Noting that ethnographic records point to gender as an important theme in young children's daily lives, this study examined how Taiwanese children experienced the issue of gender in their play and outside of play in their preschool life. Research methods for this ethnographic study incorporated extensive video recording of naturally occurring daily preschool activities over three successive Spring semesters. Participating were 16 children attending a private preschool serving a working-class community in rural Taiwan. Findings were examined separately for official play time, nonofficial play time, and classroom time. Findings indicated that during official play time, some boys occasionally policed themselves from playing with girls, yet at other times engaged in play with girls. During pretend play sequences in the official play time, children pretended to be boyfriends and girlfriends and acted out situations of teasing. Gender boundaries to interaction were less obvious during non-official play times than during official play times. During classroom time, boys and girls interacted frequently with one another and did not seem concerned about gender segregation most of the time. Cross-gender friendships were common, but cross-gender friends did not make their friendship salient during official play time or during classroom group activities when choices were known to other children. Cross-gender friendships were under pressure of being accused of being romantic relationships, especially during the L year (equivalent to kindergarten in the U.S.) and more often among boys than among girls. Children talked about their current and future male-female relationships in their daily life, with talk becoming more serious in the L year and including topics such as dating and marriage. Children displayed a complex understanding about male-female relationships in different kinds of play time and inside and outside of play, with their interaction patterns linked to two cultural membership categories: a group member and a gendered person. (Contains 14 references.) (KB)