6

- collections all over the world.

Page Six

THE COLLEGE NEWS







E
~ Chinese Art Exhibit
Large Group of Early Bronzes

Show Mastery of Technique,
Great Originality

Ernst Diez Talks’ on





Deanery, February 11.—The ex-
hibition of Chinese Art at Burling-
ton House in London includes some
of the finest examples of sculpture,
bronzes, jades, lacquer-work, cera-
mics and painting which could be
gathered from museums and private
Dr.
Ernst Diez described impressively the
great statue of the Amida Buddha;
nineteen feet. in height,.which is the
first piece seen by the visitor to the
exhibition.

Most of the Chinese sculpture has
either remained in China or come to
American museums and collections,

-and this is the first time England




suffering.
___ There are
‘| Emperor of the

has. been able to see the best ex-
amples of this art. Another work,
which Sir Percival David, director
of the Exhibition, considers as “per-
haps the greatest in the world,” is a
marble Bodhisattva of the T’ang per-
iod (618-906 A. D.). This statue has
both Greek and Indian elements but
the vitalizing spirit is purely Chinese.

The bronzes in the Exhibition are
perhaps the most important. The
Chinese government loaned over a
hundred of ‘the so-called Palace
bronzes, which have been above
ground ever since they were cast,
while the pieces from western collec-
tions have been recently excavated
and still retain, for the most part,
their patina resulting from a long
burial.

The early bronzes of the Shang-
Yin dynasty (1766-1122 B. C.) are
of such originality of conception and
mastery of technique that it is in-
credible that they should be without
predecessors, although we know of
none as yet. Bronzes of succeeding
dynasties show the development in
style from the Archaic and the finely-
proportioned Classical to the later
Baroque and Rococco. The Shang-
Yin period is represented by an im-
posing ceremonial wine-vessel, decor-
ated with animal figures and a tao-
tieh or glutton mask. Later styles
are much freer; an inlaid vessel of
the Han dynasty. (206 B. C.—220
A. D.) shows how a naturalistic con-
ception of landscape grows out of
pure ornament.

Jades can be dated by their designs
which correspond to contemporary
bronzes. There are many jade sym-
bols in the Exhibition; the earliest,
of the Shang-Yin period are merely
incised and are very. simple. A
more sophisticated design, rhythmi-
cally interlaced, is of the Han period.

The style of the ceramic of each
period is an index to the art. There
is the breadth and power of T’ang,
the reserve and purity of Sung, the
coloured splendor of Ming, the dainty
elegance of the later periods. In the
Sung period monochrome _ glazes
were favored, sometimes crackled.
There was also some attractive poly-
chrome ware manufactured in Tzu-
Chou. The Chun-yao is a famous
ware with a lilac-purple glaze which
imitates the old forms of Tsun. The
buff or gray stoneware of Tzu-Chou,
the northernmost province of China,
has been produced from Sung times
up to the present day.

Among the paintings in the Ex-
hibition, one on silk of a “Herd of
Deer in a Forest in Autumn” is at-
tributed by Chinese to the Five Dy-
nasties (907—960 A. D.), but is
better dated in the fourteenth cen-
tury. It.is certainly the finest in
the Exhibition and is remarkable for
its masterly and restrained compos-
ition, its soft coloring and magnifi-
cent drawing. ee

Among the scrolls, the~most popu-
lar is the “Hundred Wild Geese” of
Ma-Fen, of the eleventh century.
A Ming scroll, “Trees by a Bridge,”
especially praised by Arthur Waley,
an outstanding authority in the field,
was done by one of those versatile
Fiterary painters who were musicians
and poets as well. “Sparrows on a
Bamboo Branch” combines sweetness
and grandeur; and a fifteenth cen-

tury painting, “Ducks in the Snow,”

includes a bent and twisted tree
which seems to convey almost

w
score
‘ai

3

re a
of

nf

|“The Chinese Eye.”

Mr. Chiang Yee in his recent ‘book
The portrait
painter in China wishes to live in the}
same house as his model for days or;
months together, until he has studied |
his habits, his character and all his,
varying expressions. Then he takes
his brush at last and paints the man
from memory. -



Group Studies Problems
Of Labor and Industry

(Especially contributed by Mary
Flanders, ’37, and Dorothea Seelye,
38).

Even though ‘you may agree with}
AI Smith that the United States must
eventually choose between Washington

and Moscow for its capital, you
probably realize nevertheless that
these are “changing times.” With-

out necessarily advocating the violent
overthrow of the government, you
can still take an intelligent interest
in the problems of labor and indus-
try, which are becoming an increas-
ingly important national issue.

