Coda
In 1902, the Enlightenment project was defined as the mission of literary print political fiction by Liang Qichao.Since 1912, the technology of photography began to be widely disseminated, which made newsphotos in newspapers possible.At the same time, many newspapers chose to have columns with sketches or inserts.The pictorial newspapers of the Dianshizhai kind began to dwindle out of fashion.The 1920s pictorials like The Good Companion(Liang you), which was published in Shanghai from 1926, had photos as its major content, and began to be significantly different from the Dianshizhai[64].The literacy rate, after the New Culture Movement, rose much higher than in the 1890s.Thirty two of fifty-eight working class families studied by Olga Lang in Peiping in the 1930s included men who read newspapers[65].
In April 1919, Lu Xun(Lu Hsun), one of the first modern Chinese intellectuals, writes of crowds in modern vernacular Chinese when Xia Yu, a revolutionary character of the Republican China, is to be executed:Old Chuan looked in that direction too, but could only see people’s backs.Craning their necks as far as they would go, they looked like so many ducks held and lifted by some invisible hand.For a moment all was still; then a sound was heard, and a stir swept through the onlookers.There was a rumble as they pushed back, sweeping past Old Chuan and nearly knocking him down[66].
Here, the crowd becomes a ghost-like existence(like ducks), puppets without soul(“held and lifted by some invisible hand”).This literary specter occurs in one of the well-written modern Chinese stories titled “Medicine,”which is supposed to cure Chinese spiritual disease in order to save the nation.The watching crowds are denigrated so that an enlightening literary subjectivity and interiority—such as that of Lu Xun—is well established.The once inter-media immersion of visual experience becomes one-dimensional and now needs some interiorized “invisible hand”to spiritualize, which is made possible through a modern Chinese literature.Visuality yields to textuality at the expense of a lost embryonic state of collective being taken as passive.
Figure 1 奇园读画, Reading the Pictorial in the Qi Garden
【注释】
[1]Des Forges, Mediasphere Shanghai, pp.1-2.I acknowledge the recommendation of Des Forges’ work from Professor Kirk Denton, which is very useful for rethinking the arguments made in this essay.I wish I had known Des Forges’ work earlier.I agree with many arguments made in Des Forges’ book, and it seems that one of the differences is that he focuses more on the installment fiction set in Shanghai from the 1890s to the 1930s(haishang xiaoshuo), whereas my work, owing to the limit of its length and scale, is only taking a look at one moment in media transition between pictorial and print cultures, with a focus on the lithographical reproduction of the Dianshizhai.
[2]As the Shenbao reported on June 19, the first three issues of the Dianshizhai were immediately out of supply once it went into market, and the press had to print several other thousands, which sold out right away:“后卷嗣出，前卷已空，由后补前，司石司墨者日辄数易手，犹不暇给”[“Once the reprinted came out, the first-time printed already sold out.Those which came later supplied the market needs created by the popularity of those printed earlier.There were several work shifts of personnel responsible for lithography and ink within 24 hours, and still the market was not satisfied”], Cf.Xiong Yuezhi and Zhang Min,《上海通史·晚清文化》(Shanghai tongshi Wanqing wenhua) [A Survey History of Shanghai:Late Qing Culture], p.483.
[3]See Shang Wei, “The Making of the Everyday World:Jin Ping Mei Cihua and Encyclopedias for Daily Use.”
[4]Wu Meifeng,《从〈点石斋画报〉看晚清时期的民间信仰意识》(Cong Dianshizhai huabao kan wanqing de minjian xinyang yishi) [“Folk Belief and Mentality in Late Qing through an Analysis of the Dianshizhai”]；Guo Enci and Su Jue,《中国现代设计的诞生》(Zhongguo xiandai sheji de dansheng) [The Birth of Modern Chinese Design], p.113.Also see Xiaoqing Ye, The Dianshizhai Pictorial:Shanghai Urban Life, 1884—1898.
[5]Wang Ermin, 《近代文化生态及其变迁》(Jindai wenhua shengtai ji qi bianqian) [Cultural Ecology of Modern Times and Its Changes], pp.428-429.
