Event

This paper is the first in a series of investigations dealing with the link between moral taboo, censorship, scholarly bias, and the preservation of Chinese books and magazines from the Republican period (1911-1949). The paper presents the case of the journal Meiyu (Eyebrow Talk), published from 1914-1916. Meiyu was marketed as a journal for and by women, and gained notoriety for its transgressive contents (both texts and images). It was subsequently banned by the Yuan Shikai government. The paper will provide a brief overview of the publishing history and contents of the journal. After that it will focus on the journal’s general reputation and the contexts in which it has been referred to by writers, scholars, critics, and censors both in its own time and in later decades. The paper will also pay attention to the re-emergence of women-oriented erotic writing in contemporary Chinese online literature. In conclusion, the paper will evaluate the extent to which transgressive writing by women has contributed to the formation of new literary practices in China.

The Modern China Seminar at Penn is sponsored by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinology.