This study examines the construction of femininity in the modern calendar poster – a quintessential visual medium of Republican Shanghai (1920s–1940s) – as a visual myth. Focusing on the Zhiying Art Studio, which drove the medium’s transformation, it highlights the studio’s shift from individual artistry to collaborative production. This shift enabled the typification and mass dissemination of female imagery, laying a crucial visual foundation for the expanding consumer market. Framed by concepts of the ‘sign’ and ‘visual myth’ within critical theory, the paper argues that these posters functioned as ‘sign objects’ embodying values such as ‘modernity’ and ‘urban life’. Through standardised replication, the female image detached from reality and became a ‘hyper real’ visual model. This model, the study contends, produced a dual effect. On the one hand, the semiotic system—composed of clothing, postures, and settings—guided viewers to internalise new norms of gender and class. On the other hand, it also presented a visual narrative of women inhabiting new public spaces such as department stores, parks, and racecourses, thereby performing a form of female independence that intertwined consumer agency with modern civic subjectivity. Ultimately, the female figure in calendar posters was not a reflection of reality but a visual myth generated by the self replication of signs under an industrial logic. This myth simultaneously reinforced social distinctions and participated in shaping new imaginaries of modern female identity. By tracing both visual production and semiotic construction, this research reveals the complex interplay between image, gender, and modernity in the consumer culture of early twentieth century China.

Authors:
Shu-Chi Shen, Southeast University, China

About the Presenter(s)
Shu-Chi Shen, Associate Professor of Fine Art. Her research spans modern Chinese ink painting and commercial visual culture (consumerism, gender). Her current project studies Shanghai calendar posters and visual modernity.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

Bookmark