Making ‘Opposite-sex’ Love: Discourse and Discord in Linglong Women’s Pictorial Magazine, 1931-1937 by Gary Wang B.F.A., The University of British Columbia, 2005 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Asian Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) MAY 2010 © Gary Wang, 2010 ABSTRACT This thesis is a case study of Linglong Magazine, published in Shanghai from 1931 to 1937. It examines representational conflict in the construction of normative heterosexuality and marriage – a regulatory measure that contained the prospect of female autonomy during a period of flux. The study is a preliminary exercise in Michel Hockx’s formulation of “horizontal reading,” which regards journal issues as collectively authored texts and emphasizes the spatial relation of printed material. Referring to both texts and images in the magazine, I find that heteronormativity is covertly challenged at the same time that same-sex love and the rejection of marriage are stigmatized. Moreover, alternative voices and sensibilities that encompass homoeroticism are hinted at, which I seek to recover. I thus underscore how normative gender constructs are negotiated and challenged in Linglong at the same time that they are reaffirmed. In reading Linglong horizontally, I show how romanticized heterosexual love is matched by vociferous attacks on men and idealization of female bonds, which are at times valued over relations with men. In my view, what Barbara Mittler identifies in the magazine as cheeky misandrism – a “distaste for men” or “man-hating” – was a playful marketing device that also provided a channel for contributors (many of whom were readers) to covertly express what was becoming increasingly taboo to articulate overtly – namely, support for female autonomy and alternatives to compulsive heterosexuality and marriage. Drawing on Gao Yunxiang’s analysis of Linglong’s promotion of athleticism in the name of national strengthening, I suggest that the new fashion of robust beauty, in conjunction with references to Euro-American art forms that sanction depictions of the human form, legitimized the display of female bodies and expanded notions of femininity in erotically charged ways that include dimensions of homoeroticism. Pleasure and fear are thus engendered simultaneously on the pages of Linglong. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT…………………………………..…………………………………………………………...ii TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………………………………...iii LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………………………iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………………...……...vii INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………….…………………………..…….1 Woman, Nation and New Culture………………………………………………………………...10 Regulating Desire………………………………………………………………………...12 Reading Linglong Horizontally……………...………...………………………………………….16 ‘Sundry Records’………………………………………………………………………...18 Horizontal Reading………………………………………………………………………21 Textual and Visual Analysis……………………………………………………………..22 CHAPTER 1: LINGLONG MAGAZINE……………………...……………………………………….24 Chinese Print Capitalism……………………………………………………………………........24 The Magazine…………………………………………………………………………………......31 Readers and Editors…………………………………………………………………..….41 CHAPTER 2: MAKING ‘OPPOSITE-SEX’ LOVE…………………...………..………………….....52 Discourse………………………………………………………………………………………….52 Deviant Same-sex Love………………………………………………………………….52 New Culture and National Character…………………………………………………….59 Romantic Opposite-sex Love…………………………………………………………….61 Discourse and Power……………………………………………………………………....……...73 Discord……………………………………………………………………………………...…….79 Misandrism…………………….………………………………………………………...79 Sisterhood………………………………………………………………………………..87 “Same-sex Love Surpasses Opposite-sex Love”………………………………………...97 “Two Women Engaged in Same-sex Love Reject Marriage”…………………………...98 “A Woman who Married Another Woman”……………………………………………101 CHAPTER 3: INSINUATED DESIRES, ALTERNATIVE SENSIBILITIES..................................109 Love and Lust……………………………………...…………….……………………………...109 The Double-edged Image…………………………………………..……..……………………..112 Self and Nation………………………………………………………………………………….115 Athleticism and Pleasure……………………………………………………………….115 Fashion and Femininities……………………………………………………………….124 Female Spectatorship…………………………………………………………………...131 The Theatrical Sense of Self………………………………………………....................141 Negotiating Alternative Sensibilities……………………………………………………………146 Collective Research and Paratexts: An Addendum In Light of “A New Approach”……...……152 CONCLUSION………………………….………..……………….