the named and the nameless gender and person in Chinese society RUBIES. WATSON-University of Pittsburgh In Chinese society names classify and individuate, they have transformative powers, and they are an important form of self expression. Some names are private, some are chosen for their public effect. Many people have a confusing array of names while others are nameless. the theory and practice of personal naming in Chinese society is extremely complex and unfort nately little studied For the male villagers of rural Hong Kong, naming marks important social transitions: the more names a man has the more " socialized" and also, in a sense the more"individuated he becomes To attain social adulthood a man must have at least two names but most have more. By the time a male reaches middle age, he may be known by four or five names. village women, by contrast, are essentially nameless. Like boys, infant girls are named when they are one month old, but unlike boys they lose this name when they marry. Adult women are known (in reference and address) by kinship terms, teknonyms, or category terms such as"ol woman In Chinese society personal names constitute an integral part of the language of joking, of asting and of exhibiting ones education and erudition the chinese themselves are fasci- nated by personal names: village men enjoy recounting stories about humorous or clumsy names, educated men appreciate the elegance of an auspicious name, and all males worry about the quality of their own names and those of their sons. to a large extent women are excluded from this discourse. They cannot participate because in adulthood they are not named, nor do they name others. Until very recently the majority of village women were illit- erate and so could not engage in the intellectual games that men play with written names Women were not even the subjects of these conversations The namelessness of adult women and their inability to participate in the naming of others highlights in a dramatic way the vast gender distinctions that characterize traditional Chinese culture. The study of names gives us considerable insight into the ways in which gender and person are constructed in Chinese society. Judged against the standard of men the evidence presented here suggests that village women do not, indeed cannot, attain full personhood. The lives of men are punctuated by the acquisition of new names, new roles, new responsibilities d new privileges; womens lives, in comparison, remain indistinct and indeterminate Personal naming provides an insight into the construction of gender and person in Chinese society. The process of naming marks important social tra Chinese men: the more names a man has the more socialized and also, in a sense the more individuated he becomes. By contrast, married women in rural China are essentially nameless. If personhood is a process of social growth, judged against the standard of men, the evidence presented here suggests that Chinese women do not, indeed cannot, attain full personhood. Naming, gender, person, literacy the named and the nameless 619