Chinoiserie Through a Feminist Lens

Largely derided as the pinnacle of feminine vanity and frivolity, the imported porcelain fever of early 18th-century Europe laid the framework for Chinoiserie, a Western imitation and interpretation of Chinese culture and aesthetics in manufactured wares. An upcoming exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art examines the obsessively collectible status symbol of upper-echelon homes, identifying how perceptions of the art form took aim at  European women’s financial autonomy and contributed to the exoticizing objectification of Asian women and cultures.

Curated by Iris Moon, who oversees the ceramics and glass collection in the museum’s Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Monstrous Beauty: A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie assembles some 200 objects from The Met’s collections and on loan internationally in a critical examination of gender autonomy and racial stereotyping. In an interview with Hyperallergic, Moon mentioned that her main entry point into the department’s collection was through Chinoiserie as an Asian American woman. She sought to unveil the histories embedded within the style and its legacy through the Monstrous Beauty show, opening on March 26.

 “The other starting point for this exhibition was an object that we acquired, a reverse painted mirror of a woman in a Manchu dress from around 1760,” Moon explained.The generic commercial trade object had stood out because the image of the woman appeared to stare directly at her. “She’s supposed to be a decoration on the surface of the mirror, not someone that you have to confront, and I found that incredibly intriguing.”

Moon established the timeline and acquisition trends of imported porcelain to Hyperallergic, noting that while the earliest presence of the material in Europe dates back to the Medieval period, it was primarily available to princely collectors as a rare and prized object or set.

“ The association with women and frivolousness really comes in the 18th century with the consumer revolution,” she elaborated. “It’s exactly at this moment, when women gain power as consumers, that public discourse freaks out about women’s newfound power and the fact that no one could control their taste.” 

“Suddenly, porcelain goes from this rare, precious commodity object to this explosion of uncontrolled desire,” Moon continued, “and that sexualized  language is being imposed on these women right at the moment when they develop a taste for these objects.”

Moon stated that one of the primary societal criticisms of purchasing porcelain was that you couldn’t just have one set — “you’ve gotta catch ’em all, they were like Pokémon.” Female collectors were compulsively filling rows of shelves throughout entire rooms with their acquisitions. Noting that decorative art was often dismissed from both an aesthetic and political point of view compared to what was considered high art, Moon said that porcelain was more accessible as it flew under the radar.

When it comes to porcelain’s role as an object of inheritance, the curator explained that historically, “rights to the land and property inheritance all goes to the male line, whereas women inherited the movable goods.” She cited Amalia van Solms-Braunfels, Princess of Orange, who left her taste-making and influential collection of decorative art and jewels to her four daughters — each of whom devoted a room in her home to display and build upon her mother’s legacy.

But what in particular drew women to this art form? Was it the fragile, milky white material and the delicate decorations? Was it the act of hosting and showboating the wares and associated fine teas to guests?

“ We tend to not consider the decoration that important because you see the same figures across all these objects — the pavilions and pagodas, trees, and women in silk dresses,” Moon said. “But if this is your only access to a world beyond yourself, porcelain really becomes a tool for fueling the imagination and fantasy and projections.”

And in that, Chinoiserie took the presented aesthetics of Chinese porcelain and other decorative goods and ran with it, leading to fetishized renderings of the “Orient” as told through the imagination of European producers relying on their interpretations of previously imported and authentic commercial goods.

“Chinoiserie  flattened and serialized fixed images of a culture that Europe knew nothing about, and it was designed to suit the European taste,” Moon explained. “ The imagined narrative of what they think China is became a structure that doesn’t necessarily go away; it comes back when it’s needed. The idea that these inanimate purchased objects first determine your relations with a person or a country is the complexity of Chinoiserie.”

Rounding out the conversation to be had about stereotypes and autonomy with historical works, Moon’s exhibition will incorporate contemporary Asian women artists including Candice Lin, Lee Bul, Yee Soo-Kyung, and Patty Chang, as a sort of “tonic” to cut through the ornate seduction of Chinoiserie and call in the present and future of the material and the people it has come to represent.

 “Different storylines can hopefully open people to new perceptions and new ways of thinking about not only history, but about the way we live today,” Moon said of Monstrous Beauty‘s feminist lens.

“ I hope that when viewers come, they’ll look first and think second.”