Friday, January 31, 2014

The Butterfly Lovers response

Painting of the Butterfly Lovers
image credit: letthejourneybegin.worldpress.com
Reading questions for "Is it Clothes that Make the Man?": What keywords did the author focus on and what conclusion did the author draw in the essay? What fascinates YOU most about the story of the Butterfly Lovers?

Please feel free to respond to the above questions (with quotes and page numbers) and raise your own questions for class discussion. Due Wednesday 2/5 by 10 pm, comments to two other responses due by 11:59 pm.

54 comments:

  1. The keywords that the author seemed to focus on was the phrase "crossdressing", particularly how it relates to females dressing as males as opposed to males dressing as females. (page 6, second paragraph) Another major keyword that the author focused on was "gender", and he made sure to highlight the distinct separation and difference between "gender" and biological sex. (page 8, second paragraph)

    I thought the most interesting thing in this story was on page 23 in the last paragraph where it tells about how zhu yingtai writes down the character for female for liang shanbo, except she writes it upside down. As a result of this, liang shanbo is unable to recognize what character this was. In many ways I thought this was a genius stroke of writing/story telling. In so many ways it reflects the gist of the story, both on a literal as well as metaphorical level. Besides that I guess I also found it interesting how this story has endured throughout the ages. It must have some reason for being so popular, so I feel that in some not clearly obvious way, this story says a lot of chinese culture and society and its attitude towards gender.

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    1. I was also really interested in the significance of the upside down character. It reminds me of the story behind the tradition of writing the character for happiness upside down on Chinese New Year.

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    2. I really like how you explained the use of the character being written upside down is a physical representation and metaphorical presentation of the role of cross-dressing in that society. It reflects how even things presented in-front of us are not as they seem. Sometimes you have to look at things differently to gain a greater understanding of what it is.

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    3. I also interested in the upside down part. As a Chinese, I think it is hard to write character upside down if write in stroke order. And if people write a character upside down in stroke order, I think it is hard to recognize too. After I read this part, I wrote a complicated character upside down and asked my roommate what it is. My roommate really couldn't recognize that. I found this is very interesting. As Davis mentioned the character for happiness upside down on Chinese New Year. In Chinese, "upside down" means “倒” and "倒“ has same pronunciation with "到", which means "come". So the reason why we write the character for happiness upside down is "happiness and good luck come".

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    4. I totally missed where Zhu wrote Liang's name upside down. That answers a few questions for me, and I think it means that their literal transformation into butterflies had more to do with shedding gender roles than true love.

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  2. The author repeats the keywords of gender, gender bending, and cross-dressing several times in the article. Clothes are only one part of the gender distinction, the others being the roles a person fulfills in life. The author comes to the conclusion that the attribution of gender is not in the person’s own hands but instead depends on other people’s recognition (p8). The early interpretations of the story suggests a reading in which love between the sexes does not play any significant role. Instead, the narrative was originally a story of disrupted male companionship (p27).
    I find it most interesting that the the epithet “righteous woman” or “faithful wife” is posthumously conferred upon the character of Zhu Yingtai, referring to fidelity in marriage (p11). Liang and Zhu have come to symbolize faith in marriage in modern popular culture, although, the two were never married in the story and actually loved another person outside of their engagement. It is also interesting that the butterfly aspect of the tale was a late addition. The author suggest that in the original Ningbo interpretation of the story, the male character Liang actually dies from the isolation of losing his best friend, rather than from losing the woman he loves. The author states, “what weighs most heavily to Liang Shanbo is the loss of a (male) companion. The classic ideal of intuitional friendship, termed as zhiji 知己('one who recognizes one’s self,' that is, a soul mate), was commonly reserved for same-sex male bonding, whereas a man-woman relationship was generally not regarded as equivalent to male friendship.” (p12) The addition of the butterfly motif was used to suggest a return to male companionship, not a unison of true love. The author discusses a negative passage from a Ming official in which the scholar states that Zhu’s cross-dressing is a against the Confucian ethical code (p17). Thus, modern culture has taken a story originally intended to warn against refusing and obscuring gender roles and has adapted the story into a Shakespearean romantic tragedy.

