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Uncrossing the Borders: Performing Chinese in Gendered (Trans)Nationalism
Daphne P. Lei
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Over many centuries, women on the Chinese stage committed suicide in beautiful and pathetic ways just before crossing the border for an interracial marriage. Uncrossing the Borders asks why this theatrical trope has remained so powerful and attractive. The book analyzes how national, cultural, and ethnic borders are inevitably gendered and incite violence against women in the name of the nation. The book surveys two millennia of historical, literary, dramatic texts, and sociopolitical references to reveal that this type of drama was especially popular when China was under foreign rule, such as in the Yuan (Mongol) and Qing (Manchu) dynasties, and when Chinese male literati felt desperate about their economic and political future, due to the dysfunctional imperial examination system. Daphne P. Lei covers border-crossing Chinese drama in major theatrical genres such as zaju and chuanqi, regional drama such as jingju (Beijing opera) and yueju (Cantonese opera), and modernized operatic and musical forms of such stories today.
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Performative Border Archetype
Chapter 2. Border Survivors of the Two-Way Crossings
Fig. 1. Wang Zhaojun: “May I ask for a cup of wine to make a libation to the South and to bid farewell to the Han, before I go on my long journey?” Moments before her suicide in Autumn in the Han Palace (Hangong qiu 漢宮秋) by Ma Zhiyuan 馬致遠 of the Yuan dynasty. From a facsimile (Shanghai: Hanfenlou, 1918) of the original The Selected Yuan Plays (Yuanqu xuan 元曲選) by Zang Jinshu [Zang Maoxun], published in 1615–1616. Courtesy of Stanford Auxiliary Library.
Fig. 2. Wang Zhaojun: “How unbearable is today’s sorrow!” 這一天愁,怎生發付我也! Moments before her border crossing in Zhaojun Leaving the Pass Behind (Zhaojun chusai 昭君出塞) by Chen Yujiao 陳與郊 of the Ming dynasty. From a facsimile (Wujin: Songfenshi, 1918) of the original Zaju of the High Ming Period (Shengming zaju 盛明雜劇, edited by Shen Tai, 1629). Courtesy of Stanford Auxiliary Library.
Fig. 3. “Fighting between barbarian and Han soldiers” in Appeasing the Barbarians (Herong ji 和戎記, anonymous). Note the clean-shaven Han soldier (left) and the barbarian soldier (right) with facial hair and pheasant feathers. From a facsimile of the original Fuchuntang version, printed 1573–1619.
Fig. 4. Wang Zhaojun dreams of recrossing the border, in The Dream of Zhaojun (Zhaojun meng 昭君夢) by Xue Dan 薛旦. Note that both the sleeping Zhaojun (below) and the fleeing Zhaojun in dream (above) wear pheasant feathers, which indicate her new ethnic identity. From a facsimile (Wujin: Songfenshi, 1941) of Newly Edited Zaju (Zaju xinbian 雜劇新編, edited by Zou Shijin, ca. 1661).
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