Fashioning Appearances: Feminine Beauty in Chinese Communist Revolutionary Culture Author(S): Hung-Yok Ip Source: Modern China, Vol

Home , Bai Yang, Ba Jin, Ding Ling, Gong Peng, Ouyang Yuqian, Wang Guangmei

Fashioning Appearances: Feminine Beauty in Chinese Communist Revolutionary Culture Author(s): Hung-Yok Ip Source: Modern China, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Jul., 2003), pp. 329-361 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3181296 . Accessed: 25/10/2011 12:47

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Sage Publications, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Modern China.

http://www.jstor.org FashioningAppearances FeminineBeauty in Chinese CommunistRevolutionary Culture

HUNG-YOKIP OregonState University

Studying the Communist revolution, scholars of China have generally assumed that the revolutionary era andpre-Cultural Revolution stage of the Communist regime were dominated by asceticism, androgynous clothing, or both. This article seeks to demonstrate that an interest in female beauty was always pres- ent in the revolutionary process. The author analyzes how revolutionaries sus- tained that interest by employing self-beautification practices and women's beauty politically and how social interactions reinforced the perception that female beauty was rewarding, underscoring that Communists accepted the practice of self-adornment. After examining the revolutionary aesthetics of femininity developed by women activists, the article briefly explores the legacy offemale beauty in the Communist regime. In its conclusion, it urges that more attention be paid to interest in female beauty as an important part offemale experience both during the revolutionary process and during the Communist regime.

Keywords: female beauty; Chinese women; the Communist revolution; appearance

When scholarsaddress the issue of womanhoodin the Communist revolution (1921-1949) and under the Maoist regime (1949-1976), they generallyattend to such dimensionsas political vocation,family,

AUTHOR'SNOTE: I would like to thankall the anonymousreaders for their comments.I must also expressmy appreciationto Chi-kongLai and MargaretMaynard, both at the Universityof Queensland,Australia, for their interest in the issues tackled in this article and their valuable suggestions.Don Price, who has gone over several versionsof the article, deservesmy gratitude. I must also thank Tang Puru, who generously shared with me her knowledge of the 1950s. Finally, I am grateful to KathrynBernhardtfor her help and encouragement. MODERNCHINA, Vol. 29 No. 3, July2003 329-361 DOI:10.1177/0097700403253167 ? 2003Sage Publications

329 330 MODERNCHINA/JULY 2003 and work (Croll, 1995; Stacey, 1983; Gilmartin, 1995; Honig and Hershatter,1988). They sometimesbriefly discuss the issue of appearance as well, but more often thannot they assume thatthe revolutionary era and the pre-Cultural Revolution stage of the Communist regimewere dominatedby asceticism,androgynous clothing, or both. Accordingto AntoniaFinnane, androgynous clothing was always "in vogue" in the revolution and eventually set "the tone for women's dress in China at large" (Finnane, 1996: 121). As for the pre-1966 regime, accordingto observersand insiders alike, attentionto feminine beauty was mainly criticizedas petit bourgeoisor bourgeois and as an unwelcome outcomeof genderoppression (J. Chang, 1991: 289; Honig and Hershatter,1988: 42). In addition,the CulturalRevolution has been identifiedas the high tide of "masculinization"and "puritani- cal asceticism"(Honig and Hershatter,1988: 11; Yang, 1999: 35-67). It is thusno wonderthat some scholarsregard women's enthusiasmfor feminine beauty as a "new"development in the post-Mao era (Yang, 1999; Croll, 1995: 151-52; Evans, 1997: 82; Honig and Hershatter, 1988: 11,41-51). But is it truethat the post-1976 interestin beautyis a departurefrom the revolutionarydecades and the period before the CulturalRevolu- tion? If not, the currentemphasis on the "newness"of such interest obscuresa significantpart of Chinese women's gender-specificexpe- rience in the prereformstage of Chinese Communism.In this article,I arguethat the interestin feminine beautyin a broadsense-including the admirationof beauty,the belief in the desirabilityof being beautiful, the practiceof self-beautification,and so forth-was always pres- ent in the revolutionaryprocess.1 To develop my argument,I find it importantto place this interest against the historical backdrop of a culture known for its critical stance towardthe individualpursuit of self-beautification.Situating the issue of femininebeauty in China'smodernization, I firstnote that revolutionaries-men and women alike-despite fiercely criticizing women's preoccupationwith appearance,did not rejectbut helped to sustainthe interestin female beautyby mobilizing self-beautification practicesand images of attractivewomen for political purposes.I then investigatehow social-interpersonalinteractions reinforced the perception that female beauty was rewarding.In addition,I demonstrate that the Communistsdid not always reject the concept of beauty and Ip /FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 331 even accepted the practice of self-adornment.After showing how Communist men and women created a milieu-political, interpersonal, and cultural-that did not powerfully challenge the interestin beauty,I focus on women themselves, venturinginto the question of how women activists developed their own feminine aesthetics. Although I mainly concentrateon the revolutionarydecades, I also examine how the concepts and practicesrelated to female appearance in the revolutionaryera manifestedthemselves in pre-1966 Commu- nist society. I do not focus here on any particularphase of Chinese Communism or adopta regionalapproach. Rather than launch a detailedinvestiga- tion into the chronological and regional variations in how women beautified themselves or defined beauty, I simply demonstratethe interestin beauty as a general and pervadingpresence in the revolution. To that end, I cite examples from various revolutionarystages and from different geographical areas, including insiders' writings andmemoirs, Party documents, scholarly and popular articles, and lit- eraryand theatricalworks.2 I deal with the experiences of politically active women from divergentsocial backgroundswho joined or sympathized with the Communist movement. I will show that these women played an importantrole in buildinga most perplexinglegacy of attitudestoward feminine beautyin post-1949 Communistsociety. Sometimes, together with men, they fought against the attentionto self-adornment.Yet not only did they participatein the political, interpersonal,and culturalprocesses that sustainedthe interestin beauty, but they also beautifiedthemselves.

CHALLENGINGESTABLISHED MODEL(S)OF FEMININEBEAUTY

REFLECTINGON WOMEN'SAPPEARANCE IN CHINA'STRANSFORMATION

Since the second half of the nineteenthcentury, Chinese historical actorsalways viewed female beauty as relevantto the nationalistpro- ject of strengtheningChina. This politicized attentionled to a reevalu- ationof the Chinesetradition of self-adornment.In traditionalChinese 332 MODERNCHINA/JULY 2003 society, attitudes toward women's appearance were ambivalent. Womenwere expected to attendto, but not be preoccupiedwith, self- adornment.In the Confuciandiscourse on womanhood,the essential attributesof a good woman-in additionto virtue,words, and work- included appearance.While traditionalself-adornment had various aspects, moder thinkers and activists examining the relationship between the female condition and China's self-strengtheningefforts focused mainly on footbinding.Reformers such as Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei and revolutionariessuch as Qiu Jin believed that their lack of educationand bound feet made the female populationignorant and weak and were conditionsthat must be removed(Edwards, 2000: 126-27). In additionto criticizingfootbinding on nationalisticand pragmatic grounds,late Qing activists also castigatedthe practice as inhumane (Ono, 1989: chaps. 3, 4). Arguing for women's independence and humandignity, they reprimandedthose women who conformedto the traditionalnorms of beauty to secure men's favor. Qiu Jin declared, "When we heard that men liked small feet, we immediately bound themjust to please them,just to keep our free meal tickets.... Think about it, sisters, can anyone enjoy such comfort and leisure without forfeiting dearly for it?" (Qiu Jin, [190?] 1981: 248). Not only did pre-Communistactivists attack the traditionalChi- nese norm of female beauty,but they also graduallynoted and criticized the Westernapproach(es) to women's self-adornment.In Ding Ling's Mother(1932), a piece based on her family's experiencein the late Qing era, the title characterenvies the rightsand freedom enjoyed by women in the West, but she does not fail to notice the similarities between "foot-binding"and the "tinywaist," both aimed at engineer- ing the female body: "They [Westernwomen] don't bind their feet; they bind theirwaists.... They can go to school, though, and are free to do all kinds of things" (Ding Ling, 1989: 109). Although Ding Ling's portrayalmay not accuratelyrepresent what her mothersaid on the eve of the 1911 revolution,Mao's call for women's emancipation shows clearly a young radical's critical stance on both Chinese and Westernapproaches to female appearance.He wrote on 14 July 1919, "Why must women have their hair piled up in those ostentatiousand awkward buns? Why must they wear those messy skirts clinched tightly at the waist?"(Mao Zedong, 1992: 1.353). Ip /FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 333

While the late Qing political actors rejected traditionalnorms of beautybut not necessarilythe practiceof self-adornment(Zhou Xuqi, 1994; McIntyre, 1999: 74), the May Fourth activists on principle opposed both. In theirimagining, the moder woman not only should be politically active, nationalistic,and educatedbut also should show her independence and dignity by refusing to adorn herself (Zhou Xuqi, 1994: 190-92). In chastisingChinese and Westernways of self- beautification,the May Fourthactivists did not intendto replacethem with a new model. Instead,they inventeda "politicallycorrect" appearance that they thought signified the absence of self-adorment-a face withoutmakeup; a body without the burdenof jewelry; straight, shorthair; and simple studentuniforms in black, white, or blue (Zhou Xuqi, 1994: 190-93). Following their formulation,the view that the trulyliberated woman shouldnot be preoccupiedwith her appearance was sharedby people takingdifferent political standsin the 1920s and 1930s. Confrontingthe commercialized version of the new woman, the New Life movementdefined a real "New Age Woman"as one who, in additionto demonstratingtraditional virtues, was able to resistthe lure of fashion (Edwards, 2000: 119, 133-34). Idealizing "modern woman"as patriotic,well educated,serious in political purposes,and uninterestedin self-adornment,reformist intellectuals called fashionable women pseudo-moder to "regain their guardianshipthrough debates about the qualities of the moder woman" (Edwards,2000: 116). In addition,they also criticized fashionablewomen as a group thatlacked dignity,for they presentedthemselves as "toys"for others to enjoy (Edwards,2000: 133).

