Emily, Xiangxiang and Manna Clubbing, Dongguan, 2005
Zhang Hai'er
张海儿
Production date
2005
Object Detail
Media
digital C-type print
Measurements
100 x 67 cm
Notes
In the performing arts in China there is a long tradition of male to female cross-dressing: the character of the ‘male dan’ or nandan was important in Chinese opera. Using wigs, make-up, dramatic costumes, and stylised speech, song and movement, male performers metamorphosed into virtuous maidens, dowagers, prostitutes and female warriors. Although Zhang Hai’er was not making an intentional analogy, he says, ‘Thinking about it, perhaps I actually wanted to use photography as a pretext to push transvestites hiding in the dark out into the light, allowing them to become the nandan of actual society.’ Like the operatic divas, the cross-dressers in Zhang Hai’er’s photographs from the mid-1990s perform femininity and seduction in large prints characterised by highly saturated colour and theatrical lighting. Their bodies emerge from moody chiaroscuro; pale gleaming skin, lustrous silk and satin underwear, and glittering costume jewellery create a sensuous tactile siren song of desire and longing.
Accession number
2014.125