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Hello everyone. Welcome back to new books in East Asian Studies, a podcast series on new books network. My name is Hui, and I'm here as one of the hosts on the channel. Today it is our great pleasure to welcome Amanda Onewright, associate professor at University of South Carolina, with her new recent new book, The Golden Key, Modern Women Artists and Gender Negotiations in Republican China, published 2021 with Braille Aladdin.
Welcome, Amanda. Hi, thank you. So to get things started, would you like to share a few words about yourself, your background with our audience and new books network? I'm sure.
Well, I guess first of all, I should say thank you, Hui, and for inviting me to appear in this broadcast and talk about my book. And when I was thinking about speaking with you and maybe anticipating some of the questions you would ask, and maybe questions that listeners might have, and thinking about what I might share about myself, I thought it would be good to start with, answering a question that I often probably most frequently get, which is, over the years people often ask me how I first became interested in Chinese art, Chinese art history. And eventually, after answering this or trying to answer this question so many times, I realized eventually that this all came out of me earning my bachelor's degree at University of Missouri in Kansas City, which is in Midtown Kansas City, and at the time being a poor college student, I appreciated chief forms of chief entertainment. And so as an art history major, that meant frequenting the local art museum probably about weekly.
So I frequently, I frequented the art museum and in Kansas City, luckily for me, the art museum is Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, which has a world-class collection of Chinese art. And that's thanks to Lawrence Sickman and his collecting efforts really in the period, the same period that is the topic of my book, right, 1930s and 40s. And so, you know, whether I realized it at the time or not, I spent years absorbing and learning to appreciate the contents of the permanent collection of the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. And then later when I went to the University of Oregon for my master's degree, I never planned to return to the Kansas City area, but when it came time to select a PhD program, KU University of Kansas was really the only one that stood out to me that appealed to me.
So the time I thought I was interested in Chinese- but I later became enthralled with the early 20th century China. And again, this is probably a happy accident because KU is where, juicing Lee taught for decades, and he is one of the first scholars in the US to appreciate, collect, and teach modern Chinese art. So by the time I arrived at KU, I arrived in Lawrence Kansas, he had long since retired, I think I only ever met him once. But his tenure at KU profoundly shaped Spencer Museum of Arts collection, and it gave me a wonderful research opportunities.
And so that really led me to where I am today. Thank you for sharing. I think it's really interesting to hear your, almost their own dividends encounter with this art collection. And I would just follow on what you just said and ask.
So how did you decide or how did you come to write this particular book focusing on modern women artists in early 20th century China? So I guess I would say the story to that question is that it's done for my dissertation. Probably not surprising for our first book, right? My dissertation focused on Chote, who later became the subject of Chapter Two of this book.
I suppose a longer answer is that when I chose my dissertation topic, I felt the implicit support of my advisor, Marsha Hoffler, who decades earlier under the name Marsha Weidenar had been responsible for two trailblazing works on women artists in pre-modern East Asia. One was an exhibition catalog of views from Jay Terrace that focused on Chinese women artists, 1300 to 1912, and the others flowering in the shadows, which is an edited volume on Chinese Japanese women painters. And so as I was exploring potential dissertation topics, what I discovered is that the tremendous changes of the republican period in its art fascinatedly. And of all the artists that I encountered in my research, those of Genesha or the Storm Society appeared to me most, because they seemed collectively so determined to fight the status quo.
And of all the members in the group, who could be seen fighting the status quo more than its only officially recognized female member Chote. So I think as I started narrowing in on my dissertation topic, Marsha recognized a kind of kindred determination in my research to bring to light an artist who had previously remained relatively obscure, primarily as consequence of her gender. And so she never dissuaded me from the topic, even though Chote's own daughter, Pan-To-ao, actually told me, I interviewed her and she told me that she was concerned that I would really struggle with this. She was really glad that I was taking this up to get her mother up as a dissertation topic, but she was worried I struggled to find enough material to support a dissertation.
So spoiler is I did find an editorial, I did complete a dissertation on Chote, but the main feedback I had that I received on that dissertation was that the committee really wanted to know more about Chote's peers, or female peers, and how Chote's experiences were similar to or different from those of other women artists of her era. And so when I turned to writing my book, I decided to broaden its scope, and I discovered that the trajectory of Chote's career was largely mirrored by other women artists of her era. And this of course is because they were operating in a powerful social context that was fixated on concepts of modern womanhood, or what it meant to be a woman in early 20th century, not just in China, but globally. And so much of the rhetoric espoused in contemporary discourse draws on a global dialogue of so-called new women, who were to be educated and independent and who could actively contribute toward the betterment of society, as well as in theory determine their own fates.
