MOTHERS AND SONS: A GENDER STUDY OF THE MODERN CHINESE WOODCUT MOVEMENT A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Erin Elizabeth Publow, B.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2002 Master's Examination Committee: Dr. Julia F. Andrews, Adviser Dr. John C. Huntington Adviser Department of History of Art ABSTRACT This thesis examines the gender dichotomy apparent in the pre 1937 images of the modem Chinese woodcut movement. The politically charged, overtly activist images are occupied predominantly by men, and young men in particular, while women are almost consistently represented in domestic scenes, as mothers. This gendering of public and private space may initially seem to contradict, or suggest a counter current to, the progressive May Fourth agenda, which only a decade earlier strongly advocated gender equality and urged women to become more independent and politically involved. This thesis has two objectives. The first is an attempt to understand what frameworks lie beneath this gender dichotomy and to question the immediate response to consider the dichotomy conservative. The second is an exploration of why mothers and male youth, rather than, say, fathers and female youth, become inscribed with such national significance. I argue that these images reflect and participate in the complicated, and often seemingly contradictory, gender issues of the period. The images are subjective expressions of male youth, who not only make up the demographics of the woodcut movement, but are at the very center of national reforms and intellectual activity. It was they whom reformers felt it was necessary to save from the feudal society, and they became the symbol of hope and the future of China. In fact, for them, the individual and national became conflated, as their individual identities and frustrations were often synonymous with modem China’s own identity crisis. And while women’s liberation and gender equality were also significant national issues, they were subordinate to this essentially male youth/national cause. Similarly, while the mother was a significant figure - literally and symbolically - for the nation and its youth, and like youth was also given a certain national iconic status, her own subjectivity and individuality similarly remained subordinate. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my adviser, Julia Andrews, and professor John Huntington for constant encouragement, enthusiasm and intellectual support. I also thank Ying Chua and Rebecca Twist for their helpful comments and suggestions, Mayumi Kamata for her assistance in printing the glossary of Chinese characters, and Anu Vedagiri for the puja that made this thesis possible. I am grateful to Jeff Borisch for helping me with various technological and formatting problems and for providing moral support throughout the entire process. IV VITA 1998 ............................................. B.A. Art History, Augustana College 1998-2000 ....................................... Graduate Teaching Associate The Ohio State University 2001-2002 ...................................... Graduate Associate The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Asian Art v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .............................................................................................. .ii Acknowledgments ................................................................................. .iv Vita ....................................................................................................v L1st. o fF"1gures ......................................................................................vu .. Chapters: 1. Introduction ................................................................................... 1 2. Family Reform and the New Youth ....................................................... 7 3. The "Woman Question" ................................................................... 15 4. Mothers and Sons ...........................................................................22 5. Conclusion .................................................................................. 33 Bibliography ......................................................................................... 34 Glossary .............................................................................................. 3 7 Appendix: 1. Figures ....................................................................................... 38 Vl LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Hu Yichuan To the Front! 1932 ................................................... 38 Julia F. Andrews and Kuiyi Shen. A Century in Crisis: Modernity and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth-Century China. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1998, cat. 99. 