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The “Ellis Effect”: Translating Sexual Science in Republican China, 1911–1949

Rachel Hui-Chi Hsu

in Global History of Sexual Science, 1880-1960

This chapter examines the tension between claims to universal translatability and practices of unruly or subversive appropriations by focusing on the changing character of a series of translations of ... More

This chapter examines the tension between claims to universal translatability and practices of unruly or subversive appropriations by focusing on the changing character of a series of translations of Havelock Ellis's work into Chinese during the period 1911–1949. Traces of Ellis's ideas reappeared in the context of rising interest in Republican China in issues of gender differences, sex, and (homo)sexuality at the turn of the twentieth century. Ellis's Chinese translators such as Zhou Zuoren, Zhang Jingsheng, and Pan Guangdan adapted his ideas to validate their own perspectives regarding social and sexual reform. The chapter discusses the heterogeneous approaches to and multiform adaptations of Ellis's sexology in Republican China to show how the “Ellis effect” revealed the sociocultural significance of popularizing sexual science and modern sex education.Less

Psychology and Freudian Sexual Theory in Early 20th Century China

in From Ah Q to Lei Feng: Freud and Revolutionary Spirit in 20th Century China

Modern psychology first came into China through a context of educational reform. The work of Kubota Sadanori, Hattori Unokichi, Joseph Haven, Ruric Nevel Roark, and Harald Höffding provided the ... More

Modern psychology first came into China through a context of educational reform. The work of Kubota Sadanori, Hattori Unokichi, Joseph Haven, Ruric Nevel Roark, and Harald Höffding provided the framework for studying and understanding the mind. This chapter examines the introduction of modern psychology and Freudian psychoanalysis in China, focusing on the notions of the unconscious, sexual desire, theory of the mind, and subjectivity. It looks at the arguments of Gao Juefu (1896–1993), China's most famous psychological researcher, against the primacy of both sexual desire and the unconscious in Freud's theories. It also comments on the debate between Zhang Jingsheng (1889–1970), dubbed “Dr. Sex,” and Zhou Jianren (1888–1984) regarding sexual desire. Finally, the chapter discusses Freudian theory in relation to Chinese literature in the 1920s and 1930s and in post-Mao China.Less

Plus c’est la même chose: Reinventing Licentiousness for a New Age

Y. Yvon Wang

in Reinventing Licentiousness: Pornography and Modern China

This chapter shows that despite — indeed, because of — the democratization of desire and access to sexual representations, individuals continued seeking authoritative positions from which to ... More

This chapter shows that despite — indeed, because of — the democratization of desire and access to sexual representations, individuals continued seeking authoritative positions from which to pronounce judgments on the desires of others. The chapter revisits examples raised as new developments in the previous chapters: depictions of women in public, nationalistic commentaries on The Plum in the Golden Vase (hereafter Plum), campaigns to rescue folk songs and lyric books, the furor around female nudes, and elite consumption of sexology as a status symbol. In each case, the chapter shows how new classifications worked and addresses why it seemed so necessary to continue excluding certain categories of desire and their bearers from legitimacy. It also explains why attempts to replace the hierarchy of licentiousness with a new order were vulnerable as never before. Ultimately, the chapter presents another view of Zhang Jingsheng's publications on sex, showing that his peers attacked these works to defend themselves from the former ally they increasingly saw as a threat to their own expertise.Less

Optical Scientism: Editorial Authority, Male Subjectivity, and Policing “Female Monstrosity” in Shanghai Print Media

Jun Lei

in Mastery of Words and Swords: Negotiating Intellectual Masculinities in Modern China, 1890s-1930s

This chapter continues to address native male cultural producers’ fear and desire of transgressive modern women and their tactics of mitigating such fear and desire. It focuses on analysis of visuals ... More

This chapter continues to address native male cultural producers’ fear and desire of transgressive modern women and their tactics of mitigating such fear and desire. It focuses on analysis of visuals in Shanghai pictorial magazines such as Liangyou, Linglong, Furen huabao, and expanding the discussion to include varied images of modern women and a larger range of male cultural producers with different political agendas. It draws particular attention to male editorial authority as well as male authorial agency behind visual representations of modern women. Male editorial authority intervened in the publication’s rhetoric, its technologies, and its representations of women, to ensure that the display of knowledge in images of women conformed to the gender ideologies of the magazines and functioned to assert male subjectivity through cultural authority over the interpretation of female bodily aesthetics and sexuality.Less

The Implied Masturbator Speaks: Technologies and Markets Catalyze Transformations in Yin Ideology

Y. Yvon Wang

in Reinventing Licentiousness: Pornography and Modern China

This chapter builds on the material and technological transformations described in the previous chapter to discuss changing ideas about sexual representations. The chapter begins to directly talk ... More

This chapter builds on the material and technological transformations described in the previous chapter to discuss changing ideas about sexual representations. The chapter begins to directly talk about the desires of the implied masturbator. From the late Qing into the early twentieth century, mass media conquered the Chinese cultural world. Ambitious intellectuals at the turn of the twentieth century increasingly put their ideas onto a print market that was more open than ever before. The chapter analyses how literary professionalization remained a deviation from the orthodox path of officialdom. It also elaborates the five aspects of ideological change around sex and sexual representations at the turn of the twentieth century. Many of these ideological transformations were led by political and cultural reformers, including proponents of a “New Culture.” These self-declared iconoclasts argued for revising the boundaries of legitimacy around desire itself. Ultimately, the chapter introduces the downfall of Zhang Jingsheng, a leading member of the New Culture group. The chapter addresses how Zhang's open discussion of his personal desires made him vulnerable to becoming seen as no better than an implied masturbator.Less