Southeast Review of Asian Studies
Volume 33 (2011), pp. 34–68
Self-Portraits, Family Portraits, and the Issue
of Identity: An Analysis of Three Taiwanese
Painters of the Japanese Colonial Period
CHUAN-YING YEN
Institute of History and Philology, Academic Sinica
Translated by JANET CARPENTER, LI-LING HSIAO & DAVID A. ROSS
During the Japanese colonial period, Taiwan‘s artists had few creative options beyond
expressing ―local color.‖ Under the strict rule of the colonial government, giving voice
to oneself, one‘s family, and Taiwanese society as a whole was dif cult. This article analyzes self-portraits and family portraits by three artists: Chen Zhiqi 陳植棋 (1906–31),
Chen Jin 陳進 (1907–98), and Li Shiqiao 李石樵 (1908–95). These artists studied and
absorbed the cultural values of the Japanese empire, and yet at times protested against
these values and expressed opposing values. This contradiction is itself an important
part of Taiwanese cultural identity. All three artists identi ed with Taiwan, but their
artistic and interpretive methods – their modes of identi cation – were completely different.
Taiwan‘s national identity has been historically weak. Taiwan emerged
from China‘s sphere of in uence at the end of the Qing period only to nd
itself absorbed by the Japanese empire. Though it was neither entirely Chinese nor Japanese, Taiwan cultivated modern technology and developed its
natural resources and agriculture to provide for its imperial rulers. This
colonial subjugation contributed to a sense of social instability (Yanaihara
1929, 29–36). During the 1920s, intellectuals tried to raise political consciousness and strengthen social ties with the ultimate objective of heightening Taiwan‘s political and cultural status and generally improving life on
the island (Wu 2008, 83–114). The colonial government, however, maintained strict political and economic control. Taiwan‘s secondary and higher
education system was hindered and basic cultural development was greatly
restricted. Cultural identi cation thus became an extremely complicated
issue, even to the point of becoming distorted and confused. Group identity
re ected the constant shifts of society and was thus un xed and unstable,
while individual identity was decided by personal education and experience.
© 2011 Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
35
In sum, Japanese colonial rule made it a great challenge to re ect the life of
the individual and to investigate the fraught question of cultural identity.
From 1927 to 1943, there were sixteen modern art exhibitions in Taiwan. The colonial government supported these exhibitions and encouraged
new art forms generally. These exhibitions also bene ted from media coverage and the endorsement of community leaders. Consequently, young
Taiwanese students were drawn to the arts. Under colonial rule, however,
Taiwan could not provide satisfactory art education and novices found it
dif cult to develop as artists. Even those fortunate enough to study abroad
ran into dif culties. Modern art demands the acute observation of life and
society and an acute sense of self. Developing and maintaining this sense of
self was the biggest challenge facing the colonized artists. Under the
framework established by the government, Taiwan‘s painters had to become simultaneously Westernized and Japanized. At the same time, they
had to cultivate their individuality and explore the hidden nature of their
self-identity.
Though the of cial exhibitions during the Japanese colonial period featured relatively little self-portraiture,1 this article considers issues of cultural self-identi cation in the context of both portraiture and selfportraiture (Yen 2004, 113–41), focusing on three important Taiwanese artists: Chen Zhiqi 陳 植棋 (1906–31), Chen Jin 陳進 (1907–98), and Li
Shiqiao 李石樵 (1908–95).2 If the relevant body of portraiture and selfportraiture is relatively small (particularly in the case of Chen Jin, who
painted her only known extant self-portrait after she fell gravely ill in 1965,
beyond the historical frame of this article), all three artists used their families as models, and therefore much of their work has the aspect of portraiture and may be compared to their self-portraiture. During his short life,
Chen Zhiqi took his wife as the principal subject of his gure painting,
transforming her image into a kind of symbolic self-image. The discussion
of Li will focus not only on his self-portraiture, but also on his two masterpieces The Family of Yang Zhaojia (Yan Zhaojia shi jiazu 楊肇嘉氏家族,
1936) and The Happy Farmers (Tianjiale 田家樂, 1949). He painted these
important works thirteen years apart, the latter during the post-colonial
period, but their composition and substance are importantly related. In The
Happy Farmers, Li used his family members as models, and the rendering of
some of the gures, such as his wife and his father, can be traced back to a
1943 draft of the painting. In this sense, the two paintings are more nearly
contemporary. During the colonial period, Chen Jin, who was unmarried,
devoted all of her time and energy to artistic creation. She did not create
any self-portraiture during the period, but, with her sister serving as model,
she created the image of the ―new woman.‖ This portrait and the memorial
portrait of her father that she painted in 1945 glimpse Chen‘s family life
and emotional life.3 This article, then, considers how these three artists use
36
C. Y. Yen
portraiture and self-portraiture to adumbrate reality, but also to express
their own feelings.
These three artists exemplify the new intellectualism of the era. All
three graduated from top middle schools, studied in Tokyo during the
1920s, made their names in the of cial art exhibitions of Taipei and Tokyo,
and received unprecedented recognition amid the cultural ferment of colonial Taiwan. At the same time, their family backgrounds were different.
Chen Zhiqi and Li came from minor land-owning families, but their families could not lavishly support them during their study in Japan. Li suffered especially straitened circumstances following his admission to the art
academy in Tokyo. On the other hand, Chen Jin had ample resources and
never had to worry about living expenses, enabling her to concentrate on
mastering the Japanese style, particularly the elegant style of female portraiture dubbed bijinga 美人畫 (i.e., paintings of beautiful women). Chen Zhiqi
and Li were dear friends who shared a fascination with Taiwanese culture,
but their work differs greatly due to their different personalities. Chen Zhiqi‘s art was simple yet powerful, while Li‘s art was dark and complex,
though equally socially aware. In sum, these three painters attempted to
shape a genuine school of Taiwanese portraiture, using themselves and
their families as models. Each artist expresses a unique sense of the culture
and a unique emphasis of values. Their originality urges us to renew our
knowledge of them.
Chen Zhiqi (1906–31)
Chen Zhiqi participated in each annual Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition from
1927, the rst year of the exhibition and Chen‘s second year of study in the
department of oil painting at the Tokyo Art Academy, to 1931, the year of
his death. A total of eleven works – six landscapes, four gure paintings,
and one still-life – appeared in ve exhibitions. The still-life painting features everyday objects that suggest something of the artist‘s personality (Ye
1995, 40–41; Chen 2004, 83–84). The six landscape paintings feature views
of Taipei, with the exception of the Tokyo landscape titled Seashore (Haibian 海邊), which Chen painted in 1927 while abroad. The ve Taipei
scenes take a humanistic view of his hometown, depicting the Temple of
the Earth Deity, Guanyin Mountain 觀音山, and a banana plantation. Chen
also exhibited his work in the Imperial Exhibition in Tokyo. The paintings
that appeared in the ninth and eleventh Imperial Academy of Fine Arts
Exhibitions (Imperial Exhibition hereafter) – Taiwanese Landscape (Taiwan
fengjing 臺灣風景, 1928) and Danshui Landscape (Danshui fengjing 淡水風景,
1930) – also demonstrate his strong inclination to portray the colors and
characteristics of Taiwan.
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
37
In January of 1927, Chen returned to Taiwan to marry. He and his wife
then departed for Tokyo, where Chen continued his education. His wife,
Pan Jianjian 潘鶼鶼, was soon pregnant. His eldest son was born in Tokyo
in December. Pan Jianjian was the daughter of the ―chief‖ of Shilin Street
士林街 in Taipei. She worked as a public school teacher after her graduation from the Third Girls‘ High School and represents the new female intellectual of good family. Chen Zhiqi‘s gure paintings included in the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibitions are all monumental full-body images of women,
most of which represent Pan Jianjian. The painting included in the rst
Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition was Fond of Peaches (Aitao 愛桃 (1927; g. 1).
This painting recalls another work titled The Wife (Furen 夫人), which was
painted around the same time ( g. 2). The two works depict women sitting
on similar chairs; both feature traditional Qing-style crimson gowns – presumably bridal gowns – hanging on the wall in the background. Both
women rest their hands in their laps. In the former painting, the woman
holds a basket of peaches; in the latter, a feathered fan. The fan protectively
covers the abdomen, hinting a pregnancy. Chen Zhiqi attached his signature to The Wife with a ne brush and red pigment: ―Summer of 1927,
Chen Zhiqi.‖ Both paintings were composed during this summer, and their
FIGURE 1
Chen Zhiqi 陳 植 棋 , Fond of
Peaches [Aitao 愛桃], 1927, included in the
first Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition.
