Queer Media in China

The Enigma of an Emerging Pink Economy in China: Pain Points, Entrepreneurial Opportunities, and Organizational Legitimacy1

“…When asked about the importance of collaborating with agencies affiliated to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Tao told me: “It’s because this can boost the brand image of our hostels […] We’re happy to collaborate with public‐welfare agencies such as those preventing HIV. But we don’t partner with other businesses.” As HIV/AIDS is a major source of the stigma attached to gay men (Bao 2021:105; Chang and Ren 2017:324), I was puzzled about why HIV/AIDS can bolster rather than tarnish the image of his business. He explained briefly, “From the government’s perspective … For reducing risk.” Developing partnerships with government‐sponsored HIV/AIDS organizations was a hedge against the potential risks associated with running pink businesses.…”

“…The earliest known gay bar in Shanghai can be traced back to 1995 (Zeng 2010). Beijing’s earliest gay bar dates from the same period: Although not originally intended for gay people, it was later appropriated by well‐to‐do lesbians and gay men (Bao 2021:193). Gay bars in the two metropolises were periodically closed by the police (Rofel 1999:459; Zeng 2010).…”

“…Gay‐themed content in any form is banned on screen; stigmatization and negative connotations are the norm on the rare occasions when homosexuality is discussed in the mainstream media (UNDP and USAID 2014:8, 12, 44). The general opinion that homosexuality is pathological is deeply entrenched, and the practice of “conversion therapy” is extensively documented (Bao 2021:104). A nationally representative survey conducted in 2013 reveals that 78.5% of respondents considered homosexual behavior “always wrong” and 6.4% selected “mostly wrong” (Xie and Peng 2018:1170).…”

“Queer/ing China”: Theorizing Chinese Genders and Sexualities Through a Transnational Lens

“…In 2020 and 2021 alone, four research monographs, including Queer China (Bao 2020), Queer Chinese Cultures and Mobilities (Wei 2020), Queer Representation in Chinese-language Film and the Cultural Landscape (Chao 2021) and Queer Media in China (Bao 2021), along with countless journal articles and special issues, have been published in a nascent scholarly field known as queer China studies. This field of research acknowledges the Western origin and cross-cultural appropriation of the term 'queer'; it also explores the term's boundary-transgressing, norm-defying potential in dismantling heteronormative structures in translocal and transborder Chinese-speaking contexts.…”

“…In this sense, queer China studies is deeply linked to and also extends the critical logics of queer Asian studies which has been established and developed since the early 2000s (e.g., Berry, Martin, and Yue 2003;Chiang and Wong 2017;Erni 2003;Grossman 2000;Luther and Loh 2019;Martin et al 2008;McLelland 2018;Sullivan and Jackson 2001;Wilson 2006;Yue 2014;Yue and Leung 2015) and queer Sinophone studies which has emerged since the early 2010s (e.g., Chiang and Heinrich 2014;Chiang and Wong 2020;Martin 2014). More importantly, queer China studies has seen a growing diversity, richness and critical depth of its own academic outputs in recent years (e.g., Bao 2018Bao , 2020Bao , 2021Engebretsen, Schroeder, and Bao 2015;Zhao 2020Zhao , 2022Zhao and Wong 2020;Zhao, Yang, and Lavin 2017). In this viewpoint essay, using 'queer/ing China' as a heuristic, we explore 'queerness' and 'Chineseness' through an intersectional approach that is attuned to the encounters, syntheses and dissonances of local, transnational and global queer and feminist studies, knowledge and movements.…”