University of Heidelberg

How and why did the dan rise to national stardom at the end of the Qing dynasty and the beginning of the Republic? What does this tell us about Chinese society at the time, its politics, culture and psychology? What are the implications in terms of international politics of a Chinese man playing a woman with such skill and grace to general acclaim in Tokyo, New York, and Moscow? The aim is to investigate this development in the context of dramatic transformations of the Chinese public sphere; and to shed light on the transcultural forces behind this change and its implications for a new gendered image of China.