Louise Edwards - Citizens of Beauty: Drawing Democratic Dreams in Republican China

This project began with a chance find of the four small volumes of Zhonghua Librarys 1917 old and new beauties in the University of Hong Kongs Fung Ping Shan Library. Zhonghuas collection invited readers to look back at the past and forward into the future. It encouraged them to ponder the tensions between citizenship and subjecthood, the foreign and the Chinese, the modern and the traditional. It was both commercially and politically astute. The creation of a new society was not only a task for politicians. Artists, too, had their role in supporting Chinas transition to a republic filled with active, engaged, and equal citizens. This book pays homage to their talent and insight.

I owe debts of gratitude to many institutions and individuals. Librarians at the University of Hong Kong, Chicago University, Cornell University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Melbourne University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the University of New South Wales have provided invaluable support. Staff at the Shanghai Library, Academia Sinicas Fu Sinian Memorial Library, and the National Library of Australia were also crucial to its completion. The project had its first outing at the 2013 Asian Studies Association Meeting in San Diego, where I joined a stimulating panel led by Kate Merkel-Hess with Robert Culp, Janet Chen, and Prasenjit Duara. The 2017 AAS-in-Asia meeting held in Seoul gave the modern beauties another outing, alongside my enthusiastic copanelists Gao Ruchen, Zhang Yun, and Cui Wendong. Over subsequent years, while the work was in progress, colleagues around the world provided valuable feedback in seminars at Heidelberg University, Academia Sinica, Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Toronto, and University of Hong Kong. Colleagues from my much-treasured HKU clan who warrant special thanks include Wu Cuncun, Yang Binbin, John Wong, Kendall Johnson, Kangsoon Lee, Staci Ford, Xu Guoqi, Chen Fong-fong, Cai Qing, Zhang Mei, Zhang Yun, Selena Orly, Anna Costa, and Christine Cui Tao. Anne McLaren, Adelyn Lim, Johanna Hood, Zora Simic, Bronwyn Neil, Yu Chien-ming, Lien Ling-ling, Fang Xiaoping, Noa Nahmias, Paola Zamperini, Harriet Zurndorfer, Barbara Mittler, and Joan Judge all helped in a variety of ways to keep the project alive. Lorri Hagman, Mike Baccam, Elizabeth Berg, MBilia Meekers, Margaret Sullivan, and the superb team at University of Washington Press have been wonderful advisers and outstanding editors. Paddlers at FFB Dragon Boat Club lifted my spirits with many adventures on and off the water. One of the most joyful moments of the project was making contact with Dan Duyus daughter, Judy Dan Woo, and his granddaughter, Becky Woo. They have generously given permission to reproduce Dans images in this book. Finally, thanks to my extended families in New Zealand and Australia for their support over many yearswith special gratitude to my partner, Kam, and my children, Chris and Alex.

Thanks to the following individuals and institutions for assistance with or permission to reprint images: Judy Dan Woo and the Harvard-Yenching Library, for Dan Duyu, Duyu baimeitu zhengxu ji (1924 Xinmin Tushuguan edition); Melbourne University, for Ding Song, Baimei tu waiji (2004 Wenlian edition); National Library of Australia and Guangwen Shuju, Taiwan, for Ding Song, Shanghai shizhuang baimei tuyong (1968 Guangwen edition); University of Hong Kong Library newspaper collection, for Ding Song, images from Xianshi leyuan ribao; Hong Kong University Library and Chicago University Library, for Ding Song and Qiu Shouping, Gujin baimei tuyong (1917 Zhonghua Tushuguan edition); National Library of Australia for Wu Youru, Gujin baimeitu (1909 Biyuanhui She edition) and from University of New South Wales Library (1977 Nam San edition).

Abbreviations

Sources

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