Few people seem to be aware of
the activity carried on on campus
for the study of these moot questions.
The Bryn Mawr League’s Industrial
Group affords an unusual opportunity
for students interested in these mat-
ters. The Group holds suppers every
three or four weeks to which not only
graduates and undergraduates, but
also industrial workers from the
Germantown Y. W. C. Av’are invited.
At every meeting there is a talk on
some subject chosen by the Group
at a previous meeting. The speakers
vary greatly not only in age and
occupation, but also in background
and, outlook. The last speaker, for
example, Miss Mary Tomassi, was a
hosiery-worker in her early twenties.
She had been a delegate to the Amer-
ican Youth Congress and twice a
student at the Bryn Mawr Summer
School. At one of the Group’s next
meetings there will be an informal
debate between Miss Fairchild and
Dr. Anderson. Following the short
address there are questions from -the
floor and general discussion.

A~other attractive feature of the
Group is that no formal enrollment
or payment of dues is necessary for
the enjoyment of its advantages. All
graduates and undergraduates are
welcome to any or all of the meet-
ings, the only charge being thirty-
five cents for every supper consumed.
Even this exorbitant expenditure
can be avoided by coming after sup-,
per, although in so doing you will
lose the opportunity of meeting the
industrial workers.



Time Offers Current
Events Test Contest



Interest in current affairs has al-
ways been strong at Bryn Mawr and
in former years the college used to
stimulate it still further by holding
a current events contest each year.
The magazine Time is planning a
similar contest this year which will

schools throughout the country. Bryn
Mawr has been asked to participate.
The date for the test has been tenta-
tively set for May 2. It will last for
about an hour.

There will be several cash prizes.
awarded totaling seventy-five dollars.
The contest is open to all undergradu-
ates and it is hoped that there: will be
a large number of participants! A
member of the faculty will supervise
the administering and correction of
the test, which will be supplied by
Time.

The test will be prepared by Pro-
fessors Eurich and Wilson, of the
University of Minnesota, both of whom
are experienced in making examina-
tions of this sort. They are the °co-
authors of the Cooperative Contem-
porary Affairs Test of the American
Council of Education. The particular
questions which they are preparing for
this contest include items on National
Affairs, Foreign News, Business and
Finance, Transport, Science, Music
and Art, and Books. The test has
been arranged so that students’ with
different interests have an approxi-
mately equal opportunity. For each
question asked there are five possible
answers listed. The-correct one is to
be selected and its number placed on
the answer sheet. -No special prepar-
ation is necessary for the test, as it is
designed to determine the extent to
which students are interested in cur-
rent events and to stimulate greater



| (née Cary); but the Italians were.

be entered by many colleges and|i

make-up of both Selassie and his
wife was admingple,

The %cene next. shifted to Rome,
where Mussolini (Mary Meigs),
Mussolinia (Frances Porcher—Con-
stance Kellogg) and the discarded
se family, all arrayed in
black shirts and Turkish fezzes,

Friday, February 28, and will give meged a lively quarrel whit mes

z interrupted only by the flying en-
a French play, Paul Geraldy’s Son: skint mak ait of 1 d
Mari, in Goodhart Hall. | i seca

The French} ; ,
; : (excited-looking Balbo (piayed — by
Club of the college is delighted to!) ju.9 Jennings):' The Fascist wom-

be able to present this as a substi- ; eis :

! i en entered to sing a stirring, invec-
tute for their own play, which cannot | ,. nae Shad
nage thi b ‘M tive song to Mussolinia, while Musso-
D wa a eear goes aY | lini stood stolidly with his chin in

ny. ‘The play, ia a charming 0DA.|the air.

with very clever lines; it was given, a nae s
with great success in Paris a few | The English scene which followed
years ago, and published in La Petite | 8° May Chow an opportunity to
Illustration in 1927: The plot some-|40 one of her slow, graceful Chinese
what resembles that of Ibsen’s The sword-dances for the entertainment

Doll’s House.* The players themselves of @.heterogeneous tea party. After

: ‘
are both French and American and the | the entrance of Pauline Manship and
her husband, the Prime Minister, a

leading actors have had brilliant | A:
stage or screen experience in France| short broadcast was. given by Lord
and America. Unquestionably the | Chomondely (about his Geneva plans),
production here will be of the first Which was unfortunately cut short
quality; it offers an excellent op- | because Pauline insisted upon inter-

portunity to see a modern French Tupting with various profanities.
play well done. ’ | The harassed hostess at the tea was
The players are under ‘the dirde. | SERRFOne portrayed hy Peasy M¢-

and Betsy Harvey caused

tion of Guy de Vestel, who has! — 2

created several roles in Paris an qmue amusement by her. entrance (as
has played on way as’ well | Lord Dangerforth) with an Austral-
Pierre de Ramey appeared in the| 122 bushman named Walla Walla
French film of Madame Sans-Gene| (Marian Diehl), whom he introduced
with Gloria Swanson, and has ap-| as “my fag at Eton.” Another bright
peared in America in Sineand one. furnished by Delia Mar-
the legitimate stage with Judith An.| Shall (as Pauline) singing a parody

