Reforming Nation while Performing Celebrity: Women Artists in 1920s Shanghai

Reflecting a chronic anxiety over the fate of the nation, the Republican-period (1911-1949) periodical press frequently published coverage of reassuring symbols of national advancement, such as internationally-recognized modern artists. Consequently, artists of this period enjoyed heightened attention across society and female artists, in particular, benefited from unprecedented opportunities for professional recognition. Commonly appearing in the form of biographical sketches and exhibition reviews, this widely distributed information, however, reflects deeply ambivalent attitudes within the popular press and society at large. Even as some women viewed their participation in the arts as a path to liberation, the image of the modern female artist evoked the decadence of the incorrigible Modern Girl, and these contested visions of women as either advancing or inhibiting the modernizing nation emerge in the latent tensions between voiced intention and apparent reception amongst editors, contributing artists, and the readers. Paying close attention to the presentation of women oil painters in Shanghai periodicals such as The Ladies’ Journal (Funü zazhi) and Truth, Beauty, Good (Zhen mei shan), this paper explores their reception as New Women—the embodiment of modern reform and national progress—both within the art world and larger society, as well as the ways in which these women envisioned themselves to be subverting patriarchy. By investigating the ways in which women artists engaged in China’s modernization project, this study explores their ongoing negotiation and redefinition of gender roles.