Obsession: Male Same-Sex Relations in China, 1900-1950This is the most serious study to date on the topic of male same-sex relations in China during the early twentieth century, illuminating male same-sex relations in many sites: language, translated sexological writings, literary works, tabloid newspapers, and opera. Documenting how nationalism and colonial modernity reconfigured Chinese discourses on sex between men in the early twentieth century, Wenqing Kang has amassed a wealth of material previously overlooked by scholars, such as the entertainment news and opinion pieces related to same-sex relations published in the tabloid press. He sheds new light on several puzzles, such as the process whereby sex between men became increasingly stigmatized in China between the 1910s and 1940s, and shows that the rich vocabulary and concepts that existed for male-male relations in premodern China continued to be used by journalists and writers throughout the Republican era, creating the conditions for receiving Western sexology. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 19 | |
2
Sexology | 41 |
3
Literary Intimacies | 61 |
4
Tabloid Sex and Cultural Conservatives | 85 |
5
Actors and Patrons | 115 |
Conclusion | 145 |
Notes | 149 |
| 175 | |
| 185 | |
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Àction Àeld Àgure Ànd argues Àrst half Ba Jin Ban Gu beautiful became Begonia Beijing Boundless Night boy actors Cheng Chinese intellectuals Chisheng classical Chinese context courtesans Crystal cultural conservatives deÀnition decadent Dong Xian emperor female prostitutes female same-sex relations Feng friends gender Guo Moruo Heavenly Wind heterosexual high-ranking ofÀcials homoerotic Huang inÁuence intimacy issue Japanese Jingbao late Qing Longyang male actors male favorites male prostitute male same-sex love male same-sex relations masculinity meaning Mei Lanfang Mei’s Ming modern Chinese moral obsession ofÀce Peking opera political Puyi Qing dynasty Qing period recreational articles renyao same-sex relationships sexological sexual Shanghai Shih signiÀcance Sima Qian social story tabloid newspapers term Tianfengbao Tianjin tongxing lian’ai tongxinglian tongxinglian’ai translation twentieth century understanding of male Vitiello Volpp Wang warlord Western sexological woman women xianggong young Yu Dafu Yu’s Yuan Zeitlin Zhang Zhifu