From Chen I-wan

Hotel Metropole
Room 431
Ploschad Sverdlova
Moscow. U.S.S.R.

May 13th 1933

Dear Mr. Low,

I must thank you for your letter of May 2nd, and your permission to quote your first letter to me on 'artists and the struggle against war'. The artists who are organising this exhibition feel much encouraged in knowing of your support. The publication of your views in this connection cannot fail to many influence the artists who all too easily fall victims of jingo propaganda in times of excitement, and those other poor fellows who still dream of "pure art".

I was of course very dissapointed to learn that you found it inadvisable to send some of your original drawings, but I thouroughly appreciate the cause of your misgivings. I have had ample experience in China of Diehard officialdom. Ket us hope however that conditions will soon permit of normal cultural intercourse between nations. And not only hope...

If you are interested I should be awfully glad to keep you informed of the progress of this/exhibition and of the further work of the International Union of Revolutionary Artists, along these lines.

I must thank you also for your compliment on my work. I feel constrained however to take it, if I may say so, 'with a grain of salt'. I know only too well my limitations. I think you have taken my age into consideration, since you are too famed for truthfulness to pay empty compliments.

Yours Sincerely,
Chen I-wan

Shanghai
Rue Cardinal Mercier 415
French Concession

22nd December 1936

Dear Mr. Low,

It is sometime since I corresponded with you but
I trust that you have not forgotten me. - Jack Chen.

I have returned to China and have been here several
months working on the cultural and cartoon front. On the cultural
front I am propagandising the necessity for a realistic art for
China in place of the feudal art concepts that in this modern age
are hampering the development of our art and China herself.

On the cartoon front with the rest of my friends we
carry the attack against all the deadly "isms".

I remember with enjoyment your cartoon book on the USSR.
I wish you could find time to visit this celestial republic. I am
sure that it would do the world good. I think only someone coming
fresh from London, Hampstead, could thoroughly appreciate the
monstrosities that are happening here. For instance Chiang Kai-shih
the "Saviour of the Country" whose Terror was reputed to have ex-
terminated some 300,500 people /minimum/ not counting famine, flood
and natural disasters, has just been kidnapped by Chang Hsueh-liang
the denounced Chiang as a traitor and says that we must all fight
the Japanese. Some four years ago Chang Hsueh-liang gave up to the
Japanese without a shot anterritory as big as Germany. He probably
excuses himself for this by the fact that at that time he was an
opium addict. Presumably he has now reformed.

-2-

You may have the pleasure of seeing him however in the near future
for I hear from reliable sources that his agents, the Shanghai and
Hongkong Bank has just remitted 20,000,000 silver dollars for him
to London. /The above if published only would be an open invitation for arrest./

And this is by no means out of the way in this exotic land.

I enclose a short account of our cartoonists and one of my
recent drawings that I hope will interest you. We thought that perhaps
they could go into one of the reviews in London.

I myself am returning for a short while to the Soviet Union
where an exhibition of my work is scheduled for March, 1937. in Moscow.
I shall probably be drawing again for the Moscow News during my trip
there.

As everywhere else we follow your drawing's here with great
interest.

With Best Greetings for the New Year,

Yours Very Sincerely,

26th September 1937

Novaya Basmannaya Ulitsa
Basmanny Tupik
Dom 10/12 Flat 229
Moscow USSR

Dear Mr. Low,

After a year's work in China, I have spent the last
two months in Moscow writing chiefly about Chinese modern
Culture of which Europe seems to know very little. The collect-
ion of wood cuts and cartoons that I have made, has roused con-
siderable interest here.

I am however hurrying back to China, but I hope to
stop off for a short time in London where I think it would be
useful to show the work of our young artists, so that I hope
soon - I am leaving here on the 6th October - to have the
pleasure of making your acquaintance,

I also bring greeting from Sapajou the cartoonist
of the North China Daily News in Shanghai, with whom I had several
animated discussions!

Our artists in China - where we regularly reprint your
cartoons - will also be interested to hear what I can learn about
your cartoon ideas and method of work.

As I travel West it becomes ever more clear that Japan
- and a great part of China, are far from being alone in their mad-
ness. I am wondering how sane Engeland will seem - after an absence
of five years - to me now.¹ I hope to have your assistance in my
investigations.