(no subject)
John Hay, "The Body Invisible in Chinese Art?", in Body, Subject, and Power in China, ed. Angela Zito and Tani Barlow (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994): 42-77.
This is an interesting, but problematic, article on the role of the body in Chinese art and literature - Hay articulates his points quite clearly, using literary and artistic reference points (I might quibble that he points to too few examples - Jinping mei is exemplary in many respects, which perhaps doesn't make it the best example).
In sum, "the nude" as seen in Western art doesn't exist; even in extremely explicit sexual scenes, the body is not seen as a whole, but as many parts. Hay quotes two scenes of JPM, one explicitly erotic & the other a street scene, where the female form is catalogued - it's not prudish by any means, but neither is it a complete picture.
In terms of 'cataloguing the body,' I was reminded of the 'poems on objects' (yongwu shi), especially in relation to 葉小鸞 Ye Xiaoluan:
Many of her poems collected in Fansheng xiang ... follow the tradition of "poems on objects" ..., with one sequence celebrating the female body party by part. This poem series invited her parents' poetic responses .... The poems produced by this exchange ... [centered] on the unusual topic of bound feet .... (Women Writers of Traditional China, 267)
OK, so a different view on the body. I did take issue with some of Hay's statements, especially the somewhat bizarre ending on "the typical Chinese rock" (68), and his assertion that "the idea of 'China' was fundamentally cultural rather than ethnic" (63). It seems that the biological body - an ethnic and/or racial body - isn't a practice of "time immemorial" for the West, either, really reaching special heights in the 19th century.
Prof. noted this is a very important essay; curious to see how discussion goes on Tuesday.
This is an interesting, but problematic, article on the role of the body in Chinese art and literature - Hay articulates his points quite clearly, using literary and artistic reference points (I might quibble that he points to too few examples - Jinping mei is exemplary in many respects, which perhaps doesn't make it the best example).
In sum, "the nude" as seen in Western art doesn't exist; even in extremely explicit sexual scenes, the body is not seen as a whole, but as many parts. Hay quotes two scenes of JPM, one explicitly erotic & the other a street scene, where the female form is catalogued - it's not prudish by any means, but neither is it a complete picture.
In terms of 'cataloguing the body,' I was reminded of the 'poems on objects' (yongwu shi), especially in relation to 葉小鸞 Ye Xiaoluan:
Many of her poems collected in Fansheng xiang ... follow the tradition of "poems on objects" ..., with one sequence celebrating the female body party by part. This poem series invited her parents' poetic responses .... The poems produced by this exchange ... [centered] on the unusual topic of bound feet .... (Women Writers of Traditional China, 267)
OK, so a different view on the body. I did take issue with some of Hay's statements, especially the somewhat bizarre ending on "the typical Chinese rock" (68), and his assertion that "the idea of 'China' was fundamentally cultural rather than ethnic" (63). It seems that the biological body - an ethnic and/or racial body - isn't a practice of "time immemorial" for the West, either, really reaching special heights in the 19th century.
Prof. noted this is a very important essay; curious to see how discussion goes on Tuesday.