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    1. I think its funny how its apparent that through this story, there is much more to it than meets the eye and there are so many different hidden meanings, which is completely similar to how in the story itself, there is much more to zhu yingtai (dressed as a man) than meets the eye with regards to her physical appearance/attire.

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    2. I also thought it was interesting how Liang and Zhu have been romanticized by modern pop culture. It's funny how a tale about lost male-male companionship has turned into a story symbolizing eternal love.

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    3. I find it interesting as well that the butterfly metaphor was added later. It's almost as if someone saw the story and said "I can make this better".

      The butterfly is a great metaphor because it is something being reborn, as the couple were.

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  3. The author uses many different keywords in the paper; however the focus seems to be primarily on the terms “cross-dressing” and “gender”. The author discusses how “cross-dressing” played a role in these specific women gaining access into a male dominated part of society (page 180). This desire was referred to as “fantasies about women’s gaining access to the two complementary domains of masculinity”; referring to education and the military. The author’s focus was on gender roles and how they fit into pre-modern China. The author also mentions how “cross-dressing” was viewed very differently depending on the situation. On (page 171), the author discusses how a man impersonating a woman was viewed as a serious threat while a woman impersonating a man was viewed as “a forgivable deviation, as long as the temporary transgression of the borderlines of gender would be finally corrected”.

    What I found most interesting within this paper is the fact that the earlier versions discussed very little of “cross dressing”, however this factor played a much more significant role in the more modern versions of the story. I also found it interesting that in the earlier versions of the story Liang Shanbo was more disappointed about losing a male companion rather than coming to the conclusion that he would not be able to marry a woman who was already engaged with another man. This information is evident on (page 176) in the following passage; “What weighs most heavily to Liang Shanbo is the loss of a (male) companion”. This differs greatly from the more modern versions where the story is primarily viewed as a love story. Similar to the tale of the White Snake, the story evolved from ancient folk tales as early as Tang Dynasty which can barely be recognized as the source of the modern version. The content of the story and the main characters changed as time goes by in order to perhaps imply different meaning to different generations and to become appealing to a broader audience and readers.

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    1. The fact that love has become a much more important part of human relationships in modern times than it was in the past is a phenomenon that I find quite interesting. Friendship being being a far stronger bond than romantic relationships conveys a unique perspective that I actually find very wise.

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    2. I was also reminded of the White Snake tale. The theme of cross dressing remains the same in each version but the idea of a soulmate changes with what is popular for the time. The story began at a time when men completely ruled society and men would mainly be the ones to read such stories. So it makes sense that the emphasis of the soulmate theme was of a male to male companionship. Today, with the empowerment of women and a marketing to women’s taste, the story has changed its meaning to more of a love story or one of lost love from the woman's perspective.

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    3. "I also found it interesting that in the earlier versions of the story Liang Shanbo was more disappointed about losing a male companion rather than coming to the conclusion that he would not be able to marry a woman who was already engaged with another man" it is a really funny point.

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    5. I always find it very interesting to see how much the story is altered and twisted with the newer or older versions are shown. I agree with what you said about "cross dressing" being more prominent with the newer versions of the story.

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    6. Your last point about the story being altered to appeal to a broader audience I find very pertinent. It reminds me of pop (or in a broader sense- mainstream) music in America today. So often does A&R succeed in making an artist something that he or she is not.

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  4. The author uses the keywords cross-dressing and gender throughout the piece. He distinguished cross-dressing from transvestitism as cross dressing being female-to-male and transvestitism being male-to-female. He talks about how in a patriarchal society female-to-male cross dressing "[was] tolerated, even well accepted in pre-modern Chinese society." This was because it was viewed as dressing "up", going from a lower social class to a higher one, whereas male-to-female cross-dressing was viewed with much animosity because it would challenge the norms of the existing social hierarchy. The author defines sex as being determined by biological factors, whereas gender is based upon a society’s views on what is masculine and what is feminine. Gender is based upon such factors as the type of clothing, way of walking, and ways of interacting with other people. He says that it is the “reconfirmation by others that ultimately determines what category one belongs to;” that gender is based on the perception of those around you.

