Chinese Label Art: 1900-1976 (Schiffer Book)
by Andrew S. Cahan
List Price:
Our Price: $33.80
You Save: $6.15 (15%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Andrew S. CahanEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-07
ISBN: 0764323792
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing
Book Reviews of Chinese Label Art: 1900-1976 (Schiffer Book)
Book Review: A Charming Surprise and a Wellspring of Hip Design Ideas
Summary: 5 Stars
Sometimes the best way to understand a culture is to take a deep look at it through a keyhole: the home cooking of French housewives, appreciation for American R&B records in the rural villages of Africa, the flourishing of Yiddish newspapers on the Lower East Side of New York City.
Now Andrew Cahan opens a window to understanding Chinese culture through an unexpected route: the vivid, fantastic, charming, and surprisingly hip label art that appeared on packaging for fireworks, cigarettes, and other consumer products in the early-to-mid 20th Century.
Most of this book, as it should be, is pictures, and what glorious pictures they are! The smiling face of Buddha unexpectedly adorns a pack of firecrackers; an entrancing image of a deer with a pine shoot in its mouth stands before a snowy mountain on a fabric label; one of dozens of happy infant boys raises his hands on a label for "The Baby" cigarettes. Along the way, Cahan offers fascinating insights on the changing social dynamics in China during that tumultuous century, examining gender issues (without getting tedious) and the ways the rise of Communism altered community values (without getting polemical). Along the way, he tells his own story of being a young suburban Jewish kid who was seduced by these brightly colored curiosa on visits to New York's Chinatown. His writing style is warm, elegant, and full of affection for his subject.
For people who collect this stuff, this book is a must-buy. But if I was a young rock star shopping for a killer-hip design for my next CD cover, I'd get a million ideas browsing through this marvelous book.
Graphic Design Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Graphic Design Books
Rendering Fashion, Fabric and Prints with Adobe Illustratorby M. Kathleen Colussy, Steve Greenberg
Prentice Hall; Published: 2006-09-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $70.00
Price in other shops:
Inside Fashion Design, 5th Editionby Sharon Lee Tate, Mona S. Edwards
Prentice Hall; Published: 2003-08-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $59.95
Price in other shops:
Graphic Design: Vision, Process Productby Louis Ocepek
Prentice Hall; Published: 2002-12-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.75
Price in other shops:
Designer's Guide to Print Productionby Kayanna Pace
Prentice Hall; Published: 2001-09-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.27
Price in other shops:
Instructor's Manual Set for All Wordperfect 5.1 Texts: Text and 5 1/ 4" IBM Data Diskby Gonzalez
McGraw Hill Higher Education; Published: 1991-05-01; Paperback; Book
Talking with Artistsby Pat Cummings
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing; Published: 1992-03-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.35
Price in other shops:
American Picturebooks from Noah's Ark to the Beast Withinby Barbara Bader
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1976-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $112.12
Art of the Hobbitby J R R Tolkien
Harpercollins; Published: 2011-10-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $29.99
Comics (Learn to Draw)by John Byrne
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-03; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Printmaking: History and Processby Donald Saff, Deli Sacilotto
Wadsworth Publishing; Published: 1978-01-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $98.37
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
American Circus Posters (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)Dover Publications; Published: 1978-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.06
Price in other shops:
Classic Children's Book Illustrations CD-ROM and Book (Dover Electronic Clip Art)Dover Publications; Published: 2008-09-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.03
Price in other shops:
Vintage Commercial Art and Design (Dover Pictorial Archive)by Frank H. Atkinson, Charles J. Strong, L. S. Strong
Dover Publications; Published: 2011-05-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.16
Price in other shops:
Hong Kong Apothecary: A Visual History of Chinese Medicine Packagingby Simon Go
Princeton Architectural Press; Published: 2003-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.95
The Art of Perfume CD-ROM and Book (Dover Electronic Clip Art)Dover Publications; Published: 2009-11-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.33
Price in other shops:
Matchbox Labels: Over 2,000 Elegant Examples from All Over the Worldby Jane Smith, Natasha Lomas
Firefly Books; Published: 2004-10-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $37.49
Firecrackers!: An Eye-Popping Collection of Chinese Firework Artby Warren Dotz, Jack Mingo, George Moyer
Ten Speed Press; Published: 2008-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.58
Price in other shops:
Light of India: A Conflagration of Indian Matchbox Artby Warren Dotz
Ten Speed Press; Published: 2007-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.71
Price in other shops:
Vintage Japanese Silk Trade Labels: Includes CD-ROM (Dover Pictorial Archive)by Dover
Dover Publications; Published: 2010-09-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.33
Price in other shops:
Firecrackers: The Art and Historyby Warren Dotz, Jack Mingo, George Moyer
Ten Speed Press; Published: 2000-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops: