This volume is based on papers first presented at the Gender Studies Workshop at Fairbank Center at Harvard University in April 2017 and April 2018. I am deeply grateful to colleagues at the Fairbank Center for their generous financial, intellectual, and logistical support of these and other meetings of the Gender Studies Workshop. I thank all the workshop participants and organizers, especially Eileen Chow, whose perspectives were woven into some of the arguments in the following chapters. The comments from the anonymous reviewers were very helpful. Stephanie Carta’s guidance was important for steering this book through production. I thank the Princeton Art Museum for permitting the use of the image on the cover. The final editing of this volume was done during a year of sabbatical leave supported by the National Endowment of Humanities and Harvard University. I acknowledge their support with immense gratitude. Ellen Widmer was one of the founders of the Gender Studies lecture series at Fairbank Center and a pioneer in scholarship on gender in Chinese studies. This volume is dedicated to her to honor her contribution, for there is no tribute more fitting than a volume devoted to friendship, gender studies, and Chinese literature, all areas in which she has been a source of inspiration.