When Japan invaded China and occupied Shanghai in 1937, Ye Qianyu, together with a group of fellow Shanghai cartoonists, formed the "National Salvation Cartoon Propaganda Corps", which included well-known artists Zhang Leping, Lu Zhixiang, Te Wei, and Hu Kao. Ye's lover, Liang Baibo, was the only female member. Funded by the Kuomintang government, the corps left Shanghai for the interior to spread anti-Japanese propaganda. They first went to Wuhan, but were forced to leave when that city fell at the end of 1938. They then travelled to Changsha, Guilin, and eventually to the wartime capital Chongqing. They published 15 issues of Resistance Cartoons before the government discontinued funding.
