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Title:
The Modern Elixir: Medicine as a Consumer Item in the Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Press
Journal Issue:
UCLA Historical Journal, 15(0)
Author:
Lean, Eugenia, University of California, Los Angeles
Publication Date:
1995
Permalink:
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/6q1665g7
Local Identifier:
ucla_history_historyjournal_15415
Abstract:
[No abstract]
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the Early
Eugenia Lean
^"^^^^ROM THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY into the first half of the twen-
tieth century,
a
%-^
excellence
first
on the
modern
pills,
ads for
cial site
all
commanded
commodity
from the
commer-
mod-
examine the
rise
of the medicinal
last years
argue that this development in print marketing not only created cravings for
the piUs and tinctures featured, but also
tives
These
The
and
rial
narra-
structural change.
tic
powers and Japan. Afterwards, the Revolution of 1911 did not bring imme-
was marked by
its rule.
(Guomingdang)
to consolidate
in extra-territorial concessions
For
and
frail
constitution and
bemoaned widespread
spiri-
the
guarantor of modernization.
in the
UCLAHistoricalJournal
66
1870s, Chinese statesmen had argued for a measured dose of Western science
and technology. By the end of the Qing period many were learning how
to
or by going abroad.^
At
and
as
an ethos.
May Fourth
intellectuals in particular
ence became the spiritual panacea needed to scourge China's blood vessels of
the crippling virus ot Confucianism.
Medicine played
unique role in
on Chinese mod-
Liang Qichao,
Lu Xun,
committed
to
Western
at the
reluctance
desire to be
modern and
of
strategies
elite
placed medical science front and center in a more widespread cultural discourse
on modernization.
still
in the
overwhelminglv agrarian population. They were not congruent with the above
reform intellectuals per
elite intellectuals
quently attacked
tionahstic."*
had
se,
their
own
modern journalism
Many
and they
fre-
edly avid readers. Newspaper consumers also included the post-gentry bourgeois
elite^
this read-
At
to
the
tially
together, presenting to
them
media served
a single, albeit
poten-
know and
in China's
in scientific endeavors.
growing consumer
culture.
vital in
The
making
They came
to
of exposure to advertisements
new narrative
less foreign
and
The Modern
more
Elixir
67
shift
criti-
this period.
modern medi-
cine.
Other
embedded in these
sales pitches.
Knowl-
edge about the close relationship between medical science and nationalism was
disseminated to urban readers, reinforcing a larger discourse on modernization
The
identities
were
also
on
sale.
new public woman replaced na1930s. These new personae became natural-
still
ideal
ability to
consume modern
science
became
means
resources to Shanghai's
commodity of science
arenas.
as solid
new
started to enlist
cultural capital.
shift their
the
elites
The
to be forged
knowledge about
ability to actualize
these narratives and purchase advertised products flirther separated the truly
elite
from the
By arguing
rest.
tim to
new
do not mean
mod-
sales,
had
to
multiple
what was
tive display,
tolerable.
At other
syntax to a devel-
oping urban discourse. This complex process infused the signs and symbols of
these commercials with meaning, validity, and power,
mous
trol
consumer nor
These
UCLAHistoricalJournal
68
tionships
my gender analysis takes its cues from several feminist scholars. Joan Scott, for
example, provides me with a useflil theoretical framework. She considers a primary
on "ideologies of woman,
ways in
'^
nature,
of science after the Scientific Revolution in Europe. Science was gendered male
in contrast to the preceding "feminine" practices
inquiry' will
show
that China's
for
I fol-
Republican China.
actively
As
1930s.
argue below in
Woman appeared as the key consumer and as a model for real female readers. In
new gender
turn, these
roles
pairing of the Chinese female consumer of science and the Western male provider dramatized the dissemination ot scientific knowledge from male expert to
female recipient, illustrating the power dynamic between the metropole and
periphery.''
effect
As my gender
China
such
a colonial construct
as
analysis suggests, I
as a historically specific
which
more
historicist
approach to emphasize
discursive "truths" or
domains of knowledge
Edward
herently colonizing tendencies of writing about cultures of the Other from the
pulpit of
this caution,
is
also
self-reflexive in its
assume
attempt to
In this
spirit, I
merchants, eager
media.
