Maidservant has been a staple character in Chinese stories where a lady is caught up in incidents of romances and desire. Despite being similarly subject to portrayal as objects of desire, the maidservants were often further subject to additional stereotypes due to their inferior social status. This talk chiefly investigates the narratives about maidservant characters in the late Ming erotic novel Langshi 浪史 (Chronicles of the Libertine), an idealised erotic tale noted for the vulgarity and adaption from other texts. Treating the text as a product romanticising literati fashion, this paper investigates the roles and image painted by the writer, the implied expectations and exploitation of maidservants, and the underlying prejudices towards maidservants as a gendered lower social class as revealed in the novel.

Dr Cheuk Yee Wai obtained her DPhil in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford in 2023. She holds an MPhil in Gender Studies and BA in Religious Studies from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her general research interests revolve around representations of the erotic, females and taboos. She is currently working as Junior Postdoctoral Researcher for the TEXTCOURT project.