Defining Difference: The "Scientific" Construction of Sexuality and Gender in the People's Republic of China

Women in China's Long Twentieth Century

“…Popular writings, hotlines, and call-in radio programs directed at both urban and rural audiences devoted serious attention to compatibility, sexual satisfaction within marriage and detailed instructions about how to achieve it, and the menace of adultery and how to prevent it (Honig and Hershatter 1988;Jankowiak 1993;Evans 1995Evans , 1997 Evans , 2002 X. Xu 1996; Erwin 2000, forthcoming;Farrer and Sun 2003;McDougall 2005). Sexological research, with both statistical and ethnographic components, became a legitimate field of scholarly inquiry (D. Liu et al 1997;Hershatter 1996;Farquhar 2002).…”

“…Drawing on Chinese social surveys from the late 1980s and early 1990s, Parish and Farrer found that when wives' incomes approached those of their husbands (a situation they found to be widespread in urban families), they had more control over household purchasing decisions and stronger beliefs in gender equality. As an urban wife's income increased, so did the time her husband spent on household chores, although her satisfaction with the domestic division of labor did not necessarily rise.Popular writings, hotlines, and call-in radio programs directed at both urban and rural audiences devoted serious attention to compatibility, sexual satisfaction within marriage and detailed instructions about how to achieve it, and the menace of adultery and how to prevent it (Honig and Hershatter 1988;Jankowiak 1993;Evans 1995Evans , 1997 Evans , 2002 X. Xu 1996; Erwin 2000, forthcoming;Farrer and Sun 2003;McDougall 2005). Sexological research, with both statistical and ethnographic components, became a legitimate field of scholarly inquiry (D. Liu et al 1997;Hershatter 1996;Farquhar 2002).…”

“…Discussions of middle-aged and older widows in the media urged them to abandon "feudal" attitudes and embrace romance, remarriage, and sexual knowledge and activity, even as ethnographic evidence suggested that the attitudes and practices of older women were quite varied (Shea 2005). Many of these marriage and sexuality discussions highlighted women's purported differences from men in patterns of emotional and sexual satisfaction, and their simultaneous dependence upon men, who alone could provide that satisfaction (X. Xu 1996;Evans 1997 Evans , 2000.By the 1990s, extramarital love was a common theme in news stories and television dramas. Interviews with men and women in Shanghai suggest that participants in such affairs understood them as a product of social change, a legitimate expression of romantic feelings unsullied by material 20 / Introduction 20 / Marriage, Family, Sexuality, and Gender Difference concerns, and a sexual exchange involving indirect compensation from the man to the woman (Farrer and Sun 2003).…”

“…They also delineate the status preoccupation of urban men: guidebooks described how men should conduct themselves properly to avoid humiliation in courtesan houses, thereby demonstrating their masculine urbanity in a changing world where social arrangements were not fixed (V. Ho 1993; Hershatter 1997; C. Yeh 1998 C. Yeh , 2005 (Hershatter 1992b(Hershatter , 1992c(Hershatter , 1996(Hershatter , 1997Henriot 1988 Henriot , 1995 Henriot , 1997. By the mid-1990s, prostitution once again had become a frequent topic in journalism, sexology (D. Liu et al 1997), sociology, criminology (R. Jiang 1997 Dongchen District 1997;Ouyang 1997;Dazhong Wang 1997; C. Qian 1997;Yanshang Zhang 1997; Jeffreys 2004a Jeffreys , 2004b, and popular literature (Yongshan Li 1997;Niu 1997), with cautionary tales of abduction and victimization alternating with stories about the high income, upward mobility, and excitement enticing women into sex work (X. Xu 1996; Hershatter 1997; V. Ho 1998-99;Evans 1997 Evans , 2000Evans , 2003. Prostitution also became a regular, if less often discussed, feature of rural life (Friedman 2000(Friedman , 2006Yuen, Law, and Ho 2004).…”

“…It is important not to overstate the break between Maoist and reformera representations of femininity. In both periods, women were regarded as responsive and dependent in their sexuality (Evans 1997(Evans , 2000, and sexuality was discussed in a variety of contexts-mostly unofficial during the Cultural Revolution, but nonetheless important (Honig 2003). The topics and range of representations are far more diverse in the market reform period than in socialism's early years.…”