Paper short abstract:

This paper draws attention to the shifting and ambiguous iconography of a woman in a Chinese dress at the official salon in Tokyo by focusing on a Taiwanese painter Chen Jin's works, their critical reception, and the cultural diplomacy between the Japanese Empire and Manchukuo.

Paper long abstract:

Art historians have discussed the Taiwanese female artist Chen Jin's (1907-1998) paintings of women in a Chinese dress (qipao, or cheongsam) as part of the debates on the so-called "local color" issue. Chen's works are interpreted as representations of Taiwan or as reflections of the artist's own struggles to perform Taiwanese-ness for the imperial audiences. However, little attention has been paid to the shifting context for Chen's works in the early 1940s at the time of Japan's total war in East Asia. Between 1938 and 1946, Chen Jin lived in Tokyo and exhibited regularly with two art societies, Seikinkai and Nihon Joshi Bijutsuin. Her works won recognition and were exhibited at the Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition from 1941 to 1943. All of her works from this period depicted young fashionable women in a Chinese dress. Many of these works can appear on the surface as timeless pictures of beauties. However, a closer investigation suggests that these representations had in fact strong contemporary resonances to daily life in wartime Japan and current politics. By examining the painting and reception of Chen's work "Orchid" from 1942, and comparing it with other salon paintings at the time, I argue that this work participated in the imagination of Manchukuo. In fact, the year of 1942 marked the tenth anniversary of the founding of Manchukuo, providing a timely topic for the artist. Also, the work may have been inspired by the visits to Japan of a famous China-born Japanese actress, Ri Kōran, also known as Yamaguchi Yoshiko. The long lasting presence of the image of a woman in a Chinese dress in salon paintings in Japan belies the shifting iconography of the dress, its ethnic ambiguity, and trans-regional associations.