ABSTRACT
In 1675, the Dorset Garden theatre in London presented The Conquest of China by the Tartars, a play that depicts a dynastic change in which the disintegrating Chinese court is overthrown by the Tartars, and the Tartar prince Zungteus marries the valiant Chinese queen Amavanga, declaring his intention to maintain China’s customs and culture while strengthening its military force. In this play, the first work that I examine in this book, the identity of China can be read as feminized, but its femininity, as represented by the female warrior Amavanga, does not correspond fully to the conventional depiction of the gender, nor does it conform completely to the orientalist correlation between race and gender. As I argue in Chapter One, it is Amavanga who saves and accepts Zungteus, demonstrating a mental toughness that is stronger, or more masculine, in the playwright Elkanah Settle’s depiction, than her Tartar conqueror. Compared with its enemy, China is portrayed as a militarily weaker but culturally stronger political entity. The invading Tartars may end its sovereignty, but they accept and absorb its cultural practices.
