Cultural Legitimacy And Practical Tactics Of Artistic Change

The first half of the20th century in Chinese history was an age of great upheavaland tumultuous changes. The Chinese art during this period witnessed significantdevelopment, the Chinese artists introduced western paintings, and brought changes totraditional paintings and explored the way to integrate Chinese and western arts.These have been casting a deep influence on the contemporary Chinese fine arts. Toexamine the diversified aspects in Chinese fine arts and the transitional process duringthe first half of the20th century is of great academic value and significance. Thispresent paper is the result of a meticulous study, through an innovative lens, onChinese fine arts within this specific span of time.After inspecting the studies on Chinese art in the first half of the20th century, theauthor found that there are three major frameworks of analysis:"Western impact-China response","multifaceted modernity" and "returning back to China". Yet thereare also problems and deficient aspects: the researchers failed to reveal the complexityand vitality of artists’ practice in the specific contexts. Breaking through the binaryopposition and revealing the development and change of art in the specific contextwill becomes the new growing point of methodology. The theory of practice designedby the French cultural sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) brought me new ideasand methods to conduct the present study: to research the Chinese fine arts during thefirst half of the20th century by concentrating on the social and cultural legitimacy aswell as the strategies embodied within the practice of artists in the particular historicalcontext. It is the author’s aim, through this study, that new food for thought could beprovided: to deconstruct the binary opposition between internal and externalresearches in the field of fine arts; to associate fine arts with the specific filed inwhich they were produced, for art can neither be exclusively interpreted from aninternal perspective, nor could it be taken as a result simplistically brought by externalelements; to disenchant the illusion of intuition and freedom on artists and artisticproducts. The author intended to contribute more to the cultural development ofcontemporary arts in China. This paper is a meticulous study on western paintings. The author explores thecomplexity and vitality of the practice of the western painting artists who, during thefirst half of the20th century, adopted varies of strategies to fight for the culturallegitimacy in the cultural field of China, so as to provide new interpretations of thewestern painting development in China during that period.This present dissertation consists of the introduction part, eight chapters (groupedin two parts) and the conclusion.The introduction provides a detailed survey on studies of Chinese fine arts in thefirst half of the20th century, and points out the problems as well as the inadequateaspects concerning the current study. Based on that, the author aims to bring upinnovative ways to study the oil painting in the first half of the20th century.Part One contains the first four chapters, and mainly discusses the discoursestrategy adopted by the western painters for the competition and construction of thecultural legitimacy.Paper is divided into ten parts.The introduction part combs the research achievements of Chinese fine arts in thefirst half of the20th century, points out the problems and defects existing in thecurrent study. On this basis, put forward the new ideas of research for the oil paintingin the first half of the20th century.Chapter One investigates the Chinese cultural field featured by "Eastward Spreadof Western Paintings" in the first half of the20th century, and deals with four keywords which are rich in symbolic power: the nation state, science, democracy andfreedom. Detailed analysis is followed to suggest the reasons why these key wordscould serve as symbolic powers to legitimize what stays within the field. The key toobtain cultural legitimacy lies in the acquisition of the symbolic power, that is to say,the symbolic capital. The pursuit of the cultural legitimacy by the oil painters wascarried out around these symbolic capitals. The establishment of key words is theprerequisite to analyze the practice strategies of oil painters.Chapter Two discusses how the oil painting advocates focusing on the "nation" and"science", these two symbolic capital, to fight for and construct the legitimate discourse in the first two decades of the20th century. Their interpretation that thewestern paintings facilitate industrial development and represent science was inaccordance with the time trend of "to save the country through developing industryand spreading modern science". Hence, they obtained the symbolic capital of "nationstate" and "science", and then channeled the western paintings legally into China.Meanwhile, in order to guarantee their success, the western painting advocates took aradical stance and way of verbal expression to disclose the crisis of the legitimacy ofChinese traditional paintings. The strategy of pioneers by challenging the legitimacyof opponents and radical discourse expression, assisted in obtaining the culturallegitimacy.Chapter Three mainly discusses the fight and construction for the legitimacybetween realistic camp and realistic camp in the field during the early1920’s to1937.After the modernism painting rose in the field of oil painting, modernism advocatesconstructed and expanded the legitimacy through advocating “aesthetic education”,“de-scientization”, emotional expression, as well as a pioneer radical discourses. Theyalso connected the above-mentioned to symbolic capitals such as "nation state" and"freedom" in the cultural field, so as to further construct and expand the legitimacy inthe field of western painting. In the face of modernism camp struggle for the power,realistic camp maintained their status in oil painting field by adopting the strategies ofcanonization and re-enchantment of science. At the same time, the oil painting campalso faced the challenge from the traditional Chinese painting camp in the culturalfield, so the oil painting camp went on with the strategy of nationalization to constructthe national cultural identity under the circumstances of a rising nationalism whichpromoted the position of the traditional Chinese painting.Chapter Four is mainly about how the oil painting camp struggled for andconstructed the symbolic capital of "nation state" in the wartime. During theAnti-Japanese War, the nation was in peril and the nationalism ran to anunprecedentedly high level, so the "nation state" as a kind of symbolic capital becamethe top priority. At this point, the oil painting camp maintained their legal status in theChinese art field mainly through promoting propaganda function for national salvation and nationalization construction. Radical discourse expression, assisted inobtaining the cultural legitimacy.Part Two includes the rest four chapters, and delves into the adopted strategy by thewestern painters for the expansion of legitimate social space.Chapter Five focuses on the community strategy used by the oil painters to expandthe social space. This strategy not only reveals the painters’ demands for thelegitimacy of power, but also explains why the art associations were flourishingduring the first half of the20th century. For expanding the space, they generallytended to lay emphasis on social functions of community, soliciting members,organizing art education, holding art exhibitions, and issuing professionalpublications.Chapter Six mainly discusses the painting exhibition strategy. The exhibition wasexpanding the social impact, and in the practice, oil painters tended to be shaping thesocial image of painting exhibition and fighting for the right to review.Chapter Seven is related to the media strategy. Oil painting advocates in socialpractice tended to use the media to promote their own ideas and expand their socialimpact. They guaranteed the effective implementation of the strategy throughadvertising the social function of the media, using the mass media, professionaljournals and authoring books.Chapter Eight touched upon issues related to educational strategies in fine arts.Western painting advocates channeled art education into the realization of theexpanded reproduction of painting knowledge. To expand the social space, theygenerally, while carrying out the strategies, developed certain tendencies: dividingChinese traditional painting and western painting in the teaching, scientifically andreasonably setting up the painting courses, employing excellent teachers, andpreparing complete teaching facilities.The conclusion shows the fact that the survival and development of westernpaintings within the Chinese contexts, as well as its legitimate integration intoChinese culture is the result brought by those western painting advocates during thefirst half of the20th century who adopted various kinds of strategies to fight for culture legitimacy.