Gender Representation and Female Identity Transformation in Banqiao Miscellaneous Notes: A Study of Women's Cultural Practices in the Ming and Qing Dynasties

Yu Huai’s Banqiao Zaji, written during the Qing Dynasty, provides a vivid portrayal of the gendered cultural landscape along the Qinhuai River during the late Ming and early Qing periods. This article explores the representation of gender and the cultural practices of women as depicted in the text, with a focus on how they negotiated their identities within a patriarchal socio-cultural framework. Drawing from cultural sociology, it examines the formation of female subjectivity through literary engagement, social interactions, and emotional expression. The analysis highlights how these women accumulated cultural capital, reconstructed symbolic spaces, and subtly challenged dominant discourses through embodied practices. By emphasizing their identity transformations and everyday agency, this study sheds light on the underlying gender-cultural mechanisms of the era and offers a comparative perspective on Chinese and Western gender discourses.