“Oscar Wilde : an image of artistic self-fashioning in modern China, 1909-1949” (Publication, 1997)
Year
1997
Text
Zhou, Xiaoyi. Oscar Wilde : an image of artistic self-fashioning in modern China, 1909-1949. In : Images of Westerners in Chinese and Japanese literature : proceedings of the XVth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association‚ Literature as cultural memory, Leiden 1997. Ed. by Hua Meng, Sukehiro Hirakawa. (Amsterdam : Rodopi, 2000). (WilO4)
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 (13)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1909-1949 |
Oscar Wilde : Rezeption in China allgemein. Bonnie S. McDougall : In the debates which took place in the early stages of the new movement in China, Oscar Wilde's name did not commonly appear, nor did he provide the major inspiration to any group of young writers. He did have some influence : the Xin yue she (Crescent Moon Society) writers acknowledged his theories on art. Wilde's work had much to offer the creators and critics of China's new literature. On the social side, there is his defence of individualism and of feminism, his criticism of governments and politicians, his exposure of the moral poverty underlying conventional respectability and his contribution to libertarian socialism ; on the artistic side, apart from the actual example set by his own work, there is his stress on the importance of criticism in art, and on the importance of art in literature. If there were other aspects of his writing left unexplored or unappreciated, such as his ideas on abstract art, or his general theory of making an art of life, this is hardly to be wondered at, the violent prejudice which led most English and American critics to dismiss him as 'insincere' and 'frivolous', obscured Wilde's standing in his own country for many years. It is even possible that the initial enthusiasm for Wilde in China was dampened by the unfavourable remarks of these critics who had an undue influence among the intellectually impressionable young critics of the early twenties. Neither in China nor in England could censorious critics prevent the widespread popularity of Wilde's fairy-tales and plays. For Chinese readers, less dazzled by the brilliance of Wilde's wit and remembering his persecution in England, the satire of the plays was sharp and powerful. Again, less aware of the luxury and artificiality of his personal life, they were able to believe in the sincerity of the fairy-tales and prose-poems, which describe the beauty of humility and simplicity. Wilde's theories on art and literature were neglected in the early period of the new literary movement, though there is some evidence that the Crescent group took them up in the late twenties and early thirties. None of the critics seems to have said that he liked Wilde's plays simply because they were very funny. Zhou Xiaoyi : The first half of the twentieth century witnessed a 'Wilde-mania' throughout China. After his tragic death in Paris in 1900, the English aesthete was introduced into China as the figure head of England's aesthetic movement. Chinese responses to his works, which adumbrate the principle of art for art's sage, were enthusiastic. A large number of Chinese writers were attracted to aestheticism and produced voluminous works in the aesthetic style. Wilde was regarded as the symbol of an artistic lifestyle and the major representative of those Western writers who lived cloistered away from the ordinary world and devoted themselves entirely to pure art. Wilde was first introduced into China not simply as a writer of a Western literary genre entirely new to the Chinese, but mainly as an apostle of pure art or, to be more specific, a practitioner of a new way of life. The aesthetic ideas of Wilde that attracted modern Chinese writers were in many ways simplified. Wilde's earlier thinking, which developed in his first 'aesthetic' period during the 1880s, was much emphasized by his Chinese audience. In the Chinese account of Wilde, his various ideas from that period, such as art as religion, art for art's sake , and pure form as the ultimate value of artistic creation, subtle impressions and feelings, the flamboyantly aesthetic mode of being and the severe critique of the existing social order, were regarded as basic principles of aestheticism and key concepts of Wilde's thinking. But the moral radical side of Wilde and his most radical conceptions which are presented in The picture of Dorian Gray and Intentions and other essays on life and art are pointedly ignored. In 1920s and 