British Modernism and Chinoiserie

British Modernism and Chinoiserie Edited by Anne Witchard Explores Chinese artistic and stylistic influences on Modernist practice in early-twentieth century Britain This volume examines the ways in which an intellectual vogue for a mythic China was a constituent element of British Modernism. Traditionally defined as a decorative style that conjured a fanciful and idealised notion of China, chinoiserie was revived among London's avant-garde circles, the Bloomsbury group, the Vorticists and others, who like their eighteenth-century forebears, turned to China as a cultural and aesthetic utopia. As part of Modernism's challenge to the 'universality' of so-called Western values and aesthetics, the turn to China would contribute much more than has been acknowledged to Modernist thinking. As these 10 new chapters demonstrate, China as an intellectual and aesthetic utopia dazzled intellectuals and aesthetes. At the same time the consumption of Chinese exoticism became commercialised. The essays show that from cutting-edge Modernist chic to mass culture and consumer products, the vogue for chinoiserie style and motifs permeated the art and design of the period. Key Features * 10 original chapters from leading international figures in the field, including Elizabeth Chang, David Porter and Patricia Laurence * Includes 28 figures (10 in colour) to illustrate the text * Coverage of literature, painting and poetry, as well as performance and visual media, theatre, fashion and dance, interior and garden design and international exhibitions. Anne Witchard is a Senior Lecturer in the department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements; List of Figures; Introduction: ‘the lucid atmosphere of fine Cathay’, Anne Witchard; 1. China and the Formation of the Modernist Aesthetic Ideal, David Porter; 2. Shared Affinities: Katherine Mansfield, Ling Shuhua and Virginia Woolf, Patricia Laurence; 3. Roger Fry, Chinese Art and the Burlington Magazine, Ralph Parfect; 4. Chinese Artistic Influences on the Vorticists in London, Michelle Ying-Ling Huang; 5. The Idea of the Chinese Garden and British Aesthetic Modernism, Elizabeth Chang; 6. ‘Beautiful, baleful absurdity’: Chinoiserie and Modernist Ballet, Anne Witchard; 7. Fashion, Chinoiserie and Modernism, Sarah Cheang; 8. The Oriental and the Music Hall: Sound and Space in Thomas Burke’s Limehouse Chinatown, Paul Kendall; 9. Staging China, Excising the Chinese: Lady Precious Stream and The Darker Side of Chinoiserie, Diana Yeh; 10. Chinoiserie: An Unrequited Architectural Affair, Edward Denison

About the Author :
Anne Witchard is a Lecturer in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature and Culture at the University of Westminster. She is the author of Thomas Burke’s Dark Chinoiserie: Limehouse Nights and the Queer Spell of Chinatown (Ashgate Publishing, 2009) and Lao She in London (Hong Kong University Press, 2012).

Review :
British Modernism and Chinoiserie has been very well conceived—its topic, period and geography is well focused, but its generic range is broad. The book’s disciplinary ‘home’ is clearly English literature, but it explores connections with art writing, travel writing, garden design, art history, ballet, theatre, fashion and film.　 Rebecca Beasley, University of Oxford