The Savvy Socialite

Lu Xiaoman’s Beauty Painting and Women’s Agency in Republican Shanghai

Abstract

What was it like to be a beautiful, talented, and cultured socialite in Republican-Era Shanghai? Lu Xiaoman’s 1947 painting Beauty Painting can help us to answer that question. Lu was a well-known socialite in Republican-Era (1912–1949) Shanghai, and her painting depicts her friend and fellow socialite Tang Ying in the process of painting. I will argue that this image is a visual response to the experience of being an educated and talented woman in Republican-Era Shanghai and discuss how Lu’s painting relates to the social class of the socialite, the state of women’s education at the time, and the experience of living in the dazzling cosmopolitan centre of Shanghai. Through Beauty Painting, we can see how women in modern Shanghai used their unique social position to assert their agency as players in the cultural sphere.