“Mirror, Mirror, Who Held the Power After All?”: Rethinking Sex and Gender in Ancient China through the Lens of Bronze Mirrors – In Chinese archaeology, bronze mirrors are often interpreted as distinctly feminine objects associated with beauty, domesticity, and women’s spaces. These assumptions extend beyond the artifacts themselves, shaping how archaeologists interpret entire burials. Mirrors, hairpins, and ornaments are used to assign female identity to the deceased, while weapons or inkstones are taken as clear signs of masculinity. These interpretations often rely on a rigid gender binary and conflate gender with biological sex. 

CSWS research fellow Yuan Fang draws on a database she developed from over forty years of excavation reports published in Kaogu, China’s leading archaeology journal, to challenge these assumptions. Her analysis reveals overlooked cases such as Fu Hao, a Shang dynasty general and queen buried with both weapons and mirrors. This talk examines how rethinking the conventional gender assumptions in Chinese archaeology can open up new understandings of gender identity and power in ancient China.

Yuan Fang is a Chinese international PhD candidate in anthropology whose research examines gender and social hierarchies through bronze mirrors in ancient China. She earned a BBA in Business Analytics and Information Systems (BAIS) and Finance from the University of Iowa and an MA in archaeology from Cornell University.
 

12–1 p.m. Friday, May 30, 2025  |  330 Hendricks Hall |  1408 University Street, Eugene