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Titre What is Obscenity? Morality and Modernity in 1920s China
Auteur Yushu Geng
Mir@bel Revue China perspectives
Numéro no 2020/3 Re-Envisioning Gender in China: (De)Legitimizing Gazes
Rubrique / Thématique
Special feature
Page 9-17
Résumé anglais This paper examines the debates over the meaning of obscene (yin 淫) in 1920s China. Although the censorial category yinshu (淫书 obscene books) long existed in imperial China, in the late 1910s and 1920s, commonly known as the May Fourth era, the meaning and content of this genre underwent intriguing changes following Chinese intellectuals' quest for enlightenment and modernity. As Kendrick Walter has insightfully remarked in his study of pornography in Western modern culture, “Pornography names an argument, not a thing” (1987: 31). The argument over the meaning of yin offers a unique perspective into the complicated relationship between science, morality, and modernity in Republican China.
Source : Éditeur (via OpenEdition Journals)
Article en ligne http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/10276