The Fragile Scholar: Power and Masculinity in Chinese Culture

Introduction

Introduction Literature i s no one's private ground: literature is common ground. ... Let us trespass freely an d fearlessly an d find ou r own way for ourselves. — Virginia Woolf Gender i s not only constructed, but also performative. — Judith Butle r Nowadays ther e ar e mor e sociologist s an d cultura l critic s wh o tak e on a semioti c understandin g o f gender . The y vie w "femininity " and "masculinity " a s arbitrar y an d conventiona l signifier s o f th e "referent," namely sexual difference. Teresa de Lauretis writes, "gender can be subsume d i n sexua l difference s a s an effec t o f language , o r a s pur e imaginary — nothin g t o do with th e real." 1 Sexua l differenc e itsel f ha s also been viewed as a social construct that does not necessarily derive from the biologica l bodie s o f th e mal e an d female. 2 Gende r discourse s ar e therefore i n nature cultural, historical, and above all, ideological. In ligh t of this constructionist view of gender identity and gender ideology, I argue that th e conceptiona l binarie s o f male/femal e an d heterosexual / homosexual, which ar e central to the Western gender discourses and th e signifying syste m a s a whole, were largel y absen t i n pre-modern China . "Gender" mean t somethin g remarkabl y differen t i n traditiona l Chines e 1 2 The Fragile Scholar culture an d wa s characterize d b y it s stron g interactio n wit h politica l discourse. Even the identities of male and female in the modern (Western ) sense ar e a n appropriation afte r colonialis m an d "modernization. " The mos t fundamental readin g strateg y underlyin g thi s stud y i s th e Foucauldian realization that gender and sexuality are culturally constructed and politicall y invested . For Michel Foucault, gender i s not a property of bodies o r something originall y existen t i n human beings , but "th e se t of effects produce d i n bodies , behaviors , an d socia l relation s b y a certai n deployment derivin g from a complex political technology."3 Th e cultura l construction o f gende r i s realize d throug h variou s discourse s an d institutions, whic h ca n b e biological , medical , legal , philosophical , o r literary. Among them, literary representation of masculinity and femininit y plays an important role. It used to be read as a reflection of gender discourse in a given culture, but i t also refers to the process of gender construction . Judith Butle r argue s tha t "[t]her e i s n o gende r identit y behin d th e expressions o f gender; tha t identit y i s performatively constitute d b y th e very 'expressions ' tha t ar e said to be its results."4 A goo d example illustratin g th e relationship betwee n representatio n and constructio n o f gender i s the literar y discourse s of caizi (^f^P) an d jiaren (IEIA) i n popular fiction and drama, which helped shape the rhetoric of idea l masculinit y an d femininit y i n traditiona l Chines e culture . Th e terms stil l have wid e currenc y eve n today . Through th e readin g o f th e literary representatio n o f caizi, this boo k seek s t o identif y som e o f th e distinguished characteristic s o f pre-modern Chines e masculinity . This volume , however , doe s no t attemp t t o reconstruc t th e past . Instead, thi s i s a dialogica l readin g o f th e past , usin g contemporar y (Western) critica l theory. Reconstruction i s impossible i n the sense that , as a rule for any interpretation , wha t we see "in" a text is , in many ways, an expression of our own culturally constructed vision . The primary focu s of this book refers to a culture and historical period radically different fro m the present . B y situating th e text s i n thei r ow n historica l context , I inevitably approac h...