Obscene Publications and ‘Immoral’ Modernities in Shanghai and Colonial Singapore, 1920s–1930s

This dissertation examines the development and the regulation of Chinese ‘obscene’ prints in Republican Shanghai and colonial Singapore, two important Chinese publishing hubs in the early twentieth century. Using archives in London, Singapore and Shanghai, it first analyses the intellectual debates over the definition of yin (obscenity) in the Sinophone world, highlighting how these debates were underpinned by the attempt to define a morally sound modernity for China as Chinese intellectuals had to cope with the tensions brought by a scientistic, Western-derived modernity. Secondly, it discusses the censorship mechanisms in Republican Shanghai and colonial Singapore, as well as the failures of both states to effectively suppress the circulation of ‘obscene’ prints. The difficulties to erase ‘obscene’ prints revealed its popularity among the urban readers and further suggested the emergence of an entertainment-oriented reading public that was more interested in entertainment than enlightenment. Broadly, it argues that yin was not a trans-historical and universalizable category defined by sexually explicit content, but an inherently unstable concept defined more profoundly by the variegated efforts to regulate it. The regulation of obscene prints was never simply a conflict between state authorities and ‘liberal’ intellectuals and artists. A diverse range of historical actors, motivated differently by religious, commercial and feminist interests, participated in the cultural battle to distinguish the decent from the indecent. By exploring the different telos of Chinese modernity that has been marginalized by the May Fourth intellectuals’ interpretation of Chinese modernity, this dissertation is a further attempt to move beyond the May Fourth paradigm. Treating both yin (obscenity) and modernity as unstable categories, it shows how yin was constructed as ‘unmodern’, when in fact such pulp/popular culture could be just as ‘modern’.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Geng, Yushu

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Leow, ChaiYi

• Obscenity
• Modern Chinese History
• Republican Shanghai
• Colonial Singapore
• Chinese Diaspora
• Print Culture
• Modernity
• Morality
• Pornography
• Censorship

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/8e7277c6-6469-4dbb-8ed2-1289286c9376/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.72566

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/325111