THE COMMUNISTREJECTION OF BEAUTY NORMSAND SELF-ADORNMENT

Communists,too, held the understandingthat the moder woman should rebel against beauty norms and forsake the notion of self- adornment.Aside fromrejecting traditional Chinese practices such as footbinding (Gilmartin,1995: 187),3they also refused to accept the Westernizedapproach(es) to self-beautification.They explainedtheir rebelliousstance by invokingtwo intertwiningfactors-revolutionary politics and the issue of dignity. 334 MODERNCHINA / JULY2003

One goal of revolutionarypolitics, accordingto the Communists, was women's liberationfrom the male-dominatedsystem of private property.Lack of adornmentsignified their liberation and dignity. Throughout the revolutionaryprocess, quoting socialists such as Engels and Bebel, they highlightedwomen's humiliatingexistence in a male-dominatedeconomy in which sexuality had to be tradedfor economic support.Within the conventionalsystems of privateprop- erty,self-beautification, whatever its style, was a necessarydevice for women to gain any formof male patronage(see, e.g., Gilmartin,1995; Ao Xiamin, [1926] 1986; Luo Qiong, [1935] 1988). Applying this theoryto moder Chinese society, Communistspro- claimedthat as the influenceof the "feudal"tradition continued to pre- vail, women were (still) treated as undignified "playthings" ("Changshanujie lianhehuichengli xuanyan,"[1921] 1986: 8; Xiang Jingyu, [1923] 1986; Nan Yuye, [1926] 1986; "Cong xin qimeng yundong tan dao funii wenti,"[1937] 1988). Moreover,in their view, there were abundantexamples of "moder-style" exploitation of women. They noted that working-class women were pressed to sell their femininity to curryfavor with their supervisorsin the capitalist factories or to attractcustomers, whereas privileged and even educated women needed to adornthemselves to please theirpartners and thereby sustaintheir seemingly enviable status as warlords',bureau- crats', and capitalists'wives (Xiang Jingyu, [1923] 1986; "Zhongguo funiiwenti," [1927] 1986;Tanfen, [1936] 1988). Russianwomen were presentedas the opposite of their Chinese counterparts,as they were given the rightto engage in the economic process and pursuea career and thus gained freedom from all forms of oppression ("Zhongguo gongchandang dierci quanguo daibiao dahui," [1922] 1986; Cai Chang, [1925] 1986; Tanfen, [1936] 1988: 313-16). In the Communistmilieu, however,women's refusalto adornthemselves not only signified liberationbut also was an importantstrategy in fighting for that liberation:many Communistauthors believed that women, especially educatedyoung women, shouldtake on a threefold mission of rebellion-against the patriarchalsystem of privateprop- erty,against the disciplinarymeasures used to adornthe female body, and againsttheir own attachmentto self-adornment.In modernsoci- ety, the practicesof self-beautificationthat ought to be rejectedwere Ip / FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 335 called petit bourgeois or bourgeois (Ao Xiamin, [1926] 1986; "Cong xin qimeng yundong tan dao funii wenti," [1937] 1988).4 In addition, Communistsviewed nonadornmentpragmatically: it was construedas an attitudeand a practicethat women revolutionaries should adopt so that they could contributeto the political-in this case, Communist-project of strengtheningthe nation and reshaping society. To understandthe connection, consider a story about Fang Zhimin, the founder of the NortheastJiangxi and Fujian-Zhejiang- JiangxiSoviets. Circulatedamong andapplauded by otherrevolution- aries, the story concernedhis reason for marryingMiao Min in 1927. Reportedly,Fang explained that he simply could not settle for some- one who was interestedmerely in "clothing,dressing up, and a com- fortablelifestyle." For him, only women such as Miao Min, who were indifferentto self-beautificationand city frills, could become good "revolutionarywives" who not only supportedtheir husbands but also sometimesworked for the revolutionthemselves (FangZhimin zhuan bianxiezu, 1982: 95). Although we can hardlyexpect thatevery lead- ing male revolutionaryidentified with this politicized approachto marriage,the story's popularitylay in partin its apt illustrationof the Communist view on nonadornment.But that popularity was also rooted in the assumptionthat nonadornmenthad pragmaticvalue for the revolutionaryproject. This assumptionwas, in fact, reinforcedby the realityof the revolu- tionarylife. Materialpoverty almost always, thoughnot unavoidably, accompaniedrevolutionary struggle. On the eve of his execution in 1935, Fang Zhimin proudly "displayed"his poverty: "Some old undergarments,a few pairsof socks.... These are all I have."He then concluded, "It is our ascetic lifestyle that helps us persevere"(Fang Zhimin, 1984: 166-67). No wonderthat his heroic image in the Com- munist tradition included his refusal to take a fashionable wife. Working in the urban areas, revolutionariesalso needed to wrestle with poverty.For instance, Xu Mingqing,a womanrevolutionary who taught with Jiang Qing in Shanghaiduring the early 1930s, recalled thatthey were not paid any salaryand that the food they ate was coarse (Ye Yonglie, 1993: 44-46).5 Under the circumstances,the will to resist fashion and self-adornment was perceived to help the Chinese CommunistParty's (CCP's) 336 MODERNCHINA/JULY 2003 cause. When necessary,women revolutionarieshad to give up items importantnot only to appearancebut also to hygiene. For instance, during the Long March, female soldiers threw away many personal belongings so as not to burdenthemselves with their own "posses- sions."Many shared a single washbasin,which they used bothto clean themselves and to cook. Many of these women had neithercomb nor mirror,and they used their fingers to "tidy"their hair every morning (Guo Chen, 1986: 55-56). But while the Communistsadvocated the value of nonadorment, they also manipulatedappearance strategically. That strategic use engendered disparate approachesto personal appearanceand thus helped to sustainthe interestin self-beautification.

THESTRATEGIC USE OF APPEARANCE FOR REVOLUTIONARYPOLITICS

DESIGNINGAPPEARANCES, I: FORSAKING SELF-ADORNMENTFOR THEREVOLUTION

To take on new institutionalresponsibilities, women revolutionaries found it necessaryto embracenew appearances,which sometimes meantgiving up self-adornmentand what they personallyconsidered pleasing. Some women became soldiers in the National Revolution when the WuhanCentral Military and Political Instituteset up a training programfor female radicalsand recruitedaround 200 young and well-educatedwomen; they included You Xi and Zhao Yiman, who later became Communists (Jing Lingzi, 1989: 53). These young women were requiredto cut their hair (Jing Lingzi, 1989: 52-53), a measure to which they voiced aesthetic objections (as discussed below in the section on the revolutionaryaesthetic). Describing the life of the female studentbody in differentrevolutionary institutes in Wuhanat the time of the United Front,Christina Gilmartin also takes note of their"unisex" image as Amazons-their graycotton uniforms, caps, and so forth. She asserts, writing of Xie Bingying and You Xi, thatthis unisex image "oftenexpanded women revolutionaries'social space of operationand thereby facilitated their ability to command respect... in ruralcommunities" (Gilmartin, 1995: 190). Ip /FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 337

In addition, for pragmatic reasons, the Red Army sometimes demandedthat female peasantsoldiers cut theirbraids. Meng Yu and Lu Guixiu, who became women soldiers in the Chuan-Sha'anSoviet base areas around 1933, did so when they were inducted (Zeng Zhi, 1986: 1.326, 356). Accordingto Lu Guixiu, who was initially unwill- ing to relinquishher braid, a senior woman soldier explained to her why it was necessary: "Bobbedhair is convenient and sanitary.It is easy to take care of when you are wounded"(qtd. in Zeng Zhi, 1986: 1.356).6 Sometimes, women revolutionariestemporarily acted out alterna- tive social roles. Yang Zhihua, the second wife of Qu Qiubai, was a good example. Consideredby male revolutionariesin Shanghaiin the early 1930s to be a very fashionable woman, she was assigned to establish connections among female workersin eastern Shanghaiin 1930. To get herjob done, she dressedlike a womanworker (Li Wenyi, 1983: 53). In her popularnovel Song of Youth,Yang Mo, an author familiarwith undergroundrevolutionary life, createdthe image of an outstanding woman revolutionary,Lin Hong. Lin, a revolutionary intellectualwho became a mill handin a Shanghaicotton mill, always "wore a tunic and trousers"there (Yang Mo, [1958] 1991: 390). This strategicuse of appearancemeant both forsakingand employing the practiceof self-adornment.Communists recognized the con- tributionthat a fashionable and attractiveappearance could make to their cause: Zhou Enlai's stylishness in the service of the revolution comes immediately to mind. Here we will concentrateon how the CCP used appearance,especially female appearance,to effectively furtherits political endeavor.

DESIGNINGAPPEARANCES, II: ADORNINGONESELF OR LOOKINGBEAUTIFUL FOR THEREVOLUTION

The Communists endorsed self-adornmentfor specific political purposes.Working in the city, the CCP assumedthat fashion could be useful for its undergroundactivities. Dressing up could enablerevolu- tionariesto conceal theirpolitical identity.According to Mao Dun, his brother,Shen Zeming, andhis sister-in-law,Zhang Qinqiu, were fash- ionably dressedas they lived in Shanghai.Shen put on a Western-style business suit, and Zhang was attiredin a qipao (traditionalChinese 338 MODERNCHINA/JULY 2003 dress),with herhair permed. They called this clothingtheir "disguise" (Mao Dun, [1981] 1996: 224). Such "disguises"helped revolutionariesto carry out their revolu- tionarymission. For instance,in 1937, one of the long marchers,Qian Xijun, went to Shanghai from Yan'an. She and her husband, Mao Zemin, faked their identitiesthere: Mao claimed to be the owner of a wholesale companyin the papertrade and dressedlike one, and Qian naturallybecame the proprietress(laoban niang). Theirmain mission was to receive a substantialamount of funds, donatedby the Comin- ternin U.S. dollars,and then transferthe money to Xi'an. Qian Xijun and anotherlong marcher,Wei Gongzi, adornedthemselves in the fashion of "well-off ladies" (kuo taitai) to bring the money to Xi'an (Guo Chen, 1986: 32-33). Zhang Yuzhenresorted to this tactic in the early 1940s when she took a message to the PartyCentral for the Com- munists detainedby Sheng Shicai in Xinjiang. Zhang, who became interestedin "progressiveideas" when she was a student in Dihua, Xinjiang, dressed herself up as a rich and fashionableyoung woman (kuo xiaojie), and hid the letter writtenby the detainees in one of the heels of her leather shoes (Li Ling, 1989: 22-23).7 Aside from using self-adornmentas a disguise, sometimes Com- munistwomen andmen thoughtthat by dressingup, they could help to give the CCP a positive image. In the Yan'anperiod, Mao Zedong's daughterLi Min recalls thatwhen Partymembers left theirrevolution- aryheadquarters for the Soviet Union via Xinjiang,they changedtheir attirein the Communistoffice there. Men put on Westernsuits, and women wore dresses. Westernized(and thus "fashionable")clothing was made available for children, too. When they returnedfrom the Soviet Union, they had to returnthese clothes to the office. Li offered no explanationfor this interestingdress code (WangXingjuan, 1993: 5). Possibly,the Partywished eitherto presentitself as a cosmopolitan contingent or to help its members fit into the Russian milieu. Less ambiguousis the case of Zhou Enlai andDeng Yingchao,who lived in Hankou.At the time of the Second United Front,they were invitedby the Guomindangto join the People's National Assembly (Guomin canzhenghui), which consisted of activists of different political stands.To representherself as a qualifiedhostess and an active politi- cian in a not-so-revolutionarycontext, Deng had her hairpermed and, as one of her friends noted, put on a qipao (Hsu, 1968: 149). Ip / FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 339

