Knowing oneself and one’s home country: Reflections on Fang Junbi's experiences from the perspectives of emotions and feminist history

Abstract

Fang Junbi 方君璧 was a famous Chinese female painter of the twentieth century and a core member of the Wang Jingwei 汪精衛 clique. As an intellectual woman of both the old and new eras, she had fierce national affection and patriotic zeal and also held moral ideals on the lasting loyalty and unchanging nature of love and friendship. During World War II she experienced the loss of country and family and the course of Wang Jingwei seeking peace with Japan. While extremely pained internally, her feelings for Wang remained as strong as ever, and when he fell gravely ill she risked her life to travel to Japan to be with him. Wang gave her an inkstone as a parting gift, signifying that the affection between the two was as solid as stone. During the 1970s she accepted an invitation to return to China where she witnessed the historic achievements of New China and sincerely identified with the Communist Party of China and its revolutionary culture. Knowing herself and her home country was the deepest sentiment of her life, and these two sentiments cannot be fully accounted for using the narrative of "women's liberation" in Chinese revolution or Western feminist discourse. Through the winding path of affection in the deep spiritual connection between Fang Junbi and her sister Fang Junying 方君瑛, her husband Zeng Zhongming 曾仲鳴, and her teacher and friend Wang Jingwei, we can understand their personalities, values, and modes of behavior, enriching our knowledge of the world of affection, ethics, and souls of modern Chinese female intellectuals, and providing resources for reflecting on the personal growth of women today.