The Ladies' Journal

The Ladies' Journal
A magazine cover showing a woman dressed in blue using a loom
Cover of the December 1915 issue
Native name
婦女雜誌; Fùnǚ zázhì
CategoriesWomen's magazine
FrequencyMonthly
Circulation10,000 (1921)
PublisherThe Commercial Press
First issueJanuary 1915
Final issueDecember 1931
Based inShanghai, Republic of China
Language
OCLC474968117

The Ladies’ Journal (Chinese: 婦女雜誌; pinyin: Fùnǚ zázhì) was a Chinese monthly women's magazine published from 1915 to 1931. Published by the Shanghai-based Commercial Press, the largest publishing house in Republican China, the journal was the longest-lasting and widest-circulating women's magazine during the period, seeing a circulation of around 10,000 copies by 1921. The magazine began publication under the editorship of Wang Yunzhang, who also edited the Fiction Monthly. Described by later commentators as conservative in its early years, the magazine included coverage of domestic issues, women's education, and serialized short stories, mainly of the "Mandarin duck and butterfly" genre of Chinese romantic fiction. Initially written in Classical Chinese, it began to publish some short stories in written vernacular Chinese in 1917, and by 1920 had fully transitioned to vernacular.

Accompanying criticisms for its conservative stances and a cultural shift towards feminism among New Culture journals following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, the magazine took a turn towards coverage of social issues and translations of foreign literature, especially after Zhang Xichen became editor-in-chief in 1921. A dedicated liberal feminist, Zhang recruited like-minded contributors to the journal, including his assistant editor Zhou Jianren. A follower of Swedish feminist Ellen Key, Zhang promoted love marriage over arranged marriages and a more open attitude to sexuality. A 1925 special issue on the "new sexual morality" attracted significant backlash. This, alongside political disagreements with the Commercial Press, led to Zhang and Zhou's removal as editors. Zhang established a competitor journal entitled The New Woman, while The Ladies' Journal returned to a more conservative stance and a focus on domestic topics. Already struggling financially due to decreased advertiser investment during the Great Depression, the journal was cancelled after a month-long battle between Chinese and Japanese forces in Shanghai in January 1932 destroyed the Commercial Press headquarters.

Publication history

Although many different women's periodicals were founded in China during the late 1890s and 1900s, none lasted for more than a few years, with most ceasing publication within the year. The self-financed nature of these early publications led to their editors accumulating debt and needing to cancel their magazines. They were informally distributed through peddlers or small bookstores, often resulting in difficulties in collecting the profit. Many saw circulations of only hundreds or a few thousand copies.[1] Early journals tended to focus on feminist issues, advocating for gender equality, women's education, and the abolition of foot binding.[1] The Women's Eastern Times (also known by its Chinese name, Funü Shibao) was a particularly influential and successful women's periodical during the 1910s.[2]

A Chinese magazine cover, showing a woman in blue reading a book while leaning against a wall in a lush environment
The cover of the journal's inaugural issue, January 1915

The Commercial Press, the largest publishing house of early twentieth-century China, entered into magazine publishing with the Eastern Miscellany in 1904 and the Chinese Educational Review in 1909, both of which saw commercial success. They began publishing a woman's magazine entitled The Ladies' Journal in January 1915, which initially saw a circulation of around 3,000 copies.[1][3] Unlike previous women's magazines, it was distributed across the country thanks to the Commercial Press's infrastructure.[4] The magazine was aimed at urban women; it was also necessarily aimed at the middle- and upper-classes, as literacy was seen as a marker of class status during its period of publication.[5] However, much of its readership was likely male, attracted to the journal by its short stories and a desire to learn more about modern women. Similar journals such as the Women's Eastern Times purportedly had as much as ninety-percent of their readership consisting of men. One December 1915 announcement in the journal stated that "those who like science and the arts can buy our magazine; this journal is not only for women, but if women read it, we would appreciate it."[6]