    What I found most interesting was that in pre-modern China, the equivalent for the term “soul mate” referred to male-to-male companionship, and that male-female relationships were not considered on the same social level. In pre-modern texts, when Liang Shanbo found out that Zhu Yingtai was a woman, he was greatly disappointed that he had lost a great companion and his extension of a marriage proposal was seen as an act of decency to recover Zhu Yingtai’s honor and his reputation for the misjudged relationship, rather than one of love. This story can be seen as a way to illustrate the incompatibility of female-male and male-male relationships, as their divergent desires (Zhu Yingtai’s desire for love and marriage and Liang Shanbo’s desire for male-male companionship) ultimately lead to their separation in this life. I also found the interpretation of Zhu Yingtai’s skirt being ripped off as she went into Liang Shanbo’s grave being an act of gender neutralization very interesting. Clothing was part of what made Zhu Yingtai a female in the eyes of society and once she was stripped of it she could join Liang Shanbo as a companion.

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    1. It is an interesting juxtaposition with regards to their views on soulmates. Although I admit it is also a bit of a confusing concept to me as well. I think its especially interesting considering that in modern american society we completely lack the concept of two males being soulmates. So perhaps this is why its such a difficult concept for me to get my head around. Then again, perhaps its merely a matter of semantics. What they would consider a "soulmate" would merely be a "best friend" to us. Likewise, surely our idea of a "soulmate" is a lot different than their idea of a soulmate.

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    2. As I was reading, I too thought about the male-male relationship and female-male relationship and how they were not on the same level. As I read, some believe that his death was due to when he found out that Zhu Yingtai was actually a woman.

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    3. I, too, found that the loss of a male companion was such a problem to this man rather than realizing that he could be best friends with a woman and marry her. Even though in the end he could not marry her. He could still remain her friend, male or female. It is sad to me that this is lost on the character and I think it is a reflection of the time period. Men and women can be friends and not have a sexual relationship. But in that time period, it was probably not something that happened. So I think he really felt that loss because there really was no other alternative.

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  5. The author focuses on three keywords in the article, those words being gender and cross-dressing. Special attention is given to the distinction between gender and sex; gender being associated with culture and social hierarchy, and sex being attributed to the physical body (pg. 6 paragraph 2). Gender is distinguished in this context by gender specific clothing, which has no influence over biological sex (pg. 8 paragraph 2). The author also defines his usage of cross-dressing for his audience. Cross-dressing is perceived as female-to-male cross-dressing while male-to-female cross-dressing is labeled as transvestism (pg. 6-7).

    The author draws several conclusions at the end of the reading and explores the reasons for Zhu Yingtai and Liang Shanbo’s troubled relationship. The oppressive ideology of Confucianism prevented Zhu’s free choice of a husband. Also, Zhu and Liang’s different socioeconomic statuses posed an issue when the male intellectual bond was broken and replaced by a lesser female/male bond. The last point the author makes is well summed up with this quote: “Zhu’s cross-dressing first of all signifies a problematic confusion of gender roles and ethical values. Her attempt to transform a male bond of schoolmates into a marriage relationship is bound to fail because it involves an impermissible confusion of ultimately incompatible roles and relations (pg. 29 paragraph 3).” Cross-dressing destabilized Liang’s perception of both gender and the contrived relationships between the sexes.

    The thing that struck me as most interesting about this reading was the symbolism of the scene where Zhu disappears into the tomb. “Zhu’s disappearance into the tomb signifies her intimate denial of female gender, as indicated by a motif introduced to Zhu Yingtai lore around the eleventh century, the act of shedding the female clothing, which was later fused with the butterfly motif to a symbol of transcendence (pg. 28).” The act of shedding female clothing physically representing the denial of female gender was particularly powerful to me. I feel like the shedding of female clothing at the entrance of the tomb symbolizes something a bit more than cross-dressing— ultimately rejecting ones biological gender in order to restore the male intellectual bond moves beyond the definition of cross-dressing.

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    1. I also found the symbolism in the scene where Zhu Yingtai went into the tomb very interesting. That their biological sex wasn't what made them incompatible, but their gender roles assigned to them by society as symbolized by their clothing.

