“Aristocracy for the common people : Chinese commodities in Oscar Wilde's aestheticism” (Publication, 2009)
Year
2009
Text
Chen, Qi. Aristocracy for the common people : Chinese commodities in Oscar Wilde's aestheticism. In : Victorian network ; vol. 1, no 1 (2009).
http://www.victoriannetwork.org/index.php/vn/article/view/6/6. (WilO8)
http://www.victoriannetwork.org/index.php/vn/article/view/6/6. (WilO8)
Type
Publication
Mentioned People (1)
Wilde, Oscar
(Dublin 1854-1900 Paris) : Irischer Schriftsteller, Dramatiker, Dichter
Subjects
Literature : Occident : Ireland
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References / Sources
Chronology Entries (3)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1874-1878 |
Oscar Wilde was 1871 in Trinity College Dublin and tutored by J.P. Mahaffy. He travelled with Mahaffy to Italy in 1875 and Greece in 1877, and was considerably influences by his former tutor's aesthetic perception. The contention of Mahaffy about Chinese civilization is shown in Twelve lectures on primitive civilization and their physical conditions, in which Mahaffy discusses the development of various civilisations in world history. [Siehe Mahaffy]. As an undergraduate at Magdalen College, Oxford, Wilde had his considerable collection of blue-and-white porcelain housed on the shelves. His remark "I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china" brought him fame in the university. Wilde's enthusiasm for blue-and-white was a confirmation of his identity as an aesthete. |
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| 2 | 1882 |
Wilde, Oscar. House decoration. [Vortrag in Amerika]. = Wilde, Oscar. Art and the handicraftsman. In : Wilde, Oscar. Essays and lectures. (London : Methuen, 1911). http://www.online-literature.com/wilde/2311/. Er schreibt ; "When I was in San Francisco I used to visit the Chinese Quarter frequently. There I used to watch a great hulking Chinese workman at his task of digging, and used to see him every day drink his tea from a little cup as delicate in texture as the petal of a flower, whereas in all the grand hotels of the land, where thousands of dollars have been lavished on great gilt mirrors and gaudy columns, I have been given my coffee or my chocolate in cups an inch and a quarter thick. I think I have deserved something nicer." Wilde, Oscar. The decorative arts : a lecture delivered on 3rd October, 1882 in the City Hall, Fredericton, N.B. Er schreibt : "When I was in San Francisco… I saw rough Chinese navies, who did work that the ordinary Californian rightly might be disgusted with and refuse to do, sitting there drinking their tea out of tiny porcelain cups, which might be mistaken for the petals of a white rose, and handling them with care, fully appreciating the influence of their beauty." Wilde, Oscar. The house beautiful. = Interior and exterior house decoration. [Vortrag 11 March 1882 in Chicago]. http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3826289.pdf?acceptTC=true. Er schreibt über zwei Räume von James Abbott McNeill Whistler in London : "The woodwork is all cane-yellow, with all the wall niches and brackets tinted a light yellow, and the shelves are filled with blue and white china… When the breakfast table is laid in this apartment, with its bright cloth and its dainty blue and white china, with a cluster of red and yellow chrysanthemums in an old Nanjing vase in the center, it is a charming room…" Er schreibt : "As regards the floor : don't carpet it all over, as nothing is more unhealthy or inartistic than modern carpets ; carpets absorb the dust, and it is impossible to keep them as perfectly clean as anything about us should be. In this, as in all things, art and sanitary regulations go hand in hand. It is better to use a parquetry flooring around the sides and rugs in the center ; if inlaid or stained floors are not practical, have them laid with pretty matting and strewn with those very handsome and economical rugs from China, Persia, and Japan." "In a restaurant in San Francisco I saw a Chinese navy drinking his tea out of a most beautiful cup as delicate as the petal of a flower…" Chen Qi : Wilde's attitude towards the Chinese developed into a respectful stance. He demonstrates appreciation of the Chinese throughout some of his most representative essays and public lectures. The Chinese once being alienated by him because of their supposed inferior taste turned into his referential model of artistic lifestyle. This change in attitude happened after his visit to Chinatown in