historicize these
was
a product of
cultural colonialism in
modern medical
its
The Modern
Elixir
69
it is
century the commercial pages of the Shen bao proved to be the ideal advertising
space for alchemists of all stripes.
tins for
ers,
companies such
and insurance
as
Most
(yaofang) concerned with promoting their reputations were extremely aggressive advertisers. Postings
by individual doctors
(daifu)
were
Many highlighted a specialty of the house or secret remedy; others simply posted
their various potions, tinctures, mixtures,
to understand the
specialty to attract
than
life. Its
ability
of a single house
iconic representation
flashier,
larger
dominating
its
advertisement. Featuring the commodity, these ads constructed a system of signification for
By
elixir,
or miracle drug,
was the
advertising spectacle.
What exactly was the miracle drug? The boast of one typical 1900 advertisement can
give us an idea:
one hundred
aU,
illnesses,
and develop
men
Targeting
prom-
Most
and
velous, inexplicable
divine.
Ads
labeled
(tniaopin),
"Wonder Pill" (miaodan), or "Divine Ball" (xianwan). Some simply read "Wonder! Wonder! Wonder!" Some brazen advertisers appropriated the claims made
by miracle drug vendors to promote goods outside the realm of alchemy.
1905 advertisement sold jeweled
like the elixir, able to
all
electricity belts."
Easy
to wear,
it
functioned
assuredly
with the strongman in the ads, emitting a glow of virility and looking forward
to the privilege of
changming (long
life).
tonic),
mented, and maintained. Buyao commercials made claims of fantastic and un-
UCLA
Historical Journal
Figure
i.
This
Drug advertising.
Redfooted Immortal as a
trademark.
canny
efficacy.
called
Rendan promised
Itfeatures the
and
relief
from stom-
faint,
and
at least
one hun-
it
prevented future
if
to
illness
by expelling
necessary
it
all
revived one
a true panacea.
remedy
specific problems.
For example, the popular Baidu tablets or powder specifically treated venereal
disease,
promising to eliminate
all
visible
ing and burning, and purge the body of disease. Moreover, Baidu was not going
to sell the
and extending
life
similarly offered
lessly, advertisers
to
opium addiction
end
a habit pain-
Although
side effects,
clearly
as
life,
unabashed
in
making claims
for their
amazing merchan-
promotion. Consistent notions about the body, immortality, and cosmology appeared as well. Early buyao commercials presented a physiology far different
from that familiar to the modern West. The modern Western body
essentialized as a fixed
and
objectively.-'* It is a
tures obsessed
to
its
often
sophisticated
Contemporaneous
Hollywood and
is
billboard cul-
this "completeness."^^
to the Chinese reader in the early twentieth century. In the verbal text of commercials, a Chinese signifier for the corporeal "body" rarely if ever appeared.
Visual imagery associated with early miracle drugs included rough, handdrawn
The
as a
a figure of
an
1).^^
The Modern
traditional
Chinese healing.
Its
Elixir
71
gent upon "occasions of analysis and the purposes for which analyses are made,"
reality.-''
mean
mony of
flow.
qi,
ya?ig,
and
"pneuma" or "matter-energy."^^
It referred
sence of the Chinese cosmos and was imagined variously as a concrete gaseous
was
and philosophical
discourses.-*^
and
With
the
Its
political
body
cosmos.
Though
gi
harmony in various
as the
politi-
and inanimate
flows were
still
qi.
Thus, just
as the
em-
well-being.
Almost
plicitly as vital to
all
own
qi for
of
forces
yin and yang, whose interaction and balance constituted and regulated the flinctioning of all natural
were centerpieces
in the sexual
Yin was the force characterized by the feminine, darkness, the moon. Yang represented the masculine, light, the sun.
which
is
binary op-
differentiation de-
fluid forces. ^
Men
had more
yin.
Several discourses privileged yang over yin. Daoist alchemical traditions identified jj/a;^^ as the source
cal discourses
of vitality and
life,
ovum
as primary.^^
The
solid
mani-
possibility
progeny. Otherwise, the goal was not only to conserve but to replenish. Yin,
of
on
UCLAHistoricalJournal
72
Much
men
of their
virility
and yang.
dangerous in
its
This belief is
excess. ^^
From
cial historiography.
bine of King
also scattered
to the beauty
Yang
litical failures
Modern popular
throughout Chinese
Bao
Si,
excessive j/m
political
chaos at large.
on many of these
offi-
sell
their
in
extreme cases, the inability to produceyVw^, the seminal essence for procreation.