[6]For how the Yangzhou school of painting in the eighteenth century is different from the outlook of Shanghai culture in the nineteenth century, see Richard Vinograd, Boundaries of the Self.
[7]Lu Xun鲁迅,《鲁迅全集》(Lu Xun quanji) [Complete Works of Lu Xun], vol.4, p.293.
[8]A Ying阿英,《晚清文艺报刊述略》(Wanqing wenyi baokan shulue) [A Brief History of Newspapers and Periodicals in Late Qing], pp.90-100.
[9]Zheng Zhenduo,《郑振铎艺术考古文集》(Zheng Zhenduo yishu kaogu wenji) [Collected Essays on Art and Archaeology by Zheng Zhenduo], p.193.Regarding comments on the Dianshizhai from Lu Xun, A Ying and Zheng Zhenduo, also see Chen Pingyuan, 《导论：以“图像”解说“晚清”》(“Daolun:yi ‘tuxiang’ jieshuo ‘wanqing’”) [“Introduction:an Interpretation of ‘Late Qing’ from the Perspective of ‘Pictures and Images’], p.4.
[10]Ye Xiaoqing, The Dianshizhai Pictorial; Rudolf G.Wagner, 《进入全球想象图景：上海的〈点石斋画报〉》(“Jinru quanqiu xiangxiang tujing:Shanghai de Dianshizhai huabao) [“Joining the Global Imaginary:the Dianshizhai Pictorial in Shanghai”]; Hsiao-t’i Li, 《上海近代城市文化中的传统与现代——1880年代至1930年代》(“Shanghai jindai chengshi wenhua zhong de chuantong yu xiandai:1880 niandai zhi 1930 niandai”) [“Tradition and Modernity in Shanghai Urban Culture:1880s through 1930s”], in 《恋恋红尘：中国的城市、欲望和生活》(Lianlian hongchen:Zhongguo de chengshi, yuwang he shenghuo) [Ashes of Time:China’s City, Desire and Life]; Chen Pingyuan, 《导论：以“图像”解说“晚清”》(“Daolun:yi ‘tuxiang’ jieshuo ‘wanqing’”) [“Introduction:an Interpretation of ‘Late Qing’ from the Perspective of ‘Pictures and Images’], in《图像晚清》(Tuxiang wanqing) [Pictures and Images in Late Qing]; Bao Weihong, “A Panoramic Worldview”; Laikwan Pang, “The Pictorial Turn.”
[11]Zheng Zhenduo, in his《〈中国古代绘画选集〉序言》(“Zhongguo gudai huihua xuanji xuyan”) [“Preface to Selected Paintings from Ancient China”], writes on technique innovations of paintings in late Qing:“更多地表现那个‘时代’的社会生活，乃是一个新闻画家吴嘉猷，他的《吴友如画宝》（石印本）保存了许多的中国半封建、半殖民地社会的现实主义的记录”[“More of representing the social life of ‘that period’ are works by Wu Jiayou, a painter, whose subjects are social news.His Treasured Paintings by Wu Youru(lithographical edition) keeps many realistic records of the Chinese society in its semi-feudal and semi-colonial stage”], in《郑振铎艺术考古文集》(Zheng Zhenduo yishu kaogu wenji) [Collected Essays on Art and Archaeology by Zheng Zhenduo] , p.185.Also see Chen Pingyuan, 《导论：以“图像”解说“晚清”》(“Daolun:yi ‘tuxiang’ jieshuo ‘wanqing’) [“Introduction:an Interpretation of ‘Late Qing’ from the Perspective of ‘Pictures and Images’”], p.4.
[12]Catherine Vance Yeh, “Creating the Urban Beauty:The Shanghai Courtesan in Late Qing Illustrations,”p.397; Catherine Vance Yeh, Shanghai Love, chapter 6.
[13]Lithography was introduced to China first by Western missionaries, and not widely used until 1876, when Shanghai’s Xujiahui Tujiawan Yinshuasuo(徐家汇土家湾印刷所) started to use it to publish Christian hymns.See Laikwan Pang, “The Pictorial Turn,”pp.19-21.
