Men and Women in Qing China: Gender in The Red Chamber Dream

This text is an analysis of Chinese perceptions of gender as represented in Cao Xueqin’s 18th-century Chinese novel of manners, The Red Chamber Dream or The Story of the Stone . Drawing on feminist literary critical methods, it examines Qing notions of masculinity and femininity, including themes such as bisexuality, motherhood, virginity and purity, and gender and power. The central aim of the text is to challenge the common assumption that the novel represents some form of early Chinese feminism by examining the text in conjunction with historical data. The text should be of value to those interested in issues of gender in China, the history of Chinese literary criticism and the application of feminist theory to the Asian text.