Women Artists in Twentieth-Century China

Abstract

This article is a reflection on two intersecting themes, the rise of women as artists and as female subjects for art, in the context of the evolving status of women in twentieth-century China. Set in the context of the nascent modern education for women and the emergence of feminism, the two phenomena, like the art world itself, are primarily urban. After surveying the accelerating progress made between 1910 and 1940, it interrogates, in light of contemporary art world patterns and current definitions of feminism, the slowing and even regression in recognition of women as artists in subsequent years.