192 pp. March 2001
paper, ISBN 978-0-8248-2468-6, $20.00
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Keywords: |
Asia
China
history
literature
textbook |
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Men & Women in Qing China: Gender in The Red Chamber Dream
by Louise P. Edwards
"Edwards sets out to show that [the novel's] 'proto-feminism' is questionable, indeed that those who insist on a proto-feminist reading are themselves complicit in confining women to traditional roles.... [Her] application of feminist methodology to an old classic creates a challenge to older ways of reading that cannot be ignored. Like other powerful readings, it reaffirms the kaleidoscopic richness of Cao Xueqin's original, which continues to emit new colors in response to changing times." --Journal of Economic and Social History in the Orient
New in PaperMen & Women in Qing China is an analysis of Chinese prescriptions of gender as represented in Cao Xueqin's famous eighteenth-century Chinese novel of manners, The Red Chamber Dream, or The Story of the Stone. Drawing on feminist literary critical methods, it examines Qing notions of masculinity and femininity, including themes such as bisexuality, motherhood, virginity and purity, and gender and power. Its central aim is to challenge the common assumption that the novel represents some form of early Chinese feminism by examining the text in conjunction with historical data. The book will be especially important to those interested in issues of gender in China, the history of Chinese literary criticism, and the application of feminist theory to the Asian context.
Louise P. Edwards currently lectures in Asian studies at Australian Catholic University, Queensland.
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