“Beautiful Boys Made up as Beautiful Girls”

In contrast with Han (206 BCE–CE 220) or Tang (618–907) dynasty works of art, in the late imperial period (approximately 1550–1911) Chinese artistic taste experienced a gradual shift away from the celebration of masculine images. A comparison of the depiction of males in late imperial Chinese book illustrations, particularly those found in novels and short story collections, with the figures depicted in paintings or frescoes from the Han or Tang dynasties reveals a stark contrast in representations of the male form. The standard, most prevalent, male images in the late imperial period are young, weak, slim and beardless; we no longer find the images of men in the prime of their lives, with rotund torsos and impressive beards, which are evident in portraits from earlier periods (van Gulik 1961, 295–8). ² This chapter will argue that in late imperial China a feminised male appearance was generally accepted as the ideal of male beauty. The “anti-masculine” had become the supreme male form.