Abstract
After Western nudes were introduced to China during the Late Qing, they were often condemned as immoral and obscene. Their public circulation was thus strictly limited before the mid-1910s. Yet, as of the mid-1920s, the perception of Western nudes had changed: now they were considered beautiful and made into icons as the symbols of ‘Western civilization’. As a consequence, the art form flourished and formed substantial flows in Chinese print, later becoming indispensable in Chinese pictorials such as Pei-yang Pictorial News (Beiyang huabao 北洋畫報). This interesting cultural phenomenon challenges us to think of Western nudes in Chinese print in terms of ‘transculturation’: what was the broader cultural context of the occurrence of Western nude images in the West? What were the crucial factors before/after nudes were reprinted in pictorials that allowed these images to be de-contextualized, reframed and reinterpreted for the Chinese context? Who were the agents? (How) was Western culture objectified during this process? By examining flows of Western nudes as manifested in Pei-yang Pictorial News from 1926 to 1933, I will trace the origins of the Western nudes found in these periodicals, while exploring the roles such pictorials played and the transcultural strategies editors employed when integrating Western nudes into Chinese culture. I will argue that Pei-yang Pictorial News created a type of ‘exotic Self’ by means of surrounding the nudes with traditional Chinese cultural elements as well as framing them with captions that were loaded with Chinese literary allusions. Imported nudes were thus empowered with a distinct Chinese cultural imaginary.
An early version of the paper was presented at the Annual Conference 2009: ‘Flows of Images and Media’ in Heidelberg on October 9, 2009. I want to express my gratitude to Prof Barbara Mittler for her invaluable help during the whole process of writing. Prof Michel Hockx offered many great insights and gave more polish to the present paper; Eavan Cully provided indispensable support in proofreading the paper and raising critical questions, for which I am very grateful. Many thanks also go to Prof Christiane Brosius, Annika Joest and anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments.
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Notes
- 1.
Nicholas Mirzoeff, An Introduction to Visual Culture (2nd edition) (London, New York: Routledge, 2009), 41.
- 2.
‘Exotic’ will be explained more in a later text. In this paper, ‘nude’ or ‘nudes’ will be used merely as technical terms from art history to refer to images of (1) totally uncovered bodies; (2) upper bodies uncovered; (3) covered but very limitedly with diaphanous materials. The theoretical debate over ‘nudity’ and ‘nakedness’ cannot be part of this essay, it is dealt with in a part of my Ph.D. dissertation ‘Body Un/Discovered: Luoti, Editorial Agency and Transcultural Production in Chinese Pictorials (1925–1933)’. In the text, especially in translations, I shall follow the conventional usage of “nude” and “naked”, as in “nude images” and “naked bodies”, without referring to the debate.
- 3.
My understanding of the ‘West’ derives from Shu-mei Shih’s The Lure of the Modern: Writing Modernism in Semicolonial China, 1917–1937 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001, 1–2), in which the ‘West’ is used not only to refer to ‘the nations of Europe and North America,’ but also as ‘a symbolic construct.’ Shih adopts the latter from the definition developed by the Indian Subaltern Studies group, which considers the ‘West’ as ‘an imaginary though powerful entity created by a historical process that authorized it as the home of Reason, Progress, and Modernity.’ Shih concludes that the ‘West’ is ‘a construct distributed and universalized by imperialism and nationalism.’
- 4.
The use of cultural ‘flows’ here is inspired by Arjun Appadurai’s concept. See his Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996) and The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).
- 5.
Fernando Ortiz, Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar (New York: Knopf, 1947), 103. This quote appears in Nicholas Mirzoeff’s An Introduction to Visual Culture, 41. I thank Nicholas Mirzoeff for discussing this issue with me during the Annual Conference 2009. Apart from Mirzoeff, Wolfgang Welsch developed ‘transculturality’ a key concept to discuss transcultural issues. See his ‘Transculturality–The Puzzling Form of Cultures Today’, in Spaces of Culture: City, Nation, World, edited by Mike Featherstone and Scott Lash (London: Sage, 1999), 194–213.
