The Fragile Scholar examines the pre-modern construction of Chinese masculinity from the popular image of the fragile scholar (caizi) in late imperial Chinese fiction and drama. The book is an original contribution to the study of the construction of masculinity in the Chinese context from a comparative perspective. Its central thesis is that the concept of 'masculinity' in pre-modern China was conceived inthe network of hierarchical social and political power in a homosocialcontext rather than in opposition to 'woman.' In other words, gender discourse was more power-based than sex-based in pre-modern China, andChinese masculinity was androgynous in nature. The author explains howthe caizi discourse embodied the mediation between elite culture and popular culture by giving voice to the desire, fantasy, wants and tastes of urbanites.'--BOOK JACKET.