First, I will focus on formations and representations of modern Chinese cartoons from a perspective of gender. The cartoon as a genre of culture was formed in modern time, although its origin and history differ among countries. This is particularly true for Asian cartoons that were formed cross-culturally in comparison with those of foregoing Western style. Nevertheless, histories of cartoons have conventionally been understood within the framework of a nation of their production.
Chinese cartoons can be regarded as fruits of movements that totally or partly resisted the culture of literacy, ones that aim at release from the male-centered culture of Confucian, as well as highlighting on the body, in particular the movement of the body and exercise, instead of a hitherto dominant tendency only respecting the mind. Thus it is very important to conduct a research on Chinese cartoons from a perspective of gender. In this sense, I am interested in Liang Baibo or Bon who was only female cartoon artist in the early twentieth century and produced figures of "modern girl" totally free from the dominant model, one that male artistic conventions has constructed. I am first preparing to get basic biographical and contextual documents about her.
Second, I would like to reconsider modern Chinese thoughts not only from the perspective of gender, but also of the notion "the invention of tradition of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism" by referring to Erich Hobsbaum's arguments on "the invention of tradition" to write a book on modern Chinese intellectual and cultural history.