Constructing a New Sexual Paradigm Emergence of a Modern Subject

At the turn of the twentieth century Chinese sexuality underwent a metamorphosis, resulting in the replacement of a rich indigenous discourse by imported Western theories. This article traces the evolution of a modem subject and episteme emerging from the historical transformation in the area of same-sex relations and delineates the perspectives and values that clashed in the encounter of cultures. A key text the author examines is an official decree of 1912 that outlawed xiang-gong houses in Beijing, signifying the death of the custom of xianggong, which it condemned, in new Western terms, as decadent, immoral, and disgraceful. The study analyzes indigenous terms such as (mirror rubbing) and nanfeng (male wind) and compares them with their replacements, for example, tongxing and tongxinglian (homosexuality), to illuminate the differences in their social-historical sign cations. The author concludes that the Republican era witnessed the construction of a new sexual taxonomy centered on the dichotomy of heterosexuality and homosexuality.