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Thomas William Whyke and Melissa Shani Brown (authors), Queering Gender, Sexuality, and Becoming-Human in Qing Dynasty Zhiguai: Querying the Strange Tales, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. 246 pgs.

The title of this book is founded on a pun between “queering” and “querying”. The subject matter of the “queering/querying” process is the literary genre of strange and curious tales, known as “zhiguai” 志怪. The Qing Dynasty is the period covered: the final stage of late imperial decadence and crisis of faith. It is this period of uncertainty, unrest and unease that the authors use for sourcing zhiguai for analysis.

Interestingly, (given the instability of the historical context studied) the authors use the slash, or solidus, to represent the fluidity of opposite categories. So, after the first two chapters, which form the conceptual background of the monograph, the “slashed” categories are: the non/human (Chapter 3), non/binary gender (Chapter 4). Then querying (queering) of female sexuality and male sexuality (Chapters 5 and 6). Then there is Becoming-Perverse: Pornography and Queer Sexual Equality in Zhiguai Chapter 7). Then the conclusion speaks of The Resilience of the Strange; clearly suggesting that the rational world is not yet done with these curious marvels of zhiguai, nor with the various forms of fluidity and queerness that are found within them.

Chapter 1’s philosophical groundwork is broad-ranging, and the authors demonstrate a critical command of the literature also. The authors also show a clear awareness of two distinct pitfalls of “queering/querying” the strange tales. One is an excessively universalist picture of queerness that denies cultural specificity. Another is an excessively particularist picture of queerness that treats different cultural spheres, such as China and the Western world, as hermetically sealed territories with no common ground and zero meaningful basis for dialogue and conversation. This theoretical chapter should prove an inspiration for all those engaged in the kinds of academic work that transcend cultural boundaries, yet still maintain a clear awareness of the particular and specific.

Chapter 2 involves “unpick[-ing] a tangled nexus in which gender and sexuality are co-implicated, and depend on class/social status, but also… the moral discourses attending appropriate behaviour bring us to the question of what it means to be ‘fully human’” (43).

The authors begin by discussing the different kinds of literature available from different Chinese dynasties, hinting at the broad variety in ways gender and sexuality were understood and discussed in pre-modern China; it is emphasised that these documents are not contemporary ethnography but rather representations of what was deemed ideal at the time, implying some probable gap between what was mandated and what happened. This is an important consideration and demonstrates obvious critical thinking.

This leads into a discussion of how gender identity was an unstable category in ancient China, beyond the strict norms of Confucianism, thereby demonstrating that “fluid identities are a modern, post-modern, or characteristically ‘Western’ perspective on identity”. (44-45). Even so, it is important to understand the context of interpretations of identity, so that even if scholars use phrases particular to our own cultural context, others need to be reflexive about our own understandings.

Same-sex eroticism, officially appropriate sex as a symbol of a rightly ordered cosmos, yin and yang, the inner domestic and outward worldly (nei/wai) domains, polygyny and sexual transgression are all discussed. The anti-essentialist approach to gender of Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari is then linked to the notion of “transformation” (hua) as a disruption in the world of hegemonic gender which challenges our very notions of identity as human beings or as gendered beings.

In this chapter, the authors have demonstrated a good understanding of the various domains in which gendered behaviour and gendered discourse actually exist. Their recognition of the boundaries or “leaky” limitations in traditional gender discourse is a valid insight, while at the same time, they refrain from exaggerating the similarity between this fluidity and the fluidity found in Western philosophers of existentialism and postmodernism.

Chapter 3 begins by discussing fox spirits as a core concept. Foxes (hu) are a homophone of “barbarian” (hu) (p.82). This makes them boundary figures: humanity and animals, centre and periphery, natural and supernatural, familiar and uncanny (guai). Thus, fox spirits are like a metonymical trope for all the other shapeshifters. Other shapeshifters include chickens, tigers, bees, plants and inanimate objects (82, and a larger list, 88).

