“Ballad of a man named Li”: courtship of a celebrity drag queen and a poor scholar immortalized in 18th c. poetry

Part 2 of “Li Guiguan and Bi Yuan: a celebrated Qing Dynasty gay romance”

In the previous post, poet and historian Zhao Yi (1727-1814) gave us a glimpse into the homoerotic theater scene of China’s capital through his book Miscellaneous Records from the Sunny Eaves, a compendium of news about government, military affairs, foreign relations, civil service examinations, folk customs , the arts, and more.