1930s, Wilde was better known for his literary works than for his critical essays. The Chinese reception of Wilde's works was thus highly selective. If Wilde was not entirely misread, he was at least only partially received and interpreted. His aesthetic theory and literary practice were transfigured into the forms which conformed to the social realities and cultural dynamics of China at that time. He was regarded as an artistic symbol of the time surrounded by a mysterious aesthetic aura. His life and his thought on art were widely admired, and his arguments were frequently quoted as the most important sources for Chinese modernists defending their aesthetic approach to art. Wilde represented an idealized image that rebellious May Fourth writers could identify with. It is not the Wilde of wit and paradox that fascinated the Chinese aesthetes, it is the flamboyant Wilde, the extravagant and self-fashioning Wild, that impressed the Chinese minds questing for a new and alluring way of life. Linda Pui-ling Wong : The reception of Wilde in China in the 1920s and 1930s, new and modern modes from the West surfaced in various areas like fashion, general Westernized appearance, schools, establishment of different social and literary communities and journals. The Chinese intellectuals' new perception of their social and personal positions in relation to Chinese traditions, in which a different and modern mentality emerged. Such consciousness warred against the conservative Confucian mode of thinking and engendered new, or anti-traditional, visions of the concept of self. Wilde was widely known for his extravagant and eccentric clothes, which was a mark of his 'aesthetic dandyism'. Guo Moruo condemned such a movement which was entirely external and had nothing to do with inner problems. The Chinese writers, as seen in their commentaries and essays, praised Wilde for being a phenomenal literary figure of the nineteenth-century, especially for his leading position in the aesthetic movement. Their reviews and comments on Wilde's work basically were consistent with those of the Victorian readers. Readers of both cultures, regardless of the time and cultural lapses and gaps, understood ideas like social satire, hypocrisy, conservatism, social injustice, and class discrimination shown in his plays. |
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| 2 | 1909 |
Yu wai xiao shuo ji. Zhou Zuoren yi. [ID D12489]. Earliest translation of Oscar Wilde was The happy prince by Zhou Zuoren in classical Chinese. In his short introduction, Zhou argues that the key point of Wilde's aestheticism is to 'transform life into an art. He himself practiced it by wearing eccentric clothes of an extraordinary shape and walking down in the street with a sunflower in hand'. According to Zhou, Wilde was an artist with a will to transcend ordinary life and elevate himself to the higher level of the kingdom of art. Zhou Zuoren's efforts to promote Western humanist writing were unsuccessful at that time. A re-issue of these translations in 1921 was soon out of print, this time presumably because classical Chinese was now superseded by the vernacular. |
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| 3 | 1915 |
Chen, Duxiu. Xian dai Ouzhou wen yi shi tan [ID D27627]. Zhou Xiaoyi : Chen says that Wilde was one of the 'four greatest modern writers' in European literature. The others are Ibsen, Turgenev, and Maeterlinck. Chen's praise is an example of the prevalent perception among Chinese writers of Wilde as a leading artist in world literature. Wilde's aesthetic practice – his way of dressing and other non-conformist behavior – further reinforces this image of Wilde as a unique artist. He was seen as the representative aesthete in England, whose reputation and achievements in art and aesthetic theory surpassed even Walter Pater and other aesthetes, although translations of Pater's works were also available in China at that time. |
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| 4 | 1920 |
[Wilde, Oscar]. [Ye ying yu mei gui]. Hu Yuzhi yi. [ID D27629]. Hu Yuzhi argues that 'we have to study his poems and fairy tales if we want to know Wilde as an aesthete'. This is mainly because 'only in his poems and fairy tales, his vivid imagination of beauty, his rare gift in art, and his wonderful attractiveness are given full play'. |
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| 5 | 1921 |
