Liangyou 良友, or The Young Companion, was the longest-running pictorial periodical in Republican China. It was published in Shanghai from 1926 until the Japanese attack in 1937, which forced the company to relocate to Hong Kong (HK) where it continued to put out the periodical until the Pacific War. Liangyou was an iconic publication, the first pictorial periodical that privileged photography and print quality to entice readers and deliver content. It covered everything from politics, literature and technology to fashion, movies and the visual arts (especially photography), creating a “kaleidoscopic effect” in both content and form. It had the sales number to back its eminence; by the start of the 1930s, Liangyou was the second top-selling magazine in Shanghai and, based on an audit in 1930, sold some 35,000 copies in total.
Liangyou was also very well received across Nanyang. The Overseas Chinese readers were its most enthusiastic supporters in the early years. By issue 20 (30 October 1927), Liangyou was available in Penang, Ipoh, Batavia, Cholon, Medan Deli, Yangon, Saigon, Manila, Siam, Kuala Lumpur (KL), Surabaya, Muar and Melaka. A survey published in 1935 indicated that Liangyou was the second most popular Chinese publication sold in Kuala Lumpur (KL). A 1936 report indicated that it was one of the most sought-after publications in Singapore’s Chinese bookstores. It could be read in an iconic institution like the United Chinese Library 同德书报社 (also known as Thong Tek Che Poh Soh), the first Chinese public library (officially registered in 1911) in Singapore, germinated by Sun Yat-Sen. It could also be found in the modest library of Tsun Jin School 循人学校 in KL, which reopened in 1934. In the east coast of Malaya, young people could locate a copy at the Nanyang Chinese Students’ Society in Kelantan.
In 1937, Samuel F. Gaches (president) and J. S. Araneta (vice-president and managing editor) put out Foto News in Manila. This lavishly-illustrated pictorial periodical was published twice a month. In its 1 July 1938 issue, Foto News published an article that touched on the rising popularity of picture magazines. Rather predictably, the article focused on the success of Life, but it also mentioned Liangyou, alongside other American publications, as an indication of the success of pictorial journalism in China. This suggests that someone from the editorial team of Foto News was aware of Liangyou’s immense popularity in China and possibly in the Philippines.
Given its widespread availability across Southeast Asia, it is not surprising to find photo studios in pre- and post-war eras, which named themselves after Liangyou. A famous example is Hong Phap Liang Ewe Chayalak (Liang Ewe Portrait Studio) in Phuket, which was established by Khor Eng Lee, or Aree Khorchareon (1911-92, b. Phuket), in 1932. The Thai Hokkien studied in Penang and was fluent in Chinese, English and Thai. Liang Ewe was apparently the second studio on the island; it quickly became its most popular, until Khor retired in 1987. In Singapore, there was also the Hainanese-owned Friendly Photo Studio 良友影社 at 222 Selegie Road, which was established by Foo Chee Kee possibly in 1961.
Images of Nanyang / Southeast Asia appeared on Liangyou regularly, even though they were understandably dwarfed by the quantity of published photographs that depicted the affairs of Republican China. In this story map, I focus on the photo spreads that Liangyou published to tease out the imaginaries of place and people concerning Nanyang / Southeast Asia, which the periodical circulated to its readers. I aim to resurface the common themes that informed its portrayal of the region, paying due attention to the nature of representation.
[This story map is created by Zhuang Wubin for the National Library (NL) Digital Fellowship 2023. Zhuang would like to thank the NL research librarians and Toh Hun Ping for their assistance. NL has a photo-offset copy of all the issues of pre-war Liangyou, which I used in this research.]
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[A detailed bibliography can be found in my forthcoming article.]
zhuang wubin | 庄吴斌 
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