The GLBTRT has been reviewing books and movies in its newsletter since the early 1990s. Trace the evolution of queer publishing through these historic reviews. This review was originally published in Vol. 4, No. 3, Fall 1992.
This fascinating book is a novel based on the life of a young man during the last dynasty of China. The man, known as a hsiang-k’ung, or boy-actress, enacted the parts of women on stage. Offstage, the hsiang-k’ung were also trained in literature, intellectual games and the sensual arts, and they served the personal needs of noblemen, who vied for their affections.
This particular young man, Pei-Yu, rose to fame as a singer and actress-actor. The story is told by George Soulie de Morant, a French novelist of the turn of the century who lived in China during the final years before the republic. The author writes, “In this work I wanted to portray the souls of the actors, the souls that were of an often admirable nobility … ”
This book is highly recommended for libraries with an established gay/lesbian collection, or for any library wishinglo take a wonderful journey into another time and place, of tastes and passions of classes of people long forgotten by contemporary China.
Reviewed by David R. Hardee
Student, University of South Carolina
College of Library and Infonnation Science
Columbia, SC