The authors demonstrate both that such figures can complexify an ostensibly natural world, but also that transformability is always a form of liberation or indeed anti-hegemonic. This is extremely important, because not all forms of transgression are healthy, and the authors do right to keep a place for criticism in reserve. This is a sign of a truly critical thinking mindset and contrasts with an excessive and uncritical understanding of the limits of queerness and of queerying.

The authors’ analysis of strange tales begins with Ji Yun’s tales of transforming objects, going on to “humanimal” transformations in both Ji Yun and Pu Songling. The argument that transforming objects “destabilises the binary between beings and objects by attributing forms of consciousness to both” (88) does raise an interesting question, because in traditional Chinese cosmology, qi is omnipresent and is closely linked to consciousness. It would be interesting to explore how far traditional Chinese cosmology was or was not basically pantheistic, or even panentheistic, with regards to the topic of inanimate parts of nature. Was all consciousness a matter of degree, and if not, would this affect our understanding of objects transforming into animals or humans? That is a topic well beyond the scope of this review, but it is certainly something to think about. Either way, transformed objects are still surely relevant to the general themes of the book, and the authors do quote a contemporary of Ji Yun saying that over time, even an old rag can gain consciousness (89); also noting “a universe where everything has a life of its own…a vision of a universe which fundamentally destabilises anthropocentric visions of agency” (90).

The discussion of Pu Songling’s stories focuses not on anthropomorphised objects, but rather on anthropomorphised animals. The authors note that unlike werewolves, these creatures choose to transform. This transformation is often benevolent: the mutual exercise of compassion between humans and “humanimals” leads to the humans being delivered from all kinds of perilous situations (93). Seeking justice is another kind of benevolent transformation story (94-95). However, the authors quite rightly go on to discuss less obviously positive forms of transformation. Interpreting this chapter, one can clearly see that the authors do use these “queer” stories as ways of re-interpreting the notion of queerness itself; in a double motion, not only are marvellous stories read through the lens of queerness, but also the notion of queerness is itself destabilised out of any excessively complacent stance.

The intercultural dimension of China representing both hegemonic gender norms and gender fluidity makes it hard to take an uncritical reliance on either dimension as an interpretative focus, and this in turn makes it challenging to leave untouched the thought of Western thinkers such as Beauvoir, Butler, Deleuze and Guattari, whose relevance is both partially valid but also thrown into question as conceptually distinct. Ultimately, marvellous stories represent both emancipatory possibilities and the lack of such.

Chapter 4 focuses specifically on the topic of gender. Gender essentialism is “troubled” by these marvellous tales (109) and people transform their gender or even have bodies that appear to transcend traditional gender classifications (ibid.). The author, in keeping with the general reflexive character of the book, notes that cross-dressing as portrayed in these marvellous tales is problematic, as it often relates to sex slavery, a form of class exploitation (115). But there follows a discussion of the story Double Blossom Temple by Yuan Mei, which is about a couple of men who fall in love and begin dressing androgynously out of genuine love for one another; rather than as sex slaves or as a way of trying to deceive others.

Discussions follow of spontaneous gender transformations and soul migration. Becoming-man is generally portrayed as positive in these marvellous stories, while becoming-woman is deprecated. And the topic of reincarnation potentially challenges prohibitions on same-sex love, insofar as there is continuity in love between two people, beyond the adoption of new bodies. Ultimately, the authors do solid work in terms of understanding hua in terms of the limitations of its emancipatory potential, and not just its possible opportunities. The discussion of cross-dressing is an obvious example of the authors’ critical thinking in that regard. Or as the authors say more generally, when concluding the chapter (134): “categories themselves may inhibit understanding others, and indeed understanding oneself”.

Chapter 5 begins with a discussion of the literature on whether the transgressive portrayals of women in marvellous stories are emancipatory or not. The authors discuss, for example, the rise of the Chastity Cult that eventually grew from being a moral stricture for the grassroots, to being imposed upon elite women too. Also, the foreclosure of alternative sexual possibilities beyond being married to a polygynous man include asexuality or indeed lesbianism; both unimaginable and hence “queer”.

