Max Ernst, like most of the great artists associated with Dada, saw imaginative possibilities in the techniques that the Dadaists employed for their 'anti-art' activities. Where Hausmann and Heartfield had used the fragmented imagery of photomontage as a vehicle for political satire, Ernst took a more lyrical approach by creating a visual poetry built from the unconscious associations of juxtaposed images. He summed up his collage technique as 'the systematic exploitation of the chance or artificially provoked confrontation of two or more mutually alien realities on an obviously inappropriate level - and the poetic spark which jumps across when these realities approach each other'.
Between 1919 and 1920, Ernst produced a series of collages where he combined illustrations of militaria with human limbs and various accessories to create an assortment of strange hybrid creatures. The weapons and technology that he chose for these works must have had a fearful resonance for both the public and Ernst himself as he served in the artillery during the war where was injured by the recoil of a field gun.
In 'The Chinese Nightingale', the arms and fan of an oriental dancer act as the limbs and headdress of a ridiculous creature whose body is an English bomb. An eye has been added above the bracket on the side of the bomb to create the effect of an absurd looking bird. Ernst's whimsical humour has the effect of defusing the natural fear associated with bombs. The title of the work was taken from the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen and the image is open to similar allegorical interpretation.