The Communists also realized that female beauty, created by an individual's clothing, hairdo, and style, could serve the revolution more generally. Song Qingling, Sun Yat-sen's widow, who offered significant help to the CCP, provides one example (J. Chang, 1986: 56-58,76-78,92-93, 105-6). To some extent,Song's influencederived from her public persona, in which moral prestige was an important ingredient. Nevertheless, in the eyes of many admirers,Song was impressivealso because of her appearance-they pointedto herdigni- fied grace, sophistication,fragility, and tasteful but simple clothing.8 Elegance combined with political commitment,tender beauty juxta- posed with courage-Song's image glitteredin the circle of Commu- nist sympathizers. Less eminent but similarly effective was Qiao Guanhua'swife, Gong Peng, who servedas Zhou Enlai'spress officer in Chongqing.Describing her as young, attractive,and intelligent, John Fairbankobserved that Gong became a symbol of freedom of speech in 1943 Chongqing.As a "glamourgirl," she was admiredby most of the young Americansin the embassy (Fairbank,1982: 267-73).

DEPLOYINGFEMALE BEAUTY IN POPULARART AND LITERATURE

PRETTYWOMEN AND THEREVOLUTION

It is not surprisingthat the Communistswere awareof the political effectiveness of beauty; they also employed it aggressively in the realm of literatureand the arts. Currentresearch has emphasizedthe importanceof the maturationof Shanghai'sstudio and new film technology for the success of such actresses as Hu Die and RuanLingyu, and it has also arguedagainst the interpretation,dominant in the Peo- ple's Republic of China, that attributedtheir rise to stardomto left- wing influence in famous studiosin the early 1930s (M. Chang, 1999: 144). While this claim may be plausible, it should be noted that Communistartists used lovely actressesin urbanmedia to spreadpro- revolution messages and arouse popular discontent with the status quo. In the 1930s, some actresseswere closely connectedto the CCP and used theirskills to aid its purposes.One of the popularstars working closely with left-wing playwrights and directorswas Bai Yang. 340 MODERNCHINA/JULY 2003

Born in 1920, Bai Yang achievedphenomenal success when she was only age sixteen, cast as a young graduateof a vocationalschool in the film Crossroads(Shizijietou). Showinghow educatedyoung men and women sufferedin Chinese society, Crossroadswas a huge success; accordingto a contemporarymagazine, it madeBai Yanginto "thegirl of every high school student's dreams" (Ni Zhenliang, 1992: 81). Thereafter,she was extremely active in a variety of stage and screen productions(see Ni Zhenliang, 1992). Viewing popularculture as a useful propagandatool, left-wing and Communistwriters also createdbeautiful female characters(played by attractiveactresses) to be vehicles for their political messages. Aroundthe time of the Sino-JapaneseWar, playwrights such as Xia Yan, Ouyang Yuqian, and A Ying employed female charactersas "symbols of resistance."Hung Chang-taiargued that "in creatingan effective resistance symbol, Chinese playwrights knew that they needed a characterwho was both visually attractiveand smashingly entertaining"(Hung, 1994: 77). Apart from serving as symbols of resistance, beautiful heroines also appearedas general emblems of moral integrity. Guo Moruo wrote his celebrated Qu Yuan,a popular play in Chongqing in the springof 1942, to criticize the Nationalistgovernment's undermining of the United FrontStrategy (Hung, 1994: 84). In the play, Qu Yuanis an uprightofficial of the Chu state attackedby other aristocrats.His heroic voice is echoed by Chanjuan,his beautifulmaid, who is concernedabout the fate of Chu and aspiresearnestly to moralperfection (Guo Moruo, [1942] 1953). The play ends with Chanjuan'sdeath: drinkinga poisoned cup of wine originallyintended for Qu Yuan,she unwittinglycompletes her final act of devotion to her mentor.

LEGITIMIZINGTHE POLITICAL USE OF FEMALEBEAUTY

While the Communist authorities throughoutthe revolutionary process drewmuch attentionto theiradvocacy of an ascetic style, they had not as loudly, publicly, and officially legitimatedthe use of feminine beauty for revolutionarypurposes. Although I am not concerned here with an official theoryon the use of female beauty,a carefulread- ing of both men's and women's writings demonstratesthat in the Ip /FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 341

Communistmilieu, the deployment of feminine beauty for political ends was perceivedto be fair andjust. The Partyhad alreadyemphasized that its membersshould follow instructionsat the expense of their own interests long before such leadersas Liu Shaoqi and Chen Yunwrote articlesto discipline revolutionariesin the Yan'anperiod. Since the late 1930s, the Partymade it clear that whenever necessary, CCP members should sacrifice personal concerns, including relationships,fame, power, and the like. The Communists' perennial fight against women's concern about appearancecan certainlybe seen as partof the requiredsacrifice of the personal.Conversely, the leadership'srhetoric on revolutionarycom- mitmentimplied that when the Partyand Partyinterest demanded it, one should do everything possible-including exploiting one's appearance-for the revolution.9 In fact, in the 1930s and 1940s, in short stories, plays, and movie scripts writtento serve the revolution,Communist authors portrayed without criticism the use of feminine beauty for political purposes. Awareof the powerof feminine charm,some of them even went so far as viewing an extreme applicationof this charm-namely, the use of sexuality-as permissiblein a righteouscause. One of these authorswas ZhangTianyi, who beganhis prolificliter- ary career in the late 1920s. In 1934, he published a novella titled ChangingPath (Yixing),in which he sketchedthe struggle of under- groundrevolutionaries in Shanghai. Sang Hua, an attractivewoman revolutionary,decides to use her feminine "techniques"to charm a rich man so that she can raise funds for the revolutionarystruggle. However,in the course of her interactionwith this middle-aged"capitalist," the revolutionarytemptress becomes so enchanted with the bourgeoislifestyle thatshe decides to marrythe man she had intended to exploit, forgettingall abouther fund-raising mission (ZhangTianyi, 1993: 209-44). Although critical of the young woman's betrayal, Zhang did not questionher idea of employing certainwiles on behalf of revolution. On the eve of the Sino-JapaneseWar, left-wing authorsadvocated anti-imperialismand attackedthe membersof the Nationalistgovern- ment as Chinese collaborators.Xia Yan,who joined the CCP in 1927, wrote his play Sai Jin Hua, which was an instantsuccess when it pre- miered in Nanjing. He representedSai Jin Hua as a prostitutewho, 342 MODERNCHINA/JULY 2003 duringthe Boxer Rebellion,exploits herintimate relationship with the German marshal Count Walderseeand her services to the Western troops to stop foreign soldiers' looting in the capital. This play was warmly received by some influential ideologues, including Zhou Yang (Wang, 1997: 115).1? Zhang Tianyi and Xia Yan simply did not reject the use of female beauty and sexuality;during the Sino-JapaneseWar, some left-wing writersworking for the CCP in the cities producedplays and movies that actively endorsedthe use of the "beautytactic" (meirenji). Again and again, Communisttheatrical products made explicit the position that to fight for the righteouscause and to destroythe evil otherjusti- fied the exploitationof femininebeauty. In 1938, Bai Yang,in cooper- ationwith left-wing artistssuch as Zhao Dan and Song Zhidi, stageda series of "resistanceplays" (kangri huaju). In one of these plays, A LuminousWineglass (Yeguangbei), Bai Yangplayed a patrioticheroine who uses the beauty tactic to approacha Chinese traitor,though she unfortunatelyfails (Ni Zhenliang, 1992: 122). However, in the movie titled China's Sons and Daughters (Zhonghuaernii), also fea- turingBai Yang, the beauty tactic is effective, as the young heroine, disguising herself as a lovely countrymaiden, successfully distracts the enemy's guard(Ni Zhenliang, 1992: 129). Working in the urban areas, Xia Yan and other playwrights employed the beauty tactic to attractthe audience and thus helped to legitimize such enticementin left-wing culture.1"Ding Ling, in con- trast,wrote to express her discontentwith what she saw in the Com- munist-controlledarea. In "WhenI Was in Xia Village" (1941), she touched on the issue of using feminine appearancefor political purposes. This well-known story focuses on Zhenzhen,a young woman who servedas a prostitutein the Japanese-occupiedarea and collected informationfor the CCP.When she returnsto her own village, while respectedby Communistcadres and local activists,she is nevertheless shunnedby many, including her own parents. TaniBarlow notes that this story "upsetliterary policy enforcers," as it "placeda woman seeking social redressat the centerof the plot" andthus "had the effect of makingZhenzhen the agentof her own self- naming"(Barlow, in Ding Ling, 1989: 298). The first-personnarrator, accordingto Barlow,was the only personwho let Zhenzhenspeak for herself, while others all wantedto assign meanings (whetherpositive Ip /FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 343 or negative) to her. I would add that the narrator'sperspective on the young woman is quite ambiguous.Sometimes, she, too, is temptedto assign positive meanings to the heroine's use of feminine sexuality (Ding Ling, 1989: 299). Althoughthe narratoris concernedabout how Zhenzhen felt, she tends to question the villagers' "feudal attitude" toward chastity but not Communist cadres' attitude. On one hand, "Theyouth were very good to her.Naturally, they were all activists." On the other hand, the villagers "disliked and despised Zhenzhen. This was especially true of women.... They were proudabout never havingbeen raped"(Ding Ling, 1989: 309). Moreover,Ding Ling did not use her powers as an authorto criticize the practiceof employing the female body for politicalpurposes. In the end, Zhenzhenleaves her nativevillage for Yan'an to starta new andpresumably better life. The ending suggests Ding Ling's assumptionthat a young womanwho had used her sexuality for a just cause deservedand would have a promising future. By translatingself-adornment and beauty into political effectiveness in realityand in imaginativeworks, the Communistsemphasized the power of being fashionableor beautiful.In addition,such power sometimes had a personaldimension: the audience'sapplause, young students'infatuation, and the enemy's softened attitude,imagined or real, towardfemale fighters in disguise-all these broughtpersonal reward,in the form of social glamour,to those individualswho combined political progressiveness and feminine charm. But to under- stand how the interestin female beauty was sustainedin the revolutionary process, we must consider interactionsat the interpersonal level.

