Gender and Sexuality in Chinese History

This graduate colloquium explores gender and sexuality in China during the last few centuries through a survey of scholarship in history and anthropology. Our focus is the Ming-Qing, Republican, and Maoist eras. Readings have been selected to introduce the work of major scholars and basic issues and debates in this field. Our topic is historical, but the course as a whole explores questions fundamental to gender studies more generally. How have culture and history shaped the categories of ¿woman¿ and ¿man¿? How have class, status, and divisions of labor influenced the shaping of normative gender roles and sexualities, as well as actual patterns of behavior? How has gender performance interacted with bodily disciplines and constraints (e.g., reproductive and cosmetic technologies)? How has the modern transformation played out across different societies, and how has the construction of normalcy/deviance changed over time? Is the experience of Euro-American women relevant to women in other parts of the world? What roles have women and ¿the woman question¿ played in revolution? By what standards should liberation be defined, and how can it be achieved?