Parting the Mists: Discovering Japan And the Rise of National-style Painting in Modern China (Asian Interactions and Comparisons)

In Parting the Mists, Aida Yuen Wong makes a convincing argument that the forging of a national tradition in modern China was frequently pursued in assocation with rather than in rejection of Japan. The focus of her book is on Japan's integral role in the invention of "national-style painting," or guohua, in early-twentieth-century China. Guohua, referring to brush paintings on traditional formats, is often misconstrued as a residual conservatism from the dynastic age that barricaded itself within classical traditions. Wong places this art form at the forefront of cross-cultural exchange. NOtable proponents of guohua (e.g., Chen Hengke, Jin Cheng, Fu Baoshi, and Gao Jianfu) are discussed in connection with Japan, where they discovered stylistic and ideological paradigms consonant with the empowering of "Asian/Oriental" cultural practices against the backdrop of encoraching westernization. Not just a "window on the West," Japan stood as an informant of China modernism in its own right.

The first book in English devoted to Sino-Japanese dialogues in modern art, Parting the Mists explores the sensitive phenomenon of Japanism in the pratice and theory of Chinese painting. Wong carries out a methodologically agile study that sheds light on multiple spheres: stylistic and iconographic innovations, history writing, art theory, patronage and the market, geopolitics, the creation of artist' societies, and exhibitions. Without avoiding the dark history of Japanese imperialism, she provides a nuanced reading of Chinese views about Japan and the two countries' convergent, and often colliding, courses of nationalism.

Scrupulously researched, this volume contains a broad range of materials from both Chinese and Japanese archives. It is one of hte most impartial accounts of the Sino-Japanese relationship in recent years. In addition to analyzing artistic expressions and their ideological underpinnings, Parting the Mists takes the reader into the artists' inner circles--their friendships, group affiliations, and social networks. It is a valuable contribution to the study of modern Chinese painting and trans-Asiatic modernism and will be an indispensable reference for Sino-Japanese relations in art history for some time to come.