- 6.
Feng Wuyue was an important figure in Tianjin during the Republican era. His father, Feng Xiangguang 馮祥光 (1875–?) was a diplomat (see Xu Youchun 徐友春ed., Comprehensive Biographical Dictionary of the Republican Period, Minguo renwu da cidian民國人物大辭典, Shijiazhuang: Hebei renmin chubanshe, 2007, 2054); his uncle, Feng Gengguang馮耿光 (1876–1953), acted as head of the Bank of China, and his wife Zhao Jiangxue 趙絳雪(?–?) was the sister of the famous Marshal Zhang Xueliang’s 張學良(1901–2001) lover Zhao Yidi趙一荻 (1912–2000). Feng Wuyue used to study aviation and radio in France and Belgium in 1920s. For a brief biography of Feng Wuyue, see an short essay by Wang Xiangfeng 王向峰, ‘Illustrating Old Tianjin: Feng Wuyue as the Founder of Beiyang huabao’ (Tu shuo lao Tianjin: Beiyang huabao chuangbanren Feng Wuyue 圖說老天津:≪北洋畫報≫創辦人馮武越), http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2004-07-24/00103807426.shtml, (accessed on 15 March 2010). Unless specifically explained, all internet sources in this paper are stored in the Digital Archive of Chinese Studies (DACHS, http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/dachs/) and can be checked there (password required).
- 7.
Feng was responsible for both running the business financially and establishing BYHB’s style from 1926 to 1933. In 1933, Feng sold BYHB to Tan Linbei 譚林北 (?–?), owner of Tianjin Tongsheng Photo Studio. A number of intellectual figures, such as Liu Yunruo 劉雲若 (1903–1950), Wu Qiuchen 吳秋塵 (?–1957) and Wang Xiaoyin王小隱 (?–?), acted as editors or contributors for several years. A brief history of BYHB can be found in the ‘Publisher’s Note’ (Chuban shuoming 出版說明), which appears on the first page of each volume of the reprints. For more detailed descriptions of BYHB publishing history see Wu Yunxin 吳雲心, ‘Finely Edited and Printed Beiyang huabao’ (Bianyin jingzhi de Beiyang huabao 編印精緻的≪北洋畫報≫, in Seeking Lost Writings in the Ocean of Tianjin Newspapers (Tianjin baohai gouchen 天津報海鈎沉), ed. Committee of Cultural and Historical Materials (Wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui 文史資料委員會) (Tianjin: Tianjin renmin chubanshe, 2003), 132–134. The same book includes a list of short biographies of important Tianjin local editors and journalists, such as the aforementioned Wang Xiaoyin (p.180–181), Feng Wuyue (p.186–187), Liu Yunruo (p.191–192) and Wu Qiuchen (p. 215).
- 8.
Before BYHB, Feng had founded the Children’s Magazine (Ertong zazhi 兒童雜誌) and Pictorial World (Tuhua shijie圖畫世界), see Wuyue武越, “Note by Bigong” (Bigong ziji筆公自記), BYHB 101 (July 6, 1927), 5.
- 9.
Jizhe 記者, ‘A Few Words I Want to Say’ (Yao shuo de ji ju hua 要說的幾句話), BYHB 1 (July 7, 1926), 2.
- 10.
Jizhe, ibid.
- 11.
Yuntuo雲若, ‘Ten Years of BYHB’ (Beihua shi nian北畫十年), BYHB 1422 (July 7, 1936), 11.
- 12.
Ibid. For other important evidence see Jizhe, ‘On the Fourth Anniversary’ (Si zhounian zhiyu 四週年致語), BYHB 495 (July 7, 1930), 2; Yexin夜心, ‘Congratulations at BYHB’s Seventh Anniversary’ (Zhu Beihua qi zhounian jinian 祝北畫七週年紀念), BYHB 956 (July 7, 1933), 2.
- 13.
concludes the focus period, because since after 1933 nude images almost completely disappeared from not only BYHB, but also all the major pictorials as the New Life Movement spread.
- 14.
