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Chinese Women Artists in the National and Global Art Worlds, 1900S - 1970S

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Chinese Women Artists in the National and Global Art Worlds, 1900S - 1970S Redefining Female Talent: Chinese Women Artists in the National and Global Art Worlds, 1900s - 1970s Doris Ha Lin Sung A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Humanities, York University Toronto, Ontario June 2016 © Doris Ha Lin Sung, 2016 Abstract This study examines the art practices of three generations of Chinese women who were active between the 1900s and the 1970s. Its conceptual focus is on the reassessment of female talent and virtue, a moralized dichotomy that had been used to frame women’s social practices and cultural production for centuries in China. The study opens in the period when female poetic practice was harshly vilified by reformists of the late Qing era (1890s-1911). It questions why women’s art production was not directly condemned and examines how women’s increasingly public displays of artistic talent were legitimized through the invocation of long-standing familial norms, the official sanction of new education, and the formulation of various nationalist agendas. Most importantly, this study demonstrates how women artists joined female writers, educators, and political figures in redefining gender possibilities in the early Republican period. Women artists discussed in this study practiced both Chinese-style and Western-style art. It examines their participation in several different public contexts, including art education, exhibitions, art societies, and philanthropic organizations. Representatives of the first generation, Wu Xingfen (1853-1930) and Jin Taotao (1884-1939), advanced the artistic legacy of their predecessors, the women of the boudoir (guixiu), while at the same time expanding the paradigm of traditional women’s art practices. In addition to their emerging visibility in the local art world, they also exhibited works in international expositions, engaged with foreign concessions, and traveled abroad. Members of the Chinese Women’s Society of Calligraphy and Painting (Zhongguo nüzi shuhuahui) who represent the second generation, embraced new institutional possibilities by studying, teaching, and forming a collective to reaffirm women’s position in the traditional-style art milieu. Pan Yuliang (1895-1977) and her cohort of Western-style artists who formed the third generation, contributed to modern art reform in China in the early twentieth ii century. Pan’s distinct life trajectory and subsequent career in Paris illuminate the ways race and gender figured in transcultural artistic representations from the 1940s to the 1970s. These artists’ public presence in both the national and global art worlds redefined and repurposed female talent as both a patriotic virtue, and new expressions of gender subjectivities. iii Acknowledgments This dissertation has been a long time in the making. I am greatly indebted to my supervisor, Professor Joan Judge, for her mentorship and relentless support, both professionally and personally. She is a dedicated scholar who believes the best scholarship can only be achieved through careful research, critical inquiry, and repeated writing and editing—an approach that I aspire to emulate in my own work. She always gives insightful and constructive comments; though rigorous, they are always offered with a vote of confidence. An attentive and caring mentor, Professor Judge has been a steady rock without whom this work would not have been possible. I am very grateful to my supervisory committee member Professor Jennifer Purtle, whose breadth of knowledge in Chinese and European art history, and whose meticulous comments have been most valuable in the development of this study. Professor Bernard H.K. Luk has offered insightful historical perspectives throughout the progress of this work. Sadly, Professor Luk passed away unexpectedly two months ago. An honourable scholar and esteemed historian, Professor Luk was a true role model. Even though he did not have the chance to read the completed draft of this dissertation, I know he would have been pleased. I am fortunate to be part of the international research and database project “A New Approach to the Popular Press in China: Gender and Cultural Production, 1904-1937.” Working on the project not only greatly enhanced my own research, it also provided me with the opportunity to network with scholars and graduate students in various fields of Chinese studies. I am thankful to Professor Judge for bringing me into the project and to Professor Barbara Mittler, the co-principal investigator of the project, who has been most generous in providing scholarly and professional advice. I treasure the great working relationship and friendship with Liying Sun, iv my co-project manager. Through the years, we have supported each other on our work as well as our personal journeys. Matthias (Matz) Arnold is our project’s ever-patient I.T. expert, from whom I have gained tremendous knowledge on the topic of digital humanities. I greatly value Matz’s professional support and inspiring discussions through our countless in-person and Skype meetings. This research has taken me on multiple journeys to various libraries, archives and museums in China and France. The task of locating rare archival material and original artworks would not have been possible without the support of the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, and the Anhui Provincial Museum. I am most thankful to Dr. Éric Lefebvre, director of Musée Cernuschi, for providing important material for this research. I am obliged to Professor Christian Henriot who helped locate a rare French documentary film that is essential for this study, and to Professor Ralph Croizier who generously shared with me a great amount of research material on Pan Yuliang that he had collected over the years. As all graduate students know, having a great collegiate support network is the key to coping with the long years of graduate studies. The York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) has been a great source of support. Through the centre, I received abundant professional advice and developed great friendships. For this, I am thankful to Alicia Filipowich, Akiko Takesue, Jooyeon Rhee, Eric Li, and Naoko Ikeda. I greatly value the constructive comments on drafts of this dissertation from faculty members and graduate students at the joint York University and University of Toronto Critical China Studies Group. My special thanks go to Elizabeth Parke and Gary Wang, for their friendships and inspiring discussions. I express my heartfelt appreciation for Victor, my parents, my sisters Shirley and Salina, my dear friends Cynthia Foo, Davina Hader, and Moneesha Mehta for their love and support. v Last but not least, I thank my son Edmund, who has shown great maturity and understanding throughout the years. He is the best son a mother could ask for. vi Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. viii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One | Female Scholar-Painters Wu Xingfen and Jin Taotao ........................................... 26 Family, Lineage, and Learning ................................................................................................. 28 Publicness ................................................................................................................................. 35 Selling Artworks—Marketing and Philanthropy ...................................................................... 63 Art Practices .............................................................................................................................. 71 Legacy ....................................................................................................................................... 95 Chapter Two | New Talented Women of the Chinese Women’s Society of Calligraphy and Painting ......................................................................................................................................... 98 Organizational Structure and Exhibitions ............................................................................... 102 Global Presence: From Shanghai to the World....................................................................... 125 Commercial Activities ............................................................................................................ 129 Women’s Art Education ......................................................................................................... 136 Public Intellectuals .................................................................................................................. 141 The Critical Approach to “Women’s Art” .............................................................................. 148 Philanthropy and Nationalistic Causes ................................................................................... 158 Collective Identity
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