APPEARANCE,INTERPERSONAL INTERACTION, AND PERSONALLIFE IN THEREVOLUTIONARY MILIEU

Despite Communists' rhetoric, which maintained that political qualitieswere the most essential in formingpersonal relationships, in the revolutionarycontext, women's social standing-and marriage prospectsas well-still to some extentdepended on theirappearance. In the realm of courtshipand marriage,Communists emphasized the essentiality of ideological compatibilitybut not that of physical 344 MODERNCHINA/JULY 2003 attraction.For instance,in the late 1920s, many Communistsliving in Shanghaiviewed the marriageof Cai Hesen and Xiang Jingyu,whom they consideredan unfashionablewoman, as an ideal union based on ideological communion.Before their divorce, they were admiredby others as an "exemplarycouple" (mofanfuqi; Zheng Chaolin, 1997: 287-98). Allegedly, Fang Zhimin also emphasizedthe importanceof the ideological correctnessof a revolutionary'sspouse (Fang Zhimin zhuan bianxiezu, 1982: 95). And in the early 1940s, when Deng Yingchao discussed romantic love, she presented compatibility between two youths in ideology, personality,and age as the basic cri- terion for choosing a spouse (Deng Yingchao, [1942] 1988: 73-75). Yet women who were thoughtbeautiful by theircomrades enjoyed significantprominence. Think of Mao Zedong's wife, He Zizhen, in the Jingganshanarea in the 1920s; Qu Qiubai'swife, YangZhihua, in Shanghaiin the 1930s; and Song Qingling meeting her Communist andnon-Communist friends-all drewmuch attentionfrom both their male and female comradesbecause of theirappearance (Terrill, 1992: 140; Zheng Chaolin, 1997: 1.285-88; Ding Ling, 1984a: 5.99; Deng Yingchao, 1981: 169; Wang Guangmei, 1981: 94). Their popularity indicatesthat women of differentcultural backgrounds could be con- sidered beautiful in settings ranging from a Communist-controlled area in the countryto metropolitanShanghai.12 It is also clear, however, that beginning in the Yan'an period, as more and more well-educatedpeople enteredthe revolutionarycircle, educated and urbane women were increasingly regarded as being most attractive.13According to revolutionaries'chitchat of the time, celebrated"beauties" in Yan'anincluded such women as Jiang Qing, Sun Weishi (ZhouEnlai's adopteddaughter), and Zhu Zhongli (Wang Jiaxiang'swife; see Terrill,1992: 134; Lee Hsiao-li, 1975: 207; Shao Yang, 1993: 193). Respectively an actress from Shanghai,a popular performerwith Russian training,and a doctor who graduatedfrom a medical school in Shanghai,they had one thing in common-a relatively metropolitanbackground. Modem-actingand personablewomen enjoyed male patronage,as Communist leaders' patternof courtship often made evident. Most attention drawing was the relationship between Mao Zedong and JiangQing, which generatedmuch controversyamong top Partylead- ers because of JiangQing's problematicpast andalso because of some Ip /FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 345

Party leaders' and their wives' close comradeshipwith He Zizhen (Terrill,1992: 151-54; Ye Yonglie, 1993: 171-72). But Mao's prefer- ence for a young, modem, andpretty woman was echoed in othermar- riages elsewhere-that of Chen Yi and Zhang Xi, of TanZhenlin and Ge Huimin,of Xiang Yin and Li Youlan,and of Liu Shaoqi and Wang Guangmei (Tie Zhuwei, 1989: 246-47, 250-51; Ye Yonglie, 1993: 250). This preferencewas also sharedby those who occupied lower rungsin the political ladder.In 1955, a woman namedLiu Lequn,tor- mented by her husband'sextramarital affair with a pretty and well- educatedyoung woman, wrote a letter to the magazineNew China's Women(Xin Zhongguofunii). She revealedthat in the 1940s, working as a Communistcadre in the liberatedarea (jiefangqu),her husband, Luo Baoyi, dumpedhis original girlfriend,whom he called a "rustic peasant-workercadre," and marriedher (Liu Lequn, 1955).14In fact, the predilectionfor well-educatedand urbaneyoung women was so strongthat in the Civil Warperiod, some male cadressaw the Commu- nists' final occupationof the urbanareas as a chance for them to grab modem women (Liu Lequn, 1955). The Communistentry to the cities thus generatedanother new wave of divorce similar to that already seen in Yan'an. Accompanying male revolutionaries'interest in modem women and their social visibility was the marginalizationof "rustic"women. Female long marcherswho lost theirgood looks and were unfashion- able were excluded from Yan'an's most desirable social function- the danceparty-as they did not know how to waltz andwere unaccus- tomed to the interminglingof men and women (Terrill,1992: 142-43; Wang Xingjuan, 1993: 30). Intertwined with their sociocultural marginalizationwere tragediesin theirpersonal lives, when educated young women from big cities migrated to Yan'an and "business soaredat the Divorce Office"(Terrill, 1992: 142; also see Snow, 1972: 253). Observingwhat happenedat that time, Ding Ling, who herself was not much liked by many female veterans,described sarcastically in Thoughts on March 8 (1942) how revolutionarymen used the excuse of "political backwardness"to divorce their unattractive wives. She noted, "Evenfrom my point of view, as a woman, there is nothing attractive about such 'backward elements.' Their skin is beginningto wrinkle,their hair is growingthin, and fatigue is robbing them of their last traces of attractiveness"(Ding Ling, 1989: 319). 346 MODERNCHINA /JULY 2003

In the Yan'anperiod and after, many female long marchersenjoyed prestige and even influence (Young, 2001: 161). However, some, including He Zizhen, were confronted with the irony that despite being politically esteemed, they were personally punished for their lack of attractiveness.While the Communistsinvested much effort in deprecatingself-adornment and the pursuitof beauty,they also acted politically and personallyin ways that counteractedthis effort. Their ambivalentattitude provided little supportfor their rhetoric, which sang the praises of indifferenceto appearance.15

THEREVOLUTIONARY AESTHETIC OF FEMININITY

EMBRACINGTHE NOTION OF BEAUTY AND ACCEPTINGSELF-BEAUTIFICATION

To explainthe Communistinterest in female beauty,we shouldalso note that revolutionariesdid not reject the concept of beauty and sometimes even demonstratedan acceptanceof the female pursuitof self-adornment.16 In the May Fourthand Communist movements, radicals argued that a new female appearancecreated a new kind of beauty. In Ba Jin's popularnovel Family (1931), Qin, a young woman radical, viewed short hair, which signified the "removal of discriminationagainst women,"as pleasing:it "carrieswith it freshnessof style andbeauty in simplicity"(qtd. in Finnane, 1996: 114). Qin-or, rather,Ba Jin him- self-saw aesthetic value in the new look. In real life, some women activists were indeed impressedby the aesthetics of radical appearance. In 1923, Ding Ling met her mother'sgood friend,Xiang Jingyu, and saw "gentleness and quiet grace" in the latter, whose appearance-short hair,plain jacket, and darkskirt-was a far cry from that of fashion-consciouswomen (Ding Ling, 1984b: 5.196). Aside from embracingthe notion of beauty,revolutionaries sometimes also acceptedwomen's interestin appearance.This acceptance was revealedin theirrecognition of women's rightto self-adornment, always expressed in a class-based rhetoric that sympathized with those women whose longing for self-beautificationwas thwartedby Ip /FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 347 unjusteconomic realities.By the early 1950s, Communistwriters and artistswere clearly using women's new access to what they wanted- that is, self-adorment-to sing the praises of the revolution. The authorsand artiststransformed the issue of self-adornmentinto a site where revolutionarystruggle could be made to seem more admirable to the sufferingmasses. Take, for instance, the masterpieceof Yan'an's "new opera,"The White-HairedGirl, rewrittencontinuously from 1944 until 1950. To highlight the poverty throughoutthe countryside in the 1930s, it showed the poor peasant girl, Xier, deprived of resources that she might use for self-adornment.Unable to affordflowers, she is excited by a simple red string that her father bought for her (Yan'an Luyi, 1987: 8.382). This condemnationof the unjust class system that denied some women access to self-beautificationwas accompaniedby praiseof the emancipation that gave women their right to self-adornment.Al- though The White-HairedGirl did not follow up on the changes that might be expected in poor peasantwomen's ornamentsand clothing, anotherpiece, intendedfor a more sophisticatedpool of audience,did. In TheSun Shines over the SangganRiver, which examinesthe unfold- ing of land reform in 1946, Ding Ling presentedall the little details involved in Chinese peasants'participation in the revolutionaryprocess. In portraying their joy, she approvingly describes peasant women looking for nice clothes (by rural standards)as they search well-off people's property(Ding Ling, [1948] 1955: 301-2). The Communiststhus did not suppressinterest in beauty, as they recognized the pragmaticvalue of beauty and self-beautificationfor the revolution,adored beauty themselves, saw beautyin a radicalized appearance,and accepted women's practice of self-beautification. While the questionof how women respondedto all this awaitsfurther investigation,clearly some women did practiceself-beautification in a revolutionary context in which the political value and personal rewardsof beautywere confirmed,and beauty and beautification were to a certain degree endorsed. How, then, did women beautify themselves? In the revolutionaryprocess, theregradually emerged a set of principlesand practicespertaining to self-beautification,which I will call the revolutionaryaesthetics of femininity. 348 MODERNCHINA/JULY 2003

