On April 23 (World Book Day), the award ceremony of "National Reading Conference - 2023 China Good Books" under the guidance of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee and produced by China Central Radio and Television was grandly held. Cai Qin, deputy director of Zhejiang Provincial Museum, curated the book "They: Illustrated Guide to Ancient Chinese Women", which won the 2023 "China Good Book" award!
This is the highlight moment of Chinese bookmakers and writers!
It is also the highest honor in the Chinese museum industry!
Congratulations to Director Cai! Congratulations to Zhejiang Provincial Museum!
Since 2013, the "China Good Books" selection activity has been organized by the China Book Critics Society every year by a team of experts, aiming to select books with high cultural quality and reading value. After 11 years of continuous development and promotion, "China Good Books" has become an important brand in the field of national reading, and has been praised by the majority of readers as "the vane of China's reading"!
The "2023 China Good Books" is still hosted by CCTV, and representatives of the publishing houses of 60 shortlisted books gathered in the CCTV studio hall to gather at this annual event, known as the "Oscar" of the book industry, hosted by the famous hosts Bai Yansong and Li Pan.
Through the six chapters of "Thought Leadership", "Portrait of the Times", "The Power of Stories", "The Call of Life", "The Charm of Civilization" and "The True Meaning of Education", this year's ceremony used AI, short documentaries, speeches, dance dramas, songs, interviews and other forms to announce and share 44 good books in six categories: "Annual Honor", "Theme Publishing", "Literature and Art", "Popular Science Life", "Humanities and Social Sciences" and "Children".
Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Publishing House was led by President Zhao Yudong, and Cai Qin, author of "They: Ancient Chinese Women's Illustrated Guide", Wang Jian, deputy editor-in-chief, and Huang Xingjia and Wang Conghui, editors-in-charge, attended the ceremony. A total of 13 books were shortlisted in the literary and artistic category of this year's "Good Books of China", and "They: The Illustrated Guide to Ancient Chinese Women" was finally successfully selected, becoming one of the seven award-winning literary and artistic books.
Cai Qin, author of "Them: An Illustrated Guide to Classical Chinese Women", interprets ancient Chinese costumes at the awards ceremony
Award speech for the book "Them: An Illustrated Guide to Ancient Chinese Women": This book vividly reproduces the colorful art and life of ancient women.
"They: Ancient Chinese Women's Illustrated Guide" is an ancient women's art book, from the "image" - the changes of women's images in ancient Chinese women's images, "makeup" - the makeup of ancient Chinese women, "space" - women's life and activity space, "talent" - ancient women's talents and skills, "creation" - ancient women's calligraphy and painting creation, showing the image and life picture of ancient Chinese women, and exploring women's living environment and life attitude. The book contains a large number of images and cultural relics related to ancient women, and is accompanied by several articles by scholars, taking readers closer to the world of ancient Chinese women.
"They: An Illustrated Guide to Ancient Chinese Women" is a book composed of question marks.
The author, Cai Qin, has been engaged in the study of women's culture and museum curatorial practice for many years, and has gradually formed a reflection on the living conditions of ancient women in the long-term contact with ancient female images, and finally condensed the questions raised in this book from the five aspects of "image", "makeup", "space", "talent" and "creation".
—— How has the image of women changed in ancient times?
—— Is women's grooming "for the sake of those who please themselves" or "looking in the mirror for self-examination"?
—— From living in the boudoir to stepping out of the courtyard wall, how to interpret the living space of ancient women?
—— Female red, husband and child, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, why did ancient women "decathlon"?
—— Boudoirs, Qinglou and "social fields", how do you view the artistic creation of ancient women?
Through these questions, starting from the images, the author constructs the group portraits of ancient women and the world in which they live step by step.
As a female museum practitioner and curator, Cai Qin has been concerned about women's issues since more than ten years ago and has incorporated them into her museum work. Since 2020, Cai Qin has gradually planned the online cloud exhibition "Beauty Walking: Images of Ancient Chinese Women", offline physical exhibitions and immersive digital exhibitions, creating a series of IPs with vitality.
It was also through the opportunity of the "Beauty Walk" exhibition that Cai Qin had the opportunity to look at the ancient women's art collections in major museums and write this book. Therefore, the book can include a large number of paintings and cultural relics related to ancient women, so that the book can not only be "read", but also "appreciated".
There are about 500 illustrations, including not only paintings, but also daily utensils, which present a three-dimensional book of ancient women's art and life. From the daily life of clothing, food, housing and transportation, to the talented women of piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, all of them are included in the book.
In order to allow readers to understand women's art and life more comprehensively, the book also includes special articles by scholars such as Sun Ji, Yang Zhishui, Bai Qianshen, Wu Hung, Meng Hui, Feng Youheng, etc., to observe and interpret women's art from different perspectives.
The identity of a woman makes Cai Qin naturally think from a gender perspective in the writing process of this book.
When writing the section on "Makeup", she has always been alert to the "male gaze" in ancient women's paintings: behind the intoxicating makeup powder and hairpins of ancient women, there is the aesthetic norm of "women are the ones who please themselves" and the social discipline of "looking in the mirror and introspection".
In the "Space" section, we see the breakthrough significance of the ancient women's activity space expanding from the small boudoir world to the garden landscape beyond the courtyard wall. Along with this, there are always screens, roller blinds and other partition elements in the picture, suggesting the ubiquitous power relations between men and women. Cai Qin also pointed out that although women can enjoy the landscape, they are not the owners of the landscape, but only one of the "beautiful scenery" for men to see.
When talking about the creation of female artists in ancient times, Cai Qin tries to break through the preference for the "elite class", and tries to construct a picture of "Herstory" in the gap between "male stories".
In the face of these many people in the painting and the shadow in the boudoir, Cai Qin intends to be a "roller shutter and door pusher", not only for the ancient women in the image, but also for the present people-
"After finding oneself, understanding oneself, and having a dialogue with oneself, perhaps every reader can open one door after another, like the women of different eras in the book, and become a part of a group that continues to shine and empower, and always 'walk' on the road. Cai Qin summed up the original intention of writing this book in this way.
"Them: An Illustrated Guide to Ancient Chinese Women" edited by Cai Qin, Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Publishing House, November 2023 Price: 168 yuan