In this paper, ‘Western females’ mainly refer to European and North American women. Although not always the case, most females presented in the images of nudes are Caucasian.
- 15.
I noticed that only two images were published in September 1928, which seems to be below average. As a supplementary comparison, I examined the earlier as well as later issues, and found four in August and five in October, which means the average number of nudes stays 3–4 every month. The result agrees with the conclusion that roughly one to two nudes appeared on average per week from 1926 to 1933.
- 16.
In the examined issues, four images in total contain naked male figures. Three of them are photos, such as BYHB 18 (4 September 1926), 3, BYHB 530 (27 September 1930), 2 and BYHB 826 (3 September 1932), 2; one is oil painting, BYHB 831 (15 September 1932). The first image is about a naked four-month-old Chinese baby boy.
- 17.
The data I used as comparison mainly included images from: Erik Nørgaard, With Love: The Erotic Postcard (London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1969); Günter Bartosch, Der Akt von Damals: Die Erotik in der frühen Photographie: Aus der privaten Sammlung von Ernst und Günter Bartosch (Munich; Berlin: Herbig, 1976); Nude 1925 (New York: Morgan & Morgan, 1978); Jules Griffon, The Golden Years: Masterpieces of the Erotic Postcard (Panorama City, CA: Helios Press, 1978); D. M. Klinger, Die Frühzeit der erotischen Fotografie und Postkarten/The Early Period of Erotic Photography and Postcards, vol.5 (Nürnberg: DMK-Verlags-GmbH, 1984); Jorge Lewinski, The Naked and the Nude: a History of Nude Photography (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987); Paul Hammond, French Undressing: Naughty Postcards from 1900 to 1920 (London: Bloomsbury Books, 1988); Peter-Cornell Richter, Nude Photography: Masterpieces from the Past 150 Years (Munich: Prestel, 1998); Hans-Michael Koetzle and Margie Mounier, 1000 Nudes: Uwe Scheid Collection (Köln: Benedikt Taschen, 1994); Martin Stevens, French Postcards: Album of Vintage Erotica (New York: Universe Publishing, 2006); Alexandre Dupouy, Erotic French Postcard: From Alexandre Dupouy’s Collection (Paris; New York: Flammarion; Distributed in North America by Rizzoli International Publications, 2009).
- 18.
Martin Stevens, introduction to French Postcards: Album of Vintage Erotica, op.cit.
- 19.
Michael Köhler ed., The Body Exposed: Views of the Body, 150 Years of the Nude in Photography (Zurich: Edition Stemmle, 1995), 57.
- 20.
Cf. Allison Pease, Modernism, Mass Culture, and the Aesthetics of Obscenity (London: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 84.
- 21.
Cf. Martin Stevens, ibid.
- 22.
Dupouy, introduction to Erotic French Postcard, 2009.
- 23.
Joseph Slade gives a good summary of academic works on this theme in his Pornography and Sexual Representation: A Reference Guide, vol.II (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001), 588–590.
- 24.
Cf. William Ouellette, and Barbara Mildred Jones, Erotic Postcards, 1977.
- 25.
Michael Köhler ed., The Body Exposed, 57.
- 26.
Cf. Michael Köhler ed., The Body Exposed, 57. Lisa Z. Sigel discusses the producer and the circulation of the postcards in ‘Filth in the Wrong People’s Hands: Postcards and the Expansion of Pornography in Britain and the Atlantic World, 1880–1914.’ Journal of Social History vol.33, no. 4 (2000), 859–885.
- 27.
Hans-Michael Koetzle and Margie Mounier, 1000 Nudes, 351.
- 28.
ibid., back cover.
- 29.
See http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Kiki_de_Montparnasse (accessed on 13 September 2009).
- 30.
In Erotic French Postcards, ‘J. Mandel’ is identified as ‘Julien Mandel’ (see index part, no page number). Related academic research is not yet known. Some online information claims that ‘Julian Mandel’ (1872–1935) and ‘Julien Mandel’ are different spellings in English and German, but both names might be pseudonyms. Nonetheless, he was a famous erotic photographer based in Paris. See: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julien_Mandel?uselang=de (accessed on 10 January 2010).