Wang Yunzhang served as the journal's first editor-in-chief. He also served as the editor for another Commercial Press periodical, Fiction Monthly. During the journal's second volume in 1916, the female educator Hu Binxia officially served as its editor-in-chief, although Wang continued to exercise editorial control over the magazine.[7][8] Hu wrote for the magazine, but likely did not edit it. Educated in both Japan and the United States, her appointment may have been an attempt to draw more publicity to the journal.[9] Wang himself became only an ostensible editor-in-chief in 1920, when the Commercial Press hired the writer Shen Yanbing (also known by his pen name Mao Dun) as the de facto editor of the magazine. Shen thought poorly of Wang, criticizing him for being a member of the "Saturday school" of low-brow popular fiction. Already unpopular with many of the other contributors to the journal, Wang left the Commercial Press in November 1920. Shen was offered the editorship of both The Ladies' Journal and Fiction Monthly; unwilling to manage both journals, he chose to take over editor duties at Fiction Monthly only.[7]

In the aftermath of the May Fourth Movement, many other women's magazines (alongside women's columns in newspapers) were established, although The Ladies' Journal had a longer duration of publication and a wider circulation than any of its competitors.[4] Zhang Xichen, formerly a staff member of the Eastern Miscellany, took over as editor-in-chief of The Ladies' Journal in January 1921.[10] Soon after, he lowered the cost of the magazine from three to two jiao. Alongside a shift towards a more explicitly feminist perspective, this significantly increased readership, with circulation soon tripling to 10,000 per issue.[11][12] This was extremely high for a women's journal in China, although was quite small in comparison to similar magazines in Japan and the United States. There were likely several times more readers than the number of copies sold, as copies were often passed along many readers. One contemporary source estimated that individual magazine issues were passed between ten to twenty readers.[12]

Despite the growth, the journal continued to receive the vast majority of its submissions from men, prompting Zhang to write editorials proclaiming The Ladies' Journal a "discursive space for women with lofty ideals" and calling on women to take an increased role in the call for their emancipation.[11] In January 1922, Zhang took on Zhou Jianren (an activist and the younger brother of novelist Lu Xun) as the assistant editor of the journal.[10]

Zhang and Zhou were taken off the editorial team following the fallout over a January 1925 special issue on sexual morality and a dispute over Zhang's participation in the May Thirtieth Movement, with their last issue being in August 1925. In response to crackdowns and censorship by the Beiyang government, the Commercial Press had begun to avoid publishing progressive literature, lessening their tolerance for Zhang's radicalism.[13][14][15] Zhang was moved to another Commercial Press journal, Natural World (自然界; Zìránjiè), before leaving the Commercial Press entirely later that year. After leaving the magazine, Zhang and many of his close colleagues followed him to a new feminist journal named The New Woman.[11][16][17]

Wang chose a long-time employee of the press, Du Jiutian, to serve as editor of The Ladies' Journal from 1926 to 1930. Seeking to revitalize the magazine after Du's uneventful tenure, and possibly due to financial problems (similar to those which would lead to the demise of The New Woman), the writer and activist Ye Shengtao took over in mid-1930. He left only nine months later, and was replaced with Yang Runyu, a female writer who had previously studied abroad in France and wrote columns on French literature for the magazine.[18] The journal remained popular in its later years despite the changes in editorial staff; surveys in 1925 and 1930 found that The Ladies' Journal remained one of the most popular magazines among the Chinese public.[19]

A black and white photo of the ruined headquarters of the Commercial Press, showing a four story building with much of its side wall collapsed
The Commercial Press headquarters in ruins after the January 28 incident. The Ladies' Journal was cancelled in the aftermath of the conflict.

The journal's last issue was in late 1931. Beginning on January 28, 1932, Shanghai was the center of a month-long battle between Chinese and Japanese forces. Soon after the conflict broke out, the Commercial Press headquarters were destroyed, with their printing works bombed and magazine offices burned to the ground. Already in financial difficulties due to decreased advertiser investment in the wake of the Great Depression, the Commercial Press cancelled The Ladies' Journal, although the Eastern Miscellany soon returned to publication.[20]

Content

Initial period

Later scholars have characterized the The Ladies' Journal as taking a conservative stance during its first four-to-six years of publication, under the editorship of Wang Yunzhang,[7][21] although significant debate and division on the role of women existed within the journal from an early stage.[22]

