陰丹士林藍：質量體戰爭與微分子運動

Indanthrene Blue: Molar Wars and the Molecular Movement

化學合成染料「陰丹士林」出現在上一個世紀之交的歐洲實驗室，不僅成功解畛域化染料－－植物、染料－－動物、染料－－礦物的既有連結，創造出染料－－實驗室試管－－時尚感性的新流變團塊，並重新編碼民族國家與化學工業集團的配置經營模式，讓「陰丹士林」得以「更新更快」的科學進步性與生產速度，成為享譽國際的「德國靛青」。而本論文則是在此全球歷史脈絡之下，集中探討「陰丹士林藍」如何進入中國成為1930、1940 年代最具代表性流行色彩的「微歷史」與「微政治」。此合成染料分子的切入角度，不僅將凸顯「微物」與「唯物」的常民瑣碎政治與服飾物質文化史，更將構連到當代德勒茲哲學的「質量／分子」概念，以凸顯「分子化」運動的解畛域與開放連結，如何讓「時尚形式」成為「翻新行勢」所能給出的變動可能。本文將以中國1930 與1940 年代為主要的歷史分析時段，從戰爭作為「惘惘的威脅」到對日抗戰的爆發，從抵制（日本）帝國主義商品的「國貨運動」到身體軍國化的「新生活運動」。一方面從「質量體」的宏觀層次看「陰丹士林藍」染料分子如何進入中國，如何壟斷市場，如何連結兵戰與商戰，如何建構現代視覺政體與國民身體，更如何成功集結出各種時尚現代性的資本與國族編碼，諸如洋行－－美女月份牌－－現代性消費的編碼，陰丹士林－－藍布－－旗袍－－愛國主義的編碼，學生制服－－戰爭時尚的編碼等。另一方面從「分子運動」的微觀層次看「陰丹士林藍」染料分子如何滲透浸染棉紗棉布，如何給出鮮豔明亮的情動力強度，讓慣常聚焦於時裝面料與時裝款式的「宏觀」尺度，調轉為身體膚表－－染色面料－－視網膜－－大腦皮質界面觸受的變化異動，亦調轉為顏色（藍色）在色相－－彩度－－明度上的差異微分，讓「翻新」不再只是資本主義時尚工業推陳出新的靈活動態，也不再只是國族主義在建構新服制、新國民、新軍民的權力佈局，而能回到「流變－－陰丹士林藍」作為分子化運動在身體觸受關係中的動靜快慢與強度變化，回到歷史作為「力史」的流變動量與情動感受。

The chemical dye of Indanthrene was invented in European laboratories at the turn of the last century. It helped to deterritorialize the linkage between dye and plants, animals and minerals by creating a new bloc of becoming among dyes, lab tubes, and fashion sensibility. It also brought in the scientific progress and production speed of “newer and faster” and re-coded the assemblage of nation states and chemical industry conglomerates that ultimately made Indanthrene well-known as “the German Indigo” world-wide. Under the context of this global history, this paper attempts to explore the microhistory and micropolitics of the chemical dye of Indanthrene blue when it entered China and became the most representative and fashionable color during the 1930s and 1940s. With the focus on this single chemical molecule, the paper plans not only to foreground the politics of details in everyday life and material culture, but also to bring in the concept of the molar and the molecular chiefly developed by Gilles Deleuze to theorize fashion as a folding force of deterritorialization, becoming, and open connectivity. Therefore, the paper will take the historical period of the 1930s and 1940s as its point of departure to map out the imminence and the final outburst of the Sino-Japanese war and the social, political movements enacted in-between, including the “National Product Movement” that boycotted imperialist commodities and the “New Life Movement” that militarized the body of the national subject. On the one hand, it will start with the macroscale of the “molar” to see how the dye of Indanthrene blue entered China, of the national subject, and how to assemble successfully various capitalist and nationalist coding, such as importing company-beauty calendar-modern consumption, Indanthrene blue-cotton clothes-cheongsam-patriotism, and student uniform-war fashion. On the other hand, it will disclose the microscale of the “molecular” to see how the dye of Indanthrene blue infiltrates the cotton fiber, how to give the affective intensity of brightness, how to shift the focus from fabric and style to the changing contact surface of skin-clothesretina- cerebral cortex, and also to the subtle differentiation of color in hue, colorfulness, and brightness. It will thus make “fashion” less the fleeting novelty manipulated by capitalist industry, less the strategic construction of the new uniform and the new subject in the power deployment of nationalist ideology, than the molecular movement of “becoming-Indanthrene blue” that can make the body as the relations of movement and rest, speed and slowness, the increase of decrease of intensity, and finally make history a force field of becoming and affectivity. how to monopolize the market, how to connect the military war and the commodity war, how to construct the modern visual regime and the body of the national subject, and how to assemble successfully various capitalist and nationalist coding, such as importing company-beauty calendar-modern consumption, Indanthrene blue-cotton clothes-cheongsam-patriotism, and student uniform-war fashion. On the other hand, it will disclose the microscale of the “molecular” to see how the dye of Indanthrene blue infiltrates the cotton fiber, how to give the affective intensity of brightness, how to shift the focus from fabric and style to the changing contact surface of skin-clothesretina- cerebral cortex, and also to the subtle differentiation of color in hue, colorfulness, and brightness. It will thus make “fashion” less the fleeting novelty manipulated by capitalist industry, less the strategic construction of the new uniform and the new subject in the power deployment of nationalist ideology, than the molecular movement of “becoming-Indanthrene blue” that can make the body as the relations of movement and rest, speed and slowness, the increase of decrease of intensity, and finally make history a force field of becoming and affectivity.