Female Identity in Chinese Art: A Case Study of Pan Yuliang’s Self-Portraits

HRMARS - Pan Yuliang’s self-portraits provide an important case for examining female identity, the female body, and women’s self-representation in modern Chinese visual art. Existing studies on Pan Yuliang have mainly focused on her life experience, artistic style, Chinese–Western painting methods, and female consciousness. However, less attention has been given to how specific visual elements in Pan Yuliang’s self-portraits construct female identity. Therefore, this study adopts a qualitative case study approach and visual analysis to examine how female identity is constructed in three selected self-portraits by Pan Yuliang: Self-Portrait (1940), Self-Portrait (1945), and Self-Portrait in Red (1945). The analysis focuses on posture, gaze, clothing, bodily presentation, and space. The findings show that female identity in Pan Yuliang’ s self-portraits is not presented as a fixed feminine image. Instead, it is constructed through changing forms of self-representation. In particular, Self-Portrait (1940) presents an idealised and culturally refined image of femininity, while Self-Portrait (1945) develops a less decorative and self-aware form of female self-representation. Self-Portrait in Red (1945) further strengthens the visibility and self-definition of the female subject. Overall, these findings suggest that Pan Yuliang’s self-portraits move beyond conventional representations of feminine beauty and present the female body as a site of self-expression, identity negotiation, and subjectivity. This study contributes to research on Pan Yuliang’s self-portraits and female self-representation by foregrounding the visual construction of female identity.