FIGURE 2 Chen Zhiqi, The Wife [Furen
人], 1927. Chen family collection.
夫
38
C. Y. Yen
hues and dimensions are roughly similar.4 In The Wife, the robe worn by
the sitter resembles the dress that Pan Jianjian wears in the bridal photo of
the couple, implying that the robe has a personal and symbolic association
of marriage and family. And yet the wife of this portrait does not project a
mood of love or romance. Quite the opposite, she seems solemn and burdened. The crimson gown hung ostentatiously upon the wall is not celebratory, as it is supposed to be, but seems to loom with a lurid sense of threat.
Chen Zhiqi and his family spent the following summer in Taiwan. He
continued to paint his wife and sisters in the attempt to depict the lives of
women. That summer, he painted Two People (Erren 二人, 1928; g. 3) and
Three People (Sanren 三人, 1928; g. 4), both of which show seated female
gures in a typical domestic setting. He entered the paintings in the second
Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition in 1928. Both paintings were lauded and
identi ed with the ―Futurist School‖ 未來派 (Taiwan Daily News 1928,
Chinese 2). Chen Zhiqi graduated and returned to Taiwan in 1930, but in
September he rushed back to Japan and submitted Danshui Landscape for
inclusion in the eleventh Imperial Exhibition. During his stay in Japan, he
contracted pleurisy and was hospitalized in Tokyo. In March of the following year, his condition slightly improved, and he returned to Taipei. Soon
after, he was hospitalized again, and in April his illness took a drastic
FIGURE 3 Chen Zhiqi, Two People [Erren 二 FIGURE 4 Chen Zhiqi, Three People [Sanren
人 ], 1928, included in the second Taiwan 三人 ], 1928, included in the second Taiwan
Fine Arts Exhibition.
Fine Arts Exhibition.
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
39
turn that led his death (Chen 1935, 395;
Ye 1995, 15–52; Yen 1995, 6–14). In October of that year, the fth Taiwan Fine
Arts Exhibition posthumously exhibited
his Portrait of a Woman (Furenxiang 婦人
像; g. 5), which again featured his wife
and was probably painted in 1930.
In contrast with the bridal gown featured in The Wife, Two People and Three
People feature simple traditional
Taiwanese dress that emphasizes the
solid shape of the body. Portrait of a
Woman depicts a domestic setting. The
woman‘s hair is pulled back in a tight
bun, and she sits in front of a desk with
FIGURE 5 Chen Zhiqi, Portrait of a her body slightly turned. She places her
Woman [Furenxiang 婦人像], 1930—31, left hand above her knees with the
ngers slightly extended. Chen Zhiqi
Exhibition.
offers
a
straightforward
and
uncomplicated depiction of the desk, on which a candlestick and a pastry
dish are arranged. Near the table leg is a water jug. This is likely the corner
of a bedroom or a studio, part of the home environment under the daily
care of a housewife. The woman looks directly at the observer of the
painting with a steady gaze that almost resembles a frozen mask and recalls
the affect of the artist‘s self-portrait ( g. 6). The image embodies not only
the painter‘s self-image and self-expectation, but also the husband‘s
expectation of a wife. This image, in its simplicity and solidity, represents
an essential aspect of the Taiwanese character. Chen Zhiqi attempted to
capture this essence throughout his short creative life.
In the small painting titled Self-Portrait (Zihuaxiang 自畫像; g. 6), the
artist stares solemnly as if into a mirror, guring the painting and viewer‘s
relationship in a rather oppressive way, and meanwhile plumbing the
depths of the innermost soul and exploring the individual‘s essential self.
This painting is undated and was probably completed in 1929 or 1930, before Chen Zhiqi‘s graduation from the Tokyo Art Academy. In another selfportrait done in February of 1930 upon his graduation, the artist depicts
himself atteringly in pro le, wearing Western clothing ( g. 7). With a
bemused expression, he looks into the distance as if avoiding the gaze of the
viewer. Both self-portraits capture Chen‘s actual appearance in certain
photos in which he wears a Western suit and similar hat (Ye 1995, 174).
40
C. Y. Yen
FIGURE 6
Chen Zhiqi, Self-Portrait FIGURE 7 Chen Zhiqi, Self-Portrait [Zihuaxiang
[Zihuaxiang 自 畫 像 ], 1925—30, woodblock, 自畫像], 1930, canvas, oil, 60.6 × 45.5 cm. Art
oil, 27 × 21 cm. Chen family collection.
Museum at Tokyo University of the Arts.
Comparing these two self-portraits, the rst seems entirely without arti ce,
as if staging an anxious self-confrontation, while the second seems to present something like the artist‘s of cial public image. Two questions emerge:
rst, why did Chen Zhiqi feel the need to adopt two distinct self-images?
Second, why did the artist con ate his own intense self-identi cation with
the image of his wife?
However elusive Chen Zhiqi‘s inner life, his public life was concerted,
programmatic, and enterprising. Chen Zhiqi tirelessly participated in the
of cial exhibitions held in Taiwan and Japan. His work appeared in the
Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition ve times; in the ―special category‖ for notable work three times; and in the honori c category of non-juried work (無
鑑查) three times. His work appeared in the Imperial Exhibition in 1928
and 1930, and in the Crown Prince‘s Exhibition (聖德太子美術奉贊展) in
1930. He also exhibited his work in private exhibitions sponsored by
groups like Kaiijū Club 槐樹社, the Kōfū Club 光風會, and the Association
of Traditional Ink Painting. He was a passionate and vivacious man with a
leader‘s temperament. From 1927, when he began to participate in the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition, he became the heart and soul of the Taiwanese
art establishment.
In September of 1928, in support of fundraising activities for the second Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition, he published in the Taiwan Daily News
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
41
台灣日日新報 a manifesto titled ―To the Artists of this Island‖ (―Zhi Bendao Meishujia‖ 致本島美術家). He urged painters to elevate the quality of
the exhibition by ―immersing themselves deeply in the spiritual life‖ and
―bringing forth the Taiwanese art that represents the era . . . .‖ (Chen 1928,
133). His appeal reminds us of the view expressed six years earlier by Taiwan‘s rst sculptor Huang Tushui 黃土水 (1895–1930), who published an
essay in which he likewise urged young people to create a new era of Taiwanese art (Huang 1922, 126–30; Yen 1998a, 7–23). Huang preceded Chen
Zhiqi at Taipei Normal School and Tokyo Art Academy, and undoubtedly
served as Chen Zhiqi‘s artistic model. In 1920, Huang became the rst
Taiwanese artist to participate in the Imperial Exhibition, entering a cast
plaster sculpture titled Wild Boy (Fangong 蕃童). He participated in the Imperial Exhibition four times through 1924, and was the most revered gure
in the cultural establishment of Taiwan.5 Huang adopted the realistic mode
that dominated the painting academies. Chen Zhiqi did not follow suit, as
demonstrated by a loosely expressionistic painting like Taiwanese Landscape.
The painting depicts Xizhi Street 汐止街, showing familiar at carts, clay
pots, pedestrians, and huts set against the backdrop of distant rooftops and
mountains. Like his still-life painting, it uses objects as symbolic markers
of a larger reality.
