The development of the genre of manhua in China is closely linked to the emergence of the modern press and a critical, politically interested public (public sphere and public opinion). Both emerged after 1895, above all in the Treaty Ports. The first attempts of caricatures in the modern sense date back to the end of the Qing period, when larger newspapers started to depict the conflicts and weaknesses of Qing officials graphically. Aside from Western and Japanese influences, caricature in China could also look back to a long traditi…