ABSTRACT
The fashion for male beauty and companionship that developed among the Beijing literati through the early period of the Qing dynasty continued to develop in subsequent centuries. At the same time, the meaning and form of elite male attraction to feminized boy entertainers were to be transformed in a number of ways. The most important change, the evolution of an open market for catamites, was a direct result of the popularity of the fashion. With this development the relationship between literatus and catamite also changed, existing within a commercial environment in which the boys were owned by their master-trainers. A new space also evolved, centred on a growing interest in theatre and other forms of public entertainment, a space the literati increasingly had to share with the general public. The growth in male prostitution surrounding the Beijing theatre world from the second half of the eighteenth century led to a new commercialization of the relationship of catamite and client, and while not all boys were available to just anyone, anyone with money could find a boy.