But in early 20th century China, in China, the new woman bore even more responsibility, not just for herself, but for the very nation, right, for all of China, as her successes promised to overthrow what were considered outdated confusion, morals, and traditions, and thereby helped the struggling nation, the republican nation, rally, and modernize. So in my book, I greatly enjoyed exploring these larger issues, and then saw how they bore down on, in really, in some cases, with crushing weight on the lives of individual women artists. Thank you, Amanda, for sharing your journey in finding the key, or the golden key to this untold world of modern woman artists. I think from now on, we will be moving on to the main gist of the book, and we will be revealing a little bit what is the golden key, what is the golden key here, and also the main thread, as you just mentioned, what does new women or modern women mean to early 20th century China?
So to start, I was wondering how did Republican media, or media in early 20th century China, portray the woman artists, for example, Gwen Zilan in the contemporary pure articles, and how this particular woman artist used her public persona as the modern lady to invent and define her new occupational role through performance. Right, I guess, you know, I just want to take a moment and mention, because I think, you know, that it might not be obvious with the title, how it ties into the content of the book, but it was so much of this discourse on women artists and their roles in modern society took place in the periodicals of the day, particularly in Shanghai. So when woman educator, Jane Chijing, she actually, in one of her essays, she talks about how arts, the arts, visual arts are the key, the golden key that can lead to women's liberation, right, and women's participation in society. So that's what I draw on then for the title, and then I talk about how particularly, you know, the first couple chapters about how these lies and careers are these individual women artists intertwine with that narrative, right, that discourse.
So looking at Guanzilan, right, viewing the media coverage of Guanzilan from the distance up here, it's almost 100 years later, right, and this was fascinating to me, at least. And so obviously, in some ways, looking at the media coverage of her from the late 1920s, early 1930s, it was very revealing of the rise of all of trends and conventions. But on the other hand, what was more surprising to me, again, at least, was how this media coverage really tended to epitomize the saying the more things changed, the more they say the same, right. So here Guanzilan, here was a woman who, for at least a period of her life, had a very close relationship with the media, which documented all aspects of her life, from her career and her artworks to her fashion and her social circles.
And you might say the same about any number of female celebrities today, right, that there's tremendous media scrutiny of their, not just their careers, but also their lives and all aspects of their lives. And so the medium has changed, you know, in Guanzilan's day, she appeared in magazines and newspapers. Well, today we use social media and websites, but the phenomenon is the same, right. And Guanzilan, in her lifetime, in the 20s and 30s, she was right in the middle of a huge phenomenon of her day, which was centered on this celebrity modern artist.
And in particular, the celebrity of the modern woman artist, who was typically identified as a new huajah or a woman painter, as a distinct cultural professional, as an identity or an occupational role. And of course, you know, there's major social historical developments driving this interest in artists, both male and female, but for new huajah, especially their prevalence in contemporary discourse is intertwined with a focus on social reform, right, which I was alluding to earlier. And so, you know, this idea of a new woman and so-called liberation of women. But the vexing question, right, with the media coverage of Guanzilan and really of all the women artists is how much agency did the women themselves have in this broader discussion, right.
And so in my book, I argue that Guanzilan manipulated the media herself as much as it may have attempted to manipulate her. And she was able to quite kindly use the media to her own advantage. And we see this in, I think, not provide examples. And we see it in coverage such as the embedded reporter who followed her and documented her trip to Japan in almost real time, thanks to modern technology.
So I guess I hope that answers your question. Guanzilan, this female artist is one of the leading characters for the chapter for the first chapter of the convene the distance, and as Amanda just to share it more. The chapter goes beyond the Guanzilan's life story or what her needs or her achievement, but kind of discusses social movement or social happenings at the time. So here, what we were trying to do is to introduce a little bit to our audience and hope you could find it more intriguing or more oriented when you start to read it about yourself.
So for the next chapter, the second one that begs to to the protagonist, the audience mentioned of your dissertation. So here in chapter two, how was to his career shaped by the dynamics of the storm society, she participated and gender politics at the time? Right. Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, it's complicated, right?
And it's like I'm just quite complicated. On the one hand, Chou-TVC to claim as the storm society's only female member and the publicity that she received tended to focus on her gender in her as well as her relationship with her husband fellow group member, Pangshin-Shin. So it could be argued that she owed her very success to gender, right, to her gender, and that possibly there was more interest in her identity as a new huajah, or female artist, than in her actual artwork, right? On the other hand, during her career, Chou-TV tended to be pigeonholed and typecast.
