From the author:

This exam procrastination drawing is super self indulgent and filled with meanings and references so I’ll list them here :3

Top Right: Colonial era tourism which opens up the colonized to be ‘touched and consumed’ by the tourists. Manchukuo was a significant destination, particularly for student groups, which shows the interplay between tourism and the development of academic fields

Bottom right: the most simple one, more about Vibes. The idea is puppet state = voiceless, and how colonialism deprives the colonized subjects of their narrative, oftentimes even after deco…. Or something like that lol

Top left: my baby… the painting is supposed to represent ’idealism’ (propaganda), with a child-like Manchukuo being pulled into the future by Japan’s hand off screen, but outside the painting, Manchuria’s legs are being burnt by the candle.

The legs are still okay and visible now, but the candles aren’t burnt out yet - the implication is the longer the candles burn, the more his legs will burn. Even though he’s being ‘led into the future’, his ability to walk on his own is slowly being destroyed.

Miscellaneous: the three butterflies are all species that can be found in Dongbei/the Northeastern provinces. The European frames and style reference the heavily European tilt to modernity and empire adopted by Japan, the building of European style colonial cities to show power.

Most of the references off the top of my head are taken from Young’s work on Manchukuo… it’s really the most comprehensive

I think Young in this case is Louise Young the historian?