The Women of Quyi

Drawing substantially on original ethnographic fieldwork from the 1980s and 1990s, Lawson demonstrates how the women of quyi - a community of Chinese female singers in Republican Tianjin - successfully negotiated their sexuality and vocality in performance. Owing to their role as third-person narrators, the women of quyi bridged the gender gap in Chinese performance, creating an androgynous persona that allowed them to showcase their voices on public stages; places that had been previously unwelcoming to conventional female performers. This is a story about female storytellers who sang their way to respectability and social change by minimizing their bodies to allow their voices to be heard.

Francesca R. Sborgi Lawson

Prologue Introduction Chapter 1: The Female Voice and Body Problem Chapter 2: Literary Voices: Metaphysical Heroines Chapter 3: Musical Voices: Between Text and Tune Chapter 4: Liminal Voices: Transferring Artistry from Master to Disciple Conclusion: Masters of Liminal Space Epilogue