Concubines et courtisanes, la femme dans l’art érotique chinois

Under an enticing cover, this book on an important private collection, confirms that in the past the Chinese did not show any excessive prudishness in the arts of love making, and their tolerance towards certain practices (homosexuality in particular) was greater than it is today in may aspects. The accumulation of figurines in bronze, porcelain or ivory, as well as paintings on silk or on paper, including the chromos from Shanghai in the 1930s with details on all sorts of licentious figures, shows that Chinese erotic art experienced a golden age a millennium long, in spite of the regular calls back to order, especially under the Manchu dynasties of the XVIIth century. Along these pages the author draws an anti-portrait of the status of women in Imperial China. They were not allowed to take exams or to access any public functions, and hence could only affirm themselves through their enthronement as the wife or concubine of a powerful man. This meant they went through the torture of bandaging their feet, so the organ for walking, the most erogenous for the Chinese, could resemble a lotus flower before it opens …

• Concubines et courtisanes, la femme dans l’art érotique chinois, by Ferry M. Bertholet, Fonds Mercator, 2010, 210 p., 54 €.