THEREVOLUTIONARY AESTHETICS OF FEMININITY

The revolutionaryaesthetics of femininity was markedby women radicals'attempts to adornthemselves in ways befittingtheir political identityand activities.In settingswhere they did not need to hide their political orientation,some adornedtheir radicalized image, despite its being rooted in the revolutionary spirit of nonadornment. For instance,when female studentsput on politicized attireat the military institutes during the National Revolution, they followed a modest approachto beautification,creating a look that would go along with their politics. A revolutionaryappearance was attainedby wearing unisex clothing made of rough, cheap cloth and cutting their hair short. But not wanting to be plain, they transformedtheir short hair into a form of ornamentaldisplay: accordingto Hu Lanqi,then a student at the institute,when the membersof the women's trainingpro- gramas a collective decidedto cut theirown hair,some had theirshort hairstyled. As for the far from feminine militaryuniform, one student found a tailorto make it more stylish (JingLingzi, 1989: 154; also see Hu Lanqi, 1995: 149-51).'7 In the ruralareas, young peasantwomen who enlisted in the army also modified their uniforms. Li Min, who was born into a peasant family andjoined the Red Army in the Chuan-Sha'anSoviet Area in 1933, recalls thatwhen women soldiers were given the assignmentof makinguniforms, they took advantageof the chanceto beautifythem- selves. Although they did not have good fabrics, as Li remembers, they tailoredthe unisex uniformcarefully to their figures. They used linen strandsto cover the buttons,sewed decorativepatterns onto their leg wrappings,and tied little red balls made of thin threadsto their straw sandals (Zeng Zhi, 1986: 314). Like women students in the NationalRevolution, these women peasantsoldiers polished but kept theirradicalized appearance.18 But unlikethem, peasant women could not affordsuch luxuriesas hiringa tailor:frugally, they used theirlim- ited resourcesto create aestheticeffects. Frugalityas an aestheticprinciple was also sometimes adoptedby the educatedand moder women radicals.Consider what happened in Yan'an, a stratifiedsociety whose limited resourcesforced the Com- munist leaders to live on rations and in caves (Quan Yanchi, 1990: 180; Hsu, 1968: 148; Fairbank,1982: 265). Womenhad little chance Ip / FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 349 to wear chic clothing or to purchaseexpensive cosmetics. Moreover, in Yan'an,many revolutionaries-veteran female revolutionariesand peasant cadres, in particular-did not approve of those who were eager to pursuebeauty (Snow, 1972: 253). Underthe circumstances,even JiangQing, as first lady of the CCP, wore only whatevery womancadre wore: a shortjacket andpants. But accordingto a reporterfor the New YorkTimes, the way she wore them showed her "good taste" as an actress and thus her feminine charm ("Yan'ande niixing," 1946: 5). The recollection of Mao's personal guard, Li Yinqiao, authenticatesthe Americanjournalist's observa- tion (Quan Yanchi, 1990: 137). Jiang's concern for her appearance was not unique,however. In the Yan'an period,"peasant-worker" cadres who noted young women cadreswearing "revolutionary" military uniformswith ropes tied aroundtheir waists criticizedthis practiceas "coquettish" (mai fengliu; Dou Shangchu, [1942] 1988: 237). Undoubtedly,these young women's approachto accentuatingtheir femininitywas very differentfrom that of the Red Army's women soldiers in the Chuan-Sha'anSoviet Area. But they, too, were practitio- ners of the aesthetic of frugality. Althoughthe termfrugalitysuggests plainness,restraint, prudence, andlow cost, it is an elastic concept, differingwith individuals'social, geographical, and cultural backgrounds:what people in one place found fashionableand extravagantmay have looked homely and out- moded in another.The principles of modesty and frugality,adopted since the 1920s in openly revolutionarysettings, were followed differ- ently by some women activists who workedin the urbanareas under the rule of the Nationalistgovernment. These women activistsdid not put on revolutionaryclothing, and those who were performershad professionalreasons to pay attentionto theirappearance. However, by keeping theiradornment frugal and modest (by urbanstandards), they both made themselves look beautiful and made their image "politically progressive."For instance, according to an anti-Communist source,Yuan Xuefen, a famousYue operastar who openly cooperated professionally with the left-wing playwrightsTian Han and Ouyang Yuqianand helped to organizeunderground Communist activities in Shanghaiin the 1940s, looked seriousand wore simple clothing (Tang Shaohua, 1981: 277-78). 350 MODERNCHINA/JULY 2003

Simple clothing appearsto have servedas a political symbol, high- lighting the difference between left-wingers' idealism and the estab- lishment's decadence: performing with her comrades in wartime Sichuan,Bai Yangrelied on her unpretentiousappearance to impress herfans, presentingherself as a patrioticheroine (Ni Zhenliang,1992: 105). It certainly is difficult to determineif there were any political reasons for Song Qingling to embracea style that was both exquisite and simple. But evidently, her unassuming elegance matched her image as a righteous political fighter well. If she had looked like Chiang Kai-shek's wife, Song Meiling, her political idealism would have appearedmuch less convincing. By the time of the foundingof the People's Republic,the Commu- nists had developed a complex legacy regardingfemale appearance, stronglyinfluenced by politics and markedby contradictoryattitudes towardand interestin self-beautificationand beauty.In the following section, I briefly examine how this legacy operatedin a differentcon- text: the pre-CulturalRevolution regime.

THELEGACY OF FEMALEBEAUTY IN THE COMMUNISTREGIME

Maoist Chinahas been known for its advocacyof a simple, revolutionaryappearance.'9 The media always encouragedChinese citizens to strugglefor political correctnessand to put aside the pursuitof self- adornment. For example, in The Chinese Youth(Zhongguo qingnian), a magazinetargeted at young readers,a writerintroducing the life and personalityof Zhao Yimandescribed how this famous womanmartyr showed little concernabout her appearanceand wore extremelyshort hair when she was in Moscow (Zhang Ling, 1957: 24). In cultural products, some powerful images of revolutionaryheroines did not represent them as beautiful. Thus, the heroine of Feng Deying's famous novel, The Bitter Flower (Kucaihua), was a mother at middle age who, when the story begins, has alreadylost her youthful beauty (Feng Deying, [1958] 1990: 6; see also the image of Jiang Xueqin in Red Cliff). In commenting on young men and women who paid attentionto their own or others' looks, the Party was always critical. It did not Ip / FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 351 hesitate to show its disapprovalof what it called a deviantphenome- non: "Now, among the youths, those plainly dressed were looked down upon as being 'conservative' and 'shabby.' ... Young men and women always envy those who wear beautifulclothes" (Su Yi, 1957: 40). Party authoritiesde-emphasized the importanceof appearance for love, stressing instead ideological compatibility (Evans, 1997: 90). When it identified men who intendedto leave their rustic wives for pretty,modem women, it forced them to give up such bourgeois individualismand reformthemselves (Chen Qi, 1956; Pang Youwen, 1956). But at the same time, the state also allowed the spread of messages that endorsed the concept of beauty and the practice of self- beautification.The political, pragmaticstrength of beauty and self- beautificationcontinued to be celebrated.In literatureand the arts,heroic female characterssometimes employed self-adornmentand beautyto achievetheir political goals. In RevolutionaryStruggle in a HistoricCity (Yehuochunfeng dou gucheng),a devotedrevolutionary named Jin Huan uses herbeauty to subverta Japanesemilitary officer (Li Yingru,1959: 277-90). In TheBitter Flower, a peasantgirl, Juanzi,together with her female comrades,dresses up, flirts with the enemies guardinga town close to the Communist-controlledarea, and thereby aids the male cadres' seizure of the town (Feng Deying, [1958] 1990: 190-95). Whereas in the revolutionary past, nice-looking revolutionary women drew attentiononly in revolutionarycircles, the social glamour of beautiful and politically eminent women was now nationally publicized.In state-sponsoredmedia, positive representationsof feminine beauty abounded:images of such attractiveand well-groomed elite women as Song Qingling were frequently seen nationwide in newspapers from the 1950s to 1960s. That beauty combined with political correctnessor accomplishmentswas admirablewas further reinforcedby revolutionarynovels and movies whose heroines were often beautiful. Qu Bo's (1959) Forest on the Snowy Plain (Linhai xueyuan) lavishly portrayedthe lovely image of the female protago- nist, Bai Ru, and Yang Mo's ([1958] 1991) The Song of Youth (Qingchunzhi ge) createdtwo beautifulheroines, Lin Daojing andLin Hong. In the script for the movie based on her popularnovel, Yang specified very clearly that Lin Daojing is an attractivewoman (Yang Mo, [1959] 1989:163); the personwho hadthe honorof playingher in 352 MODERNCHINA/JULY 2003 the film was Xie Fang. While we cannotbe sure how membersof the Chinese audience respondedto all this information,they were obvi- ously aware of the connection between beauty and political worthi- ness. One authornotes that when he was growing up in the 1950s, female revolutionariesin variedcultural manifestations were always attractive (Gao, 2000: 50).20 In addition, women's self-beautification,as before, was used to glorify the Communistrevolution. In the new regime, female self- adornmentwas exploited to symbolize the fruits of the revolution- now redefinedas the new China'sprosperity. One authorboasted, "As our economy develops, and our salaries are raised, we can certainly improveour lifestyle. In the past we only wore plain clothes, but now we can affordto buy one or two things made of velvet" (Su Yi, 1957: 40). Propagandafilms also used images of women trying on new clothes to highlightthe Communiststate's impressive growth (see The Gate of Heavenly Peace, 1995). As beauty and beautificationwere endorsed,beauty tips filled women's magazines. In the magazine Chinese Women(Zhongguo funii), articles were dedicatedto such subjects as the effect of colors on one's image and how to protectone's skin (Qiu Ti, 1956; Xia Lianbo, 1956). The article in Chinese Womenon skin care said little about applying different kinds of cream, emphasizing instead the use of water and ordinary soap. It seems thatdespite the Party'sclaims aboutChina's prosperity, the principleof frugalitywas still at least partlyin force. In the 1960s, after the Great Leap Forward,articles showed women how to make stylish clothes for themselves out of men's worn-outjackets or scraps of fabric (Beijing qing gongye ju fuzhuang yanjiusuo, 1960; Chen Guitao, 1963). In the Communistmilieu, therefore,there was room, howeverlim- ited, for women to beautify themselves. Their experience with self- adornmentwas determinedby such factors as their class, education, and location. Among wives of centralor provincialleaders, dressing up was, after all, not so unusual.As the regime became more stable, many paid more attentionto beautification.To some extent, they used politics to express their interestin beauty. Shui Jing, the wife of the Jiangxi Party secretary,reports that Zhang Xi, the wife of Chen Yi, was an amateurfashion designer who zealously took on the mission of modifying the qipao for the wives of Chinese diplomatsso as to keep Ip /FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 353 them warm and make them look beautiful(Shui Jing, 1992: 117-20). Sometimes, their public roles helped legitimize their self-beautification: they donneda qipao andmakeup on "importantoccasions" without being criticizedby authoritiesfor being bourgeois.But they themselves wanted to look beautiful. Zhang Xi enjoyed trying on Romaniancostumes; Wang Guangmei'sdresses looked so beautiful that Shui Qing and Yu Shu, Zeng Xisheng's wife, eagerly borrowed her patterns(Shui Jing, 1992: 117, 68-69). Top leaders'young wives were not the only groupof elite women who dressedup. Once the time of revolutionarymilitary struggle was long past, veteranrevolutionar- ies such as Cai Chang were also interestedin dressing well (see pic- tures in Shui Jing, 1992). In the face of this evidence, it is hardto conclude that upper-class women still adoptedthe revolutionaryaesthetics of feminine beauty. Those outside of the elite circle also retained their interest in self- beautification.Ordinary cadres and studentsalways wore darkLenin jackets and sometimes dressed in traditional-lookingclothing and shirts (for photos, see Wang Xingjuan, 1993, and see issues of Zhongguo qingnian throughout this period); rural women were always attiredin high-collaredtops and loose pants. But before the Cultural Revolution, in the urban areas, some women still wore makeupand perfume;some put on blouses made of flower-patterned cotton under their Lenin jackets (Liang and Shapiro, 1984: 47; J. Chang, 1991). While permedhair was certainlynot praisedas a sign of political correctness,it could still be seen even among politically progressive students (e.g., see Zhongguo qingnian, 1957, no. 6). Rural young women who were praised as good models were certainly dressed in simple clothing, but they also tied their hair with ribbons (e.g., see Zhongguofunii, 1960, no. 163). I have sketchedthe interestin female beautyduring the revolutionary process and, to some extent, duringthe pre-CulturalRevolution regime, arguingfor a more comprehensiveapproach to the analysis of womanhood under Communism. In addition to paying attentionto such facets of women's experienceas family,career, and political per- formance, we should also consider how questions of appearance affected them both duringthe revolutionaryprocess and in the Com- munistregime. Historianshave alreadydrawn attention to the Maoist regime's ambivalentattitudes toward career and domestic obligations 354 MODERNCHINA /JULY 2003

