ABSTRACT
This chapter further elaborates the Chinese approach to gender under Confucianism as it developed in the postclassical period, and then shows how Chinese influence was incorporated, but adapted, in neighboring societies such as Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia, and also how it interacted with the rather different gender traditions of Mongol invaders. In Japan, for example, Chinese influence led to greater emphasis on gender differentials, but also paradoxically provided some upper-class women with new cultural opportunities; and some of the more extreme features of the Chinese gender system, such as footbinding, were not adopted in the larger East Asian zone.
