Bringing to light the largely overlooked female participation in domestic and international art worlds, this book offers the first comprehensive study of how women embroiderers, traditionalist calligraphers and painters, including Shen Shou, Wu Xingfen, Jin Taotao, and members of Chinese Womens Society of Calligraphy and Painting, shaped the terrain of the modern art world and gender positioning during Chinas important moments of social-cultural transformation from empire to republic. Drawing on a wealth of previously unexhibited artworks, rare artists monographs, womens journals, personal narratives, diaries, and catalogs of international expositions, Doris Sung not only affirms womens significant roles as guardian and innovator of traditionalist art forms for a modern nation, but she also reveals their contribution to cultural diplomacy and revaluation of Chinese artistic heritage on the international stage in the early twentieth century.

Doris Sung, Assistant Professor of Art History, The University of Alabama.