Sexual alternatives for women are indeed often portrayed abnormally in the marvellous tales. Strangeness, ephemerality, coldness, lesbianism, non-humanity and monstrosity (such as fox spirits) are all characteristics found in marvellous tales portraying female sexuality. The authors clearly have discerned a broad range of different ways in which women and their sexuality are portrayed in marvellous stories.

Chapter 6 emphasises (170) that the portrayal of men in marvellous stories takes two forms: idealised heroes, and immoral villains; this makes these marvellous stories an example of didactic literature. The authors intelligently build upon this idea by noting the sexual double standard, the moral panic around male-on-male rape, and the existence of sworn brotherhood as the redemption of same-sex eroticism beyond sexual violence (170-171); as well as asexuality and compulsory paternity (175).

Chapter 7, on “pornography and queer sexual equality” is devoted to examining those same-sex relationships which are non-hierarchical, but instead “reciprocal or equal relations—this not only queers the usual depictions of male same-sex acts which emphasise the inequality of partners, it queers the usual framing of sexuality generally as an enactment of status” (200). The authors examine the Yaohu Yanshi, an explicitly pornographic work by Songzhuxuan, along with the stories of Yuan Mei, one of the main authors considered over the course of the book.

Chapter 8, the conclusion, states the authors’ intentions. They have read marvellous stories queerly, related them to “other ways of being” (230) and used a broad definition of queer to identify a wide variety of ways of being “strange.” This is intended as a critical political intervention and not simply a detached intellectual study of art for art’s sake. The authors found that “malleable and performative identities” (ibid.) are not solely the preserve of Western postmodern authors; and also that identity fluidity is not intrinsically positive, but depends upon the context (ibid.)

And while gender binaries are unsettled or troubled by many of the marvellous tales, women and sexual diversity are portrayed as non-human, and transformation (hua) was not always expressing full sexual agency and portrayed a clear gender hierarchy where being a man is preferable to being a woman. Compulsory heterosexuality foreclosed alternative possibilities. The portrayal of sexually active women is a question of male desire, more than women’s agency. Men and heteropatriarchal families retain a privileged place. Same-sex desire is sometimes pathologised, along with asexuality. Yet the marvellous stories that feature egalitarian same-sex relationships challenge not only stereotyping of same-sex love, but also sexual hierarchies more generally.

Ultimately, this book is an erudite monograph, with a keen analytical edge. The authors are obviously aware of the paradoxes of marvellous tales, which are partly transgressive but also, deeply conformist. They have effectively navigated the complexity of stories that both open and shut the doors to alternative sexual possibilities. And rather than one-sidedly using the notion of queerness to monologically colonise the marvellous tales, the authors maintain a kind of cyclical motion or dialectic, where analysis of the stories in turn problematises the very notion of queerness itself, not leaving it untouched. This allows for a more critical and intelligent understanding of queerness, rather than a purely nihilistic usage of the term. As a stated political intervention, this book is of assistance in drawing a line between acceptable and unacceptable forms or understandings of queerness, and facilitate effective self-policing within the queer demographic as a whole, guarding against the unrepresentative entryism that has threatened the LGBT community in the past and led to extremely cruel stereotyping and aggressive queerphobic attacks; including critical reflection on the more negative and dangerous artistic idealisations of transgressive sexuality.

How to cite: Ferguson, Jonathan. “Between Queering and Querying: Thomas William Whyke and Melissa Shani Brown’s Queering Gender, Sexuality, and Becoming-Human in Qing Dynasty Zhiguai.” Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 28 Aug. 2024, chajournal.blog/2024/08/28/queering-querying/.

Jonathan Ferguson is a graduate of the University of Leeds (BA and MA) and King’s College London (PhD). He is currently an independent researcher. His research interests lie mainly in ideology critique and history of philosophy.