Abstract: During the period of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-1945), the visual construction of the “image of the Chinese nation” became an important way to compete for leadership in publicity discourse at that time. As the most representative red photography magazine founded by the Communist Party of China (CPC) in northern China, The Chin-Cha-Chi Pictorial created a newspaper publication “miracle” during the war years and was a successful practice of political mobilization and identity fusion through images. Exploring its internal visual strategy and mobilization mechanism, the author contends that The Chin-Cha-Chi Pictorial took as main line “spatial charm–core reshaping–subject awakening–future rehearsal” to shape the image of the Chinese nation from four aspects: geographical spatial symbols, the image of the Communist Party of China, the image of the people, and the image of the base areas. This complete set of visual coding transforms abstract political concepts into concrete and inspiring visual symbols, successfully constructing a new image of the Chinese nation with the “people” as the main body in the “visual struggle” against the propaganda of the other parties. By winning the morality high ground and hearts of the people, the pictorial provides a historical mirror for the shaping of the visual image of the Chinese nation at present.

Key words: red newspaper and magazine, The Chin-Cha-Chi Pictorial, image of the Chinese nation, visual image, visual construction