It is worth considering why the two artists, born eleven years apart and
with dissimilar backgrounds – Huang having emerged from an impoverished family of artisans – wound up articulating such similar ideas. Where
did their similar views originate? What did it mean to create Taiwanese art
for a new era? For starters, both artists shared an uncompromising sense of
Taiwanese and ethnic identity. Chen strongly identi ed with both Taiwan
and China, as opposed to the Japanese colonial government. He planned to
cross the strait and study on the mainland, but his family objected to this
plan and he was forced to abandon it. He was deeply inspired by the Taiwanese Cultural Enlightenment Movement promoted by the Association of
Taiwanese Culture, whose guiding light was Jiang Weishui 蔣渭水 (1891–
1931), and he frequently participated in the group‘s activities (Hsiao 1934,
391). On November 18, 1924, he prompted his Taiwanese classmates at Taipei Normal School to withdraw from the school‘s organized graduation trip
as a gesture of Taiwanese identity, which resulted in the expulsion of thirtysix students. Certain Taiwanese elites tried to negotiate on behalf of the
students, but to no avail. This was one of the most shocking campus upheavals of the era.6
Having been expelled from school, Chen Zhiqi faced the consequences
of his unforgivable transgressions. In utter despair, he and his family took
the advice of Professor Ishikawa Kinichirō 石川欽一郎 (1871–1945), and he
left for Tokyo to study art. Jiang Weishui also encouraged the expelled students to study in either Japan or China. This course represented what was
42
C. Y. Yen
in many ways the only option for Chen Zhiqi. Following the example of
Huang, he matriculated at the Tokyo Art Academy. In early 1925, soon after he left Taiwan, Chen Zhiqi wrote a letter to the executive members of
the Association of Taiwanese Culture and the social leaders who negotiated
on behalf of those who were expelled, thanking them for supporting the
Taipei Normal students. Chen Zhiqi pledged in a letter to Du Xiangguo 杜
香國 (1894–1946) of Dajia 大甲: ―I will devote myself wholeheartedly to my
studies and to completing my education so that I do not betray your expectations. . . . When we students achieve something and contribute to the future of the society, will this not be a gift given by you?‖ (Hsu and Chung
2009, 196).
In 1922, Huang published an essay titled ―Born in Taiwan‖ (―Chusheng yu Taiwan‖ 出生於臺灣), in which he proclaims that despite poverty
and dif culty he persists in artistic creation not only to embellish human
life but also to enrich Taiwan‘s cultural life and to transform its society. He
writes:
I was born in this country, and I love this country. I was born in this land, and
I love this land. This is simply the way of the world. Although I say that art
has no kingdom and wherever you are you can create, in the end I cherish the
memory of the land where I was born. Our Taiwan is a beautiful island. Its
beauty makes it even more worth cherishing. (Huang 1922, 127)
In November 1928, after his work was selected for the Imperial Exhibition,
Chen Zhiqi sent his wife a letter that expresses a similarly intense social
consciousness:
I am studying art to help shape the future of society, so I am resolved henceforth even more thoroughly to apply myself and make a death-defying effort.
Soon after being selected [for the Imperial Exhibition], I completed three more
major works. No matter what, whether for the Imperial Exhibition or the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition, I must submit a major work every year. (Ye 1995, 50)
Huang and Chen Zhiqi agreed, then, that the arts must promote and elevate
the culture of Taiwan.
Huang and Chen had something further in common: poverty. The
Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition did not include sculpture; nor was there a
market for sculpture in Taiwan. Huang was therefore a lonely prophet who
had no choice but to remain in Japan, where he continued his efforts to
have his work included in the Imperial Exhibition and attempted to earn
his living by seeking patrons among Japanese imperial families and of cials
(Yen 1998a, 7–23). Many of Taiwan‘s rst-generation modern artists faced
dire nancial dif culties, and thus needed to participate in the government
exhibitions in order to attract collectors. Like Huang, Chen Zhiqi was constantly short of funds. In letters home, he bemoaned his electrical bills and
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
43
generally lamented: ―I have not a cent at this moment, and must live on
borrowed money.‖ He recognized that ―for the sake of bread,‖ if for no other reason, he had to create work that might receive the distinction of a
―special selection‖ in the Imperial Exhibition.7
Though frustrated by the culture of colonial Taiwan, artists gradually
led the way toward a new social consciousness. First-generation artists like
Huang and Chen Zhiqi were important participants in this process. Both
artists in some sense gave their lives to this aspiration and died young.
Their goal had been to create a ―Formosan era of the arts‖ and to ―produce
a Taiwanese art of Contemporaneity‖ (Huang 1922, 130; Chen 1928, 133)
that would represent the advent of a new era and a break with the Chinese
traditional arts. The art of this new era sought a modern spirit linked with
the contemporary West. But with limited native resources and support, artists had no choice but to submit themselves to the tests of the Tokyo Art
Academy and of cial exhibitions dominated by the Japanese imperial power. In Tokyo, Huang had to endure the Japanese critical ―ignorance and
misunderstanding of Taiwan‖ and had to encourage himself to cling to his
artistic ideals (Huang 1922, 128). While in Tokyo, Chen Zhiqi wrote to his
family: ―I want to cast off that kind of sti ed life but it is indeed very dif cult, one can only trust in the future, and console oneself . . . .‖ (Chen 1935,
394). He wrote also, ―Contemporary artists must, more than the illustrious
artists of the past, raise the level of their consciousness, make a great effort,
and be an advocate for themselves‖ (Chen 1928, 133). Chen Zhiqi‘s small
self-portrait ( g. 6) and even his Portrait of a Woman ( g. 5) express precisely this anxiety, anger, and persistence.
In his study of the 1930s and early 1940s Taiwanese novelist Long
Yingzong 龍瑛宗 (1911–99), who wrote in Japanese, the scholar Lin Ruiming
argues that the writer‘s description of the male protagonist is constricted,
but that his ―picture of the feminine world conceals his own aesthetic values and furthermore transmits his own latent intention of ‗persistence and
opposition‘ ‖ (Lin 1995, 356). Likewise, Chen Zhiqi repeatedly used his
wife as a model to portray an image of the strong and resolute Taiwanese
spirit. The self-image of the artist and the image of the resolute yet silent
woman are ip sides of the same coin. Given the necessity to participate in
the of cial art exhibitions, the artist could only disguise his anxiety, anger,
and expectations in the image of woman, especially in the portrait of his
other half — his wife.
Chen Zhiqi , moreover, enthusiastically assisted and guided the artists
who followed in his footsteps and established close friendships with numerous protégés, most notably Li Shiqiao. His conception of Taiwanese art
and insistence on Taiwanese artistic autonomy inspired later artists. In
1931, a posthumous exhibition of eighty-two works by Chen Zhiqi was held
at the Governor-General‘s Of ce in Taipei. At the end of the same year,8 Li
44
C. Y. Yen
noted in a letter to Chen Zhiqi‘s sister sent from Tokyo that Professor
Okada Saburōsuke 岡田三郎助 (1869–1939) had selected ve of Chen Zhiqi ‘s works to be included in the seventh Shundai Arts Exhibition 春台美術
展覽會, to be held in January 1932.9 These ve paintings represent his best
work during the last year of his life and include Danshui Landscape (1930),
Temple of the True Daoist (1930, a special selection in the fourth Taiwan
Fine Arts Exhibition), Still Life (1930, which had been exhibited by the
Kaiijū Club), Flower (1930, which had been exhibited at the second Exhibition of Akashima Club 赤島社展), and Self-Portrait. It is dif cult to surmise
whether this ―self-portrait‖ is the small self-portrait discussed above ( g. 6).
Whatever the case, there is no doubt that the style of self-portraiture established by Chen Zhiqi had garnered much attention in the artistic world.
Chen Jin (1907–98)
In the spring of 1925, after Chen Zhiqi had left for Japan, Chen Jin, a selfcon dent graduate of the Third Girl‘s High School in Taipei, entered the
Japanese Painting Department at Tokyo Woman‘s Art Academy (Tokyo
Joshi Bijuzu Gakkō 東京女子美術學校), becoming the school‘s rst Taiwanese student. She took this dramatic step with the encouragement of the
art teacher at her alma mater, Kotō Gōbara 鄉原古統 (1892–1965), and with
the full support of her parents. She graduated after four years of study. Thereafter she remained in Tokyo, continuing her artistic education under the
guidance of the famous bijinga painters Kaburagi Kiyokata 鏑 木 清 方
(1878–1972) and Yamakawa Shūhō 山川秀峰 (1898–1944). Eventually, she
became the most famous and original female painter in colonial Taiwan.
Chen Jin‘s unique education was made possible by her rich family,
which owned the Hengji Company 恒吉商號. Her father Chen Yunru 陳雲
如 (1875–1963) was born in the Xingshan 香山 district of Xinzhu 新竹.
Hoping that he would succeed in the imperial exams, the family provided
him with a fourteen-year education grounded in the traditional Confucian
curriculum, but in the end he ubbed the exam.10 Even so, Chen Yunru was
an open-minded and advanced gentleman who had aggressively learned
from the Japanese. In 1897, at the dawn of the colonial period, he entered
the Xinzhu National Language Institute (Xinzhu Guoyu Chuanxisuo 新竹
國語傳習所) to study Japanese and he wound up working closely with the
colonial government in the Xiangshan district. For assisting in the implementation of colonial policies, he received a medal in January 1901 (Taiwan
Daily News 1901a, 3). In March of the same year, he was chosen to visit the
Society for Advancing Regional Manufactures in Kyūshū 九州. He likewise
visited the factories in Kansai 関西 (Taiwan Daily News 1901b, 4; 1901c, 2).
