1st Edition

Cross-Gender China Across Yin-Yang, Across Cultures, and Beyond Jingju

By Huai Bao Copyright 2018
    182 Pages
    by Routledge

    182 Pages
    by Routledge

    Cross-Gender China, the outcome of more than twenty years of theatrical and sociological research, deconstructs the cultural implications of cross-gender performance in today's China.



    The recent revival in male-to-female cross-gender nandan performance in Chinese theatre raises a multitude of questions: it may suggest new gender dynamics, or new readings of old aesthetic traditions in new socio-cultural contexts. Interrogating the positions of the gender being performed and the gender doing the performing, this volume gives a broad cultural account of the contexts in which this unique performance style has found new life.

    Abstract



    Dedication



    Acknowledgements





    Chapter 1. Introduction





    Chapter 2. Cultural Obsession



    The Making of China’s National Icon



    The Rise of an All-Female Utopia



    National Identity and the Formation of the Gender Aesthetics





    Chapter 3. Mao’s "Gender Trouble"



    The Downfall of the Cross-Gender Performance Tradition



    From Theatre to Reality: Normalization of Female Masculinity



    The Production of a Social Taboo





    Chapter 4. The Revival



    White Faced Gentleman: The Unofficial Return of Nandan



    "Natural Selection" in the Aesthetic Regime: The Return of Traditional Femininity



    The Mainstreaming of Drag in Popular Media





    Chapter 5. The New Generation



    "Two Spirited" M. Butterfly



    The Superwoman Within



    Intersex



    Occasional Cross-Gender



    Training



    "Double Standard"



    Employment Opportunities



    Relationships



    Success





    Chapter 6. Rebel or Follow



    When Theatre and Biology Intersect



    Interplay: Desires, Identities and Transgression



    Make Believe: Creating a Psychological Truth



    The Performed and the Innate



    The Drama of Reality



    Sexual Artifice in Gender Transgression





    Chapter 7. Conclusion





    References





    Appendix A.



    Major interview questions





    Appendix B.



    List of Interviewees





    Appendix C.



    Glossary

    Biography

    Huai Bao aka H.B. Dhawa is a post-doctoral fellow of the Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto.