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Shanghai Dancers: Gender, Coloniality And The Modern Girl, Vera C. Mackie

Vera Mackie

In 1924, the artist Yamamura K6ka (1885-1942) produced a colour woodcut depicting the dance hall of the New Carlton Hotel in Shanghai. In this print, two women are seated at a round table. One has bobbed hair; the other wears a red hat. Both wear western dress, but the embroidered jacket draped on one of the chairs suggests the fashion for Chinoiserie. Two cocktail glasses on the table contain red cherries. Several couples dance in the background of the picture, the women all with similar bobbed hair. The male dancing partners are barely visible and the women are seen from …