Since 1990s, there has been a change in focus in western language and gender scholarship from gender variations to discourses as sites of gender construction. Theoretically, this turn was inspired and supported by social constructionist and post-structuralist views on gender; methodologically, it was manifested largely by the transition from a preference for quantitative correlation analyses to that for localized qualitative analyses. Most discourse and gender studies could be seen as driven by two kinds of concerns, one on the production and circulation of gender norms, and the other on gender performance. The former is mainly taken up by critical discourse analysts, while the latter by researchers of different backgrounds, including social linguistics, CA, DP, CDA and FPDA. A comprehensive review of these studies can help scholars at home develop discourse and gender studies in Chinese contexts.