2. Gu Wenfang Motherly Love 1936. In Muke jie, vol.3 .......................... 39 Banhua jicheng: Lu Xun cang zhongguo xiandai muke quamji, edited by Shanghai Lu Xun Memorial and Jiangsu Ancient Books Press. Nanjing: Ancient Books Press, 1991. Vol.4,1354. 3. Li Hua China Roar! 1936. InMukejie, vol.14 .................................. .40 Banhua jicheng. Vol.1, 251. 4. Pan Chengye Pregnant Woman 1934. InXiandai banhua, vol.I ............. .41 Banhuajicheng. Vol.I, 29. 5. Pan Zhao Mother and Son 1935. InXiandai banhua, vol.7 .................... .42 Banhuajicheng. Vol.I, 139. 6. Ye Fu She and the Child 1936. In Tiema banhua, vol.2 ....................... .43 Banhua jicheng. Vol.4, 1300. 7. "Xiao jiating xue (Preliminary Lessons for the House-keeping Bride)" ..... .44 Liangyou huabao(Young Companion Pictorial), no.101(Jan1935), p.40. 8. advertisement for medicine ........................................................ .45 Liangyou huabao, no. I 05 (May 1935), p.31. 9. advertisement for Santogen ......................................................... .46 Liangyou huabao, no.102 (February 1935), p.39. 10. advertisement for Momilk ............................................................ 47 Liangyou huabao, no.12 (January 1927), n.p. 11. Li Hua Father and Son 1934. In Li Hua muke ................................... .48 vii Banhuajicheng. Vol.3, 741. 12. Kathe Kollwitz Sacrifice From War series 1922-23 ............................... .49 Robert J. Fanning. Kathe Kollwitz. Karlsruhe: C.F. Muller, 1956, pl.177 13. Hu Qizao Loss ofa Child 193 5. In Xiandai banhua, vol.13 ........................ 50 Banhua jicheng. Vol. I, 240. 14. Lai Shaoqi Child has Died 1935. InXiandai banhua, vol.7 ........................ 51 Banhuajicheng. Vol.I, 137. 15. Huang Peili Famine 1935. InXiandai banhua, vol.11. ............................. 52 Banhuajicheng. Vol.I, 209. 16. Duan Ganqing Thread ofDeath 1936. In Ganqing muke, vol.2 ..................... 53 Banhuajicheng. Vol.3, 1039. 17. Kathe Kollwitz Outbreak 1903 ........................................................... 54 Fanning, pl.66. 18. Kathe Kollwitz March ofthe Weavers From Weavers' Revolt series, 1897 ....... 55 Fanning, pl.32. 19. Tang Yingwei Forward!1936. cover of Mukejie, vol.4 .............................. 56 Andrews and Shen, cat. 85. 20. Li Hua Street Uprising 1936. Mukejie, vol.4 .......................................... 57 Banhuajicheng. Vol.4, 1371. vm CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In 1929, under the guidance of Lu Xun ( 1881-1936), literary giant and prominent figure in the May Fourth intellectual movement, a group of young artists began what would become the modem Chinese woodcut movement. Two years later, a series of lectures and workshops organized by Lu Xun at the bookstore of his friend, Uchiyama Kanzo, officially launched the movement. Uchiyama's brother, a woodcut artist in Japan, was invited to offer technical instruction, and Lu Xun introduced the work of various woodcut artists from around the world. Thereafter the artists organized themselves into various societies, collectively exhibiting and publishing their work. Lu Xun continued to play an active role in the movement until his death. He attended the exhibitions of these artists, frequently offered constructive criticism and published for instructive purposes volumes of woodcuts ranging from Japanese ukiyo-e to Aubrey Beardsley to Russian Constructivism. To a great extent, he set the tone for the developing years of the movement. 1 1 Julia F. Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, "The Modem Woodcut Movement," in Andrews and Shen, A Century in Crisis: Modernity and Tradition in the Art a/Twentieth-Century China (New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1998), 213-214. See also Shirley Sun, Modern Chinese Woodcuts (San Francisco: Chinese Culture Foundation, 1979), 13-21. 1 Post 1949 scholarship has interpreted this stage of the movement as an immediate precursor to Communist art, for after 1937 the woodcut ultimately became the medium of choice for communicating Communist propaganda.2 While certainly not without leftist subjects and sympathies, understanding the woodcut as a "call to arms" does not capture the complexities and broad interests of the movement and its artists. More recently, Julia Andrews and Kuiyi Shen have argued that the origins of the movement are more avant- garde, with individual and varied responses to modernism, in addition to the more overtly leftist subjects. Indeed, one is just as likely to find a still life with guitar in a Cubist manner or Matisse-like dancing nudes as one would images with upraised fists or sympathetic representations of the oppressed. While for many artists the medium was appropriate for capturing social realities, it was