…………………………………….167 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………………………………..170 Primary Sources…………………………………………………………………………………170 Secondary Sources………………………………………………………………………………172 iii LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1.1 Calendar advertisement posters………………………………………………………….25 Fig. 1.2 “Message from the Editors”……………………………………………………………...26 Fig. 1.3 Section headers featuring calligraphy by Hu Shi………………………………………...28 Fig. 1.4 Advertisements for fabrics and fashion………………………………………………….29 Fig. 1.5 Advertisements for cosmetics and hygiene products..…………………………………...29 Fig. 1.6 Linglong’s two covers……………………………………………………………………31 Fig. 1.7 The latest bobs from Europe and America, 1931………………………………………..32 Fig. 1.8 Fashion illustrations, 1932…...…………………………………………………………..33 Fig. 1.9 “Etiquette for Attending a Banquet”……………………………………………………..33 Fig. 1.10 Contemporary home décor and accessories……………………………………………...34 Fig. 1.11 “National Day Special Commemorative Issue,” 1931…………………………………...35 Fig. 1.12 “The Remote Causes of Japanese Savagery,” 1931……………………………………...36 Fig. 1.13 “The Various Expressions of Japanese Movie Star Natsukawa Shizue”………………...36 Fig. 1.14 “A Japanese Female Movie Star” in “two different styles of dress”…….………………36 Fig. 1.15 “Traditional ways of swimming in Japan”……………………………………………….37 Fig. 1.16 “The Recreational Games of Japanese Children”………………………………………..37 Fig. 1.17 Candid photographs from readers………………………………………………………..38 Fig. 1.18 “A Beautiful Image of Readers”…………………………………………………………39 Fig. 1.19 “Miss Zhou Luxia of Chinese Western Private Girls School”…………………………..39 Fig. 1.20 “New Fashions from the Silver Screen”…………………………………………………40 Fig. 1.21 A fashion spread featuring images from readers………………………………………...40 Fig. 1.22 A recipe for sponge cake…………………………………………………………………43 Fig. 1.23 “Young Women’s Assembly”……………………………………………………………44 Fig. 1.24 “Group photo of members of the Shanghai Association of Career Women”……………44 Fig. 1.25 Female soldiers and a female representative leading a rally……………………………..45 Fig. 1.26 A women’s association and nurses………………………………………………………46 Fig. 1.27 American women learn to use guns……………………………………………………...50 Fig. 1.28 “The Sayings of Three Moralists”……………………………………………………….51 Fig. 2.1 “Tao Sijing, who killed Liu Mengying for same-sex love”……………………………...56 Fig. 2.2 “My Social Activities”…………………………………………………………………...63 Fig. 2.3 “Letters from Him”……………………………………………………………………....63 Fig. 2.4 “The Beauty of a Woman in Love”……………………………………………………...65 Fig. 2.5 “Kissing”…………………………………………………………………………………66 Fig. 2.6 “Three Steps” to initiating a kiss………………………………………………………...67 Fig. 2.7 “Marrying”……………………………………………………………………………….69 Fig. 2.8 “In Support of…Bao Zhining’s Wedding”………………………………………………69 Fig. 2.9 “The New-style Dress of New-style Brides” and “Contemporary Home Décor”……….70 Fig. 2.10 A stylish image of a bride …………………………………………………………….…72 Fig. 2.11 Cover for a special feature issue on children…………………………………………….72 Fig. 2.12 “Returning Home After Marriage”………………………………………………………80 Fig. 2.13 Misandrism in comic illustrations….…………………………………………………….82 iv Fig. 2.14 “Who is toying with whom?” and “A modernized husband”……………………………83 Fig. 2.15 Heterosexual romance and female friendship juxtaposed……………………………….88 Fig. 2.16 Linglong’s trope of sisterhood portrayed on its covers…………………………………..88 Fig. 2.17 “The Lives of Sisters,” call for submissions……………………………………………..89 Fig. 2.18 “Sisters” and “Good Friends”……………………………………………………………90 Fig. 2.19 Sisters and genteel leisurely activities…………………………………………………...91 Fig. 2.20 Scenic snapshots of sisters rival images of romantic opposite-sex love…………………92 Fig. 2.21 Preparing for a wedding………………………………………………………………….93 Fig. 2.22 “The Usefulness of a Parasol”…………………………………………………………...94 Fig. 2.23 Female bonds idealized…………………………………………………………………..95 Fig. 2.24 “An Opposite-sex Kiss” and “A Same-sex Kiss”………………………………………102 Fig. 2.25 “A Woman who Married Another Woman”……………………………………………104 Fig. 3.1 “Same-sex Love”……………………………………………………………………….111 Fig. 3.2 “Euro-American Women”……………………………………………………………...114 Fig. 3.3 A “male-like” Polish journalist and athlete…………………………………………….114 Fig. 3.4 The “body beautiful” of German women……………………………………………….114 Fig. 3.5 “We Need Healthy Physiques (Down with Frail Sickly Beauty)”……………………..116 Fig. 3.6 A male basketball coach and a “majestic” basketball player…………………………...119 Fig. 3.7 “A Few of the Most Notable Persons” on the playing fields…………………………...120 Fig. 3.8 “Champions of Shanghai Women’s Tennis Doubles”………………………………….120 Fig. 3.9 “Female athletes having a rest”…………………………………………………………120 Fig. 3.10 “Young Women Active on Sports Grounds”…………………………………………...121 Fig. 3.11 “Female Heroes”………………………………………………………………………..122 Fig. 3.12 “The Great Ones of Sports”…………………………………………………………….122 Fig. 3.13 Cover image featuring an athlete……………………………………………………….122 Fig. 3.14 Movie stars Li Minghui and Li Lili as spectators at sporting events…………………...123 Fig. 3.15 Li Lili as cover girl……………………………………………………………………..123 Fig.