The Erotics of Castration

The figure of the eunuch continues to fascinate the popular imagination in contemporary China, as evidenced by the pervasive metaphors of castration and eunuchism in public discourse as well as an astonishing range of fictional works featuring eunuchs as romance heroes. This article traces how eunuchs are depicted as desiring subjects in palace intrigue dramas, and then turns to a subgenre of web romance novels known as “eunuch fiction” and their television adaptations, where the castrated body serves as a site of intrigue and tension. Analogous to the literal mutilations within these narratives, figurative acts of excision are frequently performed on these works themselves under censorial pressure, leading to the widespread use of the term “castration” as a metaphor for censorship. Informed by scholarship on eunuchism, disability studies, and censorship studies, this article proposes the concept of an “erotics of castration” to illuminate the contours and implications of eunuch-themed fiction and drama. Through analyses of web novels and television series in this subgenre and their audience reception, I explore how the bodies in and of these works train our gaze on their “castration,” and how this seemingly compromised state contributes to their titillating appeal and generative potential.