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    2. I too found it interesting that when the skirt flew off of her as she entered the tomb that it was a sign of her restoring the male bond in the afterlife.

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    3. I made this similar point because it was also very interesting to me that in the afterlife, they were able to be friends because societal pressures would not have allowed them to be friends in life. That is ultimately a sad reflection on the state of the world and equality. That one would have to die to be together again. Very reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet.

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  6. The author seems to focus on cross-dressing vs transvestitism from a female-to-male transformation which illustrates the hierarchical roles between men and women in modern Chinese society. He also uses the word gender to describe how the evolution of the folklore has changed throughout history to fit the socially accepted standards of gender roles during that time period. This is greatly illustrated on pages 4-5 where the author describes how it is impossible to trace back the original texts of Zhu Yingtai back to their written form. It is explained that the only way to fill the “gaps” of the story by piecing in what is socially acceptable during that time period. On page 7 of the essay, the author discusses how the female cross-dressing to male is used to show the domain to which the modern Chinese woman can behave in a masculine society without crossing social boundaries or emasculating the male audience because the medium in which this is presented makes it ok by social standards.

    Last week we discussed how folktales in modern Chinese culture are prevalent as they change through time. This essay is a great representation about how cross-dressing can help us understand the roles between men and women without blatantly telling the audience this is how you behave as a man or woman in this society. In our society, we have come a long way with gender equality whether it is women leaders in the workforce or presenting stay-at-home dads. Many pioneers such as Martin Lawrence who played Sheneneh and Big Mama; Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire; and Tyler Perry as Madea have shown the importance of how cross-dressing can present gender roles in a particular society. Furthermore, we see in today’s society, more men cross-dressing to play the role of a woman. Although it is intended for comical purposes, there still exists that underlying message of the gender roles in modern day society. The medium has changed and the gender roles are reverse more often, but the evolution of folklore such as the Butterfly Lovers has created an art of changing and adapting these roles as our society changes.

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    1. I think women dressed story is the necessity of the era, because Chinese the culture of that era, the role of women has some limitations in many places, so they can only cross dressing to do something.

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    2. The notion that men and women are socially different is portrayed in all societies. Each gender is held at different standards, instead of on the same level that we are all "equal". It's interesting how you describe the way you perceived gender roles in this tale.

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  7. The Butterfly Lovers is a great story, it talks about beautiful and sad romace story, it is beautiful because the love between Liang and Zhu is pure and great, and it is sad because they did not have a happy ending. People call the Butterfly Lovers the Chinese Romeo and Juliet.
    In the first paragraph in the article, it mentions the story of Hua Mulan, which is another great story in China, it talks about a girl who dressed up as a man and went to war for her old sick father, and she actually did a good job. However, in the Butterfly Lovers, Zhu dressed up as a man and go to school with Liang, in order to learn knowledge, but she ended up falling in love with him, and she moved back to a women's life finally.
    The title of the article actually attracts me the most after reading the article. Just like I said in the last paragraph. Zhu ended up moving back to a women's life, so in my opinion, the clothes is not the thing that make a man, its the spirit, what if Zhu did not fall in love with Liang, and she became a politican at last? I believe the story would not have been so great and popular.
    Females are always considered lower in the society, even now, it is still the same thing, for example, when parents talk about their kids with others, people will ask if they have a boy or girl, if its a boy, the quetions will be about the kid's school or career achievements, and if its a girl, people will say, just find her a great guy with a great family.
    Speaking of cross-dressing, I have a lot of examples can support me saying that it is the spirit that makes a man. In the Chinese opera, cross-dressing is one of the terms. In 1992's Taiwan TV series-The White Snake, Taiwanese actress Ye Tong played the role of Xu Xian, it was cross-dressing, and I think she did a great job, because she had a great performance on details, the way males talk, the way they think,etc.

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    1. I like the story of Hua Mulan, because I think she was brave, she could pretend as a man, just because she love her father.

