ABSTRACT

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.

chapter 1|9 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|19 pages

Cultural obsession

chapter 3|18 pages

Mao’s “gender trouble”

chapter 4|29 pages

The revival

chapter 5|50 pages

The new generation 1

chapter 6|21 pages

Rebel or follow

chapter 7|6 pages

Conclusion