The Comb Stone 梳起石
Early 20th-century periodicals and pictorials depicted "self-comb women," or zishunü, as "dangerous sirens" in anecdotes and "homosexuals" in the vile traditions of Comb Sister; the paradigm formed by 21st-century Western feminism views self-comb women as victims rather than rebels. Through the ritual of "brushing up their hair," self-comb women made new choices in their course of life—choosing not to live with their husbands or not to marry; however, they were still constrained by the moral law of "filial piety" and "chastity"—they had to buy a Spirit tablet or buy a marriage with a dead man to fulfill their social obligations. In the face of stigma, self-comb women position and identify themselves through the worship of female gods. Today, self-comb women might be seen as feminists "in the gaps," "incomplete,"and loaded with "superstitious" undertones. But their daring practice of self-empowerment is all the more prudent in a historical and cultural context full of "confusion" and "repression."
Through performance and installation, I hope to transform the depiction of the self-comb women in the early 20th-century periodicals and pictorials into digital images with a surrealist touch, with an attempt to explore the localized and diverse gender equality practices spontaneously generated by women in the Third World outside of the Western feminist perspective—how women reflect on and empower themselves through religion and surrealism, in order to awaken their own self-awareness
在二十世纪初的近代报刊与画报中，自梳女被描述为“迷夫教”的奇闻轶事，与“同性恋”的金兰陋俗；在二十一世纪西方女性主义建立分析范式中，自梳女被认为不是反抗者而是牺牲品。自梳女通过“梳起”仪式赋予了女性生命历程新的选择——选择不落夫家或不婚；却也囿于“孝”与“贞”的礼教约束——不得不买门口、配冥婚。面对世俗偏见，自梳女通过祭拜女性的神来确认着自我的处境与身份。在今天看来，这似乎是“夹缝中”、“不彻底”、充满“迷信”色彩的女性主义，但在充满“困惑”与“压制”历史与文化语境之下，她们进行自我赋权的勇敢实践则更具有智慧。
我希望通过行为和置景，将二十世纪的近代报刊与画报中对自梳女的描述转化为具有超现实主义风格的技术图像，旨在探讨西方女性主义视角之外，第三世界女性自发产生的本土化、多样的性别平等实践的意义——女性借助如何宗教与超现实主义，对自身进行反思与赋权，以探求女性自我意识觉醒的道路。