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    2. I like your mentioning of enduring popularity in modern culture. I think the point of the story in keeping with traditional and Confucian morals is that Zhu made a double transgression: a lesser vice by first cross-dressing to a male in order to move up in society, then the great sin of both wanting to revert to the female gender and holding an inappropriate relationship outside of marriage by revealing her sex to Liang. For the traditional audience, I feel her actions of political ambition to better herself would have been an adequate justification for cross-dressing. Such motivation would have been similar to Hua Mulan's military career for filial piety. The fact that Zhu acts the opposite for her love of Liang is what made the story so popular back then. To modern audiences, such ambitions might appear shallow and greedy and the Zhu's love has been upheld as a model of virtue.

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    3. I really love the comparison between Mulan and Zhu. I feel like while the stories are not the same they still had many similarities and you can easily relate the two.

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    4. "The spirit makes the man." Interesting statement...I tend to agree with this. Hua Mulan is a perfect representation of this philosophy. However, I wonder if "the spirit makes the woman."?

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  8. I like this article, especially I the stories in this article. I think in this article, the author expressed about the relationship between culture and female to the readers. In fact, in Chinese culture, women have a very important position.
    I like the story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. Because in this story of the heroine are very brave. In that age of China, women were not allowed to study in school, but Zhu Yingtai in order to be able to study; she put on men's clothes, and pretends as a boy in the college. Of course, Zhu Yingtai not only can do at this point, to she sacrifice herself because of love I like the character of Zhu Yingtai, because I think she is a brave girl, she want to have a free love and freedom of life.
    In this article, the author also told us another story: Hua Mulan. In this story, Mulan want to help her father, she disguised herself as a man, instead of his father to go to war. In fact, at that time, the woman was not allow to fight, but Mulan dare to challenge the culture of that age, I think she was a very brave woman.
    At 187, it shows “I have argued that Liang Shanbo’s continuous failure to recognize Zhu Yingtai’s female sex was due to his inability to perform a paradigmatic change of perception.” For my opinion why he could not recognize she is a female, because the old time Chinese culture was very traditional.

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  9. you mentioned that women were not allowed to study in school at that time, it makes Zhu dressed up as a man and go to school more sence,

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  10. I was very intrigued by the story of the Butterfly Lovers. I didn't know that crossdressing was so prominent in Chinese literature.

    Love (once again) has such a huge contribution to this famous story. While reading I found myself cheering Zhu on in her studies and her love. I found her very cunning and brave that she could pull off dressing as a man and having no one know find out her secret. I like how this story portrays woman has a force to be reckoned with and if there is something a woman wants she is not afraid to do whatever it takes until she gets whatever it was that she had her sights set on.

    Of course this story of lighthearted and determined romance has a tragic twist and turn to it. I wasn't very surprised by this, honestly. This is referring to when Zhu and Liang finally gotten together and declared their love for each other shortly after that she was put into an arranged marriage by her parents. This put Liang in a state of despair and it quickly sent him to his grave. Just when you think that it's all over and it will remain a tragic ending to this beautiful story, true love conquers all and fate intertwines the two forever as butterflies that can never be apart and making them eternal lovers. I loved this story and enjoyed the twists and turns along the way.

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    1. There are many famous love stories in China in several thousands of years, but Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai is my favorite one. I especially like Zhu Yingtai, I think you mentioned the reason why I like her. "I found her very cunning and brave that she could pull off dressing as a man and having no one know find out her secret."

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    2. It's intriguing the way you perceived the story through the notion of free love. I have a differing opinion of the story, more on the aspect of cross-dressing and deception. In regards to, the "Butterfly Lovers" being about true love.

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  11. I think the keywords that the author focuses on were Liang Shanbo, Zhu Yingtai, cross-dressing and gender play, especially for female-to-male cross-dressing and play man’s role. The conclusion the author draw is at the end of this essay, on page 191, “The early stage of the Zhu Yingtai narrative, as represented by the account presumably dating from the ninth century, suggests a reading in which love between the sexes does not play any significant role. As I have shown, the narrative originally was a story of disrupted male companionship.”(p.191, Roland)

    The most interesting thing for me is the reason why female-to-male cross-dressing. Hua Mulan dresses as a male soldier instead of her father to join the army. Zhu Yingtai left home and dresses in male clothes to attend school. In ancient China, people always “innocence is the virtue for women”, so women usually stay at home. Even women want to study, they had to study at home. The female-to-male cross-dressing point makes me think of another woman, Qiu Jin, which we studied in another Chinese course. She also dressed like man, but I think that she wears man’s clothes for call women to save themselves and demand women’s rights, etc. Another interesting point for me is Why Hang Zhou? We studied Zhu Yingtai, Qiu Jin and Gu Ruopu this semester, all of them have close relations to Hang Zhou.