He held numerous positions thereafter, and served as district head for more
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
45
than thirty years. In one fashion or another, he was in charge of public construction, industry, and public schools, and he headed the National Language Study Society 國語研究會.11 He was well regarded as a leader of local
industry, and his philanthropic contributions were widely appreciated
(Taiwan Daily News, 1907a, 5; 1907b.9.1, Chinese 3).12 The newspapers acknowledged that his wealth had not dampened his public spirit.13 All the
while, he enthusiastically educated his own children (Chang 2000, 106–19).
His third daughter Chen Jin was an obvious artistic talent. Easily
enough weaned of the traditional tendency to value sons more than daughters, Chen Yunru took enormous pride in her achievements. He encouraged
her to devote herself to scholarship and art and not to worry about marriage,
telling her that ―staying by the side of your parents is as good as being a son‖
(Chiang 2001, 166). Chen Jin‘s brother Tiansi 天賜 and sister Bi 璧 followed
in their sister‘s footsteps and studied in Tokyo. They returned home only
after World War II and entered into marriages arranged by their mother.
With the exception of a period at the end of the World War II when she
was stranded in Japan, Chen Jin was a mainstay of the Taiwanese art exhibitions, participating in thirteen Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibitions and exhibiting a total number of eighteen works. After 1934, she entered her work in
the Imperial Exhibition and the Department of Culture Exhibition (Bunten
文展) on six occasions, and she became a member of the Seikin Kai Club 青
衿會. With the exception of the two ower paintings she exhibited in the
rst Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition, her submissions were all gure paintings; furthermore, all were images of women. She may be considered, then,
the principal propagator of the image of the modern Taiwanese woman. In
1932, Chen Jin became a judge of the Japanese painting division of the
Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition, and she remained the only Taiwanese judge
for three years. Among the many male judges, her elegant pro le in kimono
was especially prominent and her nomination as a judge represented a special honor. Being the rst female painter in the history of Taiwan and the
rst painter in the Japanese style to be formally trained in an art academy,
Chen Jin had to work at her craft with ceaseless vigilance and unwavering
determination.
Although her family was wealthy, her father was careful about money
and conscientious about justifying her family‘s investment in her education.
Before her graduation from the Tokyo Woman‘s Art Academy, Chen Jin
obtained her father‘s permission to remain in Tokyo for a year and continue her study under the guidance of Kaburagi Kiyokata. Filled with
gratitude, Chen Jin wrote home: ―During this precious year, I will most
certainly work hard to polish and solidify my painting skill‖ (Yen 2010, 48–
50).14 She listed the details of her monthly needs, and said:
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C. Y. Yen
No matter how frugal I may be, I cannot get by on less than sixty yen [each
month]. My current plan is to enter the Imperial Exhibition this fall. If I am
successful, I might be able to return to Taiwan early. The fruits of my labor
may perhaps result in an individual show when I next visit Taiwan. Therefore,
nothing will be wasted. (Yen 2010, 48–50)
While not forgetting her lial duties, Chen Jin devoted herself to obtaining
a place in the Imperial Exhibition. Unlike other Taiwanese artists, she did
not need the income to be garnered from exhibition success. Rather,
success in this of cial context was a means repaying her parents and
completing her mission of glorifying her family and society.
In 1936, Nomura Kōichi 野村幸一, the art critic for Taiwan Daily News,
published an article titled ―On Chen Jin‖ indicating that ―her rst work
Ensemble [Hezou 合奏] selected for the fteenth Imperial Exhibition is truly
a progressive vision of the female artist‖ (Nomura 1936, 418–19; g. 8). He
called the period between 1927 and 1933, marked by the rst eight Taiwan
Fine Arts Exhibitions, a phase of enlightenment for Chen Jin. Nomura,
however, was not satis ed with Chen Jin‘s works during the years she
judged the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition, arguing that she overindulged in
―local color‖ and failed to represent ―the Contemporaneity of the era.‖ In
1932, the year in which she began to serve as judge, Chen Jin exhibited a
work depicting a Taiwanese woman titled Orchid Fragrance (Zhilan zhi
Xiang 芝蘭之香). Two reviews in the Taiwan Daily News were similarly
negative. The color draft of this painting has survived and may serve as a
point of reference ( g. 9). One Taiwanese journalist wrote:
FIGURE 8
Chen Jin 陳進,
Ensemble [Hezou 合奏], 1934,
silk, gouache. 177 × 200 cm,
exhibited in the fteenth Imperial Academy Arts Exhibition. Family collection.
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
47
Orchid Fragrance by Miss Chen
Jin, the new female judge, exhibits mature artistry and craftsmanship. Her subject is a bride
with tiny bound feet. This does
not represent the modern age.
Furthermore, [the bride] is surrounded by orchids. The background does not seem to t the
subject (Taiwan Daily News 1932,
8; Shih 1992, 17–31).
The work‘s expressive power and
craftsmanship are apparent, but the
subject does indeed appear to be a
bride from antiquity, out of synch
with the modern backdrop. The
reporter thought that the tips of the
shoes peeking from under the skirt
suggested the outmoded practice of
FIGURE 9
Chen Jin, Orchid Fragrance foot binding and that the potted
[Zhilan Zhi Xiang 芝蘭之香 ], 1932, draft on orchid, a popular domestic prop at
silk, gouache, 41 × 29 cm. Chen family
the time, seems to clash with the
collection.
other elements.15 Judging from the
small toecap, it is dif cult to determine whether the bride has bound feet,16
but the bride‘s traditional dress and headgear de nitely suggest a Qing-era
costume. Ōsawa Teikichi 大澤貞吉 (b. 1886), the editor-in-chief of the
same newspaper, noted in a commentary in Japanese the painstaking and
meticulous craftsmanship of this work. He observed, ―The gure‘s nger
seems almost sculpted; in its simplicity and formal beauty, it seems to
belong to a doll‖ (Ou 1932, 218). At the same time, the painting is
insuf ciently vivid and somewhat stiff. It perhaps represents ―formal
beauty‖ to excess.
The scholar Xie Shiying suggests that Orchid Fragrance was in uenced
by the props popular in contemporary photography studios (2006, 18). It
was common to include this kind of small table and potted plant in studio
portraits. However, the painting‘s traditional mother-of-pearl inlaid black
furniture would have been too costly for studio use. Chen Jin‘s later paintings often feature such luxurious furniture, which belonged to the everyday
world of the Chen household. In Orchid Fragrance, a hexagonal palace lantern hangs above the head of the bride, symbolizing the happy marital occasion. The bride is splendidly attired and bows slightly; comparing to the
bride featured in Chen Zhiqi‘s The Wife ( g. 2). It seems as if Chen Jin‘s
bride is consciously aware of the scrutinizing gaze of the artist or audience,
48
C. Y. Yen
and thus comports herself with careful reserve and modesty. The plant in
full bloom represents the young woman‘s purity and virtue. In a visual
sense, the bride represents an exquisite, magni cent effect, but she seems
only an object of display, without obvious personality.
In terms of attire, Chen Jin decks her modern gure in a luxurious
Qing-era gown, leading the Taiwanese journalist mentioned above to criticize the painting as incoherent. Why did Chen Jin choose to present her
female in the attire of the Qing dynasty? Kojima Kaoru notes that many
Qing royals ed to Japan during the Taisho era, bringing their antiques and
luxuries with them and creating a fashion for Chinoiserie. By the 1930s,
however, Japanese intellectuals had abandoned their former admiration for
Chinese culture even as they appropriated the symbols of China to represent their imperialist nationalism. Therefore, many painters who exhibited
their work in the Imperial Exhibition, such as Fujishima Takeji 藤島武二
(1867–1943) and Kobayashi Mango 小林萬吾 (1870–1947), garbed their
models in luxurious imperial gowns of the Qing era (Kojima 2008, 107–11;
Kojima 2010, 23–32; Yamanashi 1999). Chen Jin‘s Orchid Fragrance and The
Evening Garden (Tingyuan muse 庭園暮色, 1929) feature unidenti ed females in traditional embroidered gowns in uenced by this fashionable
Chinoiserie. Without comprehending this cultural background, Chen Jin
appropriated the image of the Japanese woman to represent the women of
her own society.