- 31.
For the life of Alice Prin, see her memoires. The Education of a French Model, (trans. Samuel Putnam, introduction by Ernest Hemingway, New York: Boar’s Head Books, 1950) and Billy Klüver and Julie Martin’s Kiki's Paris: Artists and Lovers 1900–1930 (New York: Abrams, 1989). There is also a French graphic novel that depicts Kiki’s life, see Catel Muller and José-Louis Bocquet, Kiki de Montparnasse (Bruxelles: Casterman, 2007).
- 32.
Klinger collects and sorts several of the most important European early photography studios, including ‘Leo’, ‘A. NOYER’, ‘P.C PARIS’, ‘A.N Paris’, ‘J. B.’, ‘A.N PARIS-J. MANDEL Paris’, ‘J.A.Paris’, ‘E.R.PARIS’, ‘L.P PARIS’ and ‘E.L.F. Paris’. See Die Frühzeit der erotischen Fotografie und Postkarten/The Early Period of Erotic Photography and Postcards, vol.5, 44–55.
- 33.
Background information of Youxi zazhi and Meiyu is discussed by Michel Hockx in his Questions of Style: Literary Societies and Literary Journals in Modern China 1911–1937 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2003), 118–144. The postcards phenomenon in the journal Meiyu is examined in a current joint research project ‘Women and Scandal in Early Modern Chinese Literature: The Journal Meiyu (Eyebrow Talk, 1914–1916)’ by Michel Hockx and myself. The images of nudes in Shanghai Sketch and Linloon Magazine are discussed at chapter-length in my PhD dissertation.
- 34.
In this regard, Wu Fangcheng significantly contributes to collecting and compiling the materials related to the public debate on live drawing and nude figure painting, which were mainly published in Shenbao. See Wu Fangcheng 吳方正, ‘The Reason for the Nude: Questions Concerning Nude Figure Drawing in China at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century’ (Luode liyou - ershi shiji chuqi zhongguo renti xiesheng wenti de taolun 裸的理由——二十世紀初中國人體寫生問題的討論), New Studies in History (Xin shixue 新史學) vol.15, no. 2 (2004), 55–110. The materials are indexed and recorded in The Ever-Changing Shanghai Art World: Index of Art News in Shenbao 1872–1949 (Shanghai meishu fengyun – 1872–1949 Shenbao yishu ziliao tiaomu suoyin 上海美術風雲——1872–1949 申報藝術資料條目索引)(edited by Yan Juanying 顏娟英, Taipei: Academia Sinica, 2006). Part of the materials explicitly shows the circulation of erotic postcards in the early Republican era, which I will discuss more in a later text.
- 35.
Jizhe, ‘Inaugural Words of the Volume’ (Juanshou yu 卷首語), BYHB 251 (1 December, 1928), 2. My emphasis.
- 36.
Le Vulgarisateur was founded on November 8, 1928 in Tianjin, almost two and a half years later than BYHB. Only 14 issues (no.14, 21 January 1929) are preserved and reprinted in Comprehensive Pictorials in Republican China: Tianjin Vol.I (Minguo huabao huibian Tianjin juan 民國畫報彙編 天津卷 一) (Beijing: Quanguo tushuguan wenxian suowei fuzhi zhongxin, 2007). As its name suggests, Le Vulgarisateur had, in fact, a close association to Chinese networks in Paris.
A group of Chinese students planed and founded a ‘Common Knowledge Society’ (Changshi she 常識社) in Paris, and then decided to create such a pictorial in order to advocate physical, scientific and aesthetic education in Tianjin. For more details see ‘Editor’s Note’ (Bianji shi suo hua 編輯室瑣話), Le Vulgarisateur vol.1 no.1 (8 November 1928), 7. A few books have mentioned Le Vulgarisateur very briefly, but they contain many mistakes. No academic research is known.
- 37.
Guaian 怪厂, ‘An Irrelevant Answer by a Certain Pictorial’ (Mou huabao zhi dafeisuowen 某畫報之答非所問), Le Vulgarisateur vol.1 no.14 (21 January 1929), 62.
