ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the constructions of Chinese male identity in the modern world. In particular, it looks at perceptions of Chinese masculinity as embodied in the scholar-intellectual (wenren, or man of letters) ideal exemplified by the wen god Confucius. My previous work has shown that in configurations of Chinese masculinity, the ideal man demonstrates both civil and military (wen-wu) accomplishments. The term wen-wu has no English equivalent, although approximate renderings are “literary-martial” or “mental-physical.” In this chapter I focus on the wen half of this dyad. After first establishing the significance of the wen god Confucius in the framework of Chinese masculinity and then examining its significance to both sexes, I outline how Communist scholars in the 1990s constructed Confucius as a progressive educationalist whose “modern fate” is not a terminal one. In the final part of the chapter, I examine the iconic status of Confucius in the last two decades of this millennium to show that in the 1980s and 1990s wen ideals were fundamentally transformed so as to encompass commercial expertise alongside its traditional tenets.