Having herself been raised in a milieu of comfort, Chen Jin intimately
knew the lives of upper-class women. As a young woman, she was always
photographed in kimono or Western-style dresses. The Qing-era gown had
long disappeared from daily life. The scene in Orchid Fragrance, then, does
not re ect contemporary reality, but consciously recycles and appropriates
traditional elements and images, creating an effect of delicacy. This ―recycling‖ allows the freedom to interpret and create a decorative surface. The
purpose of ―appropriation‖ is to create a new oriental image and meaning,
without any necessary relation to a historical personage or past. This painting has a fascinating visual delicacy and luxury, but the bridal gure lacks
individual character. This explains why the painting confused its Taiwanese audience, including the Taiwanese journalist mentioned above. They
expected realism, while Chen Jin provided symbolism.
As the art critic Nomura Kōichi indicated, Chen Jin‘s artistry made obvious progress in 1934. Her work Ensemble ( g. 8) was selected to appear in
the Imperial Exhibition. Speaking to the media, Chen Jin brimmed with
excitement:
Taiwan is a wonderful place. Is there anyone who fails to love the place where
she grew up? That painting is from a sketch I made on my most recent visit
home. One woman is my elder sister, and the other is a good friend of mine.
They became my models. (Shōtō Bijutsukan 2006, 172)
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
49
Before I entered [Tokyo] Female Art Academy, I graduated from the Third
Girl‘s High School. Both of my parents loved painting. I am just about to return to Taiwan. It is still too soon to get married! I will send a telegram right
away announcing the good news [that my work has been included in the Imperial Exhibition]! (Taiwan Daily News 1934, 2)
Ensemble is the rst large painting for which Chen Jin‘s elder sister Chen
Xin 陳新 had posed as model. The two musicians have similar expressions
and attire. They relax on a black inlaid bench playing traditional instruments – bamboo ute and lute – with elegant gesture. They wear celadon
green silk qipao 旗袍 and ornate gold and jade necklaces and bracelets,
which suggest their high status and the distinction between them and professional performers. In general, they express the elegant and tranquil demeanor and the quiet life of women in upper-class society.
The artist‘s elder sister, by now married with children, next appeared
in the large painting of 1935 titled Leisure (Youxian 悠閒; g. 10).17 Perhaps
created for the Imperial Exhibition, it depicts Chen Xin reclining on one of
the traditional beds of the house, which forms an interesting contrast with
the photograph that served as the basis for the painting. The image of a
woman reclining on a bed reminds us Edouard Manet‘s (1832–83) famous
painting of a high-class prostitute titled Olympia (1863), though of course
Chen Jin‘s version of Manet‘s scene is strictly decorous. The woman‘s head
is held upright, and she wears a cool, emerald-green qipao. She holds a book
titled The Complete Anthology of Poetic Rhymes (Shiyun quanbi 詩韻全璧) and
incense burns by her side. All of these elements stress feminine style and
virtue. Although the woman reclines on a magni cent piece of traditional
Chinese furniture, her hairstyle and pendant suggest contemporary fashion
FIGURE 10
Chen Jin, Leisure
[Youxian 悠 閒 ], 1935, silk,
gouche, 136 × 161 cm. Taipei
Fine Arts Museum.
50
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and design, indicating that the woman welcomes the aesthetics of the West
and the gaze of men. In sum, the painting contrasts the East and the West,
the modern and the traditional, the erotic and the digni ed. On one reading, the woman symbolizes colonial Taiwan, while the corresponding colonizing power, Japan, is represented as an invisible gaze, an ubiquitous presence, embodying male authority and contemporary Western culture. As
previously stated, Chen Zhiqi utilized images of his wife to represent his
own resistance to Japanese colonial power. In a different way, Chen Jin
subconsciously shifts between colonizing power‘s visual language and the
colonial artist‘s identity. The reclining gure may seem tender and mild in
her passive acquiescence to the colonial male gaze. On the other hand, she
can be construed as an actress who seduces the audience and maintains its
attention. In this sense, Chen Jin bravely mediates between male and female, between Western and Eastern perspectives.
Furthermore, Leisure subtly reveals the mind of Chen Xin. She graduated from public school with an excellent academic record, but the opposition of her conservative grandmother prevented her from continuing her
education in Taipei. She married into a rich family at the age of sixteen and
lived in seclusion. The furniture featured in Leisure and Wearing Makeup
(Huazhuang 化妝), which Chen Jin painted the following year, occupied the
house of Chen Xin‘s husband. Compared to Orchid Fragrance, which had
been painted three years earlier, Leisure sheds the motif of the ornamental
gown and liberates the female gure by emphasizing the uid lines of her
body and graceful body language. She crosses her legs with grace and elegance, her twined legs almost having the appearance of a mermaid‘s tale.
This woman‘s self-con dence trumps the self-restraint and arti ciality portrayed in Orchids Fragrance, successfully con ating the esh and blood of a
modern woman with the ancient and Eastern feminine ideal. Chen Jin had
developed the con dence to image the Taiwanese upper-class woman,
drawing on elements of bijinga, contemporary Western art, and traditional
Chinese décor and design. Her female gure represents the ideal image of
modern beauty.
In Wearing Makeup (1936; g. 11), Chen Jin again reverts to luxurious
furniture, in this case a four-paneled screen and dressing table, suggesting a
rich and private indoor space. The painting shows two women. The sitting
woman wears traditional attire, while the standing woman displays the contemporary fashion of the qipao. The standing woman raises her left hand in
a gesture that reveals the delicate lines of the body under her garment, allowing the viewer to associate the image with the sculptural depictions of
nude females regularly displayed in the Imperial Exhibition.18 This vision
of theatrical elegance is arresting and enticing. Its purpose, however, was to
adorn the Imperial Exhibition, and it is totally unrelated to the reality of
life.
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
51
FIGURE 11 Chen Jin, Wearing Makeup [Huazhuang 化妝], 1936, silk, gouche, 212 × 182 cm,
included in the rst reformed Imperial Academy of Fine Arts Exhibition. Chen family collection.
By 1945, Chen Jin had been away from home for nearly four years. She
sensed that her parents and relatives were getting old. She decided to end
her stay in Tokyo and return to her family. Upon arriving home, she immediately began a portrait of her seventy-year-old father. Chen Jin depicts
her father wearing a tuxedo and holding a top-hat and a cane — the ceremonial garb of formal celebrations during the colonial period, symbolizing
his professional status and the image of the modern Westernized gentleman
( g. 12). This portrait reminds us of the Self-Portrait in Tuxedo by the German Expressionist painter Max Beckman (1884–1950), which represents
the pinnacle of Beckman‘s career ( g. 13). Both paintings feature the black
52
C. Y. Yen
FIGURE 12 Chen Jin, Father [Fuqin
父親], 1945, gouache on silk, 110 × 50
cm. Chen family collection.
FIGURE 13
Max Beckman, Self-portrait in Tuxedo,
1927, oil on canvas, 139.5 × 95.5 cm. Harvard Art Museums.
garment and the frontal gesture. The manner and the expression of the
young Beckman suggest complacency and triumph, while Chen Jin‘s father
exhibits an expression of kindness and love. At the same time, his erect posture symbolizes his authoritative status in the eyes of his children and his
professional success. Although the Japanese empire had collapsed, memories associated with this uniform of the colonial period embody the
painter‘s enormous respect for her father and for the dimmed glory of the
Japanese empire.
As a young Taiwanese painter, Chen Jin pursued her education in Japan until the end of World War II. She immersed herself in Japanese culture for twenty years. She had not only absorbed mainstream Japanese
painting and become familiar with modern Western painting, but also absorbed the bijinga style inseparable from the male perspective and practiced
by her male teachers and colleagues. Themes of isolation and privacy suggest her divorce from the lower-class society of Taiwan. Of course, Chen Jin
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
53
was conscious of her female identity under a colonial authority. She thus
chose to represent Taiwanese women, and she successfully captured the
image of Eastern leisure. Unlike Chen Zhiqi, she did not participate in any
cultural and social movements, and naturally she did not have a deep sense
of the suffering and con ict of the lower classes under colonial rule. Chen
Jin single-mindedly pursued the achievement of an ideal aesthetics. Moreover, she had to identify with the dominant perspectives of the era in order
to enter the narrow gate of the Imperial Exhibition. In Orchids Fragrance,
Leisure, and Wearing Makeup, Chen Jin successfully wed the self-styled image of the modern woman and the poetics of the traditional Eastern painting. Her works in the bijinga style are not merely passive exhibitions, but
highly self-conscious and self-motivated performances. They are modern
paintings characterized by calm and restraint. At the same time, they embody hidden desires.