(e.g., see Honig and Hershatter,1988: 244). But to understandbetter how Chinese women's femininitywas constructedin the Maoist state, we need to examine in more detailhow women lived theirlives amid a complex legacy thatboth disapprovedof andreinforced the interestin beauty.21How did women respondto and reflect on the practicaland personalvalue of attractiveness?How did they create their own concept of beautyand sense of fashionwithin in a culturethat emphasized beauty in simplicity, modesty, and a politically correct appearance? How can we expandour understandingof women's lives in the Com- munist regime by integratingthe issues of appearance,family, and career?These areimportant questions for those committedto the mission of reconstructingwomen's gender-relatedexperience in the Communiststate.

NOTES

1. Beauty here is not treatedas an abstractconcept. Following SandraBartky, whose defi- nition of beauty resonates well with the work of popularwriters such as Rita Freedmanand Naomi Wolf, I see "femininebeauty" as a culturallyconstructed quality that is based on a combi- nation of concrete elements, including physical characteristics,adornment, language, movement, gesture, and posture (Bartky,1990: 68, 71-73). To some extent, it may be true that what constitutesbeauty is a subjectivematter that rests on individualpreference. But in analyzingthe interest in beauty, I adopt a view that collapses the boundarybetween the subjective and the objective:when individualspursue self-adornment or evaluatetheir own or others'appearances, the criteriaapplied are always conditionedby a combinationof factors, including their back- groundsand identities and what their culturesor subculturesperceive to be pleasing. 2. One key issue is how we should interrogatethose insiders'recollections, which may be unreliablefor many reasons. Moreover, memories of personal details may be impossible to authenticateby referringto other sources. I cite this type of informationwhen two recollections appearto convergein representinga historicalphenomenon (e.g., women activists'approach to self-adornment).Sometimes, I also make use of a single source that records a phenomenon whose presence seems plausible in the historicalcontext. 3. The struggleagainst footbinding was a geographicallyuneven process. In some areas,it began only after the 1949 Liberation(Honig and Hershatter,1988: 3). 4. As partof the revolutionaryprocess, radical women did deliberatelyreject conventional beauty norms. They sometimes paid dearly for adopting the May Fourth-style appearance. Honig and Hershattermention that when Chiang Kai-shek purged the Communist Party in Wuhan,he executed young women with bobbed hair (Honig and Hershatter,1988: 2; also see ZhangBaojin's recollectionin Jing Lingzi, 1989: 234). Less dramatically,women who cut their hair in Shanghaiin the early 1920s were often ridiculed(Ding Ling, 1984b: 194-95). The con- structionof a new image also entailedphysical struggle.Women of variousgenerations-ranging from Ding Ling's motherYu Manzhento long marcherssuch as Wei Gongzi-struggled to be activewith their"liberated" bound feet (Ding Ling, 1989:226-27; Guo Chen, 1986:144-47). Ip /FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 355

5. Certainly, not all revolutionarieshad to endure poverty. Their material conditions dependedon their connections, professions, and political status and assignment.For instance, the playwrightTian Han, also staying in Shanghaiin the early 1930s, had a much betterlife (Ye Yonglie, 1993: 40). 6. The questionof whetherradicalizing personal appearance helped or hurtthe revolution is complex and requiresfurther investigation. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Communist Partysometimes found thatfemale cadres'radical appearance, together with theirrevolutionary behavior,alienated villagers who continuedto regardthem as women ("Tonggao,"[1934] 1982: 214, no. 18). But to act as good revolutionaries,women often found it necessaryto give up the establishedsymbols of feminine beauty that some still cherished. 7. These women did not describein detail how they defineda kuo taitai or kuoxiaojie. But we can trackthe images of fashionableand well-off women in the urbanareas in the 1920s and 1930s in recent scholarly literature(see Edwards, 2000; Finnane, 1996: 111, 115-20; Luo Suwen, 1996; Zhou Xuqi, 1994; Lee, 2000). 8. Living in Shanghaiin the early 1930s, Song won the admirationof Anna Louise Strong and of Edgarand Helen Snow for her appearance.She was describedas beautiful,exquisite, and glamorous (J. Chang, 1986: 80-81). 9. Rumorhas it thatthe Partynot only used images of beautifulwomen in popularart and literaturebut also told attractiveCommunist women to employ their charm and sexuality to seduce individuals.According to one anti-Communistsource-Tang Shaohua,who workedin the movie industryin Shanghai in the 1940s-Bai Yang was twice told to marrya promising young artistwhom the Chinese CommunistParty (CCP) wanted to recruit(Tang Shaohua, 1981: 276, 238). 10. The play did not go uncontestedin left-wing circles. In August 1936, Lu Xun wrote, "TheSai Jin Huawho slept with Walderseeduring the Boxer movementis now given the title of a 'patriotic goddess'" (Xia Yan, 1996: 85-87). Some left-wing writers challenged Xia Yan's "excessive" sympathyfor a prostitute,and others stressed that Sai Jin Hua just "incidentally" (ouran) and unintentionally(wuyi) contributedto the Chinese people ("SaiJin Hua zuotanhui," [1936] 1990; "Sai Jin Hua pingzuo,"[1936] 1990). Perhapsthese objections to Sai Jin Hua's image as a nationalheroine were tied to distastefor how she employed female beauty,but it is equally likely that those who criticized Sai Jin Hua's original occupationregarded her use of feminine charm for nationalisticpurposes as fine. At any rate, that Xia Yan's creation of this patrioticimage of Sai Jin Hua was appreciatedby powerfulofficials shows that some Commu- nists regardedthe use of beauty and sexuality as legitimate. 11. On how the left-wingers effectively combined entertainmentwith political purposes, see Pang (2002). 12. He Zizhen received only a limited educationin her native area. Yang Zhihua,once the daughter-in-lawof Shen Dingyi, was educatedat ShanghaiUniversity. Growing up in a wealthy Christianfamily, Song Qingling was educatedin the United States. 13. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Communistbase areasattracted young people, many of whom hadreceived a fair amountof moder educationand came fromcities. It was also a time when many veteran revolutionarieswere enjoying a relatively stable life. These conditions, which allowed revolutionariesto meet a more diversepool of women and thinkmore abouttheir personallives, were conduciveto displayingattitudes that betrayed revolutionaries' own prefer- ence for female beauty. 14. Not all male authoritiespursued and marriedyoung beauties-Xu Guangdai,one of the key administratorsat the Resistance University (Kangda), did not abandonhis plain-looking wife, whom he hadnot seen for years.But he was regardedas a rarity(Shao Yang, 1993:240-41). 356 MODERNCHINA/JULY 2003

