Book Excerpt! Staging Personhood: Costuming in Early Qing Drama, by Guojun Wang (introduction)

“A refreshing book that will encourage readers and researchers to pay closer attention to the modes and codes of theatrical costuming in association with issues of ethnicity, gender, and individual identities, embedded in the specific context of early Qing China.”

~Tian Yuan Tan, author of Passion, Romance, and Qing: The World of Emotions and States of Mind in “Peony Pavilion”

This week we’ve been featuring Guojun Wang, Staging Personhood: Costuming in Early Qing Drama. Reading dramatic texts and performances against Qing sartorial regulations, Wang offers an interdisciplinary lens on the entanglements between Chinese drama and nascent Manchu rule. Learn about costuming as a method in this excerpt from the introduction to the book.

If you enjoyed this read, be sure to enter this week’s drawing for your chance to win a copy of the book!