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    1. I think your explanation of Hua Mulan and Zhu Yingtai and their different circumstances really brings to light how women's rights were very unequal. Not only were women not allowed to fight for their country but were also unable to receive a public education.

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  12. The keywords that the author focused on in “Is it Clothes that Make the Man?” were female-to-male cross-dressing and gender. The author really focused on this keyword. Female-to-male cross-dressing was a huge theme in the story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. This story talks about how Zhu Yingtai, a young woman, who dressed as a man left home to go to school. She shared a room with Liang Shanbo and they became very close friends. Liang Shanbo did not know that Zhu was a woman until she revealed herself as a woman to him at his house. Liang found out too late so they could not marry (pg. 166). They also talked about cross-dressing in the story of Hua Mulan, who dressed as a man so she could fight in war and become a military hero and dressed as a man to rise to high official rank. (pg. 180). The reason why woman dressed as men was so that they could move freely than what customs allow them too. (pg 173). Not only was cross-dressing a keyword, but so was gender. They refer to gender when they talk about cross-dressing. They talk about how women dressed “up” as men in terms of upgrading in social status (pg. 171). This clearly shows that gender is big part of social status. On page 172, they talk about how gender is an achieved status rather than a biological characteristic and is based on tasks performed and the significance of clothing.

    I thought that the most interesting thing in the “Butterfly lovers” was that some people believe the death of Liang Shanbo was the loss of a male companion (pg. 176). They talk about how a “man-woman relationship was generally not regarded as equivalent to male friendship, because the gap in social hierarchy and the spatial segregation of man and woman prevented them from interacting on the same level. There is a saying that says a gentleman dies for one who knows him (zhi ji), as a woman adorns herself for one who delights in her (le ji)” (pg.176). This stood out to me because it centers around the two keywords: cross-dressing and gender. It goes to say that gender plays an important role in Chinese lifesyle. If you are a woman, you are not seen as a companion to a male unless you are a male. A male to male bonding is greater than a woman to male bonding. Since Zhu Yingtai dressed as man, Liang Shanbo became good friends and then when he found out that his good friend was actually a woman, he fell to his death, as some people believed.

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    1. I like the second paragraph. Very odd that those two relationships are different in people's minds. In modern america that is a very foreign thought to many people, especially in modern generations.

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  13. The author focused on the keywords "gender" and "cross-dressing". The author came to the conclusion that much like the white snake story, the retelling's of the story showed much about the intention of the people rewriting it. Also interesting was the author's conclusion that female cross-dressing was not really seen as a threat in China as long as it was temporary and a means to an end (p.171). More interesting was the reasoning behind it: that female cross-dressing only confirmed that patriarchy was in place.

    What fascinates me most about the Butterfly Lovers is that the story features such a strong female lead. Not only that, she is denying the Patriarchy, and this is a very popular story. It surprises me that a story such as this would make it into the Chinese mainstream from the era it came out of.

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    1. The author doesn't seem to go into much detail about Yingtai's motivation towards "denying the patriarchy". It's more likely that the same re-writers portraying her as decietful would also portray her as holding to free love, maybe female scholarship, as motivation.

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  14. The author focused on some powerful and divisive words. The main theme of the essay, to me, seemed to revolve around the idea of "gender hierarchy". I thought the passage regarding the difference between male-to-female and female-to-male transformation to be the most intriguing. It's entirely true though, because even in today's society, women are frequently seen wearing male clothing, and nothing is thought of it. However, what we hardly ever see is a male wearing some sort of female clothing, as if doing so would harm this self-image of masculinity that society has placed on a pedestal. In pre-modern China, it was acceptable for women to dress as men in certain cases: "...the unofficial tales also included cases in which the motivation of cross-dressing women simply was to enable 'a more outdoor or exciting lifestyle from the one ordained for them as women' (Suthrell 2004, 16). (Attenburger, 6)."