- 38.
Further study of the three printing companies is required. As I mentioned, the imprint ‘A. N.’ appears frequently, but it is more commonly identified as ‘Alfred Noyer’. See a list of postcard publishing houses http://www.metropostcard.com/guideinitials.html (accessed on 25 January 2011).
- 39.
The four images are ‘Jinmei (盡美)’, BYHB 151 (1 January 1928), 7; ‘Smile Qiaoxiao (巧笑)’, BYHB 156 (18 January 1928), 2, ‘Babylonian Beauty Guse guxiang (古色古香)’, BYHB 161 (11 February 1928), 3 and ‘Self-Satisfaconti Guxiang (古香)’, BYHB 220 (12 September 1928), 3. Except that the first image ‘Jinmei’ (literally: Perfection) does not have an English title, all of the English titles are taken directly from BYHB, including ‘Self- Satisfaconti’, which must be a misprint for ‘Self -Satisfaction’.
- 40.
Günter Bartosch, Der Akt von Damals, 119 and 150.
- 41.
For information on Marguerite see Günter Bartosch, ibid. According to the same book (119), Marguerite literally means ‘pearl’, and it was only a fictitious name. In fact, the name could mean ‘daisy’ in French as well.
- 42.
Shenbao and Shibao were both daily newspapers, and were among the most important newspapers in Shanghai. After examining reports and articles in Shenbao, Wu Fangcheng concludes that from 1878 to 1928, reports on ‘obscene pictures’ (yinhua 淫畫) appear rather regularly (i.e., ranging from one to three reports almost every year, to five in 1912); however, the reports disappeared after 1928. For concrete numbers see Wu Fangcheng, ibid.
- 43.
‘Lewd Western Books and Images Cut Off at Source’ (Xiwen yin shuhua laiyuan yi duan 西文淫書畫來源已斷), Shenbao (5 January 1919). Cf. Wu Fangcheng, ibid., 61–62.
- 44.
Cf. Wu Fangcheng, ibid., 61–63. The ‘postcards of a naked young girl’, according to Wu, can be illustrated by an image from the advertisement on Shibao (7 September 1917), see Wu, ibid., 62.
- 45.
Feng’s two images have Chinese titles, but they are not necessarily direct translations of the English titles. For example, the Chinese title of ‘Tasting Grapes’ is Putao xianzi 葡萄仙子, BYHB 21 (15 September 1926), 3; the Chinese title of ‘Mirror’ is ‘guying zilian 顧影自憐’, BYHB 69 (March 12, 1927), 3. I found an identical image of ‘Mirror’ in Michael Köhler ed., The Body Exposed, 61. The seal of ‘P.C PARIS 2151’ appearing in both images clearly indicates that it was originally a postcard. Jianwen’s donation is ‘Spring’ (Chunse 春色), BYHB 299 (30 March 1929), 3. A series of postcards donated by Jianewen are called ‘A Travers les Coulisses Parisiennes, IV’ (Bali juchang houtai suojian巴黎劇場後臺所見), see BYHB 258 (17 December 1928), 3; V, BYHB 261 (25 December 1929), 3; VI, BYHB 267 (10 January 1929), 3.
- 46.
BYHB 274 (26 January 1929), 3.
- 47.
Jizhe, ‘Inaugural Words of the Volume’, BYHB 251 (1 December1928), 2.
- 48.
Guaian 怪厂, ibid.
- 49.
