A Study Of The Emerging Figures In The Late Qing Dynasty And The Early Republic Of China

During the late Qing Dynasty and the Early Republican period, the emerging portraits of a hundred beauties took women images as the raft to boat women from traditional bank to modern bank. As current waves and ripples, the description provides an important visual resources for the construction of new women. As the popular schema born in the modern city, the emerging portraits of a hundred beauties pander to the two kinds of discourses. One is the nationalism discuss of elite intellectuals, another is the daily life narration of popular literature. The purpose of these two kinds of discourses is to shape the new women in line with their own ideals. The difference between them is that the former is based on enlightenment, and the latter is based on the entertainment. Through the gap between images and discourses, we can understand the major culture trends and aesthetic taste of the period.This paper firstly takes portraits of a hundred beauties as an independent system to carry on the inspection, and finds that it has a dual tradition which seems oppositely. They are the tradition of exemplary women and a hundred of seductive women. On this basis, the genealogy of the portraits of a hundred beauties is constructed to explore the evolutionary reasons and rules. The second chapter points out that in the environment of new technology and new media, the emerging portraits of a hundred beauties take women as the narrative center. The enormously rich women images are created through the methods of following, transforming or innovating directly the motif. This satisfies the desire of new citizen class to running after fashion, modernity and realism, which leads to a popular visual style. The third chapter points out the women images of Japan and Western world, which has an important influence on the concept and form of the emerging portraits of a hundred beauties. At that time, women were regarded as the citizens most in need of enlightenment, and their new roles reflect the modern imagination of current people. Through the emerging portraits of a hundred beauties, we can find that artists and writers try to create new women by redefining the beauty of women.