Gender Performance on the Stage of Chinese Opera

One of the most distinctive features of Chinese opera repertoire is the act of cross-dressing. The practice appeared as early as the 8th century and peaked during the Qing Dynasty. The foundations of Chinese opera were formed in large part by gender bending and merging. Rooted in the Chinese classics, androgyny is associated with the divine in fundamental Taoist texts such as the I-Ching and the Tao Te Ching. Traditional Chinese philosophy in I-Ching describes yin, as represented by the female, and yang, as represented by the male, as inseparable and in a state of constant interrelationship by nature. As the earliest performers, male or female priests were given a new identity - a divinity above the binary gender order. The celebration of gender fluidity in traditional Chinese culture imprinted itself on cultural memory and provided the basis for later, well-received instances of cross-dressing in Chinese opera. Though the written scripts of Chinese opera, such as ‘chuanqi’ (theater in the Ming and Qing dynasties), did not include the notion of cross-dressing, the questions of gender developed a repertoire of their own. The ritualized performance of cross-dressing contributed to the early acceptance of fluid formulations of gender, and later, the objectification of sexually ambiguous cross-dressers. However, in the course of its history, cross-dressing has transformed from serving as a form of apotheosis to an act of dehumanization. By exploring the ‘illusionary’ and the ‘real’, the constructed performances, including religious practices, cross-dressing on stage, and the social realities throughout history, this article argues that the worship and idealization of gender fluidity has in fact resulted in a more continues objectification and sexualization of androgynous public figures

Aesthetics · Art · Opera · Visual arts · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Geology

• Cross-Dressing in Chinese Opera

  Siu Leung Li, Edward Siu-leung Li et al.•Cross-Dressing in Chinese Opera•2003

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• Gender Trouble

  Judith Butler•Gender Trouble•2011

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