And, you know, most notably in my, as I argue in my book, she this occurred really in the the writings of the storm society's spokesman, Nida. So her identity as a woman artist was distorted to some extent to build claims about the progressiveness of the avant-garde art group that inducted her, right? Which at the same time, crowed about its exclusivity by proclaiming or publicly proclaiming her, Chou-TV to be its only female member. When in fact, she was likely was not, she was not their only female member.
So, obviously, as I again talk about in this chapter, probably now my vote was a family member of the storm society, but that disagreed with the narrative that Nida was, that he sought to construct, so it was conveniently forgotten, right? So, but if we turn to Chou-TV, you can imagine that her early artistic career was largely marginalized and controlled by the group's interests. And what this meant is that her name and image was trotted out strategically for publicity, but in Nida's articles, he clearly prioritized other male group members. That said, even if she wasn't somebody who's treated as a token female member of the group, at least she had gained entry, right?
And what happens is later, you know, at least I gave her a platform of being a member of that group, even though it was to some extent controlling, you know, her image. She did have a platform and a public profile. So later after the group disbanded, she struggled to even continue her career. And her husband was able to maintain his career as the breadwinner of the family, but unfortunately because of wartime, wartime forced her into the role of a stay-at-home mom.
And then after the war, just the very concept of avant-garde artists was just, avant-garde, so it was no longer a viable career option, really, for anyone. Thank you. I think here, as you briefly recounted, Chapter Two talks about Cho-T as well as others, how they negotiated or interacted with one of the social discourse at the time, particularly gender politics. And I think that in Chapter Two, you're venturing into another kind of modernist discourse or social discourse, focusing on the women artist, Panulaele.
So how did Panulaele's engagement in the modernist discourse surrounding this newly popular genre of the female nude painting challenge, conventional gender theory and modern art theory? Right. So this is a very interesting question. Thank you.
Yeah. So, right. So in Chapter Three, I look at Panulaele. And in many cases, I'm attempting to use these women's or less case studies on larger trends or topics or themes.
So, you know, with chapter, first chapter, Guanzanlan, I'm looking at women's relationship in larger society and in the media, and these ideas of modern womanhood, a new woman, and so on. Now you have a new whajajaj, the Chapter Two, I'm looking at Cho-T and group dynamics in gender politics, as you find out. And so here in Chapter Three, I'm looking at the genre of the nude, right, which was hugely popular. And perhaps I think for some people surprisingly, so people today surprisingly popular in modern China.
So, so if we're talking, so I think that there's multiple ways we could kind of take apart some of this question. In terms of Panulaele's own participation in the production of images of the nude, particularly female nude, I would say that she fit right in, right? She fit right into the prevailing modernist discourse. And at the time, then conventional gender theory and modern art theory, at least that held by the reformers, those who wanted to reform Chinese society and the modern era.
The conventional theory was that women could and should pursue education and careers, and of course this belief extended to the visual arts as well. So, women were accepted into co-educational art programs, including like drawing classes, and Panulaele even became an educator in some of these programs. So, I wouldn't say that she challenged convention so much as upheld newly formed conventions, right? But in writing about Panulaele and her art practice, what's really challenged are today's prevailing notions about art and gender, right?
That is widely held assumptions today, or widely held assumptions that the nude was rare and controversial as a subject in early 20th century China, or that women weren't active players in China's early 20th century art world, right? And what I aim to document in my book is that not only were women actively contributing to the development of the art world, but they also engaged in the dominant trends and practices of the day, including painting the female nude, which was held up by art theorists such as Nida, who you really can't escape by this, is so influential and so, you know, prominently published, right? But he and other art theory theorists are holding up the nude, the female nude in particular, as essential to the modernist cause. So, scores of women, artists were painting and sculpting nude and exhibiting and publishing their images in high profile venues.
Thank you. I think Panulaele is indeed very representative, as you were saying, for this avogard women artist participating, not just in new forms of expressing themselves, but new genre, new content, new subjects of painting, and supposedly reach to a wider audience for different kind of coming into this subject for different kind of purposes. And for the next chapter, I think it gets more solemn, the topic, as we kind of passed the Prime Day or heyday of avogard or female avogard artists, and we're moving on to this intense time during the 1930s, where political campaign is and wartime hardships are not only putting causing problems to other parts of the society, but definitely impacting the occupational choices or other life trajectories of these artists, particularly female artists. And here we read about three modern artists' stories, including that of the young bible you mentioned that connecting to in Cho-T's story, but I would like to point out this young bible is the author of the front cover, a cartoon or illustration of this book, which is very provocative.