[14]Also see Laikwan Pang, The Distorting Mirror, p.17.
[15]For Xiong Yuezhi and Zhang Min, the historical development of Shanghai’s newspapers in late Qing falls into three periods:the formative period, 1850—1872; the molding period, 1872—1895; the developed period, 1896—1911, pp.39-40.
[16]《论画报可以启蒙》(“Lun huabao keyi qimeng”) [“On How Pictorials Can Enlighten”], the Shenbao August 29, 1898.This essay might have been written to express dissatisfaction on the closure of the Dianshizhai Pictorial.For speculations of its intent, see Chen Pingyuan, 《导论：以“图像”解说“晚清”》(“Daolun:yi ‘tuxiang’ jieshuo ‘wanqing’) [“Introduction:an Interpretation of ‘Late Qing’ from the Perspective of ‘Pictures and Images’], p.13.
[17]Zunwenge Zhuren, the Dianshizhai Pictorial, Issue I, May 8, 1884.
[18]For Shanghai’s changing cartography in the late nineteenth century, see Ye Kaidi, “Nali shi Shanghai?”(Where was Shanghai?).
[19]See Leo Ou-fan Lee, Shanghai Modern, pp.6-7.
[20]See Leo Ou-fan Lee and Andrew J.Nathan, “The Beginnings of Mass Culture,”p.368.
[21]This terminology is taken from Martin Jay’s “Scopic Regimes of Modernity.”
[22]There were more than 140 vernacular newspapers in China, with 27 based in Shanghai.Xiong Yuezhi and Zhang Min,《上海通史·晚清文化》(Shanghai tongshi Wanqing wenhua) [A Survey History of Shanghai:Late Qing Culture], p.496.For a list of select vernacular newspapers published in Shanghai, see pp.501-502.Also see Ma Guangren, Shanghai xinwen shi 1850—1949(History of Journalism in Shanghai, 1850—1949), pp.282-287; Zhang Zhen, An Amorous History of the Silver Screen, pp.21-23.
[23]Rawski, Education and Popular Literacy in Ch’ing China, pp.11-12, 17.Also see Des Forges, Mediasphere Shanghai, p.10.
[24]Evelyn Rawski has suggested that literacy was quite widespread in late imperial China, especially among urban males.See Rawski, Education and Popular Literacy in Ch’ing China, pp.10-13, 140-146.Also see Des Forges, Mediasphere Shanghai, p.10.
[25]Quoted in Laikwan Pang, The Distorting Mirror, p.174.
[26]徐家汇博物馆(Xujiahui bowuguan) [Xujiahui Museum], established by Pierre Heude, a French Jesuit.See Xiong Yuezhi and Zhang Min,《上海通史·晚清文化》(Shanghai tongshi Wanqing wenhua) [A Survey History of Shanghai:Late Qing Culture], p.203-204.
[27]See Laikwan Pang, The Distorting Mirror, pp.174-175.
[28]Friedrich A.Kittler, Discourse Networks, 1800/1900, in particular the section “Untranslatability and the Transposition of Media,”in “Rebus,”pp.265-273.
[29]The analysis of this lithographical representation in the Dianshizhai is greatly inspired by Laikwan Pang in her The Distorting Mirror, p.175.
[30]See Zunwenge Zhuren, the Dianshizhai Pictorial, Issue I, May 8, 1884.(https://www.daowen.com)
[31]See Zheng Yimei,《上海的画报潮》(“Shanghai de huabao chao”) [“Waves of Pictorials in Shanghai”], p.244.
[32]See Rudolf G.Wagner,《进入全球想象图景：上海的〈点石斋画报〉》(“Jinru quanqiu xiangxiang tujing:Shanghai de Dianshizhai huabao) [“Joining the Global Imaginary:the Dianshizhai Pictorial in Shanghai”], p.84.
[33]Cited from Chen Pingyuan,《新闻与石印——〈点石斋画报〉之成立》(“Xinwen yu shiyin—Dianshizhai huabao zhi chengli”), [“News and Lithography:the Establishment of the Dianshizhai Pictorial”], p.64.
