Chinese femininities, Chinese masculinities : a reader / edited by Susan Brownell and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom ; foreword by Thomas Laqueur.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Brownell, Susan.

Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N.

Series:

Asia--local studies/global themes ; 4.

Asia-Local studies/global themes ; 4

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sex role--China.

Sex role.

Femininity--China.

Femininity.

Masculinity--China.

Masculinity.

China.

Physical Description:

xiv, 460 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2002]

Summary:

The past two centuries have witnessed tremendous upheavals in every aspect of Chinese culture and society. At the level of everyday life, some of the most remarkable transformations have occurred in the realm of gender. Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities is a mix of illuminating historical and ethnographic studies of gender from the 1700s to the present.

The essays in this highly creative collection are organized in pairs that alternate in focus between femininity and masculinity, between subjects traditionally associated with feminism (such as family life) and those rarely considered from a gendered point of view (like banditry). The chapters provide a wealth of interesting detail on such varied topics as court cases involving widows and homosexuals; ideal spouses of early twentieth-century radicals; changing images of prostitutes; the masculinity of qigong masters; sexuality in the era of reform; and the eroticization of minorities. While most of the essays were specifically written for this volume, a few are reprinted as a testament to their enduring value. Exploring the central role of gender as an organizing principle of Chinese social life, Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities is an innovative reader that will spark new debate in a wide range of disciplines.

Contents:

pt. 1. Gender and the law (Qing dynasty). Femininity in flux: gendered virtue and social conflict in the mid-Qing courtroom / Janet M. Theiss. Dangerous males, vulnerable males, and polluted males: the regulation of masculinity in Qing dynasty law / Matthew H. Sommer

pt. 2. Ideals of marriage and family (mid-Qing dynasty and early Republican era). Grooming a daughter for marriage: brides and wives in the mid-Qing period / Susan Mann. "The truths I have learned": nationalism, family reform, and male identity in China's New Culture Movement, 1915-1923 / Susan L. Glosser

pt. 3. Gender in literary traditions (May fourth era to Reform era). Invention and intervention: the making of a female tradition in modern Chinese literature / Lydia H. Liu. The self loving the self: men and connoisseurship in modern Chinese literature / Wendy Larson

pt. 4. Dangerous women and dangerous men (late Ming dynasty to early Communist period). Modernizing sex, sexing modernity: prostitution in early-twentieth-century Shanghai / Gail Hershatter. Approximations of Chinese bandits: perverse rebels, romantic heroes, or frustrated bachelors? / David Ownby

pt. 5. The gender of rebels (Cultural Revolution). Maoist mappings of gender: reassessing the Red Guards / Emily Honig. "Little brothers" in the Cultural Revolution: the worker rebels of Shanghai / Elizabeth J. Perry and Nara Dillon

pt. 6. Blood, qi, and the gendered body (Qing dynasty and Reform era). Blood, body, and gender: medical images of the female condition in China, 1600-1850 / Charlotte Furth. Embodying qi and masculinities in post-Mao China / Nancy N. Chen

pt. 7. Shifting contexts of gender and sexuality (Reform era). Past, perfect or imperfect: changing images of the ideal wife / Harriet Evans. Proper men and proper women: parental affection in the Chinese family / William Jankowiak

pt. 8. Gender, sexuality, and ethnicity (Reform era). Gender and internal Orientalism in China / Louisa Schein. Tradition and the gender of civility / Ralph Litzinger

Afterword: putting gender at the center / Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom and Susan Brownell.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0520211030

0520221168

OCLC:

47803467