San Francisco. Escorted by the local mayor, Wilde watches operas in Chinese theatres and drank tea in Chinese restaurants. He wrote a letter to Norman Forbes-Robertson (27 March 1882) to share his excitement : 'tonight I am escorted by the Mayor of the city through the Chinese quarter, to their theatre and joss houses and rooms, which will be most interesting'. Richard Ellmann notes that Wilde even made a Chinese friend in San Francisco. He was invited by some local young artists to drink tea in a studio. A Chinese friend of these artists came to the party especially to prepare and serve the tea for them. It seems that Wilde enjoyed the experience of visiting Chinatown, because he frequently mentioned it in his lectures. When Wilde made his American tour, a newspaper of the new world pictures him as a 'Chinaman' with a pigtail. In this grotesque cartoon, Wilde stands smugly between two Chinese vases, which contain a sunflower and a lily. The sunflower has rats for petals. The caption reads 'No like to call me John, call me Oscar'. This pictures contains the implication of racism against the Chinese, who were stereotyped as 'yellow peril' during the late nineteenth century by the white supremacists. After experiencing Chinatown, Wilde as fascinated by Chineseness. He said : "I wish those people had a quarter in London. I should take pleasure in visiting it often". In California, Chinese communities were often harassed, attacked, or expelled. The Americans justified the anti-Chinese movement by denying the equal humanity of the Chinese people. Chinese labourers were recruited to work in the British Isles and the colonies of the empire through the 'Chinese coolie trade'. Londoners worried about the presence of the Chinese in the East End. The public feared that the Chinese, who were perceived as opium eaters and an inferior race, would bring 'racial degeracy' to the white Anglo-Sacons. Contrasting with this popular hostility to the Chinese, and considering that Chinatowns in the nineteenth century were usually squalid urban slumbs, Wilde's enthusiastic admiration for the Chinese people and Chinatown was obviously out of tune with the Victorian decent classes. The American lecture tour inspired Wilde's deeper insight into his Irish identity, since then he no longer alienated the 'Chinaman' as he used to. Instead, he showed sympathy towards these 'common' and 'poor' Chinese labourers who were discriminated against and expelled by the white Americans, because he could see them as mirrors of the oppressed Irish under the British Empire's regime. Wild recognized that the humble Chinese people in poverty still possessed the aesthetic virtue of aristocracy that this old civilization once had. His admiration for the Chinese labourers in the San Francisco slum appeared eccentric among the general pejorative view of the Chinese during the Victorian period. It was the poverty and humiliation that the Chinese people suffered, which formed a strong contrast with the glory that China used to have, which made the Chinese a convenient reference point for Wilde to advocate his Irish identity and the necessity of reviving Celtic culture. In Wilde's logic, the Chinese could wash away their stigma caused by political, economical and military failures as long as they managed to keep their superiority in aesthetic taste. The experience in Chinatown influenced Wilde's ideas of life and aestheticism. The development of his literary career suggests that there was a positive correlation between his change of attitude towards the Chinese labourers and his sense of Irish cultural identity. The American tour was a significant event in the development of Wilde's aestheticism. This was the first time that Wilde made profits from the commodification of the aeasthetic movement and the commodification of himself. In Chinatown in San Francisco he showed great admiration for Chinese artefacts and his interest in things Chinese was extensive, including blue-and-white porcelain, China tea, Chinese silks, and the textiles and costumes of Chinese theatre. |
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| 3 | 1883 | The era (14 July 1883) reported that "the lecturer [Oscar Wilde] dwelt upon the beauties and peculiarities of Chinese theatricals in San Francisco, where the audiences show their approval, not by applause, but by taking a little cup of tea". |
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Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
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