Haunting, (In)Visibility, Filiality: Qiu Canzhi (1901–67) and Her Works of Mourning

Abstract

This article examines the connection between grief and issues of visibility. It focuses on the case of Qiu Jin's daughter Canzhi, who lost her mother to political execution in 1907. Her lifelong efforts at mourning and commemorating her mother illustrate how history was experienced affectively and individually. Negotiating between a traumatic past and a living present, Canzhi created a unique and readily recognizable icon of Qiu Jin. She mobilized the rich discourse of filiality and proved time and again that she was the one most closely resembling her mother, a filial daughter following in her mother's footsteps in forging a new path to modern womanhood.