    The most fascinating aspect of the story were the different interpretations of not only the ending, but of Liang's feelings. It's difficult to tell what exactly happened. Did Liang want to marry out of courtesy? Was he merely upset that he'd lost a male companion? If so, then why did he choose to marry Zhu? Does Zhu enter the tomb out of love or simply companionship? The butterfly could either be interpreted as a transformation of love or of shedding their traditional gender roles to enter a platonic relationship. I'll choose the path of love, out of my own selfishness, because a love-story-ending is just so much more enjoyable and heart-warming for me.

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    1. I completely agree with the first paragraph regarding the acceptance in modern times of women cross-dresssing as men but not vice-versa.

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  15. One keyword that the author focused on was cross-dressing. It was used to describe how Zhu Yingtai was able to hide her true identity of being a woman while in school. “Cross-dressing relies on make-believe, on deception, on the willful manipulation of perception.”(pg.172) The perception that is given off by men, or women when cross-dressing is that they are hiding their true identity for a particular gain. He refers to women being cross-dressers, but never to the account of men doing the same. Which he describes as “the question of gender hierarchy” (pg.170).

    In the “Butterfly Lovers” story one’s true gender, and becoming someone’s soul mate is the main focus. Whether Zhu Yingtai was Liang Shanbo’s soul mate is questionable. Zhu was portrayed as Liang’s true male companion, until he realized that Zhu Yingtai was a woman. This realization changed his perception of Zhu, and seeing her as his companion changed into him seeing her as his potential wife. The author comes to the conclusion that cross-dressing is used as misrepresentation. Like in the “Butterfly Lovers”, the entire story is based on perception, and gender roles.

    This story fascinates me because it shows how gender roles were portrayed in pre-modern China. Women were set as a “lower” class in regards men. The notion that men and women are equal was not apparent in the Butterfly Lovers, being that Zhu had to deceive others to get what she wanted. “Zhu Yingtai stands for female emancipation, equal rights for both sexes, as well as faithfulness in marriage.” (pg.167). Zhu Yingtai did what she ultimately had to do, by cross-dressing to receive a particular gain.

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    1. I agree, and on pg 29 he says "Her attempt to transform a male bond of schoolmates into a marriage relationship is bound to fail because it involves an impermissible confusion of ultimately incompatible roles and relations."

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  16. The keywords that the author seemed to focus on the most were cross-dressing and transcendence. The author stated many times that the story of the butterfly lovers was a narrative of the pre-modern acceptance as well as interest in a character who was able to convincingly cross dress in order to go to school and then fall in love with a school mate. The author shows that gender bending is somewhat acceptable in this way whereas a man dressing as a woman would have been seen as more of a slight to masculinity. But for a woman, it was as if men would not be angry or intimidated by a woman cross dressing. As if it were adorable, like something a child would do. As it is stated: "Female to male dressing up was seen as dressing "up", as an upgrading in social status and hence as a willful transgression towards power and freedom". (Altenburger, 171) It was seen as a woman trying to be better, like a man. Whereas a man dressing up as a woman was seen as a downgrade. This, I believe, is why this story was able to survive and thrive. Because it is based on a woman trying to be like a man, this gives the male readers something to be proud of. Whereas, because it shows a woman trying to be like a man, it shows women that in order to be understood or focused on in society, one must do "man" things. This gender identity crisis is at the core of this story. The one thing the man was sad about upon finding out the man was a woman, was that he had lost something. The companionship he felt only he could have with another man. As if he could not have this companionship with woman. I think the conclusions that the author made from this is that it is a story more of a loss of companionship and the sorrows that the man felt when he could not have that friendship any longer. Her transcendence into the tomb signifies her "ultimate denial of female gender". (Altenburger, 192) According to the author, the story is mainly about gender identity and what it means to be male or female. To me this is fascinating because gender stereotypes are so unfortunately important even in today's society that people strictly impose them on our children. For men and women to be so unequal that one must change their identity to fill some purpose, is sad to me. In the story of Mulan, the character becomes a famous war hero all because she dressed up like a man to do so. She would not have been able to had she not dressed like a man. It saddens me that even though we have come very far, things like this could still happen. To a lesser extent, of course. In that women still have to dress more manly and curtail their feminism in order to be noticed or taken seriously, in some cases. This is what struck me most about this story.

