Beyond the Strai(gh)ts: Transnationalism and Queer Chinese Politics (Positions East Asia Cultures Critique)

This special issue asks what it means to be queer in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in an increasingly transnational world. Essays by a range of activists, artists, public intellectuals, and scholars consider how closer relations with the West have become integral to perceptions of gender and sexuality within China and how transnationalism has affected Chinese pop culture, social mores, and politics. “Beyond the Strai(gh)ts” explores what constitutes Chinese politics and the ways that these politics shape and are shaped by queer lives as transnational formations.
Bringing together essays from Asian America, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China, this issue looks at everyday images of queer people in China and perceptions of those images. Comparing queer politics in Taiwan and China, other contributors show how realities in these two separate queer communities often differ from perception. One article presents an image of an emergent queer culture in China that runs contrary to the bleak picture of state persecution of homosexuals that dominates Western media. Another argues that Taiwan’s government has suppressed dissident sexualities to promote its image as a liberal-democratic nation-state. Other topics addressed include AIDS prevention in China and gay men’s ambivalence toward “money boys,” young male hustlers in contemporary Beijing. As a whole, the issue questions why the United States continues to shape queer theory and queer culture in both China and Taiwan and asks to what extent the U.S.-China-Taiwan context is an effective site for transnational queer politics and theory.