Volume 9, Issue 2 July 2019
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Volume 9, Issue 2 l2019 Articles Allsiesselliteetisesets i22 ec essiscestesscilciiielrtrls stessriters A Aesteticisersstilitriiseecetitericisiese iterriscrse i GU eeliclctisitieeriscrseAelesilAlsis rcescris itieslicectsiieiteArtiilit sles ISSN 2048-0601 British Journal of Chinese Studies Volume 9, Issue 2, July 2019 ISSN 2048-0601 British Journal of Chinese Studies The British Journal of Chinese Studies is a biannual, peer-reviewed, fully open access e-journal published by the British Association for Chinese Studies. We publish research on China, broadly defined, spanning the disciplines of the arts, humanities, and social sciences. We are interested in work on all time periods, but encourage contributors to establish contemporary relevance in their arguments. Engagement with Chinese language sources is essential to all research published in the journal. We are particularly committed to supporting gender and ethnic equality in Chinese Studies and welcome submissions from PhD students and early career researchers. Until issue 9.1(2019) we published under the name Journal of the British Association for Chinese Studies. Editors Gerda Wielander (University of Westminster) Heather Inwood (University of Cambridge) Sub-Editor Scott Pacey (University of Nottingham) Editorial Board Tim Barrett (School of Oriental and African Studies) Jane Duckett (University of Glasgow) Harriet Evans (University of Westminster) Stephanie Hemelryk Donald (University of New South Wales) Stephan Feuchtwang (London School of Economics) Natascha Gentz (University of Edinburgh) Rana Mitter (University of Oxford) Qian Suoqiao (University of Newcastle) Caroline Rose (University of Leeds) Naomi Standen (University of Birmingham) Yao Shujie (University of Nottingham) British Journal of Chinese Studies Volume 9, Issue 2, July 2019 Contents Editors’ Introduction iv Articles A Small Business of SeXual Enlightenment: Zhang Jingsheng’s “Beauty 1 Bookshop”, Shanghai 1927-1929 Leon Rocha Confessions of a Dance Hostess: Social Dancing in Shanghai and Self- 31 Portrayals of Hostess-Writers, 1930-1949 Amanda Zhang Aestheticism versus Utilitarianism: The Reception of the “Tragic” in 57 1930s Chinese Literary Discourse Tian GU The Ideological Function of “Positive Energy” Discourse: A People’s 83 Daily Analysis Francesca Triggs Bad Citizens and Symbolic Subjects: Wang Jin, Zhou Tiehai, and the 113 Art of (In)Civility Ros Holmes British Journal of Chinese Studies, Vol. 9 (2), July 2019 ISSN 2048-0601 © British Association for Chinese Studies Editors’ Introduction The launch of issue 9.2 is an important moment for our journal. We are now using a custom-made Open Journal Systems publishing platform, and we are marking this next stage of our development with a change of name. We are now the British Journal of Chinese Studies. We continue to be fully open access and free of charge; all articles undergo stringent double-blind peer review, and we provide additional editorial support for early career researchers. All previous issues have been uploaded to the new platform. When the then Journal of the British Association for Chinese Studies (JBACS) was launched in 2011, the open access agenda was just starting to rear its head, mostly in the context of the UK’s research assessment exercise, now referred to as REF (Research Excellence Framework). The open access agenda has since gained momentum and become politicised in the context of the “triple dip” effect, which sees commercial publishers profiting from free academic labour. Our journal is part of an initiative to find new and fairer models of open access publishing in Asian studies. To this effect, Gerda Wielander took part in a roundtable discussion at the AAS 2019 in Denver, and will be part of a workshop on open access publishing at the London School of Economics on September 9, 2019. We are firmly committed to continuing to provide a gold star open access service. When JBACS was launched, its aim was to provide a “service to the community.” This begs the question, who is our community? Whom are we serving, and hence, who are our potential authors and readers? We continue to be affiliated with the British Association for Chinese Studies, yet what exactly constitutes Chinese studies is increasingly difficult to define. This is the combined effect of the decline of language studies in the UK, and the resulting dispersal of academics into “discipline based” administrative units, as though languages itself were not a discipline. This has led to the breaking up of co- v Gerda Wielander and Heather Inwood located clusters of researchers working on China (broadly defined, both spatially and temporally), which the creation of mostly virtual China studies centres has only partially