Eyebrow Talk () was a Chinese monthly literary magazine published in 18 issues from November1914 to around April or May1916. It was among the first literary magazines in China to be marketed towards women and the first to be primarily edited by women. Its founder and editor-in-chief was Gao Jianhua, who worked closely with (her husband and cousin) and a staff of mainly female assistant editors. At least ten different women are confirmed to have written for the magazine, alongside some men who wrote under female pen names. Reaching a claimed circulation of 10,000 by 1915, the magazine was published by the New Learning Society, which mostly published school textbooks.
The magazine featured provocative content in its advertising, covers, pictures, and writings. Although dubbed a "young ladies' fiction monthly", Gao noted that "cultured gentlemen" would enjoy Eyebrow Talk for its many pictures of women. Often nudes or semi-nudes, these pictures were frequently sourced from French postcards (a term for Western erotic postcards). Less risqué images showing romantic couples or scenes of everyday life were also printed, often juxtaposed with poetry and prose fiction about them. Romantic depictions of editors Gao and Xu were also printed, such as love letters and a story by another author about their relationship.
Although avoiding explicit pornography, Eyebrow Talk's libertine content ran afoul of the Ministry of Education's Popular Education Research Association, which supervised and occasionally censored published material. A subcommittee initially led by Lu Xun investigated the magazine and in August1916 unanimously voted to ban it; after implementation by the Ministry of the Interior the following month, it became the first Chinese magazine to be banned on obscenity charges. Eyebrow Talk had already stopped publication for unclear reasons several months before its ban; it had fallen greatly behind its schedule and its publisher may have preemptively halted it due to the Ministry of Education investigation.
Publication history
The first issue of the magazine Eyebrow Talk () was published in Shanghai, China, on 17 November 1914, the first day of the tenth lunar month. It was published by the New Learning Society (), which otherwise mainly published school textbooks through distributors across China. Shanghai was then the center of the Chinese publishing industry, as the nation's literary scene began to emerge from a period of inactivity during the collapse of the Qing dynasty and the early Republican period, in about 1908–1914. Its founder and editor-in-chief was Gao Jianhua (), a female writer from Hangzhou who was born around the late 1880s. She worked closely with , her husband and cousin.
Eyebrow Talk was among the first Chinese literary magazines to be marketed towards women, as well as the first known to be edited by a woman. An early advertisement for the magazine, published in the Shanghai newspaper Shen Bao on 15 November 1914, headlines it as a monthly literary magazine for (), referring to young women from the gentry class. The name Eyebrow Talk (also translatable as "the language of eyebrows") connotes flirting, as used in a Chinese figure of speech, "the eyebrows talk and the eyes smile" (). Another explanation is given in a declaration printed on the inside cover of the first issue, referring to its publication every lunar month: "Whenever the new moon shows its arch, this magazine will appear, hence the title Eyebrow Talk".
Gao and Xu were aided by a male assistant editor—writer Wu Jianlu ()—and three female assistant editors: Ma Simei (), Gu Renchai (), and Liang Guiqin (). It was one of the only magazines in early 20th-century China with a sizeable proportion of female editors and contributors. More than twenty contributors wrote for the magazine under the titles of () or (), both equivalent to "miss" or "madam". Some contributors were men who published under women's names and titles, a common practice during the period. At least ten female writers (out of around twenty claimed) are verifiable through their photographs being featured in the magazine. The second issue of the magazine featured a call for submissions from "all women of refined character and distinguished standing", promising artistic freedom free from rigid literary structures.
Gao was the most prolific female writer for the magazine, contributing seven short stories and an unfinished serialized novel. Two other female writers—Xu-Zhang Huiru and Liu Peiyu—contributed multiple stories to the paper, and the others each contributed one. Most have very little information available about their lives; biographical information is only known for Gao and another contributor, Xu Yuhua (, likely Xu Xiaotian's niece).
Eyebrow Talk claimed in advertisements that it reached circulation of 5,000 for its first issue and 10,000 for its seventh. Each issue cost 4 (0.40 yuan); this was twice the price of its competitors published by larger publishing firms, such as the Chung Hwa Novel Magazine (), published by Zhonghua Book Company. The publication of the fifth issue was delayed, with a notice included in the magazine that Gao had been sick for several weeks and was unable to write.
The magazine was published monthly until its eighteenth and final issue dated 3 April 1916. By then it had fallen greatly behind schedule. One scholar, Guo Haofan, dates the final issue instead to 30 May 1916. The reasons for the magazine ceasing publication are unclear; historian Michel Hockx attributes its end to a decision by the New Learning Society to avoid incurring hostility from the Ministry of Education, which began a censorship campaign of offensive works in 1915 and 1916. Issues continued to circulate widely throughout the following months.