15. Not all modern young women aspiredto a social upwardmobility based on relations with powerfulmales. Some resisted;others yielded only reluctantly(see Tie Zhuwei, 1989: 202, 246-47, 250-51; also see Li Ling, 1989). But it is also clear that some were quite aggressive in approachingpowerful men (Snow, 1972: 252; Terrill, 1992: 133-38). 16. This section briefly analyzes how women developedsome principlesof self-adornment in relationto theirpolitical identity.It is not meantas an investigationinto clothing andfashion or an examinationof individualvariations in self-adornment. 17. The attemptsby radicalwomen to beautifytheir revolutionary appearance raise a couple of interestingquestions. First, how can we put this in a comparativeperspective? Scholars have notedthat women elsewhere sometimes adornedclothing thatwas supposedlyintended to mark a breakfrom conventionalfemininity; for instance,in the 1970s, women in the West, following the advice of fashionand image experts,adopted power dressing, a strategyaimed at challenging theirconventional image as weak butnot necessarilythe conventionalnotion(s) of female beauty (Entwistle,2000: 187-91). Second, how did revolutionaries,especially women revolutionaries, employ political languageto legitimize the pursuitof feminine beauty?On this point, a memoir writtenby Hu Lanqi,a veteranof the NationalRevolution, is quite revealing.She mentionsthat hercomrades emphasized the compatibilitybetween Marxism and the pursuitof "materialcivili- zation"(wuzhi wenming;Hu Lanqi, 1995: 150-51). 18. On conventionalpractices of self-adornmentin ruralareas in the firsthalf of the twentieth century,see Luo Suwen (1996: 237-46). 19. The brief surveyin this section is not intendedto compareapproaches to self-adornment in the revolutionaryand postrevolutionaryperiods. 20. Negative characters,too, could be attractive.For instance,in the movie The Bold Hero (Yingxionghudan, 1958), the famous starWang Xiaotang, who played the heroinein Revolution- ary Strugglein a Historic City(1963), took on the role of A Lan, an attractivewoman spy trying to sabotagethe revolution.However, A Lan'sattractiveness was coupledwith an overtsensuality and "decadent"self-adornment (tight outfit,big earrings,heavy makeup,etc.) thatwere diamet- rically opposed to the revolutionaryaesthetics of beauty. 21. The questions raised here are beyond the scope of this article; sources relevant to answering them include Li Xiaojiang's volume, which contains insiders' recollections that emphasizeyoung women's rejectionof the practiceof pursuingbeauty (see Li Xiaojiang, 1997: 1-36, 141-75). See also the book on Chinese women in the Mao era recently edited by Wang Zheng, ZhongXueping, and Bai Di (2001). Accordingto Wang,in fact, not only the Communist attackon bourgeoislifestyle butalso the Chinese "feudaltradition" put a concernfor appearance in an unfavorablelight (Wang Zheng, 2001: 40-49). But these sources also show that women remainedsensitive to their own appearanceand to the issue of beauty generally (Li Xiaojiang, 1997: 37-60). Wangbelieves thatyoung women admiredgood looks but showeddisdain for self- beautification.Such observationsunderscore the importanceof exploringin moredetail how the complex Communistlegacy concerningfemale appearanceshaped women's self-expectations and self-images underthe Maoist regime.

REFERENCES

AO XIAMIN ([1926] 1986) "Nilxuesheng yingyou zhi juewu"(Female students'political con- sciousness). In ZFYLZ, 548-51. BARTKY,SANDRA (1990) Femininity and Domination: Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression.New York:Routledge Kegan Paul. Ip /FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 357

Beijing qing gongye ju fuzhuangyanjiusuo [Institute of Clothes, the Bureauof Light Industryof Beijing] (1960) "Jieyuemeiguan de qiuyi" (Economical and beautifulclothes for the fall). Zhongguo funii 17:26. CAI CHANG ([1925] 1986) "Eguogeming yu funii"(The Russian Revolutionand women). In ZGFYL, 300-5. CHANG, JUNG [ZhangRong] (1991) Wild Swans: Three Daughtersof China. Glasgow, UK: HarperCollins. CHANG, JUNG with JON HALLIDAY (1986) Mme Sun Yat-sen (Soong Ching-ling). Harmondsworth,UK: Penguin. CHANG, MICHAEL(1999) "Thegood, the bad, and the beautiful:movie actressesand public discourse in Shanghai, 1920s-1930s." Pp. 128-59 in Yingjing Zhang (ed.), Cinema and UrbanCulture in Shanghai, 1922-1943. Stanford,CA: StanfordUniv. Press. "Changshaniijie lianhehuichengli xuanyan"[The founding speech of the ChangshaWomen's Federation]([1921] 1986) In ZFYLZ, 8-10. CHEN GUITAO(1963) "Yitaonuzhuang zhi yongjiuchi bu"(How to make a woman's suit with nine squarefeet of fabric). Zhongguo funii 12:32. CHEN QI (1956) "LuoLiu fufu guanxi polie de yuanyinhezai" (The causes of Liu's and Luo's divorce). Zhongguo funii 1:17-18. "Congxin qimeng yundongtan dao funii wenti" [Reflectionson women from the perspectiveof the new enlightenmentmovement] ([1937] 1988) In CYYKN, 335-39. CROLL,ELIZABETH (1995) ChangingIdentities of Chinese Women:Rhetoric, Experience, and Self-Perceptionin Twentieth-CenturyChina. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Univ. Press. CYYKN. See Zhongguo quanguofunii lianhehuifunii yundong lishi yanjiushi, 1988. DENG YINGCHAO(1981) "Deng Yingchao tan Song Qingling"(Deng Yingchao's recollection of Song Qingling). Pp. 169-82 in Guangjiaojingchubanshe (ed.), Song Qingling. Hong Kong: Guangjiaojingchubanshe. ([1942] 1988) "Tong qingnian pengyou tantanlianai hunyin wenti" (A conversation with young comradeson love and marriage).Pp. 73-75 in Deng Yingchao,Cai Chang, and Kang Keqing (eds.), Funii jiefang wenti wenxuan (Selected writings on the problems of women's liberation).Beijing: Renmin chubanshe. DING LING ([1948] 1955) Taiyangzhaozai Sangganheshang (The sun shines over the Sanggan River). Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe. (1984a) "Wo suo renshi de Qu Qiubai tongzhi" (My understandingof comrade Qu Qiubai).Pp. 82-112 in Ding Ling wenji (The worksof Ding Ling). Vol.5. Changsha:Hunan renminchubanshe. (1984b) "XiangJingyu tongzhi dui wo de yingxiang"(Comrade Xiang Jingyu's influence on me). Pp. 193-98 in Ding Ling wenji (The works of Ding Ling). Vol. 5. Changsha: Hunanrenmin chubanshe. (1989) I Myself Am a Woman:Selected Writingsof Ding Ling. Ed. TaniE. Barlowwith Gary J. Bjorge. Boston: Beacon. DOU SHANGCHU([1942] 1988) "Xuefengxuexi chubuzongjie" (Preliminary summing up of my [problematicattitude toward] studying in the rectificationcampaign). Pp. 224-37 in Yan'an zhongyang dangxiao zhengfeng yundong bianxiezu (The Central Party Institute Study Group)(ed.), Yan'anzhongyang dangxiao de zhengfeng yundong (The rectification campaign at the CentralParty Institute). Vol. 1. Beijing: Zhongyangdangxiao chubanshe. EDWARDS, LOUISE (2000) "Policing the moder women in Republican China."Modem China 26, 2 (Apr.): 115-47. ENTWISTLE,JOANNE (2000) The FashionedBody: Fashion,Dress, and Modem Social The- ory. Cambridge,UK: Polity. 358 MODERNCHINA/JULY 2003

EVANS,HARRIET (1997) Womanand Sexualityin China:Female Sexualityand Gendersince 1949. Cambridge,UK: Polity. FAIRBANK,JOHN K. (1982) Chinabound:A Fifty-YearMemoir. New York:Harper & Row. FANG ZHIMIN (1984) Fang Zhimin wenji (The works of Fang Zhimin). Beijing: Renmin chubanshe. Fang Zhimin zhuan bianxiezu [The EditorialCommittee on the Biography of Fang Zhimin] (1982) Fang Zhimin zhuan (The biography of Fang Zhimin). Jiangxi: Jiangxi renmin chubanshe. FENG DEYING ([1958] 1990) Kucaihua (The bitter flower). Beijing: Jiefangjun wenyi chubanshe. FINNANE, ANTONIA(1996) "Whatshould Chinese women wear?a nationalproblem." Mod- em China 22, 2 (Apr.):99-131. GAO, ANHUA (2000) To the Edge of the Sky: A Story of Love, Betrayal, Suffering, and the Strengthof HumanCourage. London: Viking. The Gate of Heavenly Peace (1995) Produced and directed by Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton. Brookline, MA: Long Bow Group.2 videocassettes. GILMARTIN,CHRISTINA (1995) Engenderingthe Chinese Revolution: Radical Women, CommunistPolitics, andMass Movementin the 1920s. Berkeley:Univ. of CaliforniaPress. GUO CHEN (1986) Jinguoliezhuan (The heroinesin the Long March).Beijing: Nongcun duwu chubanshe. GUO MORUO ([1942] 1953) Qu Yuan (The tragedy of Qu Yuan). Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe. HONIG, EMILY and GAIL HERSHATTER(1988) Personal Voices: Chinese Women in the 1980s. Stanford,CA: StanfordUniv. Press. HSU, KAI-YU (1968) Chou En-lai: China's Gray Eminence. New York:Doubleday. HU LANQI (1995) Hu Lanqi huiyilu (Hu Lanqi's memoir). Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe. HUNG, CHANG-TAI(1994) War and PopularCulture: Resistance in Modern China, 1937- 1945. Berkeley: Univ. of CaliforniaPress. JINGLINGZI (1989) Shihaigouxuan (The mystic sea of history).Beijing: Kunlunchubanshe. LEE,LEO OU-FAN (2000) ShanghaiModer: The Floweringof a New UrbanCulture in China, 1930-1945. Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniv. Press. LEE HSIAO-LI(1975) Good-bye, Yinan. Trans.Dong Qiao. Hong Kong: Wenyi shushi. LI LING (1989) "Fenpeide xifu" (A Party-assignedwife). Zhongguo funii 370:8-27. LI WENYI (1983) "Yijingaide YangZhihua tongzhi" (My fond memoriesof YangZhihua). Pp. 53-62 in Shanghaishi fulian fuyun shiliaozu ("Women'sMovement" Research Group, the Shanghai Women's Federation) (ed.), Huiyi Yang zhihua (Our recollections of Yang Zhihua).Hefei: Anhui renminchubanshe. LI XIAOJIANG(1997) Funii yanjiu yundong (Studying women). Hong Kong: Oxford Univ. Press. LI YINGRU (1959) Yehuo chunfeng dou gucheng (Revolutionarystruggle in a historic city). Beijing: Jiefangjunwenyi chubanshe. LIANG, HENG and JUDITHSHAPIRO (1984) Son of the Revolution.New York:Knopf. LIU LEQUN (1955) "Women fufu guanxi weishenme juelie?" (Why do we break up?) XinZhongguofuni 11:6. LUO QIONG([1935] 1988) "Changjizai Zhongguo"(Prostitutes in China).In CYYKN, 69-74. LUO SUWEN (1996) Nixing yujindai Zhongguo shehui (Womenin moder Chinese society). Shanghai:Shanghai renmin chubanshe. Ip / FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 359

