Bodyscapes of modernity: a post-critical sociology of art and the body in Republican China (1912–1937)

Abstract

This thesis explores the dynamic relationship between aesthetic principles, the art field and socio-cultural context with reference to representations of the body in Republican China. The launch of the project of modernity in the Republican era (1912–1937) initiated modern revolutions in both the social and the cultural sphere. Bodily representations of art changed significantly as a response to the reconfiguration of the art field and the pluralisation of aesthetic values and art forms. Whilst many scholars have identified modern ways of representing and seeing the body, few have inquired why and how those aesthetics and visualities were constructed. Drawing on the post-critical perspective of the new sociology of art, the thesis aims to examine aesthetic changes in what is called the ‘bodyscape’. By analysing contested voices in the art field, it attempts to provide a reflexive vision of the uncertain, paradoxical and pluralist modernity of this era. It also seeks to understand how the body was disciplined as aesthetics and visualities were modernised.

A multi-modal approach is employed to achieve these aims. The datasets used in the research cover the body in different visual forms, from fine-art pieces to popular imagery. A range of visual texts, contextual archives and discourses are incorporated in order to understand the art field and the socio-cultural context of Republican China. Visual methods and discourse analysis are the two pillars of the methodological toolkit. The examination focuses on three primary themes in the Republican bodyscape. First, it is argued that the artification of the nude ignited a symbolic revolution in the Republican art field, and consequently aesthetics, visualities and art forms were all pluralised. In its artifying process, the traditional Chinese holistic aesthetics of the body were challenged, and an objectified, gendered and fetishised way of seeing the corporeal body developed. Second, the thesis examines the collective construction of feminine curves as modern femininity by Western-style artists and various cultural producers. As the modern curvaceous ideal came to be treated as a sign of beauty, sensuality, fashion and modernity, the female body was sexualised and commodified. Third, the thesis shows how the promotion of the smiling face in Republican popular culture communicated modern facial aesthetics and etiquette while feeding off capitalist hedonism and narcissist consumerism and reinforcing the obsession with cheerfulness in modern emotional culture.

By reconstructing the modern transformation of aesthetic principles in the Republican era, this thesis exemplifies and defends a post-critical approach to aesthetics and art. It embodies the return to beauty in the sociological study of art. The exploration of contested representations of the body points to a dual vision of modernity in Republican China. By reflecting on both the Eurocentric and the planetary approach to modernity, the thesis contributes to the decolonisation of scholarship in modernist studies. It also provides insights into the modern disciplining of the body through visual ideals. The complex interactions between aesthetics, cultural production and consumerism revealed in the research suggest a useful lens for reading contemporary bodyscapes and bodily practices.