A “Glorious” Dream of Awkward Romance: Humor and Desire in Wang Yun’s (1749-1819) Fanhua meng

NAN Nü ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-304
Author(s):  
Yanbing Tan
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Dream Content ◽  
Late Imperial China ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Male Privilege ◽  
Female Protagonist ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Imperial China ◽  
Male Dominated

AbstractWang Yun’s (1749-1819) Fanhua meng (A Dream of Glory, 1769) is one of the very few extant chuanqi plays written by women in late imperial China. Its female protagonist, who is frustrated by social restrictions placed on women, transforms into a man in a dream. The dream content revolves around the protagonist’s romantic adventures, which feature many awkward and laughable moments. As a fantasy about transgender experience, Fanhua meng has been the subject of critique for its embrace of patriarchal values as well as praise for its reflection on patriarchal depravity. These conflicting views attest to the complexity of Wang Yun’s use of humor in the play. This article explores how and why Wang Yun depicts her protagonist’s journey of desire in a comic mode, and how Wang’s contemporary male readers responded to Wang’s humor. It argues that Wang’s use of humor provides a palatable coating for a provocative reflection on the male privilege of being a desiring subject. As a whole, Wang’s play challenges the vision of worldly success promoted by the long-established and male-dominated chuanqi drama tradition. As a case study, this article draws attention to humor as a mode of self-writing for women writers in late imperial China.

The Origins of Prejudice: The Malintegration of Subei in Late Imperial China

1993 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Finnane
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Society ◽  
Lu Xun ◽  
Late Imperial China ◽  
Usual Practice ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
True Story ◽  
Place Of Origin ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Imperial China ◽  
Native Place

The convention for introducing biography in the Chinese textual tradition is to identify the subject not only by his name but also by his native place. The classic formula used for this purpose is set out in the preface to “The True Story of Ah Q,” in which Lu Xun remarks that “when writing biography, it is the usual practice to begin ‘so-and-so, from such-and-such place’ ” (Lu 1959 [1921]: 93). This formula was adopted in official documents, popular stories, obituaries and tomb epitaphs as well as in formal biographies or biographical notices. There were variations in its form, in which the person was identified as being “native of this place, living in that place” or “originally of this place, now of that place.” But in any event, a man was, and still is, normally identified by both his personal name and the name of his place of origin, just as a woman was usually identified by the names of her father and her husband. The problem for Lu Xun as fictional biographer was that Ah Q's name was a matter of debate and his place of origin unknown: He floated unmoored through Chinese society.

Texts and Technologies in Chinese Silver Metallurgy, Twelfth to Nineteenth Centuries

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-82
Author(s):  
Yang Yuda ◽  
Nanny Kim
Keyword(s):  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Oral Histories ◽  
Minor Importance ◽  
Late Imperial China ◽  
Late Qing ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Imperial China ◽  
Silver Exploitation

The silver metallurgy of late imperial China has rarely been the subject of specific studies because silver exploitation has long been considered of minor importance and traditional sources are scarce. This article is an attempt at filling the research gap of the period from the Song to the late Qing. With a focus on the silver mines of the Southwest and the adjoining borderlands and employing an approach that combines textual analysis with the study of remains and oral histories, it presents a systematic discussion of process steps and traces technological transformations.

Gender, Technical Innovation, and Gu Family Embroidery in Late-Ming Shangha

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-130
Author(s):  
I-Fen Huang
Keyword(s):  
Technical Innovation ◽  
Late Imperial China ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Late Ming ◽  
Shanghai Museum ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
Technical Innovations ◽  
Imperial China

This paper takes Gu Family embroidery as a case study to discuss the contribution of technical innovation to the construction of gender in late imperial China so as to better understand Guxiu in its technical, social, and artistic contexts. Focusing on the Flowers and Fishes album (dated 1641, Shanghai Museum) by Han Ximeng, I argue that Gu family ladies, such as Han Ximeng, used embroidery as a means to display their individual creativity; and, further, by means of technical innovations, contributed not only to their family finances but also to the art and culture of late Ming Shanghai. While some of the technical innovations that the Gu family ladies achieved were driven by the desire to meet the literati aesthetic of their time, eventually, in the case of Han Ximeng, she went beyond the literati taste for ‘painting-like’ embroidery to assert the special qualities of embroidery. By affirming her own authorship, drawing attention to the feminine medium in which she worked and claiming the significance of her work with a carefully chosen subject, Han subverted the conventions of male painting in subtle ways and demonstrated her subjectivity.

scholarly journals The Dangers of ‘Warming and Replenishing’ (wenbu 溫補) during the Ming to Qing Epistemic Transition

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 90-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie de Vries
Keyword(s):  
Medical Profession ◽  
Song Learning ◽  
Late Imperial China ◽  
Safety And Efficacy ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Epistemic Transition ◽  
Medicinal Substances ◽  
Imperial China ◽  
Nature Of Medicine

Through a case study of Zhao Xianke’s 趙獻可One Principle through Medicine(Yiguan醫貫) (1617?) and Xu Dachun’s 徐大椿 (1693–1771) denouncements of this text, my article zooms in on divergent discourses on the safety and efficacy of medicinal substances and compounds in late imperial China. Although Xu Dachun’s fierce attacks on the popular ‘warming and replenishing’ (wenbu溫補) therapies can be situated in an epistemic shift from the cosmology of ‘Song learning’ (songxue宋學) towards the philology of ‘Han learning’ (hanxue漢學) and ‘evidential research’ (kaozheng考證), I argue that more complex issues were at stake as well. Changed political, social, ethical, and economic realities shaped new and multifaceted perceptions of the nature of medicine, the medical profession, and the usage of medicinals in the aftermath of the Ming to Qing transition.

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