Products such
as
Some
mengyi
(literally,
Pill for
Multiple Descendants,
would
result
after nocturnal
emission or
ing able to get pregnant. Several buyao pledged yin nourishment, pregnancy,
and even
male
spanned from
The long-running ad
child.
as early as the
for
womb,
all
was
essential to
^wood,
came
Han
period,
physiological
Many
earth,
ceral
fire,
schema influenced
and
vendors repeatedly targeted the same few organs, with the kidney and
spleen being especially popular.^^ These were not isolated parts of a whole
in
This
cordials.
ological processes.
Once
for the
working of a
set
body
of physi-
ail-
Along with
elixirs
to achieve
it
The Daoist
developed. ""^
The Daoist
cult
belief in alchemical
means
on earth and
The Modern
Elixir
73
to stimulate arti-
ficially j/m
decay.'"'
elixirs,
re-
From
accounts
portrayed the Daoist adept as the key person in the quest for immortality.
nastic histories dating to the medieval
Warring
State's
Dy-
dents in which the politically powerful accidentally ended their lives by imbibing poison and mercury for the reckless sake of rejuvenation.''^
perhaps
is
first
Most famous
The
and
its
their predecessors,
life,
arts novels)
and
in
in
wonder drugs
roes
(lingdan miaoyao)^^
These he-
life.
of heaven.
elixir
Chinese
The
all
elixir facilitated
On the other hand, many Uterary figures who associated wdth Daoist
adepts suffered fatal results. In his quest for sexual immortality, the crass and
greedy hedonist,
Ximen Qing,
vainly attempting to
mortality was associated with immoral greed and excess, two nearly inexcusable
sins
of Chinese
literature.
'*''
Whereas the
life
excessive.
By
ally significant to
nese alchemical
were doing
all
Qing
consumers
elixirs
cultur-
lure,
promises of mineral-facilitated renewal and purchase cherished notions of longevity and male heirs.
to buy. Immortality
available to
became
a salable
all
who had
commodity
the knowledge
in China's ris-
By
commodity
UCLA
74
Figure
"Every Picture
2.
states this
Tells
Historical Journal
a Story"
commercial.
Though
elixirs.
and quality
in ads as early as
their
such
as Dr.
Williams' Pink
2).
World
With
its
decay*'
It
dirt}'
only Odol's could properly remedy. Another example was armpit odor (huxiu).
Perspiration had not been seen as something to be "treated" until
mention in 1930
its
frequent
The
an object
at
which
"extracted" organs
pieces of the
to the
edification. Bits
and
sale.
and
parts, isolated
and
The consumer was repeatedly reminded with graphic detail how even
how
body could
potentially go
awry and
relief.
the
new
The Modern
Figure
3.
This
Elixir
75
its
brain tissue
and
By
beled diagrams appeared everywhere. Advertising language started to include scientific terms
made
One
full-page 1936 ad
stamps of approval
included "before"
and emaciated
(jia)
and
"after" (yi)
photo-
to fat
and healthy
after
an injection oi Shou'erkang.
The image of
the lab rat was clearly borrowed from Western medical culture to signify scientific
expertise
the
modern
(invariably
titrating,
it
was
a he)
worked
documenta-
professional scientist as a
as well.
as
The
"traditional"
Chinese doc-
tor or daifu also appeared at this time (Figure 4). In the typical format of per-
sonalized confessions of Dr. WiUiams' Pink PiUs for Pale People advertisements,
a
now validated by
headgear.'*'^
The
arts
while
scientist
was
Early twentieth-century advertising witnessed competing claims for the understanding of the natural world.
By
ecary house specialties and the more visually striking ads of modern medicinal
modern
former to
completely overtake the discourse on the natural world presented in earlier buyao
1I
UCLA
76
Historical Journal
Figure
ofa heritage
4. 7)6^ construction
as symbolically
was
advertising, however.
clearly
still
Merchants were
selling the
modern phar-
m ii^ mmii%%^l
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ff.
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''f
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1*1
;2:
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!<i
and eternal
life
the
fme
away
in
print.
