Full Description
This collection of original essays explores the rise of popular print media in China as it relates to the quest for modernity in the global metropolis of Shanghai from 1926 to 1945. It does this by offering the first extended look at the phenomenal influence of the Liangyou pictorial, The Young Companion, arguably the most exciting monthly periodical ever published in China. Special emphasis is placed on the profound social and cultural impact of this glittering publication at a pivotal time in China.
The essays explore the dynamic concept of "kaleidoscopic modernity" and offer individual case studies on the rise of "art" photography, the appeals of slick patent medicines, the resilience of female artists, the allure of aviation celebrities, the feistiness of women athletes, representations of modern masculinity, efforts to regulate the female body and female sexuality, and innovative research that locates the stunning impact of Liangyou in the broader context of related cultural developments in Tokyo and Seoul.
Contributors include: Paul W. Ricketts, Timothy J. Shea, Emily Baum, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham, Jun Lei, Amy O'Keefe, Hongjian Wang, Ha Yoon Jung, Lesley W. Ma, Tongyun Yin, and Wang Chuchu.
Contents
I. Designing Modernity
1.Kaleidoscopic Modernisms: Montage Aesthetics in Shanghai and Tokyo Pictorials of the 1920s and 1930s
Paul W. Ricketts
2. Re-framing the Ordinary: The Place and Time of "Art Photography" in Liangyou, 1926-1930
Timothy J. Shea
II. Embodying the Modern
3. Health by the Bottle: The Dr. Williams' Medicine Company and the Commodification of Well-Being in Liangyou
Emily Baum
4. The Modern Girl in Motion: Women and Sports in Liangyou
Maura Elizabeth Cunningham
5. Producing Norms, Defining Beauty: The Role of Science in the Regulation of the Female Body and Sexuality in Liangyou and Furen Huabao
Jun Lei
III. Negotiating Genders
6. Stars in the Nation's Skies: The Ascent and Trajectory of the Chinese Aviation Celebrity in the Prewar Decade
Amy O'Keefe
7. Pillar of the Nation: Photographic Representation of "Modern" Chinese Masculinity in Liangyou
Hongjian Wang
8. Searching for the "Modern Wife" in Prewar Shanghai and Seoul Pictorials
Ha Yoon Jung
IV. Modernizing Tradition
9. Blossoming beyond the Pages: Female Painterly Modernities in Liangyou
Lesley W. Ma
10. From Painter to Artist: Representing Guohua Paintings and Painters in Liangyou, 1926-1938
Tongyun Yin
Appendix: Distributing Liangyou
Wang Chuchu
