The “Bloomsbury Group,” due to their close interaction with Chinese writers like Zhimo Xu, Shuhua Lin, and Qian Xiao,1 has received some critical attention in China. The National Social Science Foundation of China has supported at least four research projects on the Bloomsbury Group. The China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) statistics indicate that more than fifty academic articles have been devoted to this subject. Professor Fen Gao’s latest book British Formalist Aesthetics and Its Literary Writing Practice (2021), imbued with innovative and comparative consciousness, is the first systematic scholarly monograph on the esthetics of the Bloomsbury Group from the perspective of a Chinese scholar. Gao’s work mainly engages with four members of the Bloomsbury Group who have made outstanding contributions to British formalist esthetics: two art critics, Roger Fry and Clive Bell; the novelist Virginia Woolf and the biographer Lytton Strachey. British formalist esthetics is a trend of artistic thought prevalent in British literary and art circles in the early twentieth century. Its theoretical basis was primarily put forward by Fry and Bell and then applied by Woolf and Strachey into literary practice. These four artists maintained communications and exchanged thoughts for over three decades. Based on their shared intellectual sources, modes of thinking, and esthetic theory, Fry, Bell, Woolf, and Sratchey have extensively promoted the cross-development of the visual arts, esthetics, literature, and biography through their creative innovations in theoretical and literary writing (4).Qiping Yin, author of British Literature midst Changes in the Idea of Culture (Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2020), pinpoints in his forward to Gao’s book that her research is a beneficial practice in promoting Chinese literary and artistic theory to the global community (ii). With its expansion of research scope and development of comparative approaches, Gao’s book is indeed the advancement of her last high-quality monograph, Toward Life Poetics: A Study of Virginia Woolf’s Theory of Fiction (2016). Again, Gao’s work suggests a close affinity between Western and Chinese poetics, in which she compares a series of core categories in Chinese poetics, such as “Yan Zhi Shuo” (the essence of art is to express emotion and thought), “Xing Shen Shuo” (a theory of form-spirit unity), and “Qing Jing Shuo” (a theory of emotion-scene unification) with relevant theories proposed by Fry and Bell. She also stresses Clive Bell’s term “significant form.” She clarifies its connotations, characteristics, and values, without which it is hard to consider British formalist esthetics a trend of thought in Western academia (6). To put it another way, “significant form” is perhaps the most critical and influential term that runs through the whole book, which is anticipated in Fry’s esthetic criticism, illustrated in Bell’s Art (1913), and epitomized in the literary writings of Woolf and Strachey.Unlike Xianzhang Zhao’s work Western Formalist Aesthetics (Nanjing University Press, 1996), which focuses on European esthetics studies, Gao’s book provides a detailed and profound analysis of British formalist esthetics and its literary writing practice. Impressively concerning a range of theory, art, literature, and biography, Gao’s work is an excellent embodiment of the fusion of theoretical depth and literary value. Except for “Introduction” and “Conclusion,” the main body is divided into five interrelated chapters.Chapter 1, “Aesthetic Foundation,” investigates the intellectual basis of British formalist esthetics. Gao first traces the conceptual trajectory of form in the history of Western esthetics and then surveys the evolvement of esthetic thought in modern Britain. On the one hand, the core idea of “form” in British formalist esthetics inherits and develops from traditional Western definitions of “form,” such as Pythagoras’, “arithmos,” Plato and Aristotle’s “eidos,” and Horace’s “decorum” (50–54). On the other hand, in terms of its connotations and methodology, British formalist esthetic theory is also a continuation and improvement of modern British esthetic theories, such as the theories of British empiricist esthetics, romantic esthetics, Victorian esthetics, and estheticism.Chapter 2, “Roger Fry’s Formalist Aesthetics,” examines Fry’s contributions to British formalist art theories. As an inventor of the term “postimpressionism,” Fry organized the exhibition “Manet and the Post-Impressionists” at the Grafton Galleries in 1910, which first introduced modern art to Britain and marked the beginning of the British modernist movement. As a pioneer and founder of British formalist esthetics, Fry profoundly influenced the taste of Britain and even that of Europe from representation to expression in the early twentieth century. Gao delves into the sources and values of Fry’s theory of emotion, as indicated in his famous argument that “art is a means of communicating emotions regarded as ends in themselves” (Fry 64). She clarifies that Fry’s contribution is that he modifies Tolstoy’s theory by emphasizing “emotions as ends in themselves,” disclosing its values in transcending binary oppositions between theory and practice, artistic beauty and sensory beauty, and beauty and ugliness. Gao creatively finds a close agreement between Fry’s concept of emotion and the category of “Qing Zhi” (emotion and thought as the end of art) in Chinese poetics, both of which have their basis in esthetic perception and emphasize emotion as the nature of art (129). She aptly expounds on Fry’s theory of form and demonstrates its three implications: “unity of expression and unity of contents,” “significant and expressive form,” and “a complete fusion of poetic exaltation and plastic construction” (155). Gao also suggests that Fry’s view of form is scattered in his discussion of postimpressionist paintings. In Fry’s view, Cezanne shows inner vitality through integral composition, Van Gogh is a portrayer of souls through distortions and exaggerations, Gauguin demonstrates noble and poetic qualities in color harmony, and Matisse expresses emotion with lines and colors.According to Gao, Fry’s view of form and emotion tacitly agrees with the theory of “Shen Si” (a theory of spirit and imagination) in Chinese poetics. Its core concept, “Shen Yu Wu You,” emphasizes imaginative interactions between subjective spirit and objective things. In this way, both Fry’s theory and Chinese poetics highlight “transcending realistic perception” and “experiencing esthetic imagination” and advocate incorporating life experiences into creative practices (160). Besides, Gao creatively connects Fry’s ideas of esthetic criticism with the concepts of “Zhi Ren Lun Shi” (the precondition of literary criticism is a thorough understanding of the author and the times and the world he lives in)” and “Yi Yi Ni Zhi” (understanding is a soul-to-soul communication between author and reader through work) in Chinese traditional culture. By reviewing artistic works through his perception and insight, Fry promotes the European idea of art and puts his discussion into dialog with global art. Gao highly values Fry’s analysis of bronze wares in the Zhou Dynasty, which vividly demonstrates the combination between esthetic form and vigorous life in Chinese works of art. Overall, Gao’s judgments on Fry’s esthetic criticism are appropriate and persuasive, constituting a fundamental theorization of Fry’s esthetic ideas of emotion and form.Chapter 3, “Clive Bell’s Formalist Aesthetics,” deals with Bell’s theory of visual arts, especially his idea of “significant form.” In his monograph Art, Bell confesses that he “owes Fry a debt that defies exact computation” (Bell ii). Profoundly influenced by Fry’s discussion of “significant and expressive form,” Bell puts forward the concept of “significant form,” regarding it as the only quality common to all works of visual art that moves people esthetically (Bell 5). In Gao’s opinion, “significant form” is constituted of creative form and esthetic emotion that accompanies the passionate apprehension of form, which is similar to the Chinese concept of “Xu Jing” (theory of emptiness and serenity), for their common focus is the expression of life itself.As Gao argues, the importance of European postimpressionist paintings to Western art is similar to that of the literati paintings in the Northern Song Dynasty to Chinese art. Bell’s art theory has an intellectual affinity with the theoretical idea of “Xieyi” (expressive style) in Chinese literati paintings, contributed by men of letters in the Northern Song Dynasty, such as Shi Su (1037–1101), Xiu Ouyang (1007–1072), Tingjian Huang (1045–1105), and Fu Mi (1051–1107). As the theory of Chinese literati paintings symbolizes the turning of Chinese painting from “Xieshi” (representative style) to “Xieyi” (expressive style), Bell’s theory helps promote the turning of European art taste from “representation” to “expression.” Gao stresses their shared interest in simplification, composition, and significance and expounds that Bell is a theoretical interpreter of postimpressionism. At the same time, Chinese literati painters aim to enhance the unity of form and spirit in Chinese art (217). Gao criticizes the crudity of Bell’s art criticism, which overemphasizes expression while belittling representation, and considers that Bell’s evaluation of Western art history is heavily biased toward expression.Chapter 4, “Virginia Woolf’s Literary Innovation and Formalist Aesthetics,” explores the influence of British formalist esthetics upon Woolf’s literary theories and creative practices. The finest discussion of Gao’s comparative study of China–Western literary criticism can be found in this chapter. As the foremost Woolfian scholar in China, Gao has studied Woolf’s theory of fiction and novels for about two decades. For Gao, Woolf shares with Fry and Bell a similar constructive path of theorization, namely a path from a critique of mimetic theory to an insight into the emotional essence of art and the proposal of the theory of emotion and theory of form. There is a commonality among Woolf, Fry, and Bell’s theories, which explicitly put forward emotion as the end of art and the unity of content and form. Gao demonstrates in this chapter how Woolf applies the ideas of formalist esthetics in her writing practice, with Jacob’s Room (1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), and The London Scene (1975) as examples.For Gao, Jacob’s Room is an experimental novel that absorbs and embodies Bell’s ideas of simplification and composition. To begin with, Woolf simplifies the form of Jacob’s Room by removing its plots, characters, and backgrounds. Then she uses “sound” to construct the central axis of the novel and “internal and external focus” to reflect the integrity and internality of life spirit. Finally, she elevates individual life to poetic height with the juxtaposition of objects and images and reveals the profound fate with imagery (267–73). Such a creative experiment makes the “new form” shine. Mrs. Dalloway is a typical fiction of “significant