Folk Art and Modern Culture in Republican China

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Folk art is now widely recognized as an integral part of the modern Chinese cultural heritage, but in the early twentieth century, awareness of folk art as a distinct category in the visual arts was new. Internationally, intellectuals in different countries used folk arts to affirm national identity and cultural continuity in the midst of the changes of the modern era. In China, artists, critics and educators likewise saw folk art as a potentially valuable resource: perhaps it could be a fresh source of cultural inspiration and energy, representing the authentic voice of the people in contrast to what could be seen as the limited and elitist classical tradition. At the same time, many Chinese intellectuals also saw folk art as a problem: they believed that folk art, as it was, promoted superstitious and backward ideas that were incompatible with modernization and progress. In either case, folk art was too important to be left in the hands of the folk: educated artists and researchers felt a responsibility intervene, to reform folk art and create new popular art forms that would better serve the needs of the modern nation. In the early 1930s, folk art began to figure in the debates on social role of art and artists that were waged in the pages of the Chinese press, the first major exhibition of folk art was held in Hangzhou, and the new print movement claimed the print as a popular artistic medium while, for the most part, declaring its distance from contemporary folk printmaking practices. During the war against Japan, from 1937 to 1945, educated artists deployed imagery and styles drawn from folk art in morale-boosting propaganda images, but worried that this work fell short of true artistic accomplishment and pandering to outmoded tastes. The questions raised in interaction with folk art during this pivotal period, questions about heritage, about the social position of art, and the exercise of cultural authority continue to resonate into the present day.

Reviews

Folk Art and Modern Culture in Republican China is a valuable and readable book. It is not only suitable for research scholars, but also for a general readership interested in discovering modern Chinese history and culture, folk art, and prints.... Lufkin's translations of the original historical documents from Chinese text into English are accurate and smooth, and she effectively incorporates this material into her historical narration and analysis. * Journal of American Folklore *
The book is well-researched and evenly argued, mobilizing a number of Chinese sources that are translated for the first time. . . . written in a lucid manner accessible to undergraduates and general readers, the book is most beneficial to specialists of Chinese art, print culture, and Republican history. . . . Lufkins monograph is a valuable contribution to the field of modern Chinese art history through its specific focus on folk art, a broad category that has yet to receive adequate attention from art historians of Chinese art outside of China. * China Review International *
Felicity Lufkin approaches Chinese folk art with the keen eye of an art historian. This engrossing and richly illustrated work introduces the reader to a genre of graphic art that is virtually unknown to Western scholarship, but which was of vital importance to the modern understanding of what it meant to be Chinese. Although folk art of the 1930s and 1940s inevitably drew on established traditions, Lufkin finds that the trained artists who developed the genre were less concerned with the folk than they were with establishing a new national identity for China. -- James A. Flath, University of Western Ontario
This insightful study provides an unparalleled account of the politics of folk art before the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. Full of surprises, Lufkin offers a balanced account of folk arts theoretical stakes in an emerging socialist state and concrete data on specific artists and historical figures. Rigorously researched and lucidly written, Folk Art and Modern Culture in Republican China is an excellent addition to the early twentieth century Chinese art field and a must read for understanding the complex framework of modern and contemporary Chinese art. -- Sarah E. Fraser, Heidelberg University

Author Bio

Felicity Lufkin is lecturer in folklore and mythology at Harvard University.