Hyperlink to source text in Chinese: 自由与微笑：胡适图像研究
An abbreviated translation by @krizcpec (Part 1 of 3)
Ran note: This is a reading
report that I wrote recently for [newsletter] issue twenty-sixth of Hu Shih
reading club. Now I published it in my blog, please feel free to
comment. Been quite occupied these days: lots of socializing around
Lunar new year, and a lot to write about. In less than two months, I
got a flu again.
February 24, 2010 at 8:15 in
Chengdu
Publications of studies on Hu
Shih are in great quantity indeed. Yet it seems almost no one has
done any proper research into the huge amount of photos Mr. Hu Shih
left behind, his calligraphy, and visual productions about him
(including recordings of his speech). The book Smile of Heresy:
the image of Hu (《微笑的异端：影像中的胡适》)
by Sun Yu reads more like image description, or erratic elaboration
utterly irrelevant to the subject. He did not focus on explaining why
Hu often smiled in his photos.
To do proper research into
this topic, to formulate meaningful insight into it, one should of
course visit places like Hu Shih Memorial Hall in Taipei, CASS
Institute of Modern History, and go through lots of pictures and
information. I myself have only limited amount of photos of and
calligraphy by Hu Shih, yet in view of the special significance of
this topic, I would like to share my view, which falls far short of a
unique, meaningful insight I have to say, and hope to attract
valuable ideas in return.
European art historian Erwin
Panofsky broke iconology down to three levels: description, analysis,
and explanation. Simply put, it means look at the picture and speak
about it. In fact, iconology has long become part of people's daily
lives: commercials, road signs, the exteriors of buildings, TV and
film images, and photographs can all be used as subjects for
iconology studies. Just like W J T Mitchell, renowned American
specialist in comparative literature and art history, author of
authoritative books like Picture theory : essays on verbal and
visual representation, has in his book Cloning terror : the
war of images, 9/11 to the present explained the spread of images
in wars and their amplification effect, thereby changing iconology
from mere description and interpretation of images to a component in
sociology and communication studies; bringing our attention to
implications of images that we previously failed to notice. This has
provided me with unexpected guidance in my analysis of the spread of
Hu Shih's images and their effect on the public.
As is widely known, how people
appear is determined by their hearts and minds. You are how you think
and feel. Those people of the lie may be hard to see through in the
first place, but given time and with wisdom you would be able to see
what they really are.
Artist Chen Danqing said, when he first arrived
in New York, he saw everyone on the street had a face that showed no
sign of being bullied. That was how the artist perceived the faces he
saw in New York, a perception that shocked the artist who was
particularly sensitive to images and left a long lasting impression
on him. Why was that so? Because New Yorkers enjoyed good protection
of their rights, felt content with their life, and had positive,
rational expectation of their future. The people there were full of
confidence and even pride, so that they had a face that showed no
sign of being bullied or indication that they would bully others.
In his earlier photos, Hu Shih
seldom smiled. In a picture taken in 1909 when he was eighteen,
dressed in a traditional Chinese outfit and had his queue cut off not
long before that, Hu showed a stern look and tightened lips. The
stiffness resulted from the death of his father early in his life was
shown all over his face.
Five years later, in a photo
he gave his girlfriend in 1914, he had become an amiable person with
a subtle smile, which indicated he became less tense and defensive
toward the world than he once was. Almost from the same period was
another shot, in which he dressed in a traditional outfit, wore
glasses, in the crew cut, leaned his cheek upon his hand as if he was
thinking. The smile on his face was obvious, confident and not
presumptuous.
There were times when Hu Shih
was with a worried frown, but these were few and far between. As for
photos of him in extreme anger, I have never seen one. Does that mean
he never lost his temper all his life? I doubt it. He did have a fair
share of moments when he felt satisfied with his life, and that had
to do with how his mother educated him and his personal expectation.
Many human behaviors and the way they appear to others are the
externalization of their thoughts and values, a concept not
dissimilar to the mirror effect in psychology. The world you see, you
joy, anger, and sorrow are of course a result from external stimuli,
but they can also be seen as the externalization of your inner world.
(End of Part One)
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