American Lens: The Image of Chinese Women in a Century

Author: Li Zi Yun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: What kind of visual impression do 20th-century Chinese women leave in your memory? Eileen Chang once sighed: Under the rule of the Qing Dynasty for three hundred years, women had no fashion at all. Generations upon generations wore the same clothes without feeling bored. In fact, not only was the clothing slow-paced, rigid, and lacking in variation, but the overall life and image of women in that era were too. However, amidst the tumultuous changes of the 20th century, Chinese women had not only transformed spiritually but also in their external appearance, becoming unlike the traditional women of their time. From the late Qing fashion trend of "glamorous makeup and stylish clothes imitating courtesans, with the upper class following suit," to the "May Fourth" students with "flapping bell-bottom sleeves as if floating in the heavens"; from the 1930s-40s modern women who represented the "new achievements of civilization," to the "love military uniforms more than red attire" women of the new China, and even by the end of the century, the "globalization" process of FASHIONGIRLS and the "new new women"—the image of 20th-century Chinese women has undergone so much transformation and change! How did all this happen? Who shaped the image of women and determined the "beauty" of the era? Join Beauty Lens—A Century of Chinese Women's Image to explore and seek answers.