I hope I could show you via the podcast, but it's something that you just want to open a book and find out more what indeed the cartoon means. So here, Amanda, I want to ask, what do you think is the most extraordinary aspect in these women artists' participation struggle during this time in a war as a women artist? Yeah, so this is a very difficult, this is a very hard question. And I think that that's because this chapter takes on so much, admittedly, for instance, this chapter discusses three women artists, whereas in each of the other chapters I focus on just one woman artist, right?
So already it's dealing quite a bit more than the other chapters, but also because the women that I discuss in this chapter found themselves on opposing sides, right? But the aim of this chapter is to show, however, the uniformity of that adversity that they encountered, no matter which end of the political spectrum they associate with. So that's what I'm hoping ties the chapter together, ties the three of them, and we discussed the three of them together. So, for example, Fungi and B was closely aligned with Wang Jingwei's puppet government in Shanghai.
I guess just to explain, this was a government that was largely popped up by the invading Japanese forces, right? So Fungi and B, she was close friends with Fungi and her artwork was, as I talked about, and that chapter was exhibited in support of the Wang Jingwei regime. And this was also then an arena where women's autonomy was sidelined in favor of more conservative values, values of a modest behavior and attention to homemaking rather than their careers. While Yuthang and Nao Baibo produced anti-Japanese propaganda for the resistance, right, fighting against that Japanese invasion, and they were operating in a space with few career opportunities for women.
And really where women were typically portrayed, if at all, they were portrayed almost entirely as defenseless victims, right? So what we find then, looking at these three women, really operating on two or opposing sides of political spectrum, is that in both cases, political rhetoric narrowed the acceptable portrayals of womanhood for the purpose of propagandistic imagery. And it also shut down many women's professional careers in the arts. This was within 10 of fitting them into the military apparatus, right, into that more effort, whether it's good whys and wise mothers, raising the next generation of fighters that we see more on Fungi and B grappling with, or as maybe nurses and fighters themselves in the fight against the invasion, which we really see on the other side of the resistance.
So I suppose this is why it's extraordinary, right? The fact that the opposition that women artists faced in the late 1930s in China was so pervasive, right? But despite this, a few of these women were able to maintain careers, right, despite all of that diversity they encountered. I really like this particular chapter, as it seems to go beyond art history theories or particular, like, one discourse, but talks about women's livelihood.
As it happened, an artist, and living in 1930s, she was high, 20, or elsewhere, and how she struggles or juggles different kind of perspectives, choices, all kinds of choices. And not much trying to shine, but during this time, trying to survive. Right, we're less, right. Yes, if you're finding strategies as a woman artist to continue your, you know, your professional interests, right, just keeping your career viable.
So I was wondering, in addition to all this captivating stories and it's extremely fascinating, illustrations you included, is there anything that you had not included in a bug then that you would like to see? Yes, I mean, that's right. Yes, so first of all, there are many, many women artists, right, many women artists who are not included in the book, simply because they would be difficult, difficult to discuss in any detail or at length, because even less has been recorded of their careers, right? So there's simply too much of a challenge to work into this book, but also the art itself.
So I appreciate that you enjoyed the images. And from my perspective, right, as an art historian, one of the things that you want to see and filled with images, and I sort of a concern is that I wish there could have been more, right, that it would have been wonderful if I could have had double or triple the number of illustrations. But in so many cases, the images that I'm discussing, something no longer exists, right, or they only exist in these tiny little grainy black and white reproductions from the periodicals of the day, right? So, you know, as you can imagine, it's very difficult to explore and even assess an artwork when that's all you have to work with, right, these tiny little poor quality reproductions from magazines.
And, you know, really in general, like so little of the artwork from this period in Chinese history has survived, right, remains extended. And that's true for most artists, including men, right, of this period. But it makes it particularly challenging to resuscitate the forgotten careers of these women artists when there's so little extent evidence of their careers, right? Now, so related to both these points that I would have loved to include more women artists in general in the book, as well as more examples of artworks, is related to this as an archive that was sent to me by Ellen Johnson Lane, a number of years ago.