Women's education was a major focus throughout its publication.[5] It also sought to ideal role-models for women, showcasing women in a variety of careers and activities through articles and photos,[23] as well as biographies of famous women. Articles on Western technology and medicine, mainly translated from Japanese sources, were very common, as were more general advice on topics such as housekeeping, bookkeeping, medical care, gardening, and food preparation.[24][25] Some coverage was of more technical subjects, such as aquaculture, beekeeping, papermaking, and wild mushroom identification.[25]

Many early contributors—alongside Wang himself—were writers of "Mandarin duck and butterfly" genre of romantic fiction, sometimes criticized as melodramatic and beholden to traditionalist social values. Serialized short stories associated with this genre frequently ran in the journal, boosting its popularity among younger women. Such stories were often featured Western protagonists, and commonly Americans. [24][25][26]

A regular column entitled "literary garden" (文苑; wényuàn) published poetry. Initially this was limited to that written by historical women; in the third issue, men's works about female poets began to be published, and by the second year it began to consist mostly of works about women by men. Initially this section also included essays written by women, but these were later spun off into a "exposition" (論說; lùnshuō) column.[27] A fiction column (小說; xiǎoshuō) published serialized tanci (a form of verse fiction), most of which were written by the popular writer Cheng Zhanlu. The first fiction work signed by a woman that was published in the journal was a serialized story entitled Lingering Music in the Capital City (玉京餘韻; Yùjīng yúyùn), which was published across five issues in the second volume (1916). It was signed under the name "Madam Hua Qianlin"; although it is not certain that it was written by a woman, as male authors during the period sometimes wrote under women's names. More fiction submitted by women began to appear in the following issues.[28] Other reoccurring columns in the journal included entertainment, reports, miscellaneous subjects, and a supplement.[29]

May Fourth era

A magazine cover featuring a ornamental floral design surrounding Chinese text
The cover of the controversial January 1925 special issue on the "new sexual morality"

Beginning in the third volume (1917), some stories published in the journal began to be published in written vernacular Chinese as opposed to the literary Classical Chinese, following the New Culture Movement's promotion of vernacular literature. In 1919 and 1920, the journal shifted entirely to vernacular Chinese.[30][31][32] Articles also became much longer from late 1919 onward, and began to cover social issues and theoretical topics.[32]

In the wake of the May Fourth Movement, feminist writings became more common in New Culture periodicals.[33] In May 1919, the scholar and May Fourth Movement activist Luo Jialun published a critique of the Commercial Press magazines in the New Culture journal New Tide (新潮; Xīncháo), writing that The Ladies' Journal "talks of women as if they were slaves of men; it is a real crime against mankind".[34][35] Shen Yanbing published early articles in the journal advocating for women's liberation, including an introductory essay on Western feminist movements in the August 1920 issue.[33]

The journal began to more explicitly focus on social issues, especially feminism, once Zhang Xichen became the editor-in-chief in 1921.[10][36] A liberal and feminist, Zhang recruited like-minded authors—mainly, although not exclusively men—from the Chinese Literary Association (文學研究會; Wénxué yánjiūhuì) and the Woman Question Research Association (婦女問題研究會; Fùnǚ wèntí yánjiūhuì), the latter of which he founded in 1922. Inspired by the writings of the Swedish feminist Ellen Key, he championed the principles of love marriage (as opposed to arranged marriage), free divorce, motherhood, and a new sexual morality. Zhang and other Chinese followers of Key proposed that romantic love should be the sole reason for marriage. Dubbing his ideas "love morality" (戀愛道德; liàn'ài dàodé), Zhang saw premarital, extramarital, and polyamorous sex as permissible if they were mediated by feelings of romantic love.[10][13] Zhang and his co-contributors however opposed singlehood as an option for women. In response to an essay by Jiang Fengzi (among the journal's most prolific female contributors during the early 1920s) advocating it, Zhang labeled the increase in singlehood "a sick phenomenon in a civilized society".[37]

Under Zhang's editorship, the journal moved away from coverage of domestic matters, with all translations published on social, political, and theoretical topics. Various feminist writers had their work translated and featured in the journal. Many of these were Japanese feminists, such as Yosano Akiko, while others were western feminists, almost invariably those whose had been previously translated in the Japanese feminist journal Seitō. Writing by eugenicists such as Havelock Ellis, Francis Galton, Marie Stopes, and Margaret Sanger was also included.[38] A correspondence column allowed for readers to participate in social discussions.[36] In 1921, the journal introduced a column entitled "reader writings" (讀者文藝; dúzhě wényì), resulting in an increase in female contributors of poetry and fiction to the magazine. Three years later, a literature column was introduce to showcase new-style fiction and drama.[39]

