The marketing of modern women in early twentieth century Shanghai: The creation of consuming modernity and nationalism in advertising

This dissertation focuses on the commercial construction of the Chinese modern women in the early twentieth century China. The advertisements in the Shenbao newspaper between 1912 and 1937 were selected to examine the construction of Chinese modern women and Chinese modernity in advertising. The Chinese advertising industry promoted a material modernity based on the endless consumption of industrial goods. Consumption became the fundamental way of defining Chinese women's identities and their relationship to society. There were three major gender discourses of Chinese women constructed under the overarching discourses of Chinese people as a consuming population: Chinese women as female citizen-consumers, Chinese women as educated wives and mothers, and Chinese women as modern-girl consumers. In advertising, Chinese women and their physical bodies were increasingly exploited as sites of consumption. They were also transcultural in nature as advertising constantly blended global and local features.