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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
Dr Hongwei Bao is a queer East Asian scholar, writer and poet. He works closely with queer and Asian communities in the UK and internationally to raise awareness of issues of identity, community, rights and social justice. He is the author of Queer Comrades: Gay Identity and Tongzhi Activism in Postsocialist China (NIAS Press, 2018), Queer China: Lesbian and Gay Literature and Visual Culture under Postsocialism (Routledge, 2020), Queer Media in China (Routledge, 2021) and Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance (Routledge, 2022). His flash fiction won the Second Prize for the Plaza Prizes for Microfiction in 2023. His poetry collections include The Passion of the Rabbit God (Valley Press 2024) and Dream of the Orchid Pavilion (Big White Shed Press 2024).
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 LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) people in China in the first two decades of the twenty-first century.
