Saving Face
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Saving Face:
An Analysis of Ten Time Magazine Front Covers Featuring Chiang Kai-shek
In early November 1936, President Roosevelt won a huge victory in his race for
re-election over his opponent Alf Landon, the Republican candidate. This victory put
Roosevelt in the White House for a second term. Despite this major election story, Time
magazine placed a photograph of Chinese Premier and General Chiang Kai-shek
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on the
magazine’s front cover of the post-election week issue instead of the newly re-elected
President of the United States. Many critics asserted that this was nothing more than
another move by publisher Henry Luce to underscore his enthusiastic support for General
Chiang and his Nationalist regime’s drive to eliminate the Chinese Communists and
defeat the Japanese. The photograph featured on this issue’s front cover is of a heroic
Chiang attired in military uniform, proudly clutching his sword with his gaze intently
fixed on some distant object. Chiang’s pose is one that evokes strength, pride, and a
sense of confidence in the future.
For media mogul Luce and his Time magazine, this prominent coverage was not
unique, as this November issue was Chiang’s fifth cover in six years and second cover in
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Note on Chinese spelling: This paper will use the pinyin romanization for Chinese except in
cases for some place and personal names that are popular and familiar to Western readers; such examples
would be Chiang Kai-shek, Mei-ling Soong, Nanking, Chungking, Mao Tse-tung, Yenan, etc. This is the
method Jonathan Spence used in The Search for Modern China, the text providing the historical basis for
this paper.
Convention