Shen, Zemin. Wangerde ping zhuan [ID D27631]. Shen Zemin schreibt : "Salomé is the symbol of Wilde himself, Salomé's passion is Wilde's passion. In writing Salomé, Wilde is actually writing about himself ; to write Salomé's doomed fate is to write his own fate. Salomé is a feverish nightmare which expresses a kind of degradation." Shen Zemin focuses on Oscar Wilde's leading role in promoting aestheticism in England and America. |
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| 6 | 1921 |
[Wilde, Oscar]. Shalemei. Tian Han yi. [ID D12041]. Zhou Xiaoyi : Salomé is one of the most popular and influential foreign plays in modern Chinese literary history. The play went through seven translations in the first half of this century. Tian Han's translation is the best among the earliest ones. What fascinated Tian Han was the aesthetic art of dying shown in Salomé. For him, Salomé's fervent passion, her will to love, and her doomed death represent a certain spiritual consciousness. She never gives up, never makes compromises, and her will is unbeatable. Her kiss on the severed head of John is the shocking climax of this willfulness. In an essay on Salomé, Tian Han states : "My fellow men who love liberty and equality, you should learn from this single-minded and fearless spirit and pursue what you love bravely !" Salomé becomes a political symbol of rebellion. For Chinese artists, Salomé expressed the aesthetic principle that life should be transformed into an intensive, artistic moment. Linda Pui-ling Wang : Salomé generated different reactions and debates among the Chinese intelligentsia. That the Chinese translators translated this play properly and faithfully, as they did his plays, showed that they understood it without any problems. They borrowed and re-defined Salomé to serve and support their causes. They appeared to politicize Salomé, albeit its sensuous elements, to suit their political purposes, thereby making it more exceptional than any of Wilde's plays. Tian Han had read the English translated version with illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley. To him and those who appreciated this play, Salomé was highly poetic, romantic and sensual in every aspect, both the text itself and its illustrations. He proclaimed, The characters have the same spirit. Their eyes are fixed upon on thing. Their ears are not distracted from any voices. They seek what they love with their own lives and die for it. You people who love freedom and equality should also learn from their focused and fearless spirit so as to pursue what you love. Each character in the play was seen to show the same spirit but for a different reason : for Iokanaan it was the love for God that sustained him to resist those in authority ; for Salomé, it was Iokanaan she desperately desired. The both at the end died for what they believed, Iokanaan for the sacred love (God) and Salomé for sensual love. Tian Han called the love of Salomé 'sexual love'. Salomé was challenging a prohibited subject in the feudal Chinese society, especially the privileges of women. It concerned the freedom to love and realize an individual's physical passions and desires. The highlight was, when Salomé held up the severed head of Iokanaan and kissed his mouth. It must have been stunning and shaking for the Chinese audience to see such an iconoclastic scene. What Tian Han encouraged the readers to appreciate most was the untamed yearning for love and beauty. In his view it was important that the intellectuals and the masses in China should understand what Salomé represented was suitable for China, because the people needed to have the courage and tenacity to express themselves and persist, just like the princess who often expressed her desire to kiss Iokanaan, even at the expense of both of their lives. For Tian Han, it was a new play and appropriate to help launch China into a new era, which was particularly important to the long oppressed lower class. Salomé's outrageous behavior inspired Tian Han greatly to help the masses to pursue and stand for what was needed. In Salomé, the theme of love, the dazzling and strongly assertive characters, and the stylistic diction and expression possibly overshadow any overt political meanings. Tian Han's emphasis on Salomé's kiss was misleading. Though love is an important part in life, it is disastrous when it gets possessive and manipulative. That Salomé was selfish and used her beauty to obtain power seemed to go unnoticed by Tian Han or other writers. The 'sexual passion' of Salomé, as written by Tian Han, should not be one's moral guide and the only means to achieve freedom. Those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it, goes the saying. |
