Women and Embroidery article from Linglong (Elegance/La Petite) magazine (女子與縫紉, 玲瓏图画杂志)

The image above features an 1931 article on women and embroidery, published in issue 8 of the magazine, Linglong. Linglong (Elegance/ La Petite) 玲瓏 magazine is one of the earliest and most popular women’s magazine published in China during its lifetime. Both male and females participated in the editing of this journal with Lin Zecang (male) as the chief editor and Chen Zhenling (female) as the copy editor. It’s also notable that Lin Zecang came from a faithful Christian family in Gutian, Fujian Province and attended Saint John’s University ,a prestigious (church) university in Shanghai. In the article, the author encourages women to make their own clothes in the sphere of western influence and modernization of Shanghai (it is also notable that Chinese dress was westernized, tailored to flatter body shape during 1930s-1940s). In terms of the design layout, the article follows the vertical, right to left reading format instead of the western horizontal reading format. The title and author name is designed on the right rather than the top; the magazine name and issue date is on the left rather than the bottom. The essay also incorporated punctuations in sentences, reflecting how Chinese writers were adopting the Western writing norms at the time. Through the editor’s background, layout and content of the Linglong magazine, it hinted at how Western culture is starting to influence the Chinese public sphere and printing culture in the 1930s and ultimately forming the intercultural designs China has today in the Chinese public sphere such as the Chinese Vogue magazine and modern Chinese newspapers that now reads in the European left to right reading format.