| This study examines Yin Yu Tang, a traditional timber-frame house built around 1800 C.E. in Anhui province, China, to show how its space and form defined female gender and identity. Moreover, this analysis proposes that repetition of traditional house form over time and region perpetuated a static female social role. It further considers the house as a foundational element of a larger social structure that differentiated not only gender, but all social roles to promote order in society. Finally, this thesis proposes that in addition to the interior/exterior dichotomy associated with the Chinese house, Chinese cosmology applied to Yin Yu Tang assigns center as male, and periphery as female space, with the associated notions of order and chaos, relative agency, and power. In exploring Yin Yu Tang, its center and periphery, interior and exterior, this thesis offers insight into how space shapes gender in traditional Chinese society. |
