This book offers queer readings of Chinese Qing Dynasty zhiguai, ‘strange tales’, a genre featuring supernatural characters and events. In a unique approach interweaving Chinese philosophies alongside critical theories, this book explores tales which speak to contemporary debates around identity and power. Depictions of porous boundaries between humans and animals, transformations between genders, diverse sexualities, and contextually unusual masculinities and femininities, lend such tales to queer readings. Unlike previous scholarship on characters as allegorical figures or stories as morality tales, this book draws on queer theory, animal studies, feminism, and Deleuzian philosophy, to explore the ‘strange’ and its potential for social critique. Examining such tales enriches the scope of historic queer world literatures, offering culturally situated stories of relationships, desires, and ways of being, that both speak to and challenge contemporary debates.

Scholarly Contribution:

• This book makes a significant contribution to the fields of queer studies, Chinese literature, animal studies, feminist theory, and Deleuzian philosophy, providing a unique and innovative approach to understanding the zhiguai genre.
• It encourages new ways of reading historical texts that are deeply interwoven with contemporary critical theories, expanding the scope of global queer literatures.