[34]See Guo Enci and Su Jue,《中国现代设计的诞生》(Zhongguo xiandai sheji de dansheng) [The Birth of Modern Chinese Design], pp.130-146.
[35]Xiaoqing Ye, The Dianshizhai Pictorial, p.52.
[36]Michel Foucault, “What Is an Author”; Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author.”
[37]Here it involves the structural difference between narration and description.For the narratologist Gerard Genette, description may be thought of as the moment in narration when the technology of memory—and what is to be memorized:“experience, custom, tradition, and habit”—threatens to collapse into the materiality of its means.Description typically “stops”or arrests the temporal movement through narrative.It “spreads out the narrative in space”(Gerald Genette, “The Frontiers of Narrative,”p.136).
[38]Bao Tianxiao, Memoirs of Kushiro Studio(《钏影楼回忆录》, Chuanyinglou huiyilu), p.114.
[39]See Chen Pingyuan,《以图像为中心——关于点石斋画报》,(Yi tuxiang wei zhongxin—guanyu Dianshizhai huabao) [Centering Picture—on the Dianshizhai Pictorial], p.94.
[40]See Laikwan Pang, The Distorting Mirror, pp.164-183.
[41]For a historical investigation of the development of Peking Opera, see Joshua Goldstein, Drama Kings.
[42]Cf.Guo Enci and Su Jue,《中国现代设计的诞生》(Zhongguo xiandai sheji de dansheng) [The Birth of Modern Chinese Design], pp.130-146.
[43]See Bao Weihong, “A Panoramic Worldview,”p.443.
[44]See Bao Weihong, “A Panoramic Worldview,”p.444
[45]See Bao Weihong, “A Panoramic Worldview,”p.448
[46]Anonymous,《观美国影戏集》“Guan meiguo yingxiji”[Watching American Shadow Plays], Youxibao [Newspaper of Leisures], September 5, 1897.
[47]Quoted in Laikwan Pang, The Distorting Mirror, p.174.
[48]Ernest Major,《本报告白》(“Benbao gaobai”) [“A Statement from This Nespaper”], in the first issue of the Shenbao, April 30, 1872.
[49]See Rudolf G.Wagner,《进入全球想象图景：上海的〈点石斋画报〉》(“Jinru quanqiu xiangxiang tujing:Shanghai de Dianshizhai huabao) [“Joining the Global Imaginary:the Dianshizhai Pictorial in Shanghai”], pp.161-162.The Minbao was established in March 26, 1876, and its editors-in-chief were Cai Erkang(蔡尔康) and Shen Yujia(沈毓佳).“此报专为民间所设，故字句俱如寻常说话。每句及人名地名尽行标明，庶几稍识字者便于解释。”[“This newspaper was established specifically for common people.Thus its vocabulary comes from everyday vernacular language.Every sentence, every name and address are all well marked, so that they are accessible to those with very basic literacy.”] This was the earliest vernacular newspaper that was not established by the missionaries.It is a pity that it didn’t survive long.Its targeted readership, those with very basic literacy, were struggling for survival in their everyday life and simply could not afford to enjoy reading newspapers.See Ma Guangren,《上海新闻史：1850—1949》(Shanghai xinwen shi:1850—1949) [A History of News in Shanghai:1850—1949], p.69.
[50]Cf.Lee and Nathan, “The Beginning of Mass Culture,”p.372
[51]“自化其身焉，入于书中，而为其书之主人公”[“One melts oneself into the book, and becomes its protagonist.”]《论小说与群治之关系》(“Lun xiaoshuo yu qunzhi zhi guanxi”) [“On the Relation between the Novel and the Government of the People”].
[52]《清议报》(Qingyibao) [The China Discussions Newspaper], Issue 1, December 1898.
[53]See Hao Chang, Liang Ch’i-ch’ao and Intellectual Tradition in China, pp.150-155.
[54]Chen Jianhua,《从革命到共和：清末至民国时期文学、电影与文化的转型》(Cong geming dao gonghe:qingmo zhi minguo shiqi wenxue dianying yu wenhua de zhuanxing) [From Revolution to Republicanism:Transformations in Literature, Cinema and Culture from Late Qing to Republican China], p.81.