Like their
predeces-
late imperial
sors, the
is
ff
f"I
:i:
w
.'I;
It
Hi
. *
^
^
'# W
^
<
*4 f
'1^
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<fc
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S
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f
t'
1*
^fa
^.
fit
'^
^-:
Sll
supplementing of one's
(the
::
,* ** 0:
f^ ft
jing).
They promised
i SS
gf
<-
a stark silhouette
this coexistence
to
remedy weak
hidden
illnesses,
ad perfectly expressed
and
strike against
spirit)
211
J'iJi
*
*i
W
sci-
"f
*!
"I
modern
i^i
ifii
-:i-
fe
ife
the costume of
-.1:
* *' '3
^ la ^^ * ^
^ l Si 1 K S A Jt
"v51;li^|.^
2; 1:1101
W
7c ra f* ^ n
R S tt ar = !i I fl J- A f. ^ *
t t
ft K
rv-i
S l
C f
"
"
S St
^ ^
5S li ^ tn ^Hi
ensure
3).
The
drawn
in
and various glands, from the pituitary to the pancreas, were identified. Despite
the Western iconography, the product being sold
elixir,
promising above
These
all
still
functioned as a longevity
qi.
signifi-
cant because they rendered new icons of the Westernized body and modern
medicine sensible to the reading public. This marketing strategy essentially collapsed science and Westernization into the synecdoche of a
markably similar to
sales
earlier buyao.
By so
doing,
it
facilitated the
pill
that
was
re-
importation and
It also
carving out critical conceptual space for a constellation of unprecedented narratives that
The Modern
ElLxir
^J
had opened
ish
fire
on Chinese
for reparations
May Thirtieth
citizens.
More
payment. In 1925,
adver-
elixir
tisements predated these nationalistic boycotts and thus were not simple shows
of patriotism.
narrative
They were
of a commercial
nationalism, offered
its
own version
China
Advertisers represented
^with the
modern elixir as
as a nation-state
with
its
the centerpiece.
own
national mer-
made
moted
science).
modern
At
this
One 1915
garb, often
and was a
role
model
flag.
He
both
for readers.
cosm of the
pro-
repeat-
Many
was rendered
micro-
as the
strengthening potion" (yinao buxin zbi), onto the clear characters, "Country-
human
aiguo).''^
illness
The
was
country's plight
treated:
was
to be
as people,
we
are strong
how can
and
not be
the country
is
important?"
A 1915 ad for the Rising Sun PiU similarly offered to "cure illness
and
is
of this
body and
pill
it
nese populace, the message was clear: a strong nation required strong bodies,
attainable through the purchase of national buyao.
new
A few
A
literally "the
Drug of
life.
^"^
This
pill
of pure
Its nationalistic
vendors enjoined citizens to buy the domestic product made out of Chinese
UCLA
78
Historical Journal
Figure
"Why gofar..."
5.
asks this
advertisement.
modern
elixir.
gaged
making of the
in the
indi-
tan bourgeois
final few^
lifestyle.
During the
modern
personalities.
shifts in the
Dramatic
gendered meaning of
developments.
The consumer
male patriarch
Speaking on behalf of
mony
how the
all
members of
triarch,
showcased
as represented
by the patriarch.
advertised drug aided in crucial family matters. In several ads, the pa-
who had
generation by buying the featured buyao, expressed his family's gratitude and
The Modern
happiness with
its
Elixir
79
Con-
family.
Ads
started to address
household
readers' gaze
They often
could happen
virile
strongman or
if readers
full
plump healthy
the
^^
what
the
dignity of the person featured guarantee the value of the product, but his dignity
was
also
on
sale.
These
later
"Baby's
the caption, (nu)hai gongzi (the Child Prince), these advertisers envisioned and
visually affirmed that the child
vulnerabilities.
was
a separate
all.
One man
graine. ^^
grasped his head with both his hands, clearly suffering from a mi-
were seen
balm
a backache.^'
Everyman
or
day
life"
identify,
1930s Vitaspermin commercial the ideal urban couple was out for a romantic
evening
at the theater,
but the
off.^
He
had obviously
and unable
playing sports, going to the theater, and traveling to far away lands, the con-
sumer
bourgeois
lifestyle
only
if
good.
being
difficult to
emulate in
actuality.
