The fox spirit, the stone maiden, and other transgender histories from late imperial China / Matthew H. Sommer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sommer, Matthew Harvey, 1961- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sex customs--China--History--18th century.

Sex customs.

Sex customs--China--History--19th century.

Gender identity--China--History--18th century.

Gender identity.

Gender identity--China--History--19th century.

Sex role--China--History--18th century.

Sex role.

Sex role--China--History--19th century.

China.

Gender roles.

Asian LGBTQ+ people.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

xvi, 360 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2024]

Summary:

"In Transgender in Imperial China, Matthew Sommer offers a close reading of a series of remarkable, well-documented court cases from the 18th and 19th century Qing dynasty legal archives that deal with sex and gender difference. The book explores practices in their specific historical context and avoids imposing trans-historical identities on people in the past, understanding, in the vein of Susan Stryker's work, that "transgender people" are those who "move away from" the gender assigned at birth and "cross over" the gender boundaries imposed by their society, without assuming any specific motivation or destination for that movement. Sommer details the experience of individuals assigned male at birth who were living as women (and were punished very harshly for the crime of "masquerading in women's attire"), but also includes under the sign "transgender" a range of personae not usually considered in this context, such as cross-dressing "boy actresses" of the opera and those who "left the family" by becoming Buddhist or Daoist clergy or eunuchs in imperial service and renouncing normative gender roles based on marriage and procreation. These cases explore a range of themes in Chinese law, society, and culture, and illuminate how many forms of gender transgression were sanctioned by law in Qing society. In considering all of these scenarios together, Sommer's book unpacks the full story of how sex and gender were understood in the Qing era"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Transgender Paradigms in Late Imperial China

The Paradigm of the Cross-Dressing Predator

Clergy as Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

Creativity Inspired by Torment?

The Fox Spirit Medium

The Truth of the Body

The Hustler.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Sommer, Matthew Harvey, 1961- Fox spirit, the stone maiden, and other transgender histories from late imperial China

ISBN:

9780231214124

023121412X

9780231214131

0231214138

OCLC:

1395545434