EEC Florida Scholars Speaker Series

"Dress as a Political and Gendered Symbol in Accounts of Pre-Tang and Tang Women Rulers"

Clothing and other forms of personal ornamentation were important markers of identity since early antiquity in China. Whereas pre-Qin through Western Han sources tended to emphasize the ritual and hierarchical significance of dress, materials from the Eastern Han (25–220 CE) and later periods also indicate an abiding concern with the socio-political and moral consequences of women’s clothing, hairstyle, and other ornamentation. After introducing the range of early attitudes to dress, this lecture focuses on several case studies of pre-Tang and Tang women political figures demonstrate the development of historical and omenological traditions that used gendered accusations of inappropriate or ominous dress to symbolize or criticize rule by women.

Dr. Rebecca Doran is Associate Professor of Chinese in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Miami. She received her Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. Her research explores gender and sexuality, women’s literature, and historiography in the Chinese tradition. Her recent book is entitled Transgressive Typologies: Constructions of Gender and Power in Early Tang China (Harvard University Asia Center Press. 2017).