Li Shiqiao (1908–95)
Li Shiqiao was born in the household of a petty landowner in the village of
Taishan 泰山, in the Xinzhuang 新莊 district of Taipei. In 1923, he entered
Taipei Normal School, where he was a younger schoolmate of Chen Zhiqi
and studied under Ishikawa Kinichirō. He entered the rst Taiwan Fine
Arts Exhibition and remained a regular participant thereafter. In 1928,
Chen Zhiqi encouraged him to travel to Tokyo to sit the entry examination
for the Tokyo Art Academy. He took the examination three times and was
nally admitted to the Department of Western Painting in 1931. Li had
cared for his sick friend Chen Zhiqi in the hospital; regrettably Chen did
not live to see Li matriculate. In 1932, Li‘s family was decimated by typhoid fever. One after another, his relations either died or fell seriously ill.
Li rushed home to care for the sick. His family urged him to abandon his
studies and take up the responsibilities of the head of the family, threatening to cut off nancial support. By this time, Li had a wife and daughter
living in Taiwan, which was another factor in favor of returning home. But
Li resolved to continue his studies in Tokyo, and in 1933 his work The
Garden of Lin Benyuan (Lin Benyuan Tingyuan 林本源庭園) was selected for
the Imperial Exhibition. In an interview with a reporter, the twenty- veyear-old artist spoke of his dif cult career. His tone contrasts with the excited tone of Chen Jin (see above), who was interviewed the following year:
My family cannot fully support me. Moreover, last year there was an epidemic
of typhoid fever in Taiwan. My elder brother, his wife, and my younger
brother all passed away within a short time. I could have helped by abandoning my hope of creation, yet I maintained my resolution to enter the Imperial
Exhibition at least once. I spared no effort to participate. Fortunately, there
54
C. Y. Yen
was a satisfactory outcome. I am overwhelmingly delighted and exceedingly
grateful. (Taiwan Daily News 1933, 2)
In the same year, his work Indoors (Shinei 室內) was selected for the seventh
Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition (1933). Neither The Garden of Lin Benyuan
nor Indoors is extant. The former was apparently complex and very large:
about 194 × 130 cm (Li 1998, 48). The latter, a still life, was named a ―Special Selection‖ and received the Asahi Award in the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition. It was also very large (145.5 × 112 cm) though with a simpler
composition. Its dominant color – dark red – reminds one of Chen Zhiqi‘s
Still-Life, which appeared in the second Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition,
though Li‘s style is more mature (Osaka Asahi Shinbun 1933, 230).
Li resolutely worked for the honor of being selected as a participant in
both the Imperial Exhibition and the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition. In1941,
his work nally appeared in the honori c category of non-juried work. He
participated in all sixteen Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibitions. His work was regularly named a ―Special Selection‖ or ―Special Recommendation,‖ and it
won numerous awards. Colonial artists commonly reserved their most important or large works for the Imperial Exhibition and relegated their less
signi cant works to the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition. This was because the
competition to participate in the Imperial Exhibition was more intense and
the standards for selection were higher. Moreover, the Imperial Exhibition
was backed by the prestigious Imperial Acadmy of Fine Arts 帝國美術學院
and the art academies (Kanaseki 1942, 287). For colonial artists who aspired to make a name for themselves, the Imperial Exhibition was an irresistible attraction. In 1934 and 1935, Li clearly tailored his images of women in order to conquer these major exhibitions.
In 1935, Yang Zhaojia 楊肇嘉 (1892–1976) materialized as an important
patron. Yang was born in the household of a wealthy landowner in Qingshui 清水, Taichung 台中. He completed middle school and high school in
Tokyo. After returning to Taiwan, he became the chief of the Qingshui district. He then returned to Japan to study at Waseda University 早稻田大學.
During the 1920s and 1930s, he played a leading role in the cultural movements of Taiwan. Because of his excellent oratorical and political skills, he
functioned as a liaison between the Taiwan Governor-General‘s Of ce 臺灣
總督府 and the Japanese Imperial Council in Tokyo 東京日本帝國會議. He
promoted the movement to petition for the establishment of a legislative
assembly in Taiwan and to establish local self-government. On April 19,
1935, Li held his rst individual exhibition, with Yang Zhaojia‘s support.
The show was held in the Taichung Library. On the last day of the show, in
the early morning of April 21, a massive earthquake struck Taichung. Yang
rushed to the area to oversee the disaster relief and recovery. Li was moved
by Yang‘s sel ess devotion to Taiwan, and the two men eventually formed a
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
55
FIGURE 14
Li
Shiqiao 李 石 樵 ,
Knitting [Bianwu
編物], 1935, oil on
canvas, 158 × 146
cm, included in
the second Ministry Exhibition.
long-term friendship. In about the summer of the same year, the artist began to paint portraits of the Yang family (Chang and Chen 2003, 149–56;
Yang 2004, 226). Subsequently, Li spent about half of each year in Tokyo
creating and studying, and the other half of the year in Taichung, earning
his income by painting portraits of the local gentry. He did not abandon his
sojourns in Tokyo until the end of World War II.
In 1935, the prime minister of Japan reformed the Imperial Exhibition,
and in consequence the exhibition was temporarily suspended. Some Westernstyle painters organized a separate exhibition titled the Second Ministry
Exhibition 第二部會展. Li‘s work Knitting (Bianwu 編物) was selected to
appear in the exhibition ( g. 14). The painting adopts a side view and depicts two young women sitting and partially facing each other. The composition involves multiple interlocking triangles and stresses the geometry of
the human body, suggesting the in uence of Paul Cezanne (1839–1906).
The girls are shown in a strong light, creating a contrast between brightness and darkness that makes them seem almost carved in stone. Li seems
to construe the young women as impassive, but deeper re ection suggests a
different interpretation. Their expression might be read as weary and resolute,
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C. Y. Yen
FIGURE 15
Li Shiqiao,
Self-Portrait [Zihuaxiang
自 畫 像 ], 1936, oil on
woodblock, 60.6 × 45.5
cm. Art Museum of
Tokyo University of the
Arts.
recalling Li‘s self-portrait upon graduating from the Tokyo Art Academy,
the only extant self-portrait by the artist ( g. 15). Li‘s face is an inverted
triangle with eyes half-closed and a prominent nose, very much like an African mask in its cold mysteriousness. In contrast to his snappy Western
dress and bright aura of the work, Li‘s expression is somber. The stubborn
countenance implies a refusal to cater to the audience and anticipates the
features of his latter gure paintings.
In February 1936, the recon gured Imperial Exhibition was held in
Tokyo, and Li submitted a painting titled The Family of Yang Zhaojia (Yang
Zhaojia Shi Jiazu 楊肇嘉氏家族; g. 16). At 250 × 194 cm, this monumental work makes a profound impression, but it is impossible to specify what
kind of impression. For many years, Yang Zhaojia led the resistance to colonial government in Tokyo, and his name stood for Taiwan itself. To present this work for exhibition in Japan had deep political and social signi cance. There is an extant photograph of the Yang family, probably taken at
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
57
FIGURE 16
Li Shiqiao, The Family of Yang Zhaojia [Yang Zhaojia Shi Jiazu 楊肇嘉氏家族],
1936, oil, 182 × 259 cm, included in the rst reformed Imperial Academy of Fine Arts Exhibition. Cathay Group.
the beginning of 1931 before Yang decided to move his family back to Taiwan from Tokyo, about ve years before Li painted the family portrait. It is
a typical family photo: the eight family members are arranged side-by-side
in two rows, and they all peer at the camera. Yang was described as a ―father lled with kindness and love,‖ and he had a warm and happy family
(Yang 1996, 89). In Li‘s work, however, each of the clan members adopts a
xed and solemn stare as if he or she were alone. The artist deliberately
organized the composition of the clan portrait in a theatrical mode. At the
forefront is the clan leader, Yang Zhaojia, who sits casually on a red sofa
with armrests. To his left is an apparently aged wife, who holds her tall and
thin body in an erect posture. On her knee is a toddler lifting his head to
converse with his mother. The husband and wife are like rm boulders anchoring the family. The sons and daughters appear behind the principal
gures: the eldest son stands respectfully behind his father and the second
son guards the mother, while the two daughters in red link the father and
mother. In the center of the composition appears a painted landscape scene
of the type used as a scenery-curtain backdrop in a photography studio.
