The Admonishment of Vegetarian Great Aunt : Reflections on Sexual and Gender Multiplicity and Culture

‘Lack’ of languages

“…Same-sex eroticism and practices, especially those between men, were richly documented and fictionalised in pre-modern Chinese texts, yet this does not mean that same-sex sexualities were unconditionally tolerated in Chinese traditions (Kang, 2009). Female same-sex relationships that tried to refuse heterosexual married life and escape patriarchal kinship were unthinkable according to traditional Chinese familial and social norms, even though some women did manage such non-normative lives (Sang, 2003;Wieringa, 2007). During China's Republican era , Chinese (male) intellectuals selectively introduced European sexologist and eugenic thoughts in order to develop a modernised nation-state, and the pathologised notion of 'homosexuality' ('tongxinglian', or 'tongxing'ai') entered modern Chinese vocabularies (Sang, 2003).…”

‘Passionate aesthetics’: T-P gender practices and discourses, and the hierarchies within lesbian (lala) communities in contemporary mainland China

“…Wieringa has paid long-term attention to issues of gender and sexuality, especially female masculinities and same-sex desires, in Asia and other third-world countries (see, e.g. Wieringa, 1999Wieringa, , 2007aWieringa, , 2007bWieringa, , 2010. The concept of 'passionate aesthetics' was developed from a comparative study on how the prevalent forms of heteronormativity in India and Indonesia influence the everyday struggles and aspirations of three marginalized female groups: women in same-sex relationships, female sex workers, and widows/divorced women (Wieringa, 2012;Wieringa et al, 2015).…”