| Sumario: | The article discusses "The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China," a book that provides a comprehensive social, cultural, and legal history of transgender lives during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The author, a Qing legal historian, examines the "cross-dressing predator" paradigm, which portrays male-to-female transgender individuals as violators of laws and sexual predators, and highlights the entrenched stereotypes that influenced legal proceedings. The book employs a diverse range of sources, including legal documents and newspaper accounts, to explore the complexities of gender and sexuality in late imperial China, while also questioning the appropriateness of applying contemporary terms like "transgender" to historical contexts. Overall, it aims to fill significant gaps in the understanding of gender variance in premodern Asian history.
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