Sanmao comic strips between 1935 and 1962 by author Zhang Leping developed as a result of years of wars and dramatic political changes. Despite all the constant turmoil,  Sanmao is still a recognizable visual icon in China today, and his lasting popularity makes him an interesting case-study for understanding the development of cartoon art and the political deployment of the image of the ‘child’ in China over the twentieth century.

The growing political and cultural significance of “childhood” in twentieth-century China has been greatly impacted through the comic strips of Zhang Leping and Sanmao. “The significance and role of children in the development of the Chinese nation now directly follow the transformation of fictional child-hero Sanmao from a commentator on contemporary China in the early 1930s into a sustainer of the Chinese Communist Party after 1949. While Zhang Leping’s comic strips have often been considered as a product of political graphics production or as reading material for children, the content of Sanmao strips also employ childhood as an analytical category in order to understand the role of children in the political and social discourses which took place in China during war and revolution” (Laura Pozzi). As mentioned before, the image of Sanmao has changed over time. It has ultimately been appropriated and reshaped by the Communist Party of China (CCP) in order to fit the party’s official vision of history and educational aims today such as the Gaokao test.