想象中国与凝视东方:近代西方画报中的中国女性书写

Imagining China and Gazing East:The Writing about Chinese Women of Western Pictorial inModerntime

西方画报从宫廷女性、家庭女性和底层女性三重维度全景式地呈现和重构“中国女性”。慈禧形象的形塑与晚清中国形象的缔造是一体的,慈禧形象的“丑化”与“美化”代表着西方媒体中画报记者、外国画师、慈禧本人等各自不同的言说立场与政治博弈。对民俗、家庭和劳动空间中普通女性的日常摹写,是西方世界窥探、感知和构建“中国形象”的重要途径,折射了西方社会对中国女性的认知与想象。底层女性作为弱势的主角凸显于灾难图景中,以“贫女幼子”作为主要表征。近代西方画报中所裁取的不同凝视视角,为重塑近代中国女性的历史记忆提供了一个可参照的坐标。作为一种“镜像”般的映现与对照,西方画报所建构出的中国女性,既是对近代中国女性生活的客观呈现,也含有西方人窥视、想象与重塑的特别意象,隐现出世界如何讲述“中国故事”的历史印迹。

Western pictorials present and reconstruct"Chinese women"in a panoramic manner from three dimensions:palace women,family women,and underclass women.The portrayal of Empress Dowager Cixi is integrated with the creation of the image of late Qing China.The"uglification"and"beautification"of image of Cixi represent different speaking positions and political games played by pictorial journalists,foreign painters,and Cixi herself in the Western media.The daily depiction of ordinary women in folk customs and families or labor spaces is an important way for the Western world to explore,perceive,and construct the"image of China",reflecting the Western society's understanding and imagination of Chinese women.As the vulnerable protagonists in the disastrous scenes,the underclass women are mainly characterized by"poor women and young children'The different perspectives of Western pictorials in modern time provide a reference point for reshaping the historical memory of women in modern China.As a mirror of reflection and contrast,the Chinese women constructed by Western pictorials not only objectively present the life of Chinese women,but also contain special images of peeping,imagination,and reshaping.They reveal the historical orbit of how the world tell the"Chinese story".