Disgraceful matters
Subtitle: the politics of chastity in eighteenth-century China
By: Janet M. Theiss.
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 281
Subjects: Chastity; Women -- China -- Social conditions; China -- Social conditions -- 1644-1912
Other titles: Politics of chastity in eighteenth-century China
Description: "Looking beyond the familiar trappings of the cult of female chastity - such as hagiographies of widows and chastity shrines - in late imperial China, this book explores the cult's political significance and practical ramifications in everyday life during the eighteenth century. In the first full-length study of the subject, Janet Theiss examines a vast number of laws, legal cases, regulations, and policies to illustrate the social and political processes through which female virtue was defined, enforced, and contested. Along the way, she provides rich details of social life and cultural practices among ordinary Chinese people through narratives of criminal cases of sexual assault, harassment, adultery, and domestic violence."--BOOK JACKET
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-274) and index.