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    1. i agree with you, cross dress in order to go to school and then fall in love with a school mate because women in China was not allowed to attend to school, and if there a party(something like that), women does not allowed to show up. do you think that fall in love with school mate is likes college student fall in love with each other.

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  18. Some of Altenburger's key words in this piece are cross-dressing, gender, sex, femininity, masculinity, attire, male, and female. Perhaps gender is the keyword possessing the most depth in this piece as Altenburger discusses gender as it relates to sex, identity, and role or character. It is interesting that this piece perceives most re-tellings of The Butterfly Lovers as "a story of disrupted male companionship," rather than a story of tragic separation between two fated marital and/or sexual lovers (pg 27). On page three he claims the “politically correct reading of this narrative continues to hold that Zhu Yingtai stands for female emancipation, equal rights for both sexes, as well as faithfulness in marriage,” but most versions of Shanbo and Yingtai view Yingtai as the deceitful subject and Shanbo the victim. Altenburger even includes a scholar of the late nineteenth century chastising Yingtai as anti-Confucius (pg 17).

    The author makes it a point to uncover and analyze gender as it has been historically-culturally defined. He stresses the tendency of of this tale to emphasize gender as defined by clothing and appearance, not quality of character or nature of relationship. For example, “despite the anticipated revelation, his gender image of Zhu Yingtai has not yet been adjusted. It takes her physical appearance as a feminine person, in women’s dress, for him to change his perception” (pg 21). The butterfly metamorphosis symbolism is intriguing and quite an artful addition to the tale. "The act of shedding the piece of female clothing at the moment of entering the tomb strongly indicates that Zhu Yingtai symbolically transcends her female sex and reverts to the former gender relationship between male fellows," (pg 15). But this seems a relatively recent attempt to redeem past gender biases (of the culture out of which this tale was formed) to contemporary definitions.

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  19. The author of “Is it Clothes that make the Man” focuses a lot on cross-dressing and gender in the piece as well as its role in Chinese society. Right at the beginning, on page 166, it says “Zhu Yingtai clearly emerged as the protagonist of this narrative, whereas her male companion Liang Shanbo remained in a secondary position”. The reason this holds so much significance is that although it focuses a lot on cross-dressing with a female as a male, it still holds the standard that men are superior to women. The authors over time have tailored the story to fit the times that they are retelling it in to either favor the female as the lead role, or it has the male as superior. It demonstrates the same themes over time as White Snake, which is very interesting. I also find it interesting that this theme is one that crosses over into literature in other cultures. A story about love that seems hopeless and ends in tragedy can be seen in a story such as Romeo and Juliet. To me that carry over of themes in literature across cultures is a very interesting topic.

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  20. I am very interested in the story of the Butterfly Lovers, and it also very interesting and popular in China nowadays.
    I think key words that the author focus it cross-dressing and free love at that time which was in page 6, second paragraph, and he also made sure to highlight the distinct separation and difference between "gender" and biological sex in Page 8, second paragraph. The author also mention that how cross-dressing was viewed in page171 (books page).
    I found it is very interesting that is the symbolism of the scene where Zhu jumps into the tomb. “Zhu ying tai (祝英台)’s disappearance into the tomb. Also there is one thing I think it was different in our book it said Zhu (祝英台)and Liang(梁山伯) they two share a dorm, because of I have read the original books when I was I high school which it said all the student they sharing a room. I mean it was just a tiny detail, nothing serious, maybe the version problem. Overall I think Zhu and Liang lay the foundation of China’s free love.

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    1. my grandparents also told me this story, when i was a little boy. they even did not went school, they did not how to write, but they do know this story. this story has long influence to each generation.

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