‘Exotic’, as explained in Oxford English Dictionary, means ‘introduced from abroad, not indigenous’, or ‘having the attraction of the strange or foreign, glamorous’ (http://www.oed.com.ubproxy.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/Entry/66403?redirectedFrom=exotic# accessed on 30 January 2011). ‘Exotism’ means ‘Resemblance to what is foreign; a foreign “air”’ (http://www.oed.com.ubproxy.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/Entry/66407 accessed on 30 January 2011), while ‘exoticism’ means ‘Exotic character; an instance of this, anything exotic’ (http://www.oed.com.ubproxy.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/view/Entry/66406?redirectedFrom=exoticism#, accessed on 30 January 2011). These three entries can not be downloaded into DACHS due to copyright issues. The equivalent words in Chinese might be ‘qi 奇’ in the Late Qing period while ‘yiguo qingdiao 異國情調’ in the 1920s. Catherine Vance Yeh argues that ‘qi 奇’ means ‘the extraordinary’, ‘the fantastic’, and ‘the exotic’in her book Shanghai Love: Courtesans, Intellectuals, and Entertainment Culture, 1850–1910 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006, 184). Heinrich Otmar Fruehauf analyses ‘yiguo qingdiao 異國情調’ in the Japanese and Chinese context in Urban Exoticism in Modern Chinese Literature, 1910–1933, University of Chicago, 1990, Ph.D. thesis.
- 50.
Or, perhaps it would not be so important as long as we have ascertained that an object has in fact originated elsewhere and ended up in another place.
- 51.
This slogan appeared in many articles, for example, Jizhe, ‘Introductory Comments to this Volume’ (Juanshou liyan 卷首例言), BYHB 51(1 January 1927), 2, and Bigong 筆公, ‘Introductory Words on our Third Anniversary’ (San zhou liyu 三週例語), BYHB 341 (7 July 1929), 2. One intriguing point here is that Feng mentioned in the first year that he would like to continue to pursue ‘current events, arts and science’ (my emphasis), which was the practice in his Pictorial World period. Yet, ‘science’ was replaced by ‘common sense’ in later days. It might be seen as a condescension or as a compromise to the market. See Editor’s Note (Bianjizhe yan編輯者言), BYHB 20 (11 September 1926), 4; Wuyue武越, ‘On Pictorials II’ (Huabao tan, zhong 畫報談, 中), BYHB 19 (8 September 1926), 2.
- 52.
Editor’s Note (Bianjizhe yan 編輯者言), BYHB 22 (18 September 1926), 4. My emphasis.
- 53.
My discussion of ‘bricolage’ continues the discussion in Zhang Yuanqing’s 張元卿 article ‘Dutu shidai de shenshang, dazhong duwu yu wenxue: jiedu Beiyang huabao’ 讀圖時代的紳商、大衆讀物与文學: 解讀≪北洋畫報≫ (Gentry and Merchants, Popular Reading Material and Literature in the Age of Reading Images), Tianjin shehui kexue 4 (2002), 122–125. The author tries to analyse BYHB’s editing style and historical background in spite of some misinterpretation of the materials.
- 54.
John Fiske, Understanding Popular Culture (London: Routledge, 1989), 142–143.
- 55.
I thank Ajay Sinha for reminding me of the general ‘page three’ phenomena at the annual conference 2009. In this context, ‘page three girl’ could be used similarly as ‘pin-up girl’. He especially pointed out that there was an Indian film entitled ‘Page 3’ directed by Madhur Bhandarkar in 2005. I notice that there is an underlying contradiction, however, because the editors of BYHB intended to make page three the static and stable art page.
- 56.
Bigong (Feng Wuyue), ‘Questions Concerning Nude Images’ (Luotihua wenti 裸體畫問題), BYHB 63 (19 February 1927), 3.
- 57.
The English is originally published with the images.
- 58.
Zhou Shoujuan 周瘦鵑, “Looking Back at the First Year of Half Moon” (Banyue zhi yinian huigu 半月之一年回顧), Half Moon (Banyue 半月) vol.2, no.8 (1922). “Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School” is a polemical term used by writers from the May Fourth Movement; for a more detailed discussion of this complex issue, see Denise Gimpel, Lost Voices of Modernity: A Chinese Popular Fiction Magazine in Context (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001); Hockx, ibid.,
- 59.
Baoheng 保衡, “My New Entertainment: Collecting Postcards of Paintings” (Wo de xin yule - huihua mingxinpian zhi souji 我的新娛樂——繪畫明信片之蒐集), Shenbao Supplement (19 December 1926), 1.
- 60.