form.” Based on Bertrand Russell’s explanation of the Chinese “Way” in The Problem of China (1922), Woolf expresses a critique of Western civilization by juxtaposing life with death, sanity with insanity, and finally expounds on her ethics of “life-orient,” “life-esteem,” and “life-unification.” The London Scene consists of Woolf’s six essays on London’s various citizens and urban sceneries. It presents a writing style of unification of scene, feeling, and significance, which is similar to the category of “Yi Jing” presented by the Chinese poet Wang Changling (698–757) in the Tang dynasty, which features the ideas of unity of subject and object, unity of form and spirit, and significance beyond image (297–99). In general, Gao’s interpretation of Woolf’s literary practices is full of critical insight, which constitutes the best part of this book.Chapter 5, “Lytton Strachey’s Biographical Innovation and Formalist Aesthetics,” examines how Strachey applies British formalist esthetics to his biographical writings. Inspired by Fry and Bell’s art theories, Strachey creates a new mode of biography that emphasizes life records and concise form. Taking Eminent Victorians (1918) and Queen Victoria (1921) as examples, Gao argues that the idea of “significant form” is vividly manifested in Strachey’s biographical creation. Eminent Victorians concentrate on ethical choices in critical historical events to illustrate different personalities, respectively, centering on interest, kindness, and morality. Queen Victoria focuses on the queen’s interpersonal relations with various people surrounding her, reflecting her kind character and people-oriented political ideas (331).As Gao suggests, Strachey is a representative writer of “new biography” that stresses formal experimentation and psychological analysis in the twentieth century. By comparing James Boswell’s biography, “new biography,” and contemporary biographical fiction, Gao aptly elucidates the merits and limitations of Strachey’s biographical writings. She regards analytical narrative as the most delicate element of Strachey’s biography that contributes to complicated and profound characterization. From the theoretical perspective of “Xing Shen” (form and spirit) in Chinese poetics, Gao suggests that Strachey’s biographical creation prioritizes “Shen” (spirit of life) rather than “Xing” (external representation of inner spirit). In other words, Strachey’s biography vividly shows the authenticity, clarity, and profundity of life spirit. Conversely, Gao pinpoints that analytical biographers may easily distort and destroy the subject if techniques and fictitious materials are overused. For example, Strachey’s excessive emphasis on perspective techniques, coupled with his fabrication of historical records, leads to the distortion of Queen Elizabeth in Elizabeth and Essex: A Tragic History (1928). In short, Gao’s criticism of Strachey is a fusion of critical thinking, intellectual rigor, and insightful wisdom.Generally speaking, Gao’s study mainly focuses on the interactions among visual arts, literature, and biography, illuminating the similarity of art theory, literary theory, and biographical theory and the connection between art theory and creative practice (360). Gao’s study is highly valuable in the following aspects. First, she notes that British formalist estheticians and literary practitioners share a global and interdisciplinary vision. Gao elucidates their fascination with world art in detail, including European, Asian, American, and African art, across a disciplinary range of literature, philosophy, esthetics, history, and ethics. Varying in their familiarity with different cultures and subjects, they all transcend the narrowness of “Eurocentrism” and embrace multiple sources of inspiration, which significantly contributes to their innovation of critical theories and literary forms. Second, Gao’s research is a pioneering and innovative critical endeavor in British formalist esthetic studies. It opens up a new vista to illustrate British formalist esthetics from the Oriental perspective. With a good command of both Western and Chinese culture, Gao is insightful in clarifying the commonality and distinction of their literary and esthetic criticism.Last but not least, Gao’s book is a good combination of concise form and profound significance, which conforms to Bell’s idea of “significant form.” Nicely illustrated with classic paintings, this book endows each section with a clear introduction and conclusion and emphasizes its core arguments repetitively thus, a rare reader-friendly academic monograph. However, Gao’s book is not without flaws. Take Woolf’s part as an example. Gao only discusses Woolf’s two novels and six essays, leaving ample space to be explored in future studies. If Gao examined the concept of “significant form” in all of Woolf’s novels, her research would be more convincing and complete. Thus, more case studies and literary criticism are expected in this aspect.In conclusion, featuring intertextual analysis and in-depth thinking, British Formalist Aesthetics and Its Literary Writing Practice is a groundbreaking and comprehensive work on British formalist esthetics produced by the Chinese intellectual community. As an excellent combination of global vision and local perspective, Gao’s book vividly embodies the ideas of “Zhi Ren Lun Shi” and “Yi Yi Ni Zhi” in Chinese poetics, which she attributes to the art criticism of Fry. Her effort will not only inspire more Chinese critical voices in Western studies but also enlighten future comparative studies for worldwide researchers.