PAYING BACK THE JAPANESE

Since Jap bombs gutted the earth which bore Confucius--the earth which for millenniums had been worked by patient, quiet peasants--delicate filigree landscapes, white herons over blue lakes at dawn, shimmering moonlit waters of Li Tai-po are less popular themes in Chinese art. Nowadays Chinese artists turn their talents against the little monkeys without tails who have ravaged their country. Sometimes their weapon is anger, but often it is the peculiarly Chinese weapon of mockery.

Millions of stolid Chinese soldiers have glared at the snarling jewels and glassy eyes of the marauding samurais (upper left) lunging through rich paddy fields. But millions have grinned at other posters on the walls of disemboweled buildings, posters including that of the artist who produced the little Nipponese angels (above). Peculiarly satisfying to the Chinese is also the kneeling statue (left) of Wang Ching-wei, Japan's puppet premier of the Nanking Government. During the Sung dynasty (10th to 13th Centuries) a similar kneeling statue was erected to Ch'in Kuei, China's Benedict Arnold, a cast-iron image that for centuries was spat upon and defiled by the populace in Hangchow. To the Chinese Wang is now in his proper niche.

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