Constructing Idealized Girlhood: Images of Girls in Song (960-1279) China's Children at Play Paintings

Chun Chen, University of Minnesota

"Children at Play" is a significant theme in traditional Chinese figure paintings, and it is also widely employed as an auspicious motif on textiles, ceramics, and fan surfaces dating from the 9th century onward. Previous studies note that visible and non-stereotypical depictions of girls in Children at Play paintings emerged during the Song dynasty (960-1279), but these depictions vanished in later dynasties. Some scholars attributed this trend to greater parental attention, improved living conditions for girls, and even to the increase in girls' agency during this period. My paper aims to complicate interpretations of this trend by focusing on several significant Song paintings, including the One Hundred Children at Play, a fan painting currently housed at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and two scroll paintings of Children at Play at the Taipei Palace Museum. This study suggests that while One Hundred Children at Play renders girls visible, it simultaneously implies that girls should occupy the roles of caretakers and auxiliaries within an ideal family and social order. In addition, the two paintings of Children at Play, which also feature elder-sister-younger-brother pairs, illustrate how girls participate in or even lead games while also taking on responsibilities. This paper examines how these Song Children at Play paintings serve as mediated voices that represent idealized girlhood, the roles of women in an idealized world order, or even the self-reflections of their creators. Methodologically, this paper contributes to reevaluating the advantages and limitations of using Chinese child-themed paintings as archival material for the research of childhood history.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 35. Finding Children and Youth in the Archives I