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ty or impersonation. First, male actors who impersonate female characters, and second, women who dress as men for the sake of transgressing into the public sphere that had traditionally been forbidden for women. The two Chinese films used to examine male impersonations of female characters are Farewell My Concubine (Bawang Bieji 1993) and Forever Enthralled (Mei Lanfang 2009). Both films are based on the historical practice of dan in Peking Opera. The main example of women dressing as men is Hua Mulan (2009), a live action movie based on a Chinese legend of a female warrior who disguises herself as a man to replace her father in the military service. Based on a close reading of the transgender performance in these Chinese films, my paper will examine the politics of gender and sexuality in the shifting contexts of Chinese nationalism. Brown University Year of China December 2, 2011