Edited by Howard Chiang
Palgrave Macmillan, 2012
In the vibrant field of queer Asian studies, scholars to date have paid scant attention to transgender topics. Meanwhile, despite its already sophisticated focus on gender non-conformity, Western queer studies exhibits an equally pressing problem: the conspicuous absence of empirical and theoretical investigations of transgenderism in Northeast Asian society and culture. This volume responds to the convergence of these limitations. By bringing together experts with diverse disciplinary backgrounds in the China field, from cultural studies to history to musicology, Transgender China makes a timely intervention whereby emergent Sinologists explore previously untapped terrains across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to inaugurate the field of Chinese transgender studies.
This book has an impressive breadth in both historical reach and the cultural forms addressed. From historical investigations of androgyny in classical ethics and religion, eunuchism, and literary and theatrical cross-dressing to critical analyses of trans representations in contemporary popular film and the trans pride movement in Hong Kong, the collection is both intellectually exciting and politically engaged.
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*Howard Chiang is Assistant Professor of Modern Chinese History at the University of Warwick, UK. He received his Ph.D. at Princeton University.