Life — December 7, 1911 — page 67: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical illustration depicts Western hunters on horseback pursuing what appears to be a small human figure (likely representing a Chinese person or "coolie") across a landscape. The caption's pun conflates fox-hunting—a traditional upper-class British sport—with hunting humans in China. The cartoon appears to critique Western imperialism and racism in early 20th-century China, satirizing how Western powers treated Chinese people as objects of sport or exploitation rather than as human beings. "Chop suey" references Chinese cuisine, reinforcing the dehumanizing racial caricature. The image mocks the colonial attitude that reduced human beings to prey for aristocratic entertainment, suggesting Western imperial ventures in China were morally equivalent to blood sport.