ABSTRACT
The Banana Garden Poetry Club (Jiao yuan shi she 焦圜詩社) in late seventeenth-century Hangzhou serves well as a case study of the social network of negotiations and exchanges involving perceptions of gentility in early modern China. The club was one of the first public literary societies founded by a woman and for women. 1 The Banana Garden poets were all gentlewomen (gui xiu) from elite families whose fathers, brothers and husbands were higher degree holders, well-known poets and scholar-officials. Their mothers and sisters also counted many highly educated gentlewomen, female teachers, reputable poets and painters among their number.
