Dream In The Mountains Outside - Republic (1912-1949) Prints The Western Perspective

The research objects of this paper are the woodcuts in The Republic ofChina (1912-1949) and the Western perspective formed under the externalinfluences. In the historical process of the20th century when China was in thepursuit of modernity, and under the influence of modern western art as well,Woodcuts of The Republic started and gradually formed the localized styleof the modern woodcuts, which composes the main research content of thispaper. The dissertation describes the situation that the modern Westernthoughts gradually affect the domestic, and the returnees, like Li Shutong,Feng Zikai, and Jiang Xiao jian, began the creation of the modern woodcutat the end of the Qing transition, opening up a local creation of modernwoodcuts. And then, since1920s, Zheng Zhenduo, Lu Xun, Ye Lingfeng andMao Dun spread the creation of the modern Western prints by way of themass cultural media and art journals. In the years between1920-1930, underthe influence of left-wing culture, Lu Xun took the appreciation of themodernity as the main goal to pursue, promoting and triggering the beginningof the local emerging engravings through the organization of printmakingworkshops, publication of the modern Western printmaking album, and theexhibitions of the modern western woodcuts. Facing the social reality, localyoung painters, under the influence of the left-wing cultural trends, activelystarted the creation of the local modern woodcutting through self-study andother positive ways. In the20th century in China, on the occasion of nationalperil, a historical tide fraught with ups and downs and mixed with theKuomintang-Communist ideological struggle and the Sino-Japanese War, theemerging printmakers participated in the discussion of cultural"Nationalization", and made effort to present “dewesternization”("Nationalization") in actual creative patterns, culminating the famous "newprint movement” in the history of Chinese art in the20th century. In themagnificent historical context of the Republic of China, aesthetic modernity ofthe local modern prints made place for the historical responsibility of nationalsalvation. The cultural mentality---“Salvation OverpoweringEnlightenment”---almost turned into the only option that could not beresisted in the Republic. In the first half of the20th century when China wasin the historical process of the pursuit of modernity, whether it was thereturned students or the mass media that spread western printmaking, or inthe emerging printmaking course of the campaign, a western perspective that was carried along had actually been accompanying the formation and growthof the local prints, and had specifically influenced on the course ofdevelopment of the woodcuts of the Republic. Clarify and study thedevelopment of the printmaking course of the Republic to enable us tounderstand the specific ways and paths of "Western Art in east", and try toreproduce the past of the Republic, better construct our own history ofmodern woodcuts.