Gentlemen, heroes, real men, disabled men: explorations at the intersections of disability and masculinity in contemporary China
This article advances new perspectives on disability culture in contemporary China. Using gender – specifically masculinity – as an “intersection,” it addresses key questions that both help to explain, but also further trouble, the way in which the “impaired” male body is both represented and lived...
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| Format: | Article |
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Brill
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50732/ |
| _version_ | 1848798325669625856 |
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| author | Dauncey, Sarah |
| author_facet | Dauncey, Sarah |
| author_sort | Dauncey, Sarah |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This article advances new perspectives on disability culture in contemporary China. Using gender – specifically masculinity – as an “intersection,” it addresses key questions that both help to explain, but also further trouble, the way in which the “impaired” male body is both represented and lived in China today. Although recent research across the disciplines is revealing more and more about pre-modern and contemporary understandings of, and responses to, disability in China, little is known about the way in which gendered identities intersect and interact with disabled identities. From “gentlemen” and “heroes” to “real men” and “disabled men,” this article examines dominant historical and contemporary images of masculinity and disability, and illustrates how they have come to frame the way in which disabled men have been viewed and view themselves. And, through the close reading of the memoirs of one young man, Zhang Yuncheng, it reveals the possibilities and limitations through which gendered behaviors are formed and enacted on an individual level when set against Chinese discourses of disability, normalcy, and gender. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:17:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-50732 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:17:59Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Brill |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-507322020-05-04T19:59:17Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50732/ Gentlemen, heroes, real men, disabled men: explorations at the intersections of disability and masculinity in contemporary China Dauncey, Sarah This article advances new perspectives on disability culture in contemporary China. Using gender – specifically masculinity – as an “intersection,” it addresses key questions that both help to explain, but also further trouble, the way in which the “impaired” male body is both represented and lived in China today. Although recent research across the disciplines is revealing more and more about pre-modern and contemporary understandings of, and responses to, disability in China, little is known about the way in which gendered identities intersect and interact with disabled identities. From “gentlemen” and “heroes” to “real men” and “disabled men,” this article examines dominant historical and contemporary images of masculinity and disability, and illustrates how they have come to frame the way in which disabled men have been viewed and view themselves. And, through the close reading of the memoirs of one young man, Zhang Yuncheng, it reveals the possibilities and limitations through which gendered behaviors are formed and enacted on an individual level when set against Chinese discourses of disability, normalcy, and gender. Brill 2017 Article PeerReviewed Dauncey, Sarah (2017) Gentlemen, heroes, real men, disabled men: explorations at the intersections of disability and masculinity in contemporary China. Nan Nü, 19 (2). pp. 357-384. ISSN 1568-5268 disability; masculinity; normalcy; identity; nanzihan http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15685268-00192p05 doi:10.1163/15685268-00192P05 doi:10.1163/15685268-00192P05 |
| spellingShingle | disability; masculinity; normalcy; identity; nanzihan Dauncey, Sarah Gentlemen, heroes, real men, disabled men: explorations at the intersections of disability and masculinity in contemporary China |
| title | Gentlemen, heroes, real men, disabled men: explorations at the intersections of disability and masculinity in contemporary China |
| title_full | Gentlemen, heroes, real men, disabled men: explorations at the intersections of disability and masculinity in contemporary China |
| title_fullStr | Gentlemen, heroes, real men, disabled men: explorations at the intersections of disability and masculinity in contemporary China |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gentlemen, heroes, real men, disabled men: explorations at the intersections of disability and masculinity in contemporary China |
| title_short | Gentlemen, heroes, real men, disabled men: explorations at the intersections of disability and masculinity in contemporary China |
| title_sort | gentlemen, heroes, real men, disabled men: explorations at the intersections of disability and masculinity in contemporary china |
| topic | disability; masculinity; normalcy; identity; nanzihan |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50732/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50732/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50732/ |