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| 7 | 1921 |
Mao, Dun. Xin wen xue yan jiu zhe de ze ren ji nu li [ID D27632]. Mao Dun schreibt : “Our purpose in introducing Western literature is half for their literature and art and half for modern thoughts about the world… the latter should be more emphasized….we won't accept 'Art for Art's sake' literature… those modern works, like those of Wilde, the British aesthete, with the idea of 'life is decoration' should not be introduced without careful selection. Wilde's idea of art is the highest object; that life is only a decoration contradicts current cultural needs in China. If work like this is carelessly introduced….it will only undermine our new literature movement. Therefore, selective introduction is the foremost thing to consider when we discuss foreign literary works.” Zhou Xiaoyi : Mao Dun regards Wilde as 'entirely a failure'. He calls him 'an individualist' and 'a hedonist' who 'has the gift to invent an 'airy castle' which is their paradise. He enters into this 'castle' to enjoy 'the fruits of the garden on the earth' and sees this as the meaning of life. For Wilde, 'to create beauty is to seek new sensations, self-enjoyment and self-indulgence. Yet what benefits and uses of this activity can be given to mankind ? The aesthetic wave moves higher above the sea of the life of human beings, but does this suggest any progress and advance in history ?' |
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| 8 | 1922 |
[Wilde, Oscar]. Yu zhong ji. Zhang Wentian, Wang Fuquan yi. [ID D12194]. Zhou Xiaoyi : Lu Xun, after reading the Chinese translation of Gide's biography of Wilde, noted that "his way of life is most interesting". He also noted Wilde's style of dress. In a paragraph discussing Wilde's appearance, he states : "look at his pictures, in which Wilde wears a flower in his button hole, taking a cane inlaid with ivory ; how handsome he is, everybody would love him, not to speak of women". Lu Xun used the phrase 'aesthetic costume' to describe Wilde's dress. Lu Xun is critical of Wilde's way of life, because, as a writer with a social mission and ideals, he is hostile to aestheticism and art for art's sake as universal principles for literature. He emphasizes the essentially social function of art. Yet no matter how critical he was, he had a clear image of Wilde as an aesthetic figure. |
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| 9 | 1922 |
Zhang, Wentian ; Wang Fuquan. Wangerde jie shao [ID D12195]. [Introducing Oscar Wilde]. Zhou Xiaoyi : Zhang Wentian, an early important critic in Wilde studies, made a similar observation as Lu Xun on Wilde's aesthetic mode of being. He noted that Wilde "devoted his whole life to art, to the religion of beauty". He argues that Wilde did not merely advance an artistic principle, but also put his principle to practice. He practiced his aestheticism in everyday life soon after he graduated from Oxford : "He wears a velvet coat, a loose shirt with a turn-down collar, and a tie of some unusual shade tied in a lavalliere knot. He propagated his aestheticism everywhere, with a sunflower or a lily in hand. How enthusiastic he is ! How full-hearted, how brave !" Here Zhang also related Wilde's aesthetic principle to his eccentric lifestyle, and offered a vivid picture of Wilde as an artist. In his depiction, this artist, reinforced by his personal charm and mysterious character, worships art and condemns social reality. |
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| 10 | 1922 |
[Wilde, Oscar]. [The picture of Dorian Gray : Preface]. Yu Dafu yi. [ID D27658]. Seine Übersetzung des Buches wurde nie publiziert. Zhou Xiaoyi : Yu Dafu admired Wilde's work very much and cited him from time to time in his works, and treasured his aphorisms such as 'all art is quite useless, there is no such thing as moral or immoral art' and others. Yu's love of Wilde is fired in many ways as Wilde is also a social rebel and further, he is a rebel with some clear social and political ideas and artistic principles. He observes that 'the first rebellious spirit which is against the prevalent moralism and formalism in the Victorian age comes from aestheticism that Wilde proposed. Bonnie S. McDougall : The Preface is a very abbreviated version of Wilde's aesthetic principles, but gives a fair view of that theory of art which was first elaborated in English by Walter Pater, that art is the record of an artist's appreciation or impression of nature or of other works of art, and that the artistic experience is a proper end in itself. Yu Dafu's views on poetry and art are quite different from these : he regarded poetry as the expression of emotion clothed in beauty, and believed that poetry should be an instrument of social change. Only at one point do Wild and his translator meet : both insisted on the irrelevance of moral judgments in and about art. It was probably for this reason that Yu Dafu translated the preface ; like Wilde, he was labeled a decadent by his contemporaries for his obsession with sexual aberrations, and he wrote admiringly of the 'decadents' who contributed to The yellow book. |
