為何乾旦在展現男同性關係的現、當代華語作品中一再出現？本文認為，近世作品中，乾旦並非唯一用來展現男同性關係的人物類型，但相對其他人物類型而言，乾旦在展現男同性關係（male same-sex relations）的作品中地位特殊，這與其在晚明以來的大眾文化中的「可見性」（visibility）息息相關。乾旦獲得這個地位一方面歸因於作為視覺文化重要形式的戲劇文化的繁榮。另一方面，由於出版、印刷業的繁榮和物質文化的發展，通過小說、詩歌、花譜、報紙、廣告、戲曲雜誌等渠道，乾旦形象得以視覺形式（版畫插圖、照片、廣告等）及文字形式（小說、詩歌、花榜、報導、花邊新聞等）抓住大眾「視線」，並長久停留在集體文化記憶中。男同性主題的作品在五〇年以后從大眾文化圖景中淡出，但在八〇、九〇年代當男同性關係表述再次得以出現的時候，乾旦扮演了關鍵角色。把近世中國視覺文化與男同性關係的表述放在一起研究，既有助於我們探詢近世主流視覺文化形式的變遷，也有助於我們理解這些變遷下男同性關係表述及想像的發展變化。

How should we understand the frequent appearance of the figure of the male dan in modern Chinese-language representations of male same-sex relations? This paper holds that this is partly due to the strong visibility this figure enjoyed in the late imperial Chinese culture scene. On the one hand, his visibility had to do with the flourishing theater culture in Ming-Qing China; on the other, the booming print and publishing culture of this period also enhanced the visibility of this figure, who was frequently featured in works of a wide variety of the genres and forms, both visual (e.g. illustration, photography, and advertisement) and literary (e.g. novel, poetry, guidebook entry, newspaper report, and tabloid article). As a result, this figure continued to linger in the collective memory of Chinese-speaking societies. By deliberately bringing visual culture and representations of male same-sex relationships together, this paper seeks to trace the development of visual forms in popular culture from late Ming to the early Republican era, and at the same time how the changes shaped the visualizations of male-male relations.