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This book examines different forms and practices of queer media, that is, the films, websites, zines, and film festivals produced by, for, and about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in China in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. It traces how queer communities have emerged in urban China and identifies the pivotal role that community media have played in the process. It also explores how these media shape community cultures and perform the role of social and cultural activism in a country where queer identities have only recently emerged and explicit forms of social activism are under serious political constraints. Importantly, because queer media is 'niche' and 'narrowcasting' rather than 'broadcasting' and 'mass communication,' the subject compels a rethinking of some often-taken-for-granted assumptions about how media relates to the state, the market, and individuals. Overall, the book reveals a great deal about queer communities and identities, queer activism, and about media and social and political attitudes in China.
List of contents
Introduction
Part I. Contextualising queer community media
- Queer community media in China: an archaeology
- The ‘queer generation’: documentary filmmaking as social activism
Part II. Documenting queer history
- ‘Documenting comrades’: building a queer community archive
- ‘We are here’: the politics of memory in queer feminist history
Part III. Queer screen activism
- Toward depathologisation: Queer Comrades and community health activism
- Queer as catachresis: the ‘guerrilla years’ of the Beijing Queer Film Festival
Part IV. Queering international development
- ‘The lucky one’: the ‘pleasure principle’ in participatory communication
- The queer global south: minor transnationalism between China and Africa
Conclusion
About the author
Hongwei Bao is Associate Professor in Media Studies and Director of the Centre for Contemporary East Asian Cultural Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK.
Summary
This book examines different forms and practices of queer media, that is, the films, websites, zines, and film festivals produced by, for, and about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in China in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. It traces how queer communities have emerged in urban China and identifies the pivotal role that community media have played in the process. It also explores how these media shape community cultures and perform the role of social and cultural activism in a country where queer identities have only recently emerged and explicit forms of social activism are under serious political constraints. Importantly, because queer media is ‘niche’ and ‘narrowcasting’ rather than ‘broadcasting’ and ‘mass communication,’ the subject compels a rethinking of some often-taken-for-granted assumptions about how media relates to the state, the market, and individuals. Overall, the book reveals a great deal about queer communities and identities, queer activism, and about media and social and political attitudes in China.
