In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

5 Actors and Patrons OnApril 20, 1912, the Central Police Ofce of the Beijing Outer City (waicheng xunjing zongting, ̔‫ے‬Ԁᘬᐢᜨ)444 published this announcement in the Beijing zhengzong aiguo bao (Beijing orthodox patriotic newspaper, ˵ԕ̳րෲ ਝం): The Central Police Ofce of the Outer City has announced the following prohibition. It has been veried that the owners of the houses and residences of Hanjiatan (ᒚࡼᅵ), Wailangying (̔ఢᏪ) and other places, usually in the name of opera training, seduced boys from respectable families, made them sexually attractive, and taught them to sing. At rst, some literati occasionally visited this place to write and eat together. As the practice went on, the place has become a disreputable receptacle and hotbed of the lthy and the foul (nawu canggou, ढ़ϔᔀ‫)ۑ‬. The habit has developed into a special custom in Beijing, contaminating (dianwu, ‫ݾ‬ϔ) the whole country, and ridiculed by foreigners (yixiao waibang, ൐ॐ̔Ԅ). [Those boys] were known as xianggu (ཫղ); in fact, [what they did] was against human nature (rendao, Ɂ༞). It should be known that opera has contributed to the effort of social reform, and being an actor does not disqualify anyone from being a citizen. But if [he] has to make a living by fawning on people and emulating the behavior of unlicensed prostitutes, he has lost all his dignity. At present, the Republic has just been founded; old habits and unhealthy customs should all be reformed. Our ofce has the responsibility of ordering (zhengqi, ኬღ) people’s habits to ensure human rights, and will no longer tolerate this kind of decadent fad (tuifeng, ፿ࠓ) existing in the capital of the newly established country. Therefore, we issue this order of prohibition. We hope that (those people) repent their past misdeeds, begin to look for honorable jobs, value the integrity of human beings, and become respectable national citizens. After the announcement, anyone who disobeys this order, secretly selling young boys and running prostitution houses (tangyu, ਦఓ), will be punished according to the national law. It is hereby announced.445 Obsession 116 This announcement, initiated and proposed by the actor Tian Jiyun (̈́޵ ඔ),446 and made in the rst year of the Republic of China by the city government of Beijing, marked a clear shift in the meaning of male same-sex relations between literati and Peking Opera actors. Before this shift, men who patronized male actors were considered to have a rened taste that symbolized high-class status. After the shift, the practice was regarded as a decadent fad and deemed vulgar, inhuman, and unacceptable for the new republic. The announcement also revealed a clear connection between the changing meaning of male same-sex relations and the semi-colonial situation of the nation. As it stated, the practice of literati-actor sexual relations had to be stopped not only because it threatened to contaminate the body politic of the nation, but also because it invited the contempt of foreigners. For the author of the edict, to eradicate this lthy habit of sexual relations between literati and male actors was of vital signicance for building an image of a strong China in the international arena. The practice by which literati hired boy actors instead of courtesans as social and sexual company to entertain at their banquets began in the mid-Ming, and became a symbol of rened cultural taste and elite social status in the late Ming. Boy actors were more expensive than courtesans, and being able to afford a boy clearly marked a man’s wealth. But more signicantly, as Timothy Brook points out, the same-sex relationship manifested in the practice signied audacious contempt for the sexual norms of the society on the part of one group of literati, distinguishing them from other rich men.447 In the early Qing, writing poetry in praise of a popular boy actor could become a medium for literati to associate with the powerful few and identify themselves as men of an elite circle.448 In Beijing at the turn of the twentieth century, boy actors, who were called xianggong (‫ޚ‬ʔ) or xianggu, in their capacity as social and sexual entertainers at literati banquets, gradually ceded their popularity to newly arrived courtesans migrating from the south. Writers of the time attempted to provide an interpretation of the change, but initially they had to explain why xianggong had become popular in the rst place. They often attributed the popularity of xianggong to their elegance and rened etiquette and to the lack of appeal on the part of the female prostitutes who were...

Share