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| 11 | 1923 |
Zheng, Zhenduo. Dao cao ren. In : Wen xue zhou bao ; 15 Oct. (1923). [Preface to 'The scarecrow']. Zhou Xiaoyi : Zheng Zhenduo mentions Oscar Wilde in his preface to 'The scarecrow' of Ye Shengtao's fairy tales. Zheng argues that in Wilde's fairy tales The happy prince and The young king as well as in Ye's fairy tales, the 'perfect and detailed description of beauty' deserves special attention. |
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| 12 | 1928 |
Film : Shao nai nai de shan zi = 少奶奶的扇子 [The young mistress's fan] in der Übersetzhung von Hong Shen, unter der Regie von Zhang Shichuan nach Wilde, Oscar. Lady Windermere's fan. (London : Elkin Mathews and John Lane, 1893). (Kline/Roethke collection). [Erstaufführung 1892 St. James Theatre London]. Hong Shen was not satisfied with the several versions of translation as 'they were not appropriate to the Chinese theatre'. He translated it again, and made many changes according to his own taste. As one critic observes, "All the place names and the names of persons are given in common Chinese names, and the details of everyday life are also adapted to Chinese custom and convention. Only the main theme and the general spirit of the play, plus the plot and setting, remained with the original style". Mao Dun : "Five hundred tickets were sold out immediately, and they had to issue two hundred extra tickets. After the first night personages of various circles in Shanghai strongly demanded extra performances." |
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| 13 | 1929 |
Aufführung von Shalemei nach Wilde, Oscar. Salomé : drame en un acte. (Paris : Librairie de l'art indépendant, 1893). = Salome : a tragedy in one act. (London : E. Mathews & John Lane ; Boston : Copeland & Day, 1894). [Uraufführung Théâtre de l'oeuvre, Paris, 1896] in der Übersetzung von Tian Han in Nanjing und Shanghai. Tian Han schreibt : "My translation of Salomé was successful when it was published in 1921. It has been seven or eight years now and it hasn't yet performed. And now we just have found very good actors playing the roles of Iokanaan, Salomé and Herodias. Rebelling against the standard social attitude is most obvious in this play. This is why we have chosen to perform this play." Tian Han added social significance to the play in order to defend his aim of staging it, which was to him an artistic way to unite different classes together for a noble and national purpose. Even though he thought Salomé was not about individualism, his interpretation was indeed individualistic and questionable. Paradoxically, he was not so much politicizing the play as romanticizing it further. His choice of Salomé betrayed a strong sentiment undercurrent, albeit his claims of social interests. When the play was performed, the power of the socially-minded intellectuals was already quite strong. Shi Jihan described the first night of the performance : "There are only three hundred seats in the theatre, yet the people who came to see the play numbered more than four hundred.” Salomé was acclaimed by the audience, who were fascinated by the emotional qualities of the female protagonist. The play left such an impression that it was soon imitated by several Chinese playwrights." Xu, Zhimo. Guan yu nü zi. In : Xin yue yue kan ; vol. 2, no 8 (Oct. 1929). Salomé incontestably presented a different, daring and outspoken image of woman for many Chinese intellectuals. Xi Zhimo expressed the tension between personal, artistic expression and social boundary as he recalled his impression on Yu Shan, the lady who played Salomé. One night, during the performance, when Yu Shan was about to say, 'I will kiss thy mouth, Iokanaan', she caught a glimpse of her mother sitting in the front row and staring angrily at her. Instead of saying the line with might and passion, she was lowering her voice and slurring over the line. Xu commented that though in reality there were many objective obstacles preventing a 'new' or 'modern' woman to realize herself, the psychological barrier was less visible yet more destructive. The talented actress could have played her role more powerfully and dramatically but for the angry gaze of her mother, which represented a tacit censorship. That was the moment when the actress yielded to traditions at the expense of artistic expression. Salomé was then not so much a theatrical challenge as a psychological one since she embodied anti-traditional feminine qualities. To be a 'new' women, in the view of Xu, she needed to behave with psychological abandonment and be thoroughly courageous and persistent. Linda Pui-ling Wang : In the interest of reading Salomé in the Chinese context, the Chinese writers were looking for a psychological outlet and model which spoke to their personal needs but not the genuine moral and humanitarian aspects. The Chinese writers who were more romantic and sentimental even saw Salomé as an essential resolution to the class problems in society. Salomé undeniably excited and inspired the young Chinese people who had personal and emotional dreams, albeit a small and 'selected' group. The play provided a romantic appeal to bourgeois intellectuals such as Tian Han, Xu Zhimo and Ye Lingfeng, who could afford to see the play and greatly praised the play, but mainly its aesthetic aspects. The Chinese writers were generally fascinated with Salomé who certainly looked radical, nonconformist, modern and exemplified a new mode of thinking and behavior. As such, there was more revision than imitation in terms of meaning and goal. The femme fatale was then turned into a super heroine. The Chinese writers did not only discuss the play's literariness but also its social redefinitions affirms its significance to be a special product of that age. Salomé was a medium through which the Chinese writers voiced their romantic outcry and accumulated for themselves discourses in accordance to their desires and causes. Tian Han presented a more social and political defence for it. In the discursive labyrinth of Salomé, there were decadence, entertainment and fascination for an exotic femme fatale and a modern city as a surrogate oryal court in which the Chinese intellectuals indulged in their own pursuit of romantic dreams. |
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Sources (8)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1915 | Chen, Duxiu. Xian dai ou zhou wen yi shi tan. In : Qing nian za zhi ; vol. 1, no 3 (Nov. 1915). [A brief history of modern European literature and art]. | Publication / WilO18 |
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| 2 | 1915 |
[Wilde, Oscar]. Li xiang zhang fu. Qing nian za zhi (1915). [Serie]. Übersetzung von Wilde, Oscar. An ideal husband. In : Wilde, Oscar. Salomé and other plays. (Harmondsworth : Penguin Books, 1894). [Uraufführung 3. Jan. 1895, Theatre Royal, London]. [Wilde's Porträt erscheint auf dem Einband von no 3 (1915)]. 理想丈夫 |
Publication / WilO19 |
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| 3 | 1916 | [Wilde, Oscar]. [A Florentine tragedy : a play in one act]. Chen Xia yi. In : Qing nian za zhi (1916). [Unvollendetes Manuskript 1893]. | Publication / WilO26 | |
| 4 | 1920 |
[Wilde, Oscar]. [Ye ying yu mei gui]. Hu Yuzhi yi. In : Dong fang za zhi ; vol. 17, no 8 (April 1920). Übersetzung von Wilde, Oscar. The nightingale and the rose. In : Wilde, Oscar. The happy prince, and other stories. Ill. By Walter Crane and Jacomb Hood. (London : D. Nutt, 1888). 夜莺与玫瑰 |
Publication / WilO20 | |
| 5 | 1921 |
[Henderson, Archibald]. Wangerde ping zhuan. Shen Zemin yi. In : Xiao shuo yue bao ; vol. 12, no 5 (May 1921). [A critical introduction to Oscar Wilde]. 王爾德評傳 |
Publication / WilO22 | |
| 6 | 1921 | Mao, Dun. Xin wen xue yan jiu zhe de ze ren ji nu li. In : Xiao shuo yue bao ; vol. 12, no 2 (1921). [Betr. u.a. Oscar Wilde]. | Publication / WilO23 |
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| 7 | 1922 |
[Wilde, Oscar]. [Daolian Gelei de hua yiang : Preface]. Yu Dafu yi. In : Chuang zao ji kan ; no 1 (1922). 道连葛雷的画 |
Publication / WilO48 |
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| 8 | 1928 | Liang, Shiqiu. Wang'erde de wei mei zhu yi. (1928). In : Zhongguo xian dai wen lun xuan. Wang Yongsheng bian xuan zhe. (Guizhou : Guizhou ren min chu ban she, 1984). [Oscar Wilde's aestheticism]. | Publication / WilO111 |
Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zentralbibliothek Zürich | Organisation / ZB |
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