Some images
were clearly out of reach for the majority of urban readers. For example, the
UCLAHistoricalJournal
8o
powder
(shoufen).^^
first
Though
appeared in
the Chinese
joying
it
was
it
Many
more
still
as
as a sport.
Ultimately though,
a colonial activity
embedded
a spectator's gaze
in the event
and the
track.^-^
Readers gazed at the horse racing icon of medicinal advertising along with other
representations of Western leisure. These
all
treaty-
Consumption
urban
lifestyle.
itself became a
commodity and
5).^^
new
pharmacy (Figure
at the
neighborhood
son, suggesting that his dignity could be yours as well with this purchase.
6).^'*
Two
sick people
bill-
made
man
if
mirroring the
man on
method
Another
pointed at the billboard, advising the sick ones to purchase quickly and
literal
mimicry hoping
to elicit sales.
woman
entered most majestically and came to reign in the late 1920s and 1930s. Previ-
ous ads had already acquainted consumers Withfuke, the health care of female
reproduction, and the miracle drugs used to regulate menstruation and
ity.^'
As mentioned
earlier,
the
sumption only
The 1930s
as
fertil-
an individual, whether
sale,
emerged
as a private
matter for
an independent consumer
as
space of con-
public consecration of
women
as the
women
Men
dominated orthodox
classics.
Women, on
of other types of health care within the confines of the family compound.
Behind closed doors, women established all-female health networks, with many
The Modern
iife
^^
<ft
11)
t;
itt
+11
-t'i
Figure
6.
?r
'ff
i^,
i^
jt
,>
>i
X,
isi
i.
fr
Vendors of this
mmn
i
ft
-u
w w
nm
// w
[;
'J:
.;,i-
Jt-
vi)
;:i:
.i*
'# Ji-w- f wt ^a
,x
.::
fu
vi
'K r-i.n
fi'
mm
i-t
iss
<>
-i
1925 Doan's Lung Tonic were notjust selling a product, but also
elite
Elixir
of Chinese modernity.
women preferring female midwives and healers, often Buddhist nuns, over
proper male doctors (daiyi) chosen for them by their fathers or husbands.^^
Female publicity or
Buddhist and Daoist nuns) were always favorite targets of elite men, gatekeepers
of various moral discourses.
By
late
Prompted
in part
Ming
period,
^'^
started to
became an
by urbanization, missionary-initiated
avfe-
in a
reform
upon female
publicity.
modern
fate.
May
modernization and
upon which
They
elite
to contest the
at the
UCLA
82
Figure
7.
In
this
Historical Journal
was rendered as
new modern
the
to
buy
and thus
of
33^
this panacea
the entire
family healthy.
tion
cloistered, foot-
as a
metaphor
for
was presented
public
as a social
woman was no
patriotic creation
intellectuals,
norm. This
longer simply a
the
woman
hj-^
:ik 3x
:S.
^ 5t
iS -^ ^?.
-.^ .-t
^i
3t
'^i^fi^
f^
JiC
She was
far
terpart, the
manding
tolerance for a
identity that
new female
point, advertisers
still
sell
products.
tive
The
sophisticated, seduc-
woman became
common
sight,
iJrT
5i J^
^"-^j ^
^
m ^X^-^ 'M.^M ^^<- xL
f^ a
tt ^
58 ^
m^K-i^ ^ m ^ t^^ii^
f^&'^^i^
>^-^
F.*-
rt-
p<.
-*-
'f^
iSt.;PK
i*T
^ 41
m*^M-^U
i; 3S- iJ$
.^a '5^
54 51
M-'^y^m,
^^
#5 '^
jiauSr
lit
;jC tit
-:*
cL
filt
J-
3 5i
presence suggested to
this particular
men
Her
that buying
''axiW^^SLl&^
The Modern
Elixir
83
From another vantage point, these advertisements crafted a female consciousness and gendered subjectivity, providing real
tude,
and the
women
atti-
for ex-
ample, was a model of modern femininity and sexuality. She was loaded with
seductive
copy. Advertisers were bold and creative, defining various other unprecedented
bour-
geois housewife, the caring spouse, ^ the nurse and the patient,^' and the confi-
dent and independent cosmopolitan woman. '^ These numerous images together
constituted the complex personae of the
which
fe-
modern
stove. ''^
tablet or
in her various
new roles.
in front
of a hot stove.
