Cultural Debates And Female Discourse

Women’s Magazine was founded in Shanghai in 1915 and closed in 1932.It has been published for 17 years.It is the longest publication in the history of Chinese women’s newspapers and magazines and has great social influence.From 1915 to 1925,there were two major changes in the style of women’s Magazine,which led the publication from a moderate and conservative position to an open and radical position,and then back to a conservative position.These two changes are directly related to the "east-West cultural debate" in the May Fourth Movement period and the "new sexual moral debate" between Zhang Xichen and Chen Baiyi.As a women’s journal,journal of women in the process of two shift reflects the female discourse in the "new" and "old" conflict under the background of change,at the same time also to a certain extent,reveals the group of intellectuals in the different evolution path of the trend of The Times as well as the differences and conflicts between these groups face is how to affect a publication.Based on a detailed analysis of the texts of Women’s Magazine from 1915 to 1925,this paper proposes:The core reason for the change of women’s Magazine is that the head of the magazine was eliminated by the commercial Press,which valued commercial interests and cultural reputation,because of the conflict between his thoughts and the social trend under the changing background of The Times.On the other hand,since the issue of women’s liberation has been included in the category of social reform in modern China,the degree of women’s liberation is also an important indicator for intellectuals to measure whether the society is advanced or not.Therefore,from 1915 to 1925,Women’s Magazine was always restricted by the editor’s editorial thoughts,the need of social evolution for women’s transformation and the commercial Press’s commercial needs.These three forces kept each other in check and influenced each other and became the "balancer" of Women’s Magazine.The women’s discourse presented in this magazine is maintained in the category of being accepted by the social trend.The main body of this paper is divided into five parts.The first part mainly analyzes the publishing background of "Women’s Magazine" and carries out historical stages of the magazine.The second part analyzes the purpose,column setting,content characteristics and main author groups of Women’s Magazine from 1915 to 1919,presenting the conservative and steady style of women’s magazine and the female discourse advocating "good wife and good mother doctrine".The third part mainly expounds the analysis between Chen Duxiu and Du Yaquan of the Commercial Press in the "East-West cultural debate",and examines the influence of the debate on the first transformation of Women’s Magazine and the changes of the magazine after its initial reform.The fourth part of between 1921 and 1925 by ZhangXiChen editor of the journal of women’s overall innovation is analyzed and pointed out that after the innovation of journal of women’s focus is to discuss how to develop "new women" for social progress,the period of the journal of women have more articles called for women by his own strength to achieve economic independence rather than rely on men,This is quite different from the female discourse presented in the journal when Wang Yunzhang was chief editor.The fifth part focuses on the causes and focus of the "new sexual morality debate"around the "New Sexual Morality" in Women’s Magazine,and analyzes the specific differences of the "new sexual morality" between Zhang Xichen,Zhou Jianren and Chen Baiyi.Their different concepts of "new sexual morality" reflect their fundamental differences in the understanding of moral system and their different views on the direction of social progress.Finally,this paper draws a conclusion:Behind Women’s Magazine,there are three forces from the magazine’s director,the Commercial Press and the social and cultural trend,which are interconnected and restricted each other,so that the speech stand presented by Women’s Magazine has been maintained within a limit acceptable to the society at that time,even after the succession of editors.The two cultural debates highly related to the two transformations of Women’s Magazine are also the manifestations of the game between these three forces.