Actresses, Masculinity, and Misogyny in Professionalizing Modern Chinese Theatre

Abstract: In this article, I situate the promotion of nannü heyan (coed performances and gender-appropriate casting) by Chinese intellectuals and theatre-makers in the early 1920s within the professionalization of modern Chinese theatre, aiming to reveal their desire for the masculinization of theatre and an implicit misogyny that sought to jettison femininity from theatre. Analyzing the discourse around the gender-appropriate casting that emerged from the aimei theatre movement and particularly Renyi xiju zhuanmen xuexiao 's (People's Art Drama School) first public performance in May 1923, I argue that trying to establish the modern theatre as a legitimate profession, Chinese intellectuals and theatre-makers in the early 1920s masculinized modern theatre by adhering to the scientifically sanctioned gender roles, repelling effeminized bodies from the stage, and further severing theatre's symbolic ties to womanhood and femininity. In so doing, professional theatre in modern China continues to be paradoxically shaped by and reflect a male-dominated discourse, despite the fact that the professional discourse in early Republican China echoed the May Fourth Movement's emphasis on women's liberation.