The Blood-Stained Text in Translation: Tattooing, Bodily Writing, and Performance of Chinese Virtue

This article focuses on bodily writing as a performance of virtue in premodern China. Bodily writing includes inscribing text on the body (tattooing), mutilation, and blood-letter-writing. These "bloody" acts were originally associated with the lowly or marginalized class but coopted by the mainstream society as a means of performing virtue. Virtuous bodily writing is gender-specific, especially as displayed on stage: while male writing surpasses the body, a split has to be inserted between the female body and text to ensure pleasure.

The article further addresses the issue of cultural translation in the transnational context, with an analysis of the controversial tattooing scene in Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior.