Cong Yanshi Dao Xingshi: Tongzhi Shuxieyu Jinxian Dai Zhongguo de Nanxing Jiangou. 從豔史到性史; 同志書寫與近現代中國的男性建構 [From Amorous Histories to Sexual Histories: Tongzhi Writings and the Construction of Masculinities in Late Qing and Modern China]

Taking his cue from Foucault's 1977 History of Sexuality, in Cong Yanshi Dao Xingshi Wai Siam Hee intends to demonstrate first of all how China's own narratives of sexual histories began in the late Qing. Hee does not apply Foucault's argument in an uncritical fashion to account for the history of Chinese sexuality. Instead, Hee contends that late Qing yanshi, or amorous histories, were embodied in backstreet fiction and courtesan culture, and could only reside outside of the mainstream, in the shadow of homophobic official histories. At the same time, the performativity of obsession (pi) in such underground cultures challenged official homophobic narratives (p. 14). Hee also concentrates on exploring the genealogy of “Tongzhi,” and proposes the dyad between Old Tongzhi (comrade) and New Tongzhi as a supplement to the more conventional pairs of wen-wu and Yin-Yang to understand the transformation of modern Chinese...