Organizer: Sophie Volpp, Smith College
Chair: Matthew H. Sommer, University of Pennsylvania
Discussant: Judith T. Zeitlin, University of Chicago
This panel aims to illuminate one of the less studied aspects of late-imperial and modern Chinese literary culture: representations of female homoeroticism. Our research seeks to build upon recent scholarship on male homoeroticism to consider the following theoretical problems: How have pre-modern and modern texts created a taxonomy of female homoeroticism? How do contemporary visions of lesbianism differ from and/or re-inscribe late-imperial constructions of female eroticism? Why do these texts employ self-dramatization and self-mythologization as a means of constructing sexual identity? Lastly, what has been the reception of these texts, and how have the prefacing and other means of "packaging" these texts sought to direct that reception?
Naifei Ding's paper outlines the connections between the marketing and prefacing politics of the contemporary Taiwanese collection Writing by Bad Women (Enu Shu) and the sixteenth-century novel The Golden Lotus (Jin Ping Mei). Tze-lan Sang's paper examines the self-mythologization of the contemporary Taiwanese lesbian author, Qiu Miaojin. Patricia Sieber places the representation of female homoeroticism in Li Yu's seventeenth-century play Cherishing the Fragrant Companion (Lian xiangban) in the context of such discursive tropes of the late-imperial period as female talent and theatricality. Sophie Volpp examines the interplay between self-dramatization and autoeroticism in the work of the nineteenth-century playwright, Wu Zao. Collectively, this panel contributes to our understanding of late-imperial and modern conceptions of alternative and normative female sexualities. Judith Zeitlin, whose recent research focuses on late-imperial Chinese conceptions of the body and sexuality, will act as discussant.
Yinfu to Enu or the Open Secret
Naifei Ding, National Central University, Taiwan
Since its appearance, printing and circulation in the Jiangnan region in the last decades of the Ming (1368-1644), Jin Ping Mei has set in endlessly recyclable (reprintable and filmable) narrative form a myth of vampiric female sexuality. The social and literary "truth" value of this myth has been reaffirmed, positively, through variegated editions and reprintings, and negatively, in being banned for licentiousness. In the latter case, the text in effect becomes its notorious subject. Just as female sexuality (vis-à-vis male household heads and polygamous family organizations) in and through Jin Ping Mei signify the death of the man and his family, so too does Jin Ping Mei the text become a contaminating book, spreading with its printing and circulation the very sexual dangers it purports to warn against. At the same time, the ban on the book has increased its symbolic value as an open secret, about women and (male-)female sexuality, for the specific use of all potential male household heads, from the late Ming arguably to present-day Taiwan. It is the sexual meanings of this open secret that I propose to reread and analyze, juxtaposing it with the case of another "open secret" that has recently appeared in Taiwan.
In 1995, Enu Shu was published and marketed as part of a new young writers erotica series by one of the largest romance publishing houses in Taiwan. Of all the books in this new series, only Enu Shu was provided with a wrapping and sign that forbade its consumption by minors (under 18). In his preface to the book, famous writer and critic Yang Zhao critiques Enu Shu for the narrowness of its social vision and its fixation on what he reads as a lesbian sexuality marked by heterosexual hangups (mother/daughter fantasies, etc.). "Having written a whole book [concerned with] lesbian [sexuality], paradoxically, Chen Xue [the author] is actually negating lesbian desire (lesbianism per se) [English in the original]."
The marketing and prefacing strategies of Enu Shu recall those of the infamous Jin Ping Mei. On the one hand, the uninitiated public must be protected and forewarned: this is a book about or with an open secret, it can only circulate as such. On the other hand, readers must be inoculated and directed by an expert or ideal reader as to how to read the story that follows. Yang Zhao very nearly reincarnates Zhang Zhupo (who in 1695 wrote the definitive commentary to Jin Ping Mei, definitive in the extent of its influence). Like Zhang Zhupo, Yang Zhao claims to know the book's "truth." According to Yang Zhao, Enu Shu is insufficiently literary and negates the lesbian sexuality it seems to (and should) affirm. Ironically, a representation of lesbian sexuality in Taiwan is reinscribed, in and through such marketing and prefacing strategies, as insufficiently literary and questionably lesbian. This amounts to a productive inversion of Zhang Zhupo's lauding of Jin Ping Mei as both ultra-literary and filled with authentic sexual female mankillers. In juxtaposing the market and prefacing politics of these two cultural texts on differently deviant female sexualities, I shall examine how representations of female sexualities continue to be problematized, constructed as open secrets, amidst changing historical configurations.