Beginning in 1922, Zhang began to run special issues dedicated to particular topics.[36] In a January 1925 special issue on "The New Sexual Morality" (新性道德; xīnxìng dàodé), Zhang and Zhou argued that morality should be based around doing what one wishes as long as it does not harm others, and extended this framework to sexual relations. Two months later, the Peking University professor Chen Daqi attacked their articles as conservative, arguing that their positions would be in effect a return to traditional polygamy. The Commercial Press was unwilling to let the two editors write a response, although Zhang rebuked Chen's criticisms in editorials in Contemporary Review and Mangyuan.[14][15][40]

Later years

After Zhang's departure, the magazine returned to a more conservative stance, emphasizing motherhood. Discussions of social issues were removed, as were most translations of foreign literature. Instead, the journal mainly used stories sent in by readers, and interacted with its readership through advice columns.[41] Special issues on art were published in 1926 and 1929. These included coverage of a variety of art-forms (ranging from seal carving and traditional painting to photography), profiles on notable female artists, and advocacy for women to get involved in careers in art fields. The 1929 issue, dedicated to the First National Art Exhibition in Shanghai, featured extensive coverage of the female painter Pan Yuliang.[42]

During the journal's final years, it took more left-wing stances, possibly due to the growing influence of the Chinese Communist Party and creation of a leftist writer's league in Shanghai in 1930. Coverage of western literature and thought was reintroduced, while Chinese intellectuals such as Feng Zikai and Qian Juntao supplied essays on western art and culture. Other intellectuals, such as Tao Xisheng and Chen Wangdao wrote articles advocating for the empowerment of women.[2]

Covers

Xu Yonqing, previously the illustrator for the Women's Eastern Times, was the first illustrator for The Ladies' Journal, producing covers featuring ordinary women in domestic settings.[43] The painter and calligrapher Jin Zhang took over for the second volume in 1916, and the covers began featuring full-color bird-and-flower paintings surrounded by botanical motifs. This format largely continued the following year, although the covers switched to black-and-white with a greater focus on narrative paintings. In 1918 and 1919, the covers switched to traditional Chinese landscape paintings, discarding European design embellishments, although they returned to bird-and-flower paintings in 1920.[44]

When Zhang Xichen and Zhou Jianren took over editorship of the journal in 1921, the cover changed to a fixed design which included a floral motif and the silhouette of a peacock framed by the moon. Over the following years, the cover design began to emphasize the text, sometimes forgoing an illustration entirely in favor of an abstract pattern or a plain color. For the 1924 volume, all covers bore a painting by Zhou's cousin Li Licheng of a pair of birds perching on a flowering branch. The following year, the covers began using Art Deco botanical designs. Under Du Jiantai's editorship in the late 1920s, The Ladies' Journal commissioned commercial artists for issue covers. In an issue dedicated to the 1929 First National Art Exhibition, the journal used a preexisting Art Deco piece by the male painter Jiang Zhaohe.[45] For 1930, seeking a unified visual identity for the journal, the Commercial Press hired the designer Qian Juntao to illustrate the journal. The cover returned to a consistent design, using an Art Deco botanical design by Qian. He left following Ye's departure in early 1931, and a younger modernist designer named Zhang Lingtao took over as illustrator for the rest of the journal's final year.[46]

