Cui Xiuwen (b. 1970) and Yu Hong (b. 1966) are contemporary Chinese artists whose images of women reflect a complicated gendered perspective. This article focuses on Cui’s Ladies’ Room (2000) and Yu’s Female Writer (2004, from the series She). Both can be construed as feminist reinterpretations of Chinese works of the imperial era that represented idealized female figures from a male perspective. Ladies’ Room, a video that shows behind-the-scenes images of sex workers in a nightclub washroom, brings to mind earlier paintings that depict women in feminine space. Ladies’ Room, however, incorporates multiple female gazes: not only that of the artist but also those of the subjects, who look at each other and at their own mirror reflections. Female Writer, a diptych consisting of a photograph and painting of the writer Zhao Bo, recalls paintings from the “beautiful women” genre. Though both photograph and painting reflect Yu Hong’s point of view, Zhao Bo was permitted to select her photograph, and thus the work engages with both author’s and subject’s gaze. Ladies’ Room and Female Writer both reclaim female subjectivity as they present images of contemporary Chinese women while also grappling with problems of authenticity, the public/private dichotomy, identity, and self-expression.

Yutai huashi (History of Painting from Jade Terrace), published in 1837, is rare among Chinese art-historical texts, not only for its focus on women painters of the imperial period but also for its female authorship. While the text preserves information on women who painted, its acknowledged author, Tang Shuyu, draws connections between women authors (defined broadly here to include both artists and writers) and virtuous women. First, her organization of the text's first five chapters foregrounds the social identities of women painters—a system that hints at their virtue. Second, biographies of women painters who are filial, chaste, and/or faithful appear throughout, but these qualities are emphasized in the “Separate Record” at the book's end, the only section with significant amounts of new writing. Third, the text positions Tang Shuyu as a woman of virtue herself. Tang compiled materials for her book with contributions from her husband, Wang Yuansun, and she establishes herself as a figure deferential to authority, a woman who begins most passages with a source citation and never develops a clear editorial voice. Scholars of the history of Chinese art increasingly use gender as a category of analysis to understand the accomplishments of women artists and patrons as well as representations of female figures. This article analyzes Yutai huashi's gendered subjects and discussions of gender roles as a means of examining both the contributions of women authors and the priorities of Chinese art-historical writers.

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e Ming dynasty painting Su Dongpo Returning to the Hanlin Academy represents an important departure from earlier images of prominent scholars, demonstrating how the visual tropes associated with integrity change over time. First, it depicts the eleventh-century official following his reinstatement in the capital, quite a change from Song and Yuan images of men of integrity retiring to the wilderness. Second, many female entertainers accompany him, a juxtaposition considered inappropriate for viewing in previous periods but increasingly popular in Ming painting. is paper proposes that by the mid-Ming dynasty, the figure of the female entertainer specifically connotes an urban setting, and, when paired with a scholar, suggests the high-minded and untrammeled qualities of the court or city hermit.

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