Becoming and Unbecoming Manchu: Revisiting the Role of the State in Manchu Identity Formation During and After the Qing
2: Onomastics and Gender: The Making of Manchu Women through Chinese Language in Official and Private Texts
Friday, March 25, 2022
3:30pm – 5:00pm EST
Location: Virtual
Virtual Paper Presenter(s)
CZ
Chengyi Zhou
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Writing Manchu names in the Chinese language during the Qing dynasty involved constant setting and blurring of identity boundaries using language as a medium of performance. The process is conventionally examined through state-centered historiography. The paper challenges the hegemony of the state in determining Manchu women’s identity through “correct” names and name documentation. It probes how identity expression for Manchu women went beyond state influence. This study first examines state-commissioned biographies of eminent Manchu women in the Gazetteer of the Eight Banners (Baqi tongzhi) and argues that this text suggests that Manchu as a communal identity was constructed differently for men and women. Women’s names were subject to a distinctive process of standardization in Sinophone writing (rendering non-Chinese/Han names using Chinese characters). The state attempted to consolidate gender by using feminine homophones in rendering women’s names and later systematically replaced them by lineage names, so that all Manchu women became ladies/mistresses of their natal clans (shi). The paper then turns towards names of Manchu women writers and how they were recorded in privately composed biographies. It shows not all women were nameless and their names were not necessarily differentiated from those of Manchu men with markers of feminine gender. Moreover, they adopted the Chinese language and literary tradition in naming to express individuality beyond the state ideal. Altogether, the paper shows the hidden pictures behind the curtain of a state-centered approach and values the understanding of identity expression beyond official texts.
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