This curtain depicts the Huxin Ting Pavilion 湖心亭 at Taichung Park 台中
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C. Y. Yen
公園. The pavilion, which was built in 1908 to celebrate the completion of
the cross-country railway, was a famous scenic spot during the colonial period and an important local landmark. This family portrait symbolizes
Yang‘s con dence, leadership, and energetic spirit. All of the members of
the family are in their proper places, under their father‘s direction, expressing the loyalty of the clan and the dignity of the Taiwanese. It is unknown
whether Yang visited the Imperial Exhibition, but he certainly would have
felt that the portrait capably represented Taiwan in the grandest artistic
and cultural venue in Tokyo. This painting hung for a long time in the living room of the Yang family‘s residence in Qingshui 清水 (Chang and
Chen 2003, 166).
Li‘s painting The Happy Farmers (Tianjiale 田家樂), an outdoor group
portrait, is a natural sequel to the Yang family portrait ( g. 17). Li completed the piece in 1949, the same year he served as the judge of the fourth
Provincial Exhibition 省展 in Taiwan. When the Provincial Exhibition was
inaugurated in October 1946, the critics had the highest esteem and expectation for Li‘s work and praised his large-scale pieces for embodying an
ideal of social realism (Wu 1946, 3).19 The artist stated at the time: ―The
subject is my family home in Xinzhuang. In the distance is Guanyin Mountain. The models are my father and my eldest daughter, who are taking a
break for refreshments in the elds in the afternoon.‖20 Li‘s father is seated
to the right, while his daughter holds the rake. The painting probably depicts
FIGURE 17
Li
Shiqiao, The Happy Farmers [Tianjiale 田 家 樂 ],
1949, oil on canvas, 157 × 146
cm, exhibited in
the fourth Fine
Arts Exhibition of
Taiwan Province.
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
59
his wife and his eldest son as well. There are two extant portraits of Li‘s
father: one painted in 1943, in which he wears a summer shirt, another
painted in 1948, in which he sits on a sofa in winter clothes (Wang 1993,
plates 9, 17).21 The portrait of 1948 could be the prototype of The Happy
Farmers, though the body is arranged in a reverse direction. Similarly, the
feeding mother and her baby derive from his large realistic painting Portrait
of Mother and Child, which was selected for the ninth Taiyan Fine Arts Exhibition 台陽展 in 1943, though again the gures are arranged in a reverse
direction (Xingnan News, 1943.5.17, 7; Taiwan Public Opinion no. 6, 1943,
cover). Portrait of Mother and Son was particularly extolled by Tateishi
Tetsuomi 立石鐵臣 (1905–80), a painter in the Western style (Tateishi 1943,
97).
The Happy Farmers is an image of memory. Guanyin Mountain represents the geographical location of Li‘s birthplace, Xinzhuang. The Li family owned a rice eld, and in the fall harvest season the tenants surrendered
a portion of the grain. In Li‘s painting, the whole family helps dry the harvested rice. It is approaching dusk, and everyone rests and enjoys simple
refreshments. After replenishing their strength, all will presumably return
to work until dark. In the foreground are bamboo baskets containing food;
men work in the middle ground, while the rice elds and Guanyin Mountain recede in the distance. We can construe the scenes in the foreground
and middle ground as parallel. The father, wife, and daughter in the foreground eye the limited supplies in the bamboo basket with melancholy expressions. The man and woman standing on each side seem to protect the
weak in the foreground. The middle ground stages the second act in this
drama. As if coming to the rescue, the farmers are happily surrounded by
the golden rice grains. It is worth noting that, of the four men in the middle
ground, the sole gure wearing a shirt slants his head and rests his chin on
his hand as if lost in thought. This man, who seems to calculate the amount
of the tenants‘ grain, might be a member of the landlord‘s family. He might
also symbolize the troubled artist who worries about the future.
All the major newspapers published comments on the fourth Provincial
Exhibition. Zhang Ligeng 張力耕 wrote in the Central Daily News 中央日
報: ―Worthy of special attention is Li Shiqiao‘s realistic oil painting titled
Happy Farmers. Its colors are mild, balanced, fresh, and vivid. It is very worthy of praise. The only aw is that the facial expressions of the painted gures are dull‖ (Chang 1949, 4). Another critic, Wang Baiyuan 王 白淵
(1902–65), who‘s pen name was Wang Yimin 王逸民, wrote in the Xinsheng
Daily 新生日報:
Li Shiqiao‘s Two Subjects of Danjiang and Happy Farmers suf ciently exhibit
his strength as a realist. He has spent half life painting without worrying name
and fortune. He spent his days in nature to searching for truth and philosophy.
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Such an apostle of the arts is rare. Standing in front of his painting, one feels a
sense of seriousness and piety. He has produced great works annually: he exhibited Chorus and At the Market two years ago, Construction last year, and
Happy Farmer this year. He depicts gures very accurately. But I do feel that in
these last two years his gure paintings have become relatively dull, lacking
the splendor of the era of Chorus and At the Market. . . . He seems to have
reached a turning point. (Wang 1949)22
Wang grasped Li‘s pursued of a disinterested aesthetic ideal, but he also felt
that Happy Farmers lacked the dark humor of The Market. Why is that?
When he unveiled The Singing Boy in 1944, Li explained that his group portraits embodied ―a combination of hope and happiness after suffering and
struggle‖ (Yang 1945, 345).23 The contradiction between struggle and hope
helps explain the serious and silent sphere of The Family of Yang Zhaojia
and the solemn expression of the farmers in the ironically titled Happy
Farmers. Zhang and Wang vaguely interpret this solemnity as dullness, but
this misses Li‘s point.
What explains this sudden interest in the agricultural countryside that
he had ed in 1932, when he chose to remain in Tokyo against his family‘s
wishes? In February 1949, the national government enacted a policy of land
reform to put land in the hands of farmers and lower tenant farmers‘ rents.
This complete revolution in Taiwan‘s agrarian economy, politics, and society perhaps had no great impact on Li‘s family, but the impact was enormous on the gentry who had supported him. From the time of the Qing
period, they had been the heart of Taiwanese society, but ―after the loss of
the land that was their primary livelihood, most were discouraged and depressed‖ (Hsu 1996, 115–28; 147–55). In consequence, the market for portraiture was much reduced. Confronting this transformation with an indescribable anxiety, Li could do nothing more than record the industriousness of rural life and the memory of harvests past (Yen 1998, 79–92; Xia
2008, 57–71).
Stemming from different times and places, The Family of Yang Zhaojia
and Happy Farmers are different in their symbolic meaning, but the artist‘s
use of the group portrait to express the persistent dignity of the Taiwanese
people and to maintain the values of the society and the culture remain the
same. Both paintings utilize a v-shaped composition with two gures anking the group as guardians and clearly highlight the husband and wife who
unfailingly caring for the young. In these group portraits, Li not only depicts the members of his family and preserves the memory of the past, but
also defends the dignity of colonized Taiwan and the traditional agrarian
life and value system.
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
61
Conclusion
Chen Zhiqi, Chen Jin, and Li Shiqiao created with a rm determination to
participate in the government-sponsored exhibitions of the era. As colonial
painters, they had no choice but to embrace ―local color‖ as their expressive
mode. Yet expressing their unique viewpoint was still a driving motivation
(Wang 1931). Under the severe regulations instituted by the colonial government, it was a dif cult and challenging task to speak for themselves, for
their family, or for Taiwanese society and culture. All three painters had
studied in Japan and had become leaders in the arts. Although their genders, births, and nances were different, they shared the goal of eliciting
respect for Taiwan. Though they all identi ed with Taiwan and pursued an
aesthetic of ―local color,‖ their styles and sensibilities were drastically different. The passionate and candid Chen Zhiqi, in a career cut short by early
death, left rm and courageous images of Taiwanese women. The only
female artist of the three, Chen Jin courageously exerted herself in the
male-dominated art world of the colonial period. She elected to represent
women of elegant and digni ed demeanor. She strived to walk the thin line
between winning recognition and engaging in the conscious expression of
modern female identity. Li strove to explore academic idioms. He employed them to express the silent, secret protest of the colonial artist and
his own great humanitarian and social concerns. In sum, these three artists
integrated, partially identi ed with, and subtly protested their colonial ruler Japan. These different attitudes explain their individual differences
within a shared social identify. Such plurality is an important element in
the cultural identity of Taiwan.