It
One
as a representative
Vendors
now
a traditional multigenerational
lives
woman's aptitude
donning an apron
consumption of a
sure
for the
from
as the principal
their
modern urban
consumer (Figure
7).'''The in-
frequent commercial that singled out the husband did so only to remind
him
to
think of his tired wife, whose health had to be supplemented to ensure the
health of the family. ^^
consumption
in a
These commercials
it
was not
difficult
longer,
of the
marked by various
stages,
and by more
opportunities to buy. The process began with pregnancy. Construed as a vulnerable time during
frail
and
sick,
and fundamental
qi (yuanqi)J'-'
During
relief
in-
UCLAHistoricalJournal
84
calves.
easily.
to her
single,
addition,
elixir.
As
sales.
subject to inform
affect actual
in-
became
sold.
by
the early twentieth century." Medicine was no longer scattered health-care practices
practices
ally
ritual.
larger trend
were
critical in
scientific labels,
grally related to an
and
elixir
inte-
elite subjectivities.
Besides playing a crucial role in this constitution oi kexue, medical advertising, particularly its
Whereas
modern
Chinese woman, the provider of science was male, and often a Western male. In
for Santal
Midy pills,
ease, the
distinctly
attire
8).'^^
handed
With
his
rotting
and that
it
of tablets to the
still
China was
a roll
of
diagnosis, this advertisement depicts China, the female patient infected with
consume modern
Nor were
The Modern
Elixir
Figure
85
Tbis
8.
to
female patient).
nial
for
^
ii'.
<ts.>i
>i
l <i5
* 'f
I
A *i
T. >
n.
i *:
!:
ft-
vii
ft
::-
**.
>
4i,
woman
common
to a
Chi-
dress/''
The
nese
>5
^1
i^ l^
in
*
*-
<-
*^
Ml
<i
/i'
tific
2
<
>/)
0-
^^.
*^
M>.
v.
/Ii
;<
jX.
./
com-
China buy-
-J
-.'*
II
West.
China's desire for
ft. -1
was
partially a
modern
science
2 * it
ib
/*
>^>.
i^ A
perialism.
^K
3;
^^
:it
fll
'"^
-'
the
4k K.yt
China
to
immortality
elixirs,
and cosmological
Western
narratives
relatively lim-
Chinese discourses on
at least partially
were
qi.
constitute
modern
UCLAHistoricalJournal
86
Acknowledgments.
and the
to
would
like to
comments and
my parents, /\iice
undoubtedly
for their
suggestions.
AmyThomas,
Thanks
also
must go
patience with
my
painflil translations.
Notes
1.
first
Shanghai. Dagong bao was established in 1902 in the treat port of Tianjin. Both
era.
steadily
started before
1600
really
Chimin
was
initiated in
Wong
and
Wu
reprint, Taipei:
South-
ern Materials Center, Inc., 1977). James Reardon-Anderson also identifies the end
as significant
scientific institutions.
These new
4.
Leading
intellectual
in
(Cambridge,
a history
1936, decrying the decadent state of Chinese journalism and identifying the Shen
bao as the worst offender. See Lin Yutang,
in
5.
This group included many of the gentry that moved into treaty-ports
of the Taiping Rebellion.
merchant and
Some
industrial activity
new cosmopolitan
as readers
industrialists
without
wake
status into
much economic
capital,
lives.
elites,
in the
and
local entrepre-
fiction
and daily
newspapers, in his Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies: Popular Fiction in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Cities (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California,
1981).
7.
The late
cial
imperial period and Republican Era saw the rise of print media.
of 150,000
These commercial
Commer-
rise in circulation.
narratives shaped
The Shen
Press.
ing rather than reflected actual consumption behavior. See Roland Marchand's introduction
The Modern
Elixir
87
do not accurately
that advertisements
reality, like a
He
argues
but distort
fiiture.
9.
civil service
many
10.
and the
elite
helped
invest in
tated the
Western
press's advertising
and circulation
strategies.
As
tive
History of the Chinese Press in the Twentieth Century" (Los Angeles: Print-
California
China
12.
Evelyn Scott
1053-1075.
Keller, Reflections on
&
University
3.
Thomas
14.
15.
Nicholas Dirks advocates the use of "ethnohistory." See Dirks, The Hollow Crown:
Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom.
Michigan
16.