Ban In July 1915, the Ministry of Education established an advisory committee called the Popular Education Research Association (). Among other duties, the committee supervised the published material which circulated around the general public. The writer Zhou Shuren (better known as Lu Xun) chaired a subcommittee of the association focused on monitoring popular fiction from 1915 to 1916. Lu established a classification system which sorted works into upper, middle, and lower ranks based on their usefulness to popular education. It sought to promote upper-rank works and limit or ban the publication of lower-rank works. The subcommittee frequently discussed four particularly problematic magazines that occupied the lower rank: Eyebrow Talk, The Pastime (), Enticing Magazine (), and Comical Magazine ().
A common topic of discussion among the committee, and a priority for censorship, was stemming the flow of "sexual corruption". Works which depicted promiscuous women were especially targeted; works with mentions of women in the title were more likely to be analyzed by the committee. Lu resigned from the committee in 1916, but his classification schema remained in use. At an August 1916 meeting, the fiction subcommittee unanimously agreed to ban Eyebrow Talk, considering it a much higher priority to censor than the other problematic magazines. In early September, several months after its final issue, the subcommittee and the Ministry of Education called on the Ministry of the Interior to ban the publication, as it featured sexually charged content and nude depictions of women. It was the first Chinese magazine to be banned on obscenity charges.
The Ministry of the Interior banned Eyebrow Talk on 25 September 1916, promulgating the ban order through provincial gazettes. By 1917, the New Learning Society had published seven issues of a new magazine, entitled Shuoye (), edited by Xu. Printed as a book, the periodical reprinted large amounts of text from Eyebrow Talk. The Popular Education Research Association banned the magazine in 1917; it was the only periodical to be banned that year. By March of that year, a book called Chenghen was found to consist mainly of reprints of serialized stories from Eyebrow Talk. The fiction committee debated on whether to ban these, and came to the consensus that stories contained within it should not be automatically banned, as the magazine had been banned for its "editorial principles".
Following the bans, Gao worked on a compilation of information about domestic skills. She and Xu published other periodicals of a similar style to Eyebrow Talk during the 1920s and 1930s; none of these were banned, although some were regarded with suspicion by other magazine writers.
Content During its run, Eyebrow Talk featured 154 short stories and 14 novels. Of these, 18 short stories and two novels were written from a first-person female perspective, a shift away from a traditional male-centered writing style. Unlike contemporary romance stories, many of the romances published in Eyebrow Talk feature stories centered around the desires of their female protagonists. One story by Ma Simei, "The Embroidered Shoe is Barely Half-Bent" () centers on the life of a woman named Meilei, whose husband is drafted for military service. She evades the many attempts by others to separate them, and is shot dead while attempting to reunite with her husband during a battle. A story by Xie Youyun (), "The Next Life Is Unknown, This Life Is Over" () depicts a romance between a man named Lu Sheng and a young woman named Wanxian. Wanxian is deceived and set to be married to an old man. The old man captures and kills Lu, before cooking his flesh. While Wanxian and the old man are eating Lu, she grabs a pair of scissors and stabs the old man to death.
The female-authored romances frequently featured love triangles where multiple men vied for the affection of a woman. The men in these stories were depicted as very devoted and faithful, even when the female protagonists were not faithful to them. However, during scenes of physical intimacy, women were depicted invariably as passive receivers of their male partners' affections, reflecting traditional patriarchal norms.
Gao and Xu depicted themselves as a close and romantic couple throughout Eyebrow Talk and their later periodicals. They shared relatively reserved photos of themselves holding hands and standing together in the first two issues. In the fourth issue, Xu published ten "new love letters" where he passionately expresses his love for her and sorrow that he has to spend time apart from her. In one of the letters, he discusses their background as first cousins and states that they "promised to grow old together" as children. A short story by another female writer, Liu Peiyu, views their house from the perspective of Gao's pet dog Xuebi, who witnesses Xu tiptoeing into her bedroom at night and secretly measuring Gao's feet with his hand; holding feet in such a manner is a frequent motif in Chinese erotica, lending the story an expressively sensual tone.
Illustrations
Eyebrow Talk, like other Chinese magazines of the period, began its issues with several pages of pictures and photographs. In stark contrast to other literary magazines, it often included sexually charged photographs and paintings of nude or semi-nude women. Some of these were sourced from French postcards (Western postcards featuring erotic imagery). It avoided explicit pornography: when women are depicted fully nude, genitals are always depicted covered or obstructed by another object in the scene, and the text within the magazine only alluded to sexual acts through innuendo. Suggestive material was also incorporated into its advertisements for the magazine; one ad ran in Shen Bao in October 1915 includes a cartoon of a nude woman with one breast exposed, and the rest of her torso covered by the magazine's name. In announcements on the inside cover of the second and third issues, Gao calls for both writing submissions from women and pictures of women, writing that "cultured gentlemen" () will enjoy seeing so many photos of women in the magazine.