the memory of history.
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