Construction of Female Gender Identities in John Adams’s Opera Nixon in China

Male, born in May 1983, is a lecturer of Department of Music of Sichuan Conservatory of Music. He graduated from the English Department of Wuhan University of Science and Technology with a Bachelor of Arts in English; he graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music with a master’s degree in musicology; he graduated from the Music department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a PhD in historical musicology. Since 2008, he has been teaching such courses as "History of Western Music", "Gender and Social Gender in Music" and "Introduction to Musicology Literature" in Sichuan Conservatory of Music. He has published and translated over 200,000 words.

The present study aims to clarify gender identity constructions of women characters in John Adams’ opera Nixon in China, which was premiered in 1987 and has become one of the most important contemporary western operas.

The authors of Nixon in China self-consciously refer to a landmark event involving both the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China, i.e. Nixon’s first visit to China in 1972, a significant political event that influenced both countries profoundly. While other themes can also be found in this opera, gender issues such as the identities of female characters and the power relations between male and female characters play central roles. My thesis therefore aims to tackle the gender identities of mainly the two leading female protagonists, i.e. American First Lady Pat Nixon and Chinese First Lady Chiang Ch’ing, as well as other female characters.