About Shanghai Calendar 1930
Shanghai calendar posters — yuèfènpái (月份牌) — were the first distinctly East Asian mass-print advertising aesthetic. Produced by studios like Hang Zhiying's Zhiying Studio from the mid-1920s through the 1930s, they fused soft-focus Chinese figure painting with Art Deco geometric frames, ornamental chinoiserie borders, and refined European serif typography.
This design system captures that luminous, pastel-washed world: warm cream backgrounds evoking aged lithograph paper, dusty rose and jade green palettes, gold-accented ornamental frames, and the elegant restraint of refined serif typefaces. Every surface feels hand-printed, softened, and luxurious — commercial art elevated to cultural artifact.
- Origin
- Shanghai International Settlement, China
- Era
- 1914–1949 (golden age 1925–1937)
- Key figures
- Zheng Mantuo (鄭曼陀) · Hang Zhiying (杭穉英) · Jin Meisheng (金梅生) · Xie Zhiguang (謝之光)
- Movements
- Chinese folk painting · Western Art Deco · Japanese chromolithography
Shanghai Calendar 1930 design spec
Colors
Typography
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