been able to address. Yet it is also a reflection of the increasing reluctance of individuals to identify as Chinese studies scholars. They may find it more politic to identify as political scientists or scholars of linguistics in a HE landscape which marginalises language studies. The British Journal of Chinese Studies is committed to promoting Chinese studies as a distinct discipline, where Chinese studies is defined as the in-depth engagement with Chinese language sources in the study of China, broadly defined. More specifically, we understand Chinese studies as the study of Chinese language(s) and their associated cultures and societies, from, simultaneously, the inside and the outside. The interaction of insider and outsider perspectives is central to Chinese studies, encapsulating a heightened awareness both of our “embodied” immersion in Chinese language(s) and cultures, and of our linguistic, cultural and/or geographical mooring in the UK.1 Gender and ethnic equality in Chinese studies is of particular concern to our journal. This not only informs the way we put our issues together, but we also specifically invite, and welcome, papers on this topic. January 2019 saw a special issue on Chinese women and academia, and we would like to continue to publish articles on this as an on-going thread. The fact is that open access publishing does come with a cost. While academics can provide the articles, the peer review, and the editorial work, we are not also web-developers. There is no getting away from money, its limited availability, and the choices that need to be made, but also the danger of creating new dependencies and, potentially, the exploitation of skilled labour. One clearly articulated concern in open access debates in the UK is that it may lead to the final demise of what are now marginal subjects. 1 This definition is adapted from Professor Neil Kenny’s working definition of modern languages as a discipline. See http://projects.alc.manchester.ac.uk/cross-language-dynamics/british- academy-plenary-round-table-does-modern-languages-have-a-disciplinary-identity/ (accessed 24.07.2019). British Journal of Chinese Studies vi The British Journal of Chinese Studies hence not only serves a community, but also needs the support of the community. We need your support as authors, peer reviewers, and compilers of special issues; we need your recommendations to young academics, and your vocal support of the open access agenda which may require moving out of the prison of indexing, citations, and rankings—an agenda pushed by commercial publishers and managerial universities which many of us find difficult to escape, often against available evidence. Having completed the move to the new publishing platform, our next push will be to further increase the number of submissions we receive, and to commission special issues which not only reflect our editorial mission, but also make the most of the creative opportunities online publishing allows. In future issues, we hope to incorporate interactive content, sound files, and videos. As editors, we are keen to discuss any ideas, however preliminary, with you. Our authors in this issue range from established academics to rising stars, including the winner of the BACS Early Career Researcher Prize 2018, Dr Ros Holmes. As always, it has been an absolute pleasure to see these excellent articles through from submission to publication. Gerda Wielander and Heather Inwood British Journal of Chinese Studies, Vol. 9 (2), July 2019 ISSN 2048-0601 © British Association for Chinese Studies A Small Business of Sexual Enlightenment: Zhang Jingsheng’s “Beauty Bookshop”, Shanghai 1927-1929 Leon Rocha University of Lincoln Abstract This paper addresses the history and historiography of sexual knowledge during the May Fourth New Culture Movement (ca. 1910s-1930s) in China. Chinese intellectuals engaged in an ambitious project to build a “New Culture”, translating and appropriating a wide range of foreign ideas including European and American works on sexology, reproduction, and eugenics. I focus on “Dr Sex”, Zhang Jingsheng (1888-1970), well-known for his 1926 publication Sex Histories. Zhang wanted to introduce the scientific study of sex to China and to overthrow what he regarded as repressive Chinese traditions. Between 1927 and 1929, Zhang operated the “Beauty Bookshop” in Fuzhou Road, Shanghai’s “cultural street”, to disseminate his writings and translations. He also published a short-lived journal called New Culture, which carried articles on politics, aesthetics, and most interestingly, readers’ inquiries on sexual and reproductive practices. The case study on Zhang Jingsheng’s “small business of sexual enlightenment”––to adapt a term from Leo Ou-fan Lee (in turn borrowed from Robert Darnton)––sheds light on local entrepreneurial