| With the development of photography and printing technology,images began to appear in a large number of printed publications in Shanghai,which have became a common medium to record and reflect Shanghai's metropolis society and people's life.In the end of the Republic of China,WING-ON Monthly,which was published continuously for ten years,took images as a major feature of the journal,all kinds of images it published recorded the "lustrous and dazzling" Shanghai society in the end of the Republic of China,at the same time,constructed the Shanghai citizens' modern imagination of "modern metropolis".Based on the original documents such as images and historical materials in the118 issue of WING-ON Monthly,this paper takes the cover images,film stills,art photography,caricature and advertising images as the research objects.From the perspective of the relationship between image and modernity,through the induction and interpretation of the above types of image historical data,and combined with the social background at that time,this paper explores and analyzes the production environment of WING-ON Monthly,the construction of modern metropolis entertainment and consumption life in images of WING-ON Monthly,the reason and significance of images being selected by WING-ON Monthly,and the characteristics of the images that give the meaning of metropolis modern imagination in WING-ON Monthly.This paper finds that WING-ON Monthly,which was published in the turbulent times after the prosperous times,has been published for 10 years with consistent format,columns,solid content and rigorous typesetting.Based on the commercial gene of WING-ON department store,WING-ON Monthly was born with metropolis characteristics such as entertainment and consumption,which is also in line with the popular modern lifestyle of Shanghai.Since its inception,WING-ON Monthly has taken "leisure" as its purpose.It advocated proper entertainment and leisure through images.At the same time,it also revealed its aesthetic value,promoted the construction of modern cities and the cultivation of healthy and aesthetic attitude towards life,so as to create a fashion in line with the lifestyle and aesthetic value of modern metropolis.In addition,WING-ON Monthly also expressed the content of female consumption and commodity advertisements through images,which not only brought the changes of modern consumption concept and behavior to readers and metropolis citizens,but also made it gradually became a way of life,which has been recognized and widely spread.This paper argues that WING-ON Monthly used images as a way to convey the consumption concept of WING-ON department store,which not only presented tangible consumer goods,but also helped readers imagine the atmosphere of consumption life,making it a mirror image of metropolis modernity imagination.In addition,the editors of WING-ON Monthly took comforting the anxious spirit of metropolis citizens as a way of self adjustment,and shaped WING-ON Monthly into a spiritual home for readers who are deeply troubled by the pressure of survival,so as to guide readers to pursue and hope for the imagination of future modern life.However,in this process,the images in WING-ON Monthly did not fully show the whole picture of the wartime entertainment and consumption life of Shanghai citizens in the "isolated island" period.Hidden behind the images that give the meaning of metropolis modern imagination are the selective "neglect" of the national calamity and the "acquiescence" of western colonial propaganda which from heterogeneous social strata and contradictory public psychology of Shanghai under the abnormal prosperity.Therefore,all kinds of images in Shanghai at that time indicated that the metropolis modernity of Shanghai was in an unfinished state,and there was still a long way to go from the picture imagined by urban citizens.The modern city of Shanghai presented in the images of WING-ON Monthly can be said to be just the imagined city on publication. |
PDF Full Text Request