Cai Yuanpei, ‘Replacing religion with aesthetic education’ (Yi meiyu dai zongjiao 以美育代宗教), translated by Julia F. Andrews in Modern Chinese Literary Thought: Writings on Literature, 1893–1945, ed. Kirk A. Denton (Stanford and California: Stanford University Press, 1996), 87. It was originally a lecture delivered in 1917 to the Shenzhou Scholarly Society (Shenzhou xuehui 神州學會), and then first published under the name Cai Jiemin 蔡孑民in New Youth (Xin Qingnian 新青年) vol.3, no. 6 (August 1917); reprinted in The Selected Works of Fine Arts in the 20 th Century, vol. I (Ershi shiji Zhongguo meishu wenxuan, Shangjuan 二十世紀中國美術文選 上卷), ed. Lang Shaojun 郎紹君 and Shui Zhongtian 水中天 (Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 1999), 15–20. Carrie Waara discusses Cai’s thought in her paper ‘Ts’ai Yuan-pei’s Theory of Aesthetic Education,’ Spring-Autumn Papers 1.1 (Spring 1979), 13–30.
- 61.
Jizhe, ‘On the Fourth Anniversary’. For more examples of ‘editors’s note’ discussing ‘beauty’, see Wang Xiaoyin 王小隱, ‘The Past Year’ (Yinian yilai 一年以來), BYHB 101 (July 6, 1927), 2 and Jian’an 健盦, ‘The Second Year’ (Di’er nian 第二年), BYHB 102 (July 9, 1927), 3.
- 62.
An identical image was found online: http://storage.canalblog.com/41/07/274511/12772742.jpg (accessed on 21 January 2010). Other images from the same series include one in Erotic French Postcards, 2009, n.p.
- 63.
Zhu Jiahua (1893–1963) was named acting chairman of Canton provincial government’s standing committee and commissioner of civil affairs in 1927. Later he held office in the National Government as minister of education (1932–1933; 1944–1948), minister of communications (1932–1935), and vice president of the Examination Yuan (1941–1944). For his biography, see Howard L. Boorman ed, Biographical Dictionary of Republican China (New York, London: Columbia University Press, 1967), 437–440. In July 1927, he advanced a proposal on unbinding breasts, which was called the Natural Breasts Movement. The event is still understudied and only known through Lu Xun’s article ‘Worries on Natural Breasts’ (You tianru憂天乳), in Thread of Talk (Yusi 語絲) 152 (8 Oct. 1927), reprinted in Complete Works of Lu Xun: And That’s That (魯迅全集:而已集) (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1981), 467–470.
- 64.
Mozhu 墨珠, ‘The Natural Breasts Movement’ (Tianru yundong 天乳運動) and Heke 鶴客, ‘The Prestige of Breasts’ (Ru de weifeng 乳的威風), BYHB 108 (30 July 1927), 3.
- 65.
For instance, ‘Imperial Concubine after a Bath Painted by Qiu Shizhou’ (Qiu Shizhou hui Guifei chu yu tu 仇十洲繪貴妃出浴圖), BYHB 201 (7 July 1928), 2; ‘Taizhen after a Bath’ (Taizhen chu yu tu 太真出浴圖) BYHB 1018 (30 November 1933), 3. Both paintings depict Yang’s beautiful, soft and plump body after a bath.
- 66.
Shanghai ai mei she 上海愛美社ed., Study on the Beauty of Naked Bodies (Luoti mei zhi yanjiu 裸體美之研究), Shanghai: Wenming shuju, 1925. Two images from front illustrations can be compared with Figure 12.7. Again, it shows that erotic postcards were not merely reproduced in periodicals but also in books at the given time.
- 67.
For the translation see Tony Barnstone, and Ping Chou, Chinese Erotic Poems, Everyman's Library Pocket Poets (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), 69.
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Liying, S. (2012). An Exotic Self? Tracing Cultural Flows of Western Nudes in Pei-yang Pictorial News (1926–1933). In: Brosius, C., Wenzlhuemer, R. (eds) Transcultural Turbulences. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18393-5_12
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