Notes
1
Nine self-portraits appeared in the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibitions and the Taiwan
Governor-General‘s Exhibition, all in the Western style. Three works were by two Taiwanese painters: one work was painted in 1933 by Li Meishu 李梅樹 (1902–83), and the
other two were painted in 1928 and 1929 by Liu Deyu 柳德裕 (b. 1898), a painter from
Tainan who had no formal academic training.
2
Liu Jintang 劉錦堂 (1894–1937) and Cheng Chengpo 陳澄波 (1895–1947) were active during the same era as the three painters discussed in this article and likewise produced famous self-portraits. After their studies in Japan, both Liu and Cheng sought
inspiration in China, and therefore went a somewhat different route.
3
Another work by Chen Jin, titled The Couples (Kangli 伉儷), is inscribed ―In memory of a golden marriage at age seventy, by Chen Jin.‖ Some catalogues date the painting
to 1936 and suppose that it portrays Chen‘s parents. This painting has always been in
the hands of Chen Jin‘s cousin Chen Panying 陳泮瀛 (b. 1906). The subject is thus presumably Chen Jin‘s uncle and aunt, Chen Yangjing 陳揚鏡 (1883–1956) and his wife. As
this painting memorialized their ftieth wedding anniversary, it was probably painted
62
C. Y. Yen
around 1952 or 1953. Xiao Chengjia 蕭成家 who inherited Chen Jin‘s estate, accepts this
reasoning.
4
On September 23, 1927, Chen Zhiqi wrote to his father, ―This summer I have produced six large works. Among them are two for the Imperial Exhibition and three for
the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition‖ (Li 2009, 53). In 1927, Chen Zhiqi showed two works
in the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition, but none in the Imperial Exhibition. The Wife is
very similar to Fond of Peaches, which was selected for the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition.
Possibly, then, The Wife had been intended for the Imperial Exhibition (Li 2009, 53).
After the Imperial Exhibition rejected the portrait of his wife, Chen Zhiqi turned his
attention to landscape paintings. These paintings were more successful in the Imperial
Exhibition.
5
The estate of Chen Zhiqi included a letter from Huang written in January of 1929,
proving that Chen and Huang were in direct contact. The letter is lost, though the envelope is preserved (Li 2009, 11).
6
During the 1920s, the Taiwan Culture Association inspired eight student movements (Ye 1987, 319–24; Li 2007, 66–72).
7
In his letter of September 23, 1927, Chen Zhiqi further said, ―I must ask for additional assistance. I hope that you understand and forgive me. I would certainly repay
you handsomely in the future. . . . If I do not have the money to pay my electric bill,
then we will not have any electricity. Please help and please forgive me . . . .‖ (Li 2009,
53). In a letter to his wife of November 23, 1928, he stated, ―I explained in several letters
the reasons why I need money, but I have not received any reply. I have no money at the
moment, and must live on loans. . . . I work very hard from dawn to dusk. I must be
named a Special Selection in the Imperial Exhibition, otherwise I must become a beggar‖
(Ye 1995, 51).
8
Li Shiqiao‘s letter to Chen Zhiqi‘s sister, Chen Hezi, is dated December 30, 1931
(Ye 1995, 185).
9
The Shundai Arts Exhibition 春台美術展覽會 was originally called Hongo Painting Exhibition 本鄉繪畫展 (established in 1925). The name change occurred in 1930.
The main sponsor was the Hongo Western Painting Research Institute 本鄉洋畫研究所
in 1912) and the Hongo Painting Research Institute 本鄉繪畫研究所 in 1913. The institutes were led by Okada Saburōsuke 岡田三郎助, a professor at Tokyo Arts Academy
(Miwa Hideo 1989, 411). On the recommendation of Professor Ishikawa Kinichirō,
Chen Zhiqi, upon his arrival at Tokyo in February 1925, entered Hongo Painting Research Institute to study with Professor Okada.
10
Some said that Chen Yunru was once a Chinese teacher, but this requires further
evidence. About seven different colonial-era publications contain biographic information about Chen. Among them, two books, edited respectively by Taiwan New Citizens
News and Xinan News, claim Chen was once a Chinese teacher (Taiwan New Citizens
News 1937, 243–44; Xinan News 1943, 255). These two newspapers had the same publisher, and the language shows clearly that the latter article was based on the former.
The remaining ve publications do not include any information about Chen teaching
Chinese (Taiwan Governor-General‘s Of ce 1916, 121; Hara 1931, 45; Lin 1932, 305;
Hara 1936, 341–43; Gomita 1938, 216).
11
A news report about the establishment of the Research Institute of National Language mentioned that Chen Yunru spoke uent Japanese, which shows that he had a
tendency toward education and self-improvement (Taiwan Daily News 1919b, 2).
12
In 1916, Chen Yunru‘s estate was estimated at fteen thousand yen, which made
him wealthy (Taiwan Governor-General‘s Of ce 1916, 121). In 1919, Chen donated
twenty- ve yen each month from the pro t of his oyster farm to the Hsin-chu Shinto
Taiwanese Fine Art: Self-Portraits, Family Portraits
63
Shrine 新竹神社 (Taiwan Daily News 1919a, 4; 1919.3.1, Chinese 4). In 1941, a news
report claimed that he had an estate of ve-hundred thousand yen (Taiwan Daily News
1941, evening 2).
13
According to a report, ―there are only a handful of rich man in Hsin-chu, among
them a member of Xiangshan Council Chen Yunru, who now owns an estate of ve
hundred thousand yen.‖ Chen applied to the Taiwan Governor-General‘s Of ce to establish a trust to subsidize tuition and clothes for poor students and to educate young criminals (Taiwan Daily News 1941, evening 2).
14
This letter, dated January 15, 1929, is in the collection of Mr. Huang Yushun 黃裕
順. It was translated by Yen Chuan-ying and Li Wan-chen 李婉甄 and published in Yen
Chuan-ying‘s 2010 article (Yen 2010, 48–50).
15
In 1915, the Taiwan Governor-General‘s Of ce prohibited bound feet.
16
In the painting Evening Garden, which was selected for the third Taiwan Fine Arts
Exhibition, Chen Jin depicts a woman wearing pointed embroidered Chinese shoes that
clearly indicate natural as opposed to bound feet.
17
I agree with Lin Yuchun that Leisure was intended for inclusion in the 1935 Imperial Exhibition. This work has rarely been shown in public (Lin 2006, 17).
18
See for example The Standing Young Woman by Tamaki Yasushirō 田卷靖四郎,
which was selected for the eleventh Imperial Exhibition (History of Japanese Exhibitions 1983, 464).
19
In addition to At the Market, Li Shiqiao painted Singing and Miss Pan for the rst
Provincial Exhibition (Wu 1946, 3). Wu‘s essay suggests that Li was very familiar with
the artistic circles of colonial Taiwan.
20
This statement derives from the author‘s interview with Li Shiqiao at his house in
Taipei on July 21, 1988.
21
Happy Farmers is not dated. The Taipei Fine Arts Museum notes its date as 1946.
The work was painted for the Fourth Provincial Exhibition, which took place in 1949,
and contemporary newspaper reports give its date as 1949.
22
This reporter seems to have been very familiar with Taiwanese painters. He mentions that ―some carp that our Chinese ink paintings have a Japanese are,‖ and proceeds to a long disputatious discussion. The author then introduces the major Taiwanese painters working in the Chinese ink tradition such as Guo Xuehu 郭雪湖 (b. 1908),
Chen Jin 陳進, and Lin Yushan 林玉山 (1907–2004). The author was likely Wang Baiyuan, who at the time frequently published his comments in the Xinsheng News 新生報
and was a spokesman for Taiwanese painters.
23
The Singing Boy, now renamed Chorus and ensconced in the collection of Li Shiqiao Museum, was selected for the tenth Taiyan Fine Arts Exhibition 台陽展 in April
1944. The exhibition was to be combined with a forum. It is generally accepted that the
painting was painted in 1943, which I am afraid is a mistake. In 1944, before the opening of the Taiyan Fine Arts Exhibition, Arts of Taiwan (Taiwan Meishu 台灣美術) published an initial sketch of this work (Arts of Taiwan 1944, 7, 16c). Therefore, the painting
could not have been done in 1943.
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