Probably almost a decade ago. And it consists of a collection of, there are all mentions of women artists that occurred in the Tienxing newspaper, Bayon Hwavel. And she mailed to me then this collection of photocopies and then they said, no cards documenting all the really graphic data from these. And so it's really, you know, looking through it, then it's really an impressive enterprise that she undertook.
When she was putting together this archive is way back before digital scans, right, much less online databases. So she went and found, you know, a collection of these Bayon Hwavel newspapers and she went through every issue and photocopied and notated each relevant page by hand. And we're talking about photocopies of old newspapers, right? So with snippets of information about many women who we know very little or almost nothing else about other than just what this little remnant that appeared in that newspaper.
Not to mention most of these women artists featured in Bayon Hwavel are the Tienxing newspaper. We're outside of the modernist camp right in the art world at the time. So I never found a way to incorporate them into the, incorporate the archive into my book. So, so that's one thing that I wish I could include, but I wasn't able to.
So actually now that the book is completed, that's one thing that I am working on is I'm currently working on the website that helps to breathe new life into Dr. Lane's wonderful and painstaking archive, as well as then incorporate the own resources that I came across in some of which we're not included in the book either in the process researching my book. That is so wonderful. I think it makes everyone who has read the book or not, but interesting in a topic to have a some database to go to, whether it's about modern artists and in China or women artists in early 20th century China, as I, if I understand correctly, that will be extremely useful for graduate students or other researchers getting to know the topic or finding specific information that you are working on.
Really look forward to the website. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, I hope to.
I'm hoping around the end of this year or very early next year to be able to publish the website at least initial versions of website online. So please do be looking for it. The name will be in New Hwa Jai in the news. Okay, hope we will be able to put the web link on the podcast introduction if it becomes available.
I'll make sure that it's on the screen. Okay, so after we spend quite a few minutes talking about the golden key and this fascinating story is negotiating their paths as a woman artist and living through early 20th century, this term or period, early 20th century. So what are you working on now or what is your next project, Amanda? Right, well, so you mentioned that there's sort of a general trajectory, right, that all these women's careers take and sort of arc.
There's the height right around the mid 1930s and then they start, they lose ground. And in most cases lose their careers entirely with the start of the second second second Japanese war. And that's the sort of heartbreaking chapter four, right, when I talk about those three women punching me now by Beu Fung. And so that's where I really leave them and I end the book is with that with that chapter and just that already I felt like I was, there's so much more to be said within that chapter.
And not just about women artists, it's really a fascinating period art in general that I think up to this point relatively little has been published about. So that's going to be the subject of my next book. That's what I'm working on now is the art of wartime China, primarily focused on that period of the second sign on Japanese war, 1937, 1945, but also. Going a bit further, you know, seeing as I write the book, seeing how much I want to go into the civil war that immediately followed and not just looking at women artists, but also not ignoring them, right, but really looking at the art field as a whole.
And so also, you know, this first book really focused mainly on modernist art, but broadening. So even though the period I'm talking about really is going to narrow down overall the scope in terms of artists will broaden. And so I began, I've been working on an initial article manuscript on the cartoonist and actual salvation, cartoonist association in the right around 1938 and their interactions with the media, media publicity and representing themselves really as fighters, right? You know, maybe they're not fighting, but they're fighting using their art as weapons in the war against Japan.
And then, you know, having again, taking thematic looks kind of like my first book with each chapter sort of focusing on a particular theme and, you know, having overall having a broader view of that, of the art of that period. I think it's not just a fascinating but important topic that you're researching like is not just art about war, but these artists living through wartime and making art, whether to exhibit or express certain perspectives, toward war or even not relating to the war directly, but definitely influenced by the ongoing war. Right. It's true.
And, you know, in some cases, we're talking about survival strategies on the part of the arts and other times, you know, it was viewed by some artists as, you know, an incredible opportunity to really transform the arts in China, and it really ended up being in a transformative period. So there's much to talk about. I'm very excited about this, the same project, but lots of research and writing love to do. Me too.
I was excited. I think it will be a wonderful book, not just about the art, but also about the wartime period and also about the live stories of these artists, but also the stories about artwork and social history of China at the time or global history are together all combined. Please keep everyone posted about your new project. I will do so.
Yes. Please watch for that website. I'll share the link with you. Okay.
Okay. Okay. Time indeed flies. And thank you, Amanda, again, for sharing with us your thoughts and more kind of reveal a revealer spoiler for the book, the Golden Key, modern women artists and gender negotiations in Republican China, publishing 2021 with real.
This is all for today. And I look forward to our next episode. Bye bye. Thank you.