The Distorting Mirror analyzes the multiple and complex ways in which urban Chinese subjects saw themselves interacting with the new visual culture that emerged during the turbulent period between the 1880s and the 1930s. The media and visual forms examined include lithography, photography, advertising, film, and theatrical performances. Urbanites actively engaged with and enjoyed this visual culture, which was largely driven by the subjective desire for the empty promises of modernity―promises comprised of such abstract and fleeting concepts as new, exciting, and fashionable.
Detailing and analyzing the trajectories of development of various visual representations, Laikwan Pang emphasizes their interactions. In doing so, she demonstrates that visual modernity was not only a combination of independent cultural phenomena, but also a partially coherent sociocultural discourse whose influences were seen in different and collective parts of the culture. The work begins with an overall historical account and theorization of a new lithographic pictorial culture developing at the end of the nineteenth century and an examination of modernity’s obsession with the investigation of the real. Subsequent chapters treat the fascination with the image of the female body in the new visual culture; entertainment venues in which this culture unfolded and was performed; how urbanites came to terms with and interacted with the new reality; and the production and reception of images, the dynamics between these two being a theme explored throughout the book.
Modernity, as the author shows, can be seen as spectacle. At the same time, she demonstrates that, although the excessiveness of this spectacle captivated the modern subject, it did not completely overwhelm or immobilize those who engaged with it. After all, she argues, they participated in and performed with this ephemeral visual culture in an attempt to come to terms with their own new, modern self.
2 有用 豆友1485565 2013-02-12 03:47:15
翻过第一章,用点石斋画报做例子来研究晚清visual turn和modernity之间的联系,说点石斋画报中的画是中国语境下的realism,与西方impressionism正相反的是一种mimeticism,这真的很有问题。。。
2 有用 L 2019-11-15 04:25:59
这次重读才发现这本书已经很好了,视觉转向的另一个点在于现代性是欲望的对象,通过视觉来欲求又因为是视觉而求之不得,这也体现在不同媒介和视觉传统之间产生的改变和控制的欲望。类似于第一章结尾那样一针见血的细读,后来的媒介研究中愈发少见。19/11/15隐约预见自己做学术需要避免的尴尬:一边试图摆脱中西、主客体二元对立,一边很强烈地依赖对西方各视觉相关学科的主要理论家的批判来糅合自己的分析框架,略有中国视... 这次重读才发现这本书已经很好了,视觉转向的另一个点在于现代性是欲望的对象,通过视觉来欲求又因为是视觉而求之不得,这也体现在不同媒介和视觉传统之间产生的改变和控制的欲望。类似于第一章结尾那样一针见血的细读,后来的媒介研究中愈发少见。19/11/15隐约预见自己做学术需要避免的尴尬:一边试图摆脱中西、主客体二元对立,一边很强烈地依赖对西方各视觉相关学科的主要理论家的批判来糅合自己的分析框架,略有中国视觉材料的特殊性启发新理论框架而新理论框架又被用来分析中国视觉现代性的嫌疑。尽管如此,把视觉文化看作一个mediate private subject和public socio-politico-cultural sphere之间关系的技术性环境这点在2007年已很新颖,也许是最早的民国媒体生态学? (展开)
0 有用 邪利 2010-09-12 02:41:11
Re-read: 畫報,照片,廣告,京劇,電影,魔術
0 有用 Ahorseahorse 2012-11-11 19:33:46
最近很中意的
0 有用 大睡 2022-08-26 22:05:15 英国
Laikwan Pang的analysis总是很theoretically delicate,但似乎并无太多史料支持,我也可以这么写diss吗?希望有空看完。
0 有用 常务副momo 2023-06-20 05:05:28 美国
Modernity, visuality, desire, and subjectivity. Love Ch1, 2, and 5. Probably my biggest takeaway is how to frame research projects studying "modernity."
0 有用 大睡 2022-08-26 22:05:15 英国
Laikwan Pang的analysis总是很theoretically delicate,但似乎并无太多史料支持,我也可以这么写diss吗?希望有空看完。
0 有用 开花店的诗隽熙 2021-09-26 13:01:43
第二章讲慈禧和梅兰芳的很精彩,属于乍一听argument觉得很unimaginative但是结合具体史料语境就变得有意义的分析。第三章结尾提到fetish的部分和我一直在想的femininity as surface logic有相通之处,需要系统性思考一些politics of reading
2 有用 L 2019-11-15 04:25:59
这次重读才发现这本书已经很好了,视觉转向的另一个点在于现代性是欲望的对象,通过视觉来欲求又因为是视觉而求之不得,这也体现在不同媒介和视觉传统之间产生的改变和控制的欲望。类似于第一章结尾那样一针见血的细读,后来的媒介研究中愈发少见。19/11/15隐约预见自己做学术需要避免的尴尬:一边试图摆脱中西、主客体二元对立,一边很强烈地依赖对西方各视觉相关学科的主要理论家的批判来糅合自己的分析框架,略有中国视... 这次重读才发现这本书已经很好了,视觉转向的另一个点在于现代性是欲望的对象,通过视觉来欲求又因为是视觉而求之不得,这也体现在不同媒介和视觉传统之间产生的改变和控制的欲望。类似于第一章结尾那样一针见血的细读,后来的媒介研究中愈发少见。19/11/15隐约预见自己做学术需要避免的尴尬:一边试图摆脱中西、主客体二元对立,一边很强烈地依赖对西方各视觉相关学科的主要理论家的批判来糅合自己的分析框架,略有中国视觉材料的特殊性启发新理论框架而新理论框架又被用来分析中国视觉现代性的嫌疑。尽管如此,把视觉文化看作一个mediate private subject和public socio-politico-cultural sphere之间关系的技术性环境这点在2007年已很新颖,也许是最早的民国媒体生态学? (展开)
0 有用 酸吗 2016-12-25 06:24:42
impressive. theoretical and subtle.