2d
vol. 1
ed.
- xix.
China's semicolonial experience was very different from the colonialism in countries like India.
were limited
mechanisms such
On
nalism and
its
For example,
cial
imperialists
politically to treaty-ports.
as the
This
is
Without
17.
1990).
West
advertising space.
in
1890
typical advertising
to
commer-
apothecary and daifu postings out of a total of 20 ads. E.g., Shen bao
21 February
1890,7.
18.
19.
Thomas
e.g.,
Shen hao,
are ubiquitous.
7.
them
He identi-
Commodity
As mentioned
UCLA
Historical Journal
21.
Shen bao, 8
22.
Shen bao,
strategy,
suggest,
7.
May 1905, 7.
6 May 1905, 8.
23.
24.
There
is
One
fetish
its
6.
known
Clinic:
An
is
the
work of Michel
in the
mod-
See for example, Arthur Kroker and Marilouise Kroker, "Panic Sex in America" in
(New York:
26.
in
A frequently seen "trademark" was that of Chijiao daxian (the Red-footed Immortal).
27.
St.
March 1890,
6.
Chinese Healing"
in Body, Subjectivity,
and Power
in China,
Joseph
is
Needham
best to leave
it
attempts to translate
it
into "matter-energy"
Needham,
ed. Science
and Civilization
it
in
29.
30.
li
lixue, qi
Daoist texts
identify^'m^g- as the
32.
Late
Ming
fiction depicted
depleting mdlcyang.
Many of these
tales
ment
in
McMahon,
33.
34.
35.
Needham,
36.
Judith Farquhar
Science
Causality
and Contain-
1988).
7.
calls
Brill,
...
both
is
and
spatially
rejects
flow. It
is
affiliated
comon
acts
The Modern
fluids
gi. It
Elixir
(semen) and
stores Jing
is
affiliated
with the
classic scriptures
Though
their goal
was
of Daoism) contains
many of the
earliest texts
activity.
was
40.
The Daoist adept also conducted physiological alchemy or neidan (internal alchemy),
cultivating breathing exercises,
it
was means
to adjust
yin and yang proportions to attain long Hfe. Needham, Science and Civilization,
2:139-153.
41.
See Joseph
Clerks
Needham and Ho
and Craftsmen
in
Wuxia xiaoshuo de
lailong
qumai" [A Discussion on
80.
43.
See
McMahon,
pieces
known
Causality
as vulgar
final
explores
how
even in literary
These
ecaries
earlier ads
their products
form of cultural
capital,
many of these
45.
Shen bao,
November 1925,
46.
Shen bao,
47.
48.
49.
One
16, 18.
50.
51.
E.g.,
7.
52.
8.
53.
Shen bao,
November 1915,
6.
54.
55.
56.
E.g.,
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
Shen bao, 4
November 1925,
16.
20 January 1936,
bulletins
3.
7.
UCLAHistoricalJournal
90
62.
commoner,
may be
treaty-port Westerners
elite
and
Shen bao,
itselt a
too sanguine as he
between
collaborative effort
in presenting
Chi-
Na'ou and
Mu
"economy of desire"
illusion
of
more unpleasant
gest
it
November 1925,
sug-
of cultural colonialism.
63.
Shen bao, 4
64.
65.
Ads {otfuke medicine spanned the entire period I reviewed from 1890 until 1936.
The literal translation oifuke is "the science of women." Contemporary renderings
7.
Christopher
CuUen
and use
With
a dearth
literary texts,
his, "Patients
and Healers
Dream of
in Late Imperial
China: Evidence from th.t]\n'p\ngmt\," History ofScience 3\\2 (June 1993): 99-150.
67.
Some
conservative scholars reacted with alarm and concern that China's moral
Mann,
''Fuxue
First History
Of course
on occasion, delivering
fi-
(Women's Learning)
letters to
editing and printing female literary works and anthologies, and convening coed
poetry
circles.
See Dorothy Ko, Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture
1994) and EUen
69.
70.
71.
E.g.,
72.
E.g.,
68.
6.
73.
74.
75.
7.
The Modern
Elixir
76.
77.
By
this
don't
mean
to
(traditional
91
27 August 1925,
exist a practice
4.
and knowledge of
as a unified
78.
Dagong bao,
79.
Shen bao,
7 January 1935,
7.
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