: : ‘of Sir Joseph Porter’s song from
her |°..
gy eRy Senne: Ane ot °F | Pinafore (“When I was a lad I

| served a term’’).

| Evening in Onion Isle, with Caro-
1939’s Class Show \line Shine as Mr. Onion, was chiefly
Entertains College. distinguished for loud noises made
| by the eight members of the im-
| properly-reared Onion brood, and for
by Pauline Manship. The NN Ndi medi dh ban-

royal household was completely under | ~~ s :
In the last act, the four Bryn

the capable thumb of Mrs. Selassie | i
|Mawr women were re-united at Gen-

French Players Come. _.
To Goodhart Feb. 28

.A Bryn Mawr graduate whom
many will remember, Olivia H. Jar-
rett, ’84, is now playing with ‘the
“French Players” in New York. The
company will be in Bryn Mawr on









Continued from Page One

outspoken in their resentment of the ¢va, where they celebrated by sing-
ing a little ditty, the burden of

Porcher regime. In spite of all such|™& :
differences of opinion, however, the| Which was that their husbands were
four executives’ managed to get to| mere worms,” at the same time ex-
Geneva unseparated from their vari-| hibiting an authentic specimen of
ous wives. At the same time, Mr. Lumbricus Terrastrius to show what
Onion, who married a Vassar woman they " meant.

(a pleasant, old-fashioned soul, but If any comparison can, in fair-
rather poor at disciplining children) | ness, be made between this Freshman
arrived at Geneva sans famille ex-| Show and that of the class of 1938,
cept for one objectionable young son we might say that the idea of this
called Oswald. There he and his year’s presentation, while less unus-
four colleagues met to discuss ajual than last year’s, offered more
war, and accomplished little but the | comic possibilities. The dialogue was
dispatch (by Manship) of Mr. Onion | better on the whole, but the structure
to Bryn Mawr. » jof the play itself was worse. The

This series of ill-connected events scenery (constructed by . Katherine
and Mary Wood), was

was related in three acts, the first| Hemphill :
of which was composed of five | Simple but extremely effective; there

| . .
scenes. was more music (a large proportion

Each of these was directed) : ; :
and cast by the freshmen of one, or | being parodies of Gilbert and Sulli-
); the original tunes by Patricia

at most two halls, and each was set) V2")
in a different country. The last two| Robinson were as pleasant as last

acts which brought the main char-| Year's; but the dancing was not
acters of the first scenes together | nearly so ambitious nor so well done.
on the stage, were cooperative efforts,, On the whole, 1936 And All That
written by Barbata: Bigelow and); was lively entertainment. It moved
Jean Morrill. They were set in a| rapidly except for one or two em-
poliiian car en route to Gerieva, and’ barrassing. moments when the cast
23 tom ference room at the League forgot their - lines. The acting was
‘Naitiéns; and the former at least | usually better than the dialogue and
* short. ‘most of the songs were better than
Titans of the fret act (by | the singing. Costumes and make-up
(managed by Eloise Chadwick-Col-
lins and Nancy Wood) were well-
done; and- the scenic effects were
often striking, as, for example, in
the short second act laid in a wagon-
lit, when the green Pullman curtain
swayed to the rhythm of the train.
peed WA





Pembroke East) was the most amus-
ing of all. ‘In it, Herr Hitler, Frau
Hitler and Goering conducted a fire
drill, incidental (we assume) to their
departure for Geneva. The Storm
Troops entered with swastikas on
their towels, singing a lively song
about their disapproval of the regi-
mentation involved in fire drill. They
were reviewed by a rather sympa-
thetic Hitler and his stern, uncom-'
promising general and wife. Mar-'
garet Bell, who.played Adolf, looked’
the part to perfection and gave an|
interpretation: which displayed imdg-
ination and humor, in spite. of her
strange and unique idea of a German
accent. A. J. Clark was. sufficiently
be-medalled and pompous, as Goe-
ring; but it was Sarah Meigs’ char-
acterization of Frau Hitler that made
this scene the most successful of
the seven. Her costume, ‘Voice and
posture were perfect. .
Denbigh presented the next scene,
set in the throne room in Addis
Ababa where Haile Selassie played
solitaire, listened to a high-pressure

salesman named ,Poliarchek, and
rive goodbye,





Theorems Are Sought
For Modes of Meaning

Continued from Page One .

