Uncrossing the Borders

Over many centuries, women on the Chinese stage committed suicide in beautiful and pathetic ways just before crossing the border for an interracial marriage. Uncrossing the Borders asks why this theatrical trope has remained so powerful and attractive. The book analyzes how national, cultural, and ethnic borders are inevitably gendered and incite violence against women in the name of the nation. The book surveys two millennia of historical, literary, dramatic texts, and sociopolitical references to reveal that this type of drama was especially popular when China was under foreign rule, such as in the Yuan (Mongol) and Qing (Manchu) dynasties, and when Chinese male literati felt desperate about their economic and political future, due to the dysfunctional imperial examination system. Daphne P. Lei covers border-crossing Chinese drama in major theatrical genres such as zaju and chuanqi, regional drama such as jingju (Beijing opera) and yueju (Cantonese opera), and modernized operatic and musical forms of such stories today.


“Uncrossing the Borders deftly applies an exciting range of theories as it examines representations of women in the dynamic of China and barbarian Other(s), and ultimately the meaning of the contemporary Chinese state . . .…  The work complicates our understandings of borders, nations, representations of women and gender in Chinese literature, and opens avenues to a storehouse of lesser known plays that will fuel new research for decades.”
—Mark Bender, The Ohio State University
 
“A very well-researched book concerning a significant paradigm, deeply embedded in Chinese culture, of border-crossing between the known and the unknown. It is possibly the most comprehensive study in English of this particular theme, and will be of interest to anyone studying or researching the development of Chinese civilization, Chinese opera and performance traditions, and gendered understandings of patriotism and nationalism.”
—Anne McLaren, University of Melbourne