[55]《时务报》(Shiwubao) [Newspaper of Current Affairs], Issue 26, May 1897, pp.1729-1730.Cf.Chen Jianhua, p.80.
[56]Especially in 《时务报》(Shiwubao) [Newspapers of Current Affairs] , Issues 16-19, January-March, 1897.Cf.Xia Xiaohong, 《觉世与传世——梁启超的文学道路》(Jueshi yu chuanshi:Liang Qichao’s wenxue daolu) [To Enlighten the World and to Be Valuable for Posterity:Liang Qichao’s Literary Career], pp.13-21, pp.201-208.
[57]Xia Xiaohong,《觉世与传世——梁启超的文学道路》(Jueshi yu chuanshi:Liang Qichao’s wenxue daolu) [To Enlighten the World and to Be Valuable for Posterity:Liang Qichao’s Literary Career ], p.194.
[58]Liang Qichao,《清代学术概论》(Qingdai xueshu gailun) [A General Survey of Qing Dynasty Scholarship], p.85.Also see Cao Juren’s memoir:“《新民丛报》虽是在日本东京刊行，而散播之广，乃及穷乡僻壤。清光绪年间，我们家乡去杭州四百里地，邮递经月才到，先父的思想文笔，也曾受梁氏的影响；远至重庆、成都，也让《新民丛报》飞跃三峡而入，改变了士大夫的视听。”[“Though Xinmin congbao was published in Tokyo Japan, it was widely disseminated even far to poor villages and remote land.Under the reign of Emperor Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, our home was four hundred li away from Hangzhou, and it took around a month for a post to be delivered.The way my father thinks and writes was once under the influence of Liang Qichao.As far as to Chungking and Chengdu, the Xinmin congbao can be delivered through the Three Gorges, and it changed literati class’s vision.”] Cao Juren, 《文坛五十年》(Wentan wushinian) [Fifty Years of Literary Career], p.31.
[59]For Liang’s influence on Hu Shih in his stay in 1904—1910 Shanghai, see 《我的信仰》 in 《胡适文集》vol.1, p.10.For a discussion on the generational divides of intellectual figures and their interrelations with each other in late Qing and the early twentieth century, see Jiang Tao,《公寓里的塔：1920年代的文学与青年》(Gongyu li de ta:1920 niandai de wenxue yu qingnian) [The Ivory Tower in Apartments:Literature and Youth in the 1920s], pp.1-23.Please also see Xu Jilin,《中国知识分子十论》(Zhongguo zhishi fenzi shilun) [Ten Essays on Chinese Intellectuals], p.82.
[60]See Chen Jianhua,《从革命到共和：清末至民国时期文学、电影与文化的转型》(Cong geming dao gonghe:qingmo zhi minguo shiqi wenxue dianying yu wenhua de zhuanxing) [From Revolution to Republicanism:Transformations in Literature, Cinema and Culture from Late Qing to Republican China], pp.65-84.
[61]Nevertheless, the literacy rate in late nineteenth-century Shanghai was higher:about 60 percent of adult men and between 10 and 30 percent of adult women were able to read fairly simple texts.袁进（Yuan Jin），《中国文学观念的近代变革》（Zhongguo wenxue guannian de jindai biange）[The Modern Transformation of Chinese Literary Concepts], p.36.I obtained this information from Des Forges’ book Mediasphere Shanghai, p.9.
[62]See Des Forges, Mediasphere Shanghai, pp.7-8, specifically note 18.
[63]Hu Shi胡适,《胡适文集》(Hushi wenji) [Selected Works by Hu Shi], vol.1, p.10.
[64]See Xiong Yuezhi and Zhang Min,《上海通史·晚清文化》(Shanghai tongshi Wanqing wenhua) [A Survey History of Shanghai:Late Qing Culture], p.481.
[65]See Lee and Nathan, “The Beginning of Mass Culture,”p.373.
[66]See Lu Hsun, Selected Stories of Lu Hsun, p.26.