Reading The Myth: The Construction Of Women's Self-Identity Through Dynamics Of Intercultural Dialogue In 1930s Shanghai

Called"the magic metropolis", Shanghai has been exposed to various cultures since the opening of Shanghai Port in 1843. By 1930, Shanghai, with a population of over 3,000,000, ranked the fifth biggest city in the world."Shanghai style culture equals modern women."Red lips, high heels, curly hair and western-style dresses, traditional Chinese women's postures, all symbolized women in that period. The unique Shanghai style culture at that time was essentially an intercultural one, blending modernity into traditionaliy. However, there is still a lack of research and studies concerning people's identity construction process from an intercultural communication perspective during this period. This study intends to take an initiative step in this area.The author then raised the research question: How did women in 1930s construct and reconstruct their self-identity through"the otherness"in the dynamics of this typical intercultural process? How to represent this process? Can we interpret the"Myth"of 1930s Shanghai through the changes of women's clothing and hairstyles?This thesis applies the methodology of semiotics which covers Barthes's semiotic approach as well as Stuart Hall's cultural studies theories. One of the most popular pictorials with relatively large circulations is selected in this study, namely, The Young Companion. Women's clothes and hairstyles are chosen as research objects. Through the semiotic analysis, the author finds out that women in the Republican Era were not only influenced by the western culture, but reversely, their subversive subjectivity contributed to the corresponding changing signs in the pictorial. Therefore, the author wants to propose an interactive perspective in intercultural communication studies, especially in identity construction/reconstruction process.