| The Ladies’ Monthly(1933-1937)is a journal that women were in charge of and participate in.It provides a good research sample for discovering the subjectivity of modern women.It publishes a large number of letters and diaries wrote by female editors,authors and readers,which truly reflects how intellectual women think and feel in 1930s.This research attempts to discuss how intellectual women build their Social Identity based on the New Woman Image,and what kind of sentiment experience they have in 1930s.Among the complex and diverse images of New Woman in modern China,the participants of The Ladies’ Monthly chose a kind of New Woman Image with both intellectual and moral meaning as their Identity.Their pursuit of New Woman is based on the exclusion of Old Woman such as "rural woman","bourgeois woman","modern lady".However,because of the lack of a clear definition of the concept,the attempts of intellectual women to pursue the image of New Woman are usually unsuccessful,which is more like the satisfaction of self-identity.In the charge of Yao Mingda and Huang Xinmian,the founders of The Ladies’Monthly,a social communication space belonging to women is constructed.Comradeship is a word often used in this space.In this paper,"comrade" is understood as a common identity and "sympathy" as a common sentiment experience.By linking "comrades" with "sympathy",this research argues that the participants’pursuit of New Woman are based on the historical background which set New against Old and their senses of self-identity.In the process of distinguishing New Woman and Old Woman-self-recognized as New Woman-entering the community with New Woman Identity,the participants actually finished three steps of Social Identity formation:categorization,comparison,and positive distinctiveness.Besides,this research adds the analysis of body and feeling in the social identity theory,and thinks the experiences of body and feeling are important to intellectual women’ s knowledge structure,the pursuit of image and identity.The main sentiment in The Ladies’Monthly is "sympathy",which is characterized by sociality,positivity and negativity.Through the research on the pursuit of New Woman,the identity and the sentiment experience of intellectual women in The Ladies’ Monthly,this paper argues that the image of New Woman in Post-May Fourth is not only the result of male elite intellectuals’ construction,but also the goal of female intellectuals’pursuit.In women’s social communication,intellectual women established one kind of feeling almost like comradeship,and this sentiment experience not only affected their ideas and potential logical structures,but also promoted the transformation of personal identity to social identity. |