References

  1. ^ a b c Nivard 1984, p. 37.
  2. ^ a b Nivard 1984, p. 38.
  3. ^ Andrews 2018, p. 28.
  4. ^ a b Zheng 1999, pp. 66–67.
  5. ^ a b Zheng 1999, pp. 67–68.
  6. ^ Nivard 1984, pp. 47–48.
  7. ^ a b c Nivard 1984, pp. 44–45.
  8. ^ Hu 2008, pp. 351, 353.
  9. ^ Chiang 2006, p. 542.
  10. ^ a b c d Hsu 2018, pp. 160–161.
  11. ^ a b c Hsu 2018, p. 162.
  12. ^ a b Nivard 1984, pp. 37–38, 50.
  13. ^ a b Nivard 1984, p. 46.
  14. ^ a b Ma 2003, pp. 3–7.
  15. ^ a b Shiao 2009, pp. 64–68.
  16. ^ Nivard 1984, p. 43.
  17. ^ Chiang 2006, p. 539.
  18. ^ Nivard 1984, pp. 43, 46.
  19. ^ Chiang 2006, p. 541.
  20. ^ Andrews 2018, p. 53.
  21. ^ Zheng 1999, pp. 75–77.
  22. ^ Hu 2008, p. 351.
  23. ^ Sung 2018, p. 124.
  24. ^ a b Nivard 1984, p. 39.
  25. ^ a b c Chiang 2006, pp. 521–522.
  26. ^ Hu 2008, p. 352.
  27. ^ Hu 2008, pp. 353, 361–362.
  28. ^ Hu 2008, pp. 364–366.
  29. ^ Hu 2008, pp. 371–372.
  30. ^ Andrews 2018, p. 54.
  31. ^ Hu 2008, pp. 364–365.
  32. ^ a b Nivard 1984, p. 40.
  33. ^ a b Zheng 1999, pp. 89–90.
  34. ^ Nivard 1984, pp. 39–40.
  35. ^ Zheng 1999, p. 77.
  36. ^ a b c Ma 2003, p. 4.
  37. ^ Hsu 2018, pp. 164, 170.
  38. ^ Nivard 1984, pp. 40–41.
  39. ^ Hu 2008, p. 382.
  40. ^ Nivard 1984, pp. 41–42.
  41. ^ Nivard 1984, pp. 42–43.
  42. ^ Sung 2018, pp. 136–139.
  43. ^ Andrews 2018, pp. 28–29.
  44. ^ Andrews 2018, pp. 36–41.
  45. ^ Andrews 2018, pp. 41–49.
  46. ^ Andrews 2018, pp. 49–53.

Bibliography

  • Chiang, Yung-chen (2006). "Womanhood, Motherhood and Biology: The Early Phases of The Ladies' Journal, 1915–25". Gender & History. 18 (3): 519–545. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0424.2006.00454.x.
  • Hockx, Michel; Judge, Joan; Mittler, Barbara, eds. (2018). Women and the Periodical Press in China's Long Twentieth Century: A Space of Their Own?. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108304085. ISBN 9781108304085.
    • Andrews, Julia F. "Persuading with Pictures: Cover Art and The Ladies' Journal (1915–1931)". 21–56.
    • Sung, Doris. "Redefining Female Talent: The Women’s Eastern Times, The Ladies’ Journal, and the Development of "Women’s Art" in China, 1910s–1930s". 121–140.
    • Hsu, Rachael Hui-Chi. "Rebellious Yet Constrained: Dissenting Women's Views on Love and Sexual Morality in The Ladies' Journal and The New Woman". 158–175.
  • Hu, Siao-chen (2008). "The Construction of Gender and Genre in the 1910s New Media: Evidence from The Ladies' Journal". In Qian, Nanxiu; Fong, Grace S.; Smith, Richard J. (eds.). Different Worlds of Discourse: Transformations of Gender and Genre in Late Qing and Early Republican China. Brill. pp. 349–382. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004167766.i-417. ISBN 9789004167766.
  • Ma, Yuxin (2003). "Male Feminism and Women's Subjectivities: Zhang Xichen, Chen Xuezhao, and The New Woman". Twentieth-Century China. 29 (1): 1–37. doi:10.1179/tcc.2003.29.1.1.
  • Nivard, Jacqueline (1984). "Women and the Women's Press: The Case of the Ladies' journal (Funü Zazhi) 1915-1931". Republican China. 10 (1): 37–55. doi:10.1080/08932344.1984.11720055.
  • Shiao, Ling A. (2009). Printing, Reading, and Revolution: Kaiming Press and the Cultural Transformation of Republican China (PhD thesis). Brown University.
  • Zheng, Wang (1999). Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: Oral and Textual Histories. University of California Press. pp. 67–116. doi:10.2307/jj.8501357.8. ISBN 9780520213500. JSTOR jj.8501357.
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