MAO DUN ([1981] 1996) Mao Dun zizhuan (Autobiographyof Mao Dun). Nanjing:Jiangsu wenyi chubanshe. MAO ZEDONG (1992) Mao's Road to Power:Revolutionary Writings, 1912-1949. Ed. Stuart R. Schram.Vol. 1. Armonk,NY: M. E. Sharpe. McINTYRE, TANYA (1999) "Images of women in popular prints."Pp. 58-80 in Antonia Finnaneand Anne McLaren(eds.), Dress, Sex, and Text in Chinese Culture.Clayton, Aus- tralia:Monash Asia Institute. NAN YUYE ([1926] 1986) Sanbajieyu Zhongguo funii yundong (March 8 and the women's movement in China). In ZFYLZ, 579-83. NI ZHENLIANG(1992) Luoruman tianxia-Bai Yangzhuan (Beautiful clouds: the biography of Bai Yang). Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe. ONO, KAZUKO(1989) Chinese Womenin a Centuryof Revolution, 1850-1950. Stanford,CA: StanfordUniv. Press. PANG, LAIKWAN(2002) Building a New China in Cinema:The Chinese Left-WingCinema Movement, 1932-1937. Lanham,MD: Rowman & Littlefield. PANG YOUWEN (1956) "Luo Paoyi de xingwei shi boxue jieji sixiang de juti biaoxian"(Luo Paoyi's behavioris a manifestationof the exploitativeclass's ideology). Zhongguofunii 1:7. QIU JIN ([190?] 1981) "An address to two hundredmillion fellow countrywomen."Trans. Nancy Gibbs. Pp. 247-48 in Patricia Ebrey (ed.), Chinese Civilization and Society: A Sourcebook.New York:Free Press. QIU TI (1956) "Zenyangxuanze fuzhuangde secai" (How can we matchthe colors of our clothing?). Zhongguo funi 4:22. QU BO (1959) Linhai xueyuan (Forest on the snowy plain). Hong Kong: Sanlian shudian. QUAN YANCHI(1990) Mao Zedong zouxia shentan(To humanizeMao Zedong). Hong Kong: Nanyue chubanshe. "Sai Jin Huapingzuo" [A workshopon "Sai Jin Hua"]([1936] 1990) Pp. 874-81 in Wu Lingfen (ed.), Xia Yanyanjiu zhuanji (Essays on Xia Yan).Vol. 2. N.p.: Zhejiangwenyi chubanshe. "SaiJin Hua zuotanhui" [A seminaron "SaiJin Hua"]([1936] 1990) Pp. 864-73 in Wu Lingfen (ed.), Xia Yanyanjiu zhuanji (Essays on Xia Yan).Vol. 2. N.p.: Zhejiangwenji chubanshe. SHAO YANG (1993) Hongqiang nei de furenmen (The wives of the Communist leaders). Guizhou:Guizhou renminchubanshe. SHUI JING(1992) Teshudejiaowang (Special friendship).Nanjing: Jiangsu wenyi chubanshe. SNOW,HELEN [Nym Wales](1972) The ChineseCommunists: Sketches and Autobiographies of the Old Guard.Westport, CT: Greenwood. STACEY,JUDITH (1983) Patriarchyand Socialist Revolution in China.Berkeley: Univ. of Cali- fornia Press. SU YI (1957) "Zhezhongfengqi zhengchangma" (Is this trendnormal?). Zhongguo qingnian 2:40. TANFEN([1936] 1988) "Funuwenti he nanzi"(Women's problems and men). In CYYKN, 312- 16. TANG SHAOHUA(1981) Zhonggong wenyi tongzhanhuigu (My recollections of the CCP's United Frontin literatureand the arts). Taipei:Wentan zazhishe. TERRILL, ROSS (1992) Madame Mao: The White-Boned Demon. New York: Simon & Schuster. TIE ZHUWEI (1989) Hongjun langmanchu(The romances in the Red Army). Hubei: Hubei renminchubanshe. "Tonggao"[Public announcement]([1934] 1982) Pp. 213-16 in Jiangxi sheng funi lianhehui (The Provincial Women's Federation,Jiangxi) and Jiangxi sheng dang'anguan(Jiangxi 360 MODERNCHINA/JULY 2003

Provincial Archive) (eds.), Jiangxi suqu funii yundong shiliao xunbian (Materialson the women's movementin the Jiangxi Soviet Area). Nanchang:Jiangxi renminchubanshe. WANG, TE-WEI(1997) Fin-de-siecle Splendor:Repressed Modernities of Late Qing Fiction. Stanford,CA: StanfordUniv. Press. WANG GUANGMEI(1981) "Yonghengde jinian" (My lasting memories of Song Qingling). Pp. 94-96 in Song Qinglingjinianji (Recollections of Song Qingling). Hong Kong:Wenhui bao. WANG XINGJUAN(1993) Li Min, He Zizhen he Mao Zedong (Li Min, He Zizhen, and Mao Zedong). Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubangongsi. WANG ZHENG (2001) "Call me 'qingnian' but not 'funii': a Maoist youth in retrospect." Pp. 27-51 in WangZheng, Zhong Xueping, and Bai Di (eds.), Some of Us: Chinese Women Growing Up in the Mao Era. New Brunswick,NJ: RutgersUniv. Press. WANGZHENG, ZHONG XUEPING, and BAI DI [eds.] (2001) Some of Us: Chinese Women Growing Up in the Mao Era. New Brunswick,NJ: RutgersUniv. Press. XIA LIANBO (1956) "Baohulianbu de pifu" (How to protectour facial skin). Zhongguo funii 12:32. XIA YAN (1996) Xia Yan zizhuan (Autobiographyof Xia Yan). Nanjing: Jiangsu wenyi chubanshe. XIANG JINGYU([1923] 1986) "Zhongguofunii xuanchuan yundong de xinjiyuan"(A new era of the women's movement).In ZFYLZ, 275-77. "Yan'ande niixing" [The women of Yanan](1946) Zhongxi tushushe. Yan'anLuyi [Lu Xun Arts Academy of Yanan](1987) "Bai mao nil" (The white-hairedgirl). Pp. 375-27 in Ding Yi and Su Yiping (eds.), Yan'an wenyi congshu (Art and literaturein Yan'an).Vol. 8, Gejujuan(Opera). Changsha: Hunan wenyi chubanshe. YANG, MAYFAIR(1999) Spaces of Their Own: Women's Public Sphere in Transnational China. Minneapolis:Univ. of MinnesotaPress. YANGMO ([1959] 1989) "Qingchunzhi gejuben"(The scriptof "Thesong of youth").Pp. 163- 209 in Luo Yijun(ed.), Zhongguoxinwenyi daxi 1949-1966 (The compendiumof new Chi- nese art and literature,1949-1966). Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe. ([1958] 1991) Qingchunzhi ge (The song of youth).Beijing: Shiyue wenyi chubanshe. YE YONGLIE(1993) JiangQing zhuan(Biography of JiangQing). Beijing:Zuojia chubanshe. YOUNG, HELEN PRAEGER (2001) Choosing Revolution: Chinese Women on the Long March.Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press. ZENG ZHI (1986) Changzheng niizhanshi (Women fighters of the Long March). Vol. 1. Changchun:Beifang funii ertong chubanshe. ZFYLZ. See Zhongguo quanguofunii lianhehuifunii yundong lishi yanjiushi, 1984. ZHANG LING (1957) "ZhaoYiman" (Zhao Yiman).Zhongguo qingnian 3:23-26. ZHANG TIANYI (1993) Zhang Tianyi mingzuo xinshang (Famous works of Zhang Tianyi). Beijing: Zhongguo heping chubanshe. ZHENGCHAOLIN (1997) Shishi yu huiyi (Historyand historical memory). Vol. 1. Hong Kong: Tiandi tushu youxian gongsi. "Zhongguofunii wenti" [The problems of Chinese women] ([1927] 1986) In ZFYLZ,710-20. "Zhongguogongchandang dierci quanguo daibiao dahui guanyu funii de jueyi" [The Second CommunistCongress's resolution on women's problems]([1922] 1986) In ZFYLZ,29-30. Zhongguo quanguo funii lianhehui funii yundong lishi yanjiushi ["Women's Movement" ResearchGroup, the Women's Federationof China] [ed.] (1984) Zhongguo funii yundong lishi ziliao (Documents related to the women's movement in the Communistrevolution). Beijing: Renmin chubanshe.Cited as ZFYLZ. Ip /FASHIONINGAPPEARANCES 361

[ed.] (1988) Cong "yierjiu"yundong kan niixing de renshengjiazhi (Debates on the meaningof womanhoodduring the "DecemberNinth" movement). Beijing: Zhongguo funii chubanshe.Cited as CYYKN. ZHOU XUQI (1994) Yijiuyiling dao yijiuerling niandai duhui funi shenghuo fengmao: yi "Funiizazhi" wei fenxi shili (The life of urbanwomen: "TheLadies' Journal," 1910s- 1920s). M.A. thesis, Taiwanguoli daxue.

Hung-yok p teachesAsian historyat OregonState University.In additionto researching Chinese Communism,Ip is also working on two book-length manuscripts.The first, "HistoricizingDesire: The Cultureof Su Manshu,"offers Su as a windowinto the com- plexity of moder Chinesesubjectivity. The second project, "ReshapingSelf, Reshaping the World,"examines how EngagedBuddhism in SoutheastAsiaand the Westoperates as a philosophicalframeworkand a strategic resourceforfaith-based social and political movementsin the age of globalization.