Shanghai Ladies

At the turn of the 20th century in China, following the Opium Wars, foreign merchants and entrepreneurs set up economic bases in Shanghai. To promote their Western products, they began to print calendar posters to give to their customers. The Chinese had never before been exposed to the Western concept of advertising poster art, so the merchants modified the content of their posters to better suit the tastes and sensibilities of the local market. No matter what a poster was intended to sell, its most important feature was the watercolour reproduction of the lady who graced it. Although some were mere figments of imagination, most of these calendar girls were famous heroines, ladies from history, popular singers, models, and actresses of the day. These beautifully executed images carried the posters and the goods they were selling to the far corners of China and overseas.

  thanks to gmtPlus9