The Death of a Lesbian Author
Deborah Tze-lan Sang, University of Oregon, Eugene
Having carried out two of the most individualistic acts one can ever perform-writing autobiographic novels and committing suicide-Qiu Miaojin (1969-1995) died a legendary lesbian writer. In both The Journal of a Crocodile and The Montmartre Posthumous Book, Qiu's vibrant prose is characterized by retrospection and introspection. Understanding the self, penetrating the self, and perfecting the self are her central concerns. Love for women resides at the core of her being, but so does the commitment to art (beauty and truth). If there is a demand for authentic representations of lesbian subjectivity in the recent discourse of lesbian and gay identity politics in Taiwan, Qiu's writing stands outs as one of the most honest and accomplished lesbian self-explorations to date. It does not reduce passion to a matter of pleasure, but approaches it as will power, character, and spiritual awareness. Authenticity, however, is not synonymous with essentialism, in that Qiu seeks to represent only herself and not at all a so-called "essence" of lesbianism. She-or the public persona created by her writings-has become seductive for many a woman-loving woman, but both the identification with her and the desire for her should be recognized as from a distance. She is an individual. The publication of her unique self-creation both benefits from the current campaign for collective lesbian visibility and rights in Taiwan, and challenges its very premise-that people can build a common identity from shared lifestyles, desires and social positions.
This paper traces the trajectory of shifting models of female same-sex desire in Qiu's autobiographic narratives: monstrosity, crime, orientation, innocence, destiny, butch-femme marriage, butch-butch passion, and suicide. Same-sex union is interminable in her text. Suicide provides no closure-it means at once protest and reconciliation, withdrawal and eternal dedication.
Constructing Economies of the Erotic
Patricia Sieber, Ohio State University
In modern scholarship, certain premodern Chinese representations have been designated as "lesbian," most notably Li Yu's (1610-1680) earliest play, Lian xiangban (Cherishing the Fragrant Companion). Such a transhistorical sexual taxonomy obscures the historical specificity of both pre-20th century and 20th century interpretations of the play. Thus this paper seeks to construct a history of premodern and modern readings of the play. The first context for such an undertaking are Li Yu's own works, including the Xianqing ouji, as well as the comments of his contemporaries. The second context includes 18th and 19th century critical comments as well as the memoir Fusheng liuji (Six Records of a Floating Life). The third context covers the 20th century, beginning with Sasagawa Taneo's Shina shoosetsu gikyoku shooshi. In each case, the paper examines how different generations of readers relate the play to aspects of Li Yu's or of their own life, to questions of dramatic aesthetics, and to discourses on gender and/or sexuality. Through an analysis of the discursive contexts and of the readerly reception of Lian xiangban, the paper will make a contribution towards understanding the productive nature of the reading process.
Self-Portraiture and Self-Love
Sophie Volpp, Smith College
This paper examines the relation between self-dramatization and autoeroticism in the work of the playwright and poet Wu Zao (1799-1862). Wu Zao's poems have been said to express "lesbian" sentiments. I would suggest, however, that her lyrics be re-interpreted in the context of the self-conscious autoeroticism that is the theme of her play Silhouette in Disguise (Qiao Ying). Wu Zao takes the self-dramatizing tendencies of the late-imperial lyricist to new extremes. Her play consists of a set of song suites in which she directs the actor playing the male lead (dressed as herself) to swear passionate devotion to her self-portrait, in which she has portrayed herself in official's robes. She depicts herself as a latter-day Qu Yuan sorely frustrated that the disjunction between herself and her times prevents her from fully employing her talents. In so doing, she clearly exploits the allegorical gender-crossings Qu Yuan bestowed upon the literary tradition. Although there is only one voice in the play, it performs a palimpsest of roles, alternately declaring the twinned incarnations of herself to be both talented scholar (cai zi) and beauty (jia ren), both self and ideal listener, both Qu Yuan and his epigone. She draws upon the "Calling Back the Soul" (Zhao hun) of the Songs of the South (Chuci) to call back her own soul with this drama that forms her epitaph. Wu Zao's staging of the recitation of her own epitaph recalls the self-conscious posturing of the autobiographical reminiscences of late-imperial authors such as Wu Weiye, Mao Xiang, Zhang Dai and Shen Fu. This paper sets Wu Zao's corpus in the context of recent research on the self-dramatizing mode in late-imperial literature by arguing that Wu Zao's autoeroticism represents the logical culmination of the paradox that self-expression is most facilitated by impersonation.