After Eunuchs: Science, Medicine, and the Transformation of Sex in Modern China

by Howard Chiang

For much of Chinese history, the eunuch stood out as an exceptional figure at the margins of gender categories. Amid the disintegration of the Qing Empire, men and women in China began to understand their differences in the language of modern science. In After Eunuchs, Howard Chiang traces the genealogy of sexual knowledge from the demise of eunuchism to the emergence of transsexuality, showing the centrality of new epistemic structures to the formation of Chinese modernity.

From anticastration discourses in the late Qing era to sex-reassignment surgeries in Taiwan in the 1950s and queer movements in the 1980s and 1990s, After Eunuchs explores the ways the introduction of Western biomedical sciences transformed normative meanings of gender, sexuality, and the body in China. Chiang investigates how competing definitions of sex circulated in science, medicine, vernacular culture, and the periodical press, bringing to light a rich and vibrant discourse of sex change in the first half of the twentieth century. He focuses on the stories of gender and sexual minorities as well as a large supporting cast of doctors, scientists, philosophers, educators, reformers, journalists, and tabloid writers, as they debated the questions of political sovereignty, national belonging, cultural authenticity, scientific modernity, human difference, and the power and authority of truths about sex. Theoretically sophisticated and far-reaching, After Eunuchs is an innovative contribution to the history and philosophy of science and queer and Sinophone studies.

Genres: China, History, Gender, Nonfiction, Queer, School, LGBT

401 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 7, 2018

Reviews

[Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Connects the historical practice of creating eunuchs to the emergence of modern transgender identity. That's a challenging thesis to take on. I learned about how transgender people have been viewed in China over the past century. Overall fascinating.

[DW Rowlands · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was most interested in this book for the first chapter, which discusses eunuchs in late-Qing Dynasty China. However, the last chapter, discussing the history of the treatment of intersex people--who were often characterized as transgender or forced into involuntary sex-changes--in the 1950's in Taiwan was also quite interesting. The intermediate chapters interested me less, and were more heavily theoretical in the humanities sense of the word.

[Noah]

Read excerpts (Intro, Chapter 1, and Conclusion) for class

[Naked Fish · Rating 4 out of 5]

从对body对改造中窥探现代“性”概念在中国的起源和发展。太监制度光环的消散伴随着西方科学认知对中国认知的入侵与改造，但本土固有认知也会被用来理解外来概念。在对性的认知彻底改变后，华语文化的marginal地区开始了自己在世界舞台上的（性别）现代性（反向）输出。第一章有很明显在致敬Ko。接下来三章科学史附带文化史，get a taste of history of science。其间利用报刊来分析popular views的手法值得学习。最后一章放飞自我...

[M S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring, very clearly a dissertation turned book. Some parts are good but many slog on and feel minimally relevant to the book.