Words are like signs, they stand‘ for
what is not present. A word takes the
place of an omission. Like other
signs, it does its work through its
context.

Meaning Rests on Causal Events

In its familiar literary sense, the
context of a given word depends on
its relationship with other words, or
can even be conceived of as influenced
by all knowledge relevant to its inter-
pretation. In attempting to define it as
a technical term, one must recognize
governing factors. of interpretation.
In a broad sense, all meaning depends
on causal occurrences.

_ The causal law, stated in general
terms, says that under given condi-
ions. of two events, if one happens,

he other also happens. The first
ent. then }would be the cause, the



kissed his seven
while Barbara Selassie knitted and
submitted to“an interview with the
Press. Barbara Bigelow as Selassie,

Dorothy Dickson as: Mug,-Selsssie,



and Anne Ferguson as Poliarchele







interest in world affairs.

gave good performances, and ‘ ‘the effect. In certain cases

-

9



‘cause and effect occur simultaneously,

as when one claps his hands, both
palms tingle. In other instances, the
last event is the reason for the first;
it is a final cause. . Accordingly, a
lecture which is to be given is the
cause of *the gathering of the audi-
ence. :

These definitions are, of course,
arbitrary, as all definitions must be.
In discussions of cause and effect one
may take the motion of the world or
the ticking of a clock as one event.: A
coroner defines the cause of the death
of a victim of homicide as the jmur-
derous act of his slayer, whereas it
might also be defined as the victim’s
meeting with the murderer, or of his
failure to wear a bullet-proof vest.
The coroner selects that event as the
cause in which he is particularly in-
terested.

In the same way it is necessary in
attempting to find a definition of the
context of a word, arbitrarily to in-
terest oneself in that type of causal
occurence which is concerned with
delegated efficacy. In a meaningful
context a word is an item. It takes
the duties of the absent part of the
context, it is an abridgement. What
a word means is the missing part of
a context.

Psychological Means Unknown

How the delegation of this efficacy
in words is accomplished cannot yet
be explained. Even in the simples’
conditioned reflex, the previous con-
ditioning experience is recalled in a
manner quite mysterious. One can
assume residual effects of the con-
ditioning factors on the nervous sys-
tem, or one can go even further and
imagine a sort of telephone system in
the brain. But how the neural :
archives are consulted in the case of
a conditioned reflex, and how the
proper telephonic connections occur,
is a problem which has not been
solved.

Nevertheless, one can _ progress
further toward the understanding of
the context of a word without solving
the question of how the delegation of
its efficacy occurs. When one con-
ceives a concrete object, primordial
generality makes the conception mean-
ingful. Impressions are the products
of the coming together or concrescence
of former sortings, and these sortings
were made, in the last analysis, in
accordance with the abstract mental
conceptions by which all sense ex-
periences are recognized. In under-
standing this concept, one must not
confuse the intellectual process of ab-
straction with primordial abstraction
which existed before there was. any
thinking. Things are instances of
laws; concrete meanings depend on
fundamental abstractions.

The above theorem does no at-
tempt to define the procedure for solv-
ing problems of meaning, for example
by tracking down the missing part of
the context of a word or group of
words. It is only meant to eliminate
certain practices and beliefs common
in the older study of rhetoric. One
example is the belief that if a passage
means one thing, it cannot mean any
other.

Many Possible Meanings

Just in this way the knowledge of
the basic laws of physics eliminates
stubborn beliefs like that of Gladstone
that snow possesses a property to
penetrate leather that water does not
possess. As Freud taught us that
dreams can be interpreted many ways,
the new method of rhetoric teaches
that all discourse (except for certain
technical terms, mostly scientific) is
distinguished by having a multiplicity
of possible meanings.

This is illustrated strikingly by con-
troversy, which is the exploitation of
misunderstandings for a purpose. The
context theorem will expect ambiguity
almost everywhere in discourse, not,
as in old rhetoric, as a fault to be
eliminated if possible, but as a funda-
mental characteristic. In considering
the rival aims of discourse, it will
recognize ambiguity, of course, as a
nuisance, but at the same time it will
realize that pure exposition is a high-
ly specialized function for which our
language is not yet adapted.

The next step is to apply the theory
to ‘specific problems. If one wishes to
consider the problem of the meaning
of words which are put together in
sentences, one should reverse the proc-
ess, and attempt to isolate discrete
meanings of separate words out of the
complete context of the sentence.
When this procedure is applied to
various real sentences, the problems
will be literary, not philosophical.