Reinventing Licentiousness: Pornography and Modern China

306 Pages·2020·12.631 MB·English

by  Y. Yvon Wang

REINVENTING LICENTIOUSNESS

REINVENTING
LICENTIOUSNESS
PORNOGRAPHY AND MODERN CHINA
Y. Yvon Wang
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Ithaca and London
Copyright © 2021 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review,
this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any
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House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.
Visit our website at cornellpress . cornell . edu.
First published 2021 by Cornell University Press
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Wang, Y. Yvon, 1986– author.
Title: Reinventing licentiousness : pornography and
modern China / Y. Yvon Wang.
Description: Ithaca [New York] : Cornell University Press,
2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020016079 (print) | LCCN 2020016080
(ebook) | ISBN 9781501752971 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9781501752988 (epub) | ISBN 9781501752995 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Pornography— Economic aspects—
China— History—19th  century. | Pornography—
Economic aspects— China— History—20th  century. |
Pornography— Social aspects— China— History—
19th  century. | Pornography— Social aspects— China—
History—20th  century. | Sexology— China— History.
Classification: LCC HQ472.C6 W35 2021 (print) |
LCC HQ472.C6 (ebook) |
DDC 306.77/1095109034— dc23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2020016079
LC ebook rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov
/ 2020016080
Cover image: A spider demon image from a cigarette
wrapper, circa 1930s. From the personal collection of
Li Desheng.
To all the missing masturbators

Contents
Acknowl edgments ix
Note on Terms, Units, and Illustrations xiii
Introduction: A Chinese History
of Pornographic Modernity 1
1. Challenging Yin Hierarchy: Late Imperial
Antecedents of the Global Modern
Pornographic Turn 23
Part One: A Globalizing Market Transforms
Sexual Repres ent at ions 57
2. Commodifying Licentiousness in a
Time of Flux: The Material Dimensions
of Global Modern Pornography 61
3. The Implied Masturbator Speaks:
Technologies and Markets Catalyze
Transformations in Yin Ideology 89
Part Two: Global Modern Pornography Raises
Reactions and Contradictions 123
4. Sex(ology) Sells: The Marketplace
Assimilates Global Modern Innovations 125
5. Plus c’est la même chose: Reinventing
Licentiousness for a New Age 154
Conclusion: From Yin to “Yellow” 190
Notes 211
References 243
Index 279

Acknowle dgments
It feels surreal to be writing these acknowl-
edgments after reading them in other p eople’s books for so long. What t hose
authors don’t always mention is how scary drafting such a document is: there
is such a large number of people who have helped me during the years of
researching, writing, and revising this book that I am already haunted by
thoughts of whom I might be forgetting to thank before I even begin.
With the caveat that this is bound to be an imperfect roster of my debts, I
must start with my gratitude to the incredible teachers I have had. As an un-
dergraduate at Prince ton, Sue Naquin’s tough love and Janet Chen’s generos-
ity made me realize that I, too, could try doing this for a living. I was beyond
lucky to be guided by Matt Sommer at Stanford, where he set me on this quest
for the history of Chinese pornography by coming up with the snappy phrase
“yin Beijing” (and where he taught me much through his example about how
to be a better scholar, mentor, and person). Tom Mullaney’s insight and cre-
ativity w ere truly inspirational for this proje ct. Kären Wigen and Haiyan Lee
have been unstinting in both their support and their critiques, even years a fter
I left Palo Alto’s quiet groves.
At Stanford, I found a f amily among my Chinese history comrades. Gina
Anne Tam, Alex Statman (honorary Sinologist), Philip Thai, Wes Chaney, Josh
Brett, Jon Felt, Andrew Elmore, Koji Hirata, Meiyu Hsieh, and Quinn Javers
have truly been, like siblings, “dear as my hands and feet.” They’ve never gone
easy on me intellectually and have never turned away in a moment of need.
Beyond the China hands, Hannah Marcus, Catherine Chou, Annelise Heinz,
Maki Dobczansky, Anna Whittington, Sayoko Sakakibara, and Brian Kim
taught and continue teaching me new ways to think and to spit- take with
laughter. Fellow students and faculty who attended my pres en ta tions at the
Gender History Workshop allowed me a chance to air my (in retrospect, ex-
tremely) fledgling ideas. James Gerien-C hen, Victor Seow, and Maggie Greene
have been trea sured confidants and meme- swappers from hundreds if not
thousands of miles away. Nate Cira walked with me through valleys that felt
like they could not be any darker and celebrated with me on sun-s trewn peaks.
ix
x Acknowle dgments
My colleagues in Toronto have given Canada and its five solid months of
serious winter the warmth of home. They’ve cheered on this proj ect even
when I had very little cheer about its future, and I’m not sure I can ever fully
pay back the innumerable f avors they’ve done me of reading drafts, making
much-n eeded suggestions, and offering equally needed reassurance (plus much
more than their share of delicious meals). Tong Lam and Li Chen have dem-
onstrated via their own work the breadth and innovation poss ib le in our shared
field. My “classmates” on the tenure track, especially Lucho van Isschot, Lau-
rie Bertram, Brian Gettler, Anup Grewal, Tamara Walker, Cindy Ewing, Shana
Ye, and Yurou Zhong, have all been indulgent listeners and astute advisors;
Alison Smith, Nhung Tuyet Tran, Doris Bergen, Carol Chin, Lynne Viola, Tak
Fujitani, Nick Terpstra, and Yiching Wu welcomed me to the brave new world
of professoring and have been superlative advocates and guides, within and
outside the history department. The conveners and attendees of the depart-
ment’s writing group, the Critical China Studies workshop, and the Historical
Studies of East Asia colloquium have all had a part in stimulating my thinking,
as have the thoughtful, inquisitive students I’ve had the privilege of teaching.
Many organi zations and individuals made the completion of this book pos-
si ble. Grants from the Whiting Foundation, the Stanford Center for East
Asian Studies, the Freeman Spongli Institute for International Studies, the Clay-
man Institute for Gender Research, the Connaught Fund, and the Canadian
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council allowed me to travel to Asia,
visit archives, and accumulate a hoard of books that, if I am being completely
honest, I would need to become a vampire to fin ally finish reading. I was hon-
ored to be a visiting student at the Institute of Modern History at the Aca-
demia Sinica in Taipei, where Huang Ko-wu, Sean Lei, Yu Chien-m ing, Marlon
Zhu, and Jen- der Lee sympathetically supplied my harried self with research
leads and thought-p rovoking questions. Peggy Wu, always above and beyond,
hosted me in a beautiful apartment and received overdue archival reproduc-
tions on my behalf. Andrea Goldman, Dongfang Shao, David Chang, and Deng
Jianpeng helped link me to an amazing network of scholars based in both the
People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong, among whom Mao Liping, Lu
Yingkun, Ding Rui, Guo Xiaoling, and Sun Yanjing assisted me with access to
archives, introduced me to other colleagues, and fought with me over dinner
bills. For long months during which the Air Quality Index in Beijing routinely
soared to “crazy bad” levels, Emily Baum put up with me in our small shared
apartment— sorry again for those disastrous soups.
I am grateful for the professionalism of the staff at the First and Second
Historical Archives of China, the Beijing and Shanghai Municipal Archives, the
Academia Sinica libraries and archives, the Academia Historica, the National