This summer, I will be doing research in Monster Studies, an interdisciplinary field that analyzes the implications that monster figures in media have on the social consciousness of difference, societal boundaries and social categories, as well as the political and historical act of exclusion. My curiosity for the field and my personal background led me naturally to my research topic: the Feminine Monstrosity in Chinese Culture. 

Abstract

Throughout Chinese history, a vast body of literature featuring monsters has been produced, and there is a static pattern to how the monster’s gender impacts its characteristics. Female monsters, who in Chinese folktales are usually animal spirits deceiving others in a human form, are always created to be irresistibly seductive and horribly scheming and harmful— luring men to their beds and taking out their organs. Meanwhile, the scariness of male monsters comes merely from their violence or repulsive appearance. Sexuality and other expressions of femininity are warnings used to predict and produce the wickedness of females. Journey to the West, one of the four greatest Chinese literary classics, has male main characters who are good-willed and beloved animal spirits, while its most iconic female character is a skeleton-spirit demon (白骨精) who seduces men and eats them to remain youthful. The notion that femininity is a symbol of the danger of beauty and desires remains alive to this day. The character that means “monster” in Chinese (妖) has the word part that means “female”（女), and terms like 狐狸精 (fox-spirit demon), 妖精 (monster spirit), 妖里妖气 (behaving like a demon) are being regularly used in public and private discourses to connect women’s physical expressions to their perceived immorality. 

By analyzing Chinese works featuring monsters, my research attempts to investigate how the feminine monsters in old Chinese literature impact and remain in the infrastructures of contemporary Chinese society. There will be an analysis of the evolution of the folk legend, Tale of the White Snake, and its implications into the changing position of women throughout Chinese history. Essentially, the research introduces and explores the concept of feminine monstrosity and its role in reinforcing and creating misogynistic social structures.