[Filmfestivalresearch] new publication: Queer Comrades: Gay Identity and Tongzhi Activism in Postsocialist China

[H. Bao]

Dear members,

The following book, with a chapter on travelling queer film festivals in
China, will be of interest to film festival researchers, I hope./

All the best,

Hongwei

*Bao Hongwei (2018) Queer Comrades: Gay Identity and Tongzhi Activism in
Postsocialist China. Copenhagen: NIAS Press. 265 pp., ISBN
978-87-7694-234-2 (hardback), ISBN 978-87-7694-236-6 (paperback) uld like
to hear from us when a particular book is published, please let us know by
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e-mail you as soon as the book becomes available.*

This exploration of gay identity and queer activism in the People’s
Republic of China today is more than a study of ‘queer China’ through the
lens of male homosexuality; it also examines identity, power and
governmentality in contemporary China, as shaped by China’s historical
conditions and contemporary situations. This book offers in-depth analysis
of recent queer history and contemporary cultural texts, including the
processes by which queer theory and activism was introduced and received in
the PRC, the transformation of Shanghai’s queer spaces, leading queer
filmmaker Cui Zi’en life and works, and personal diaries written by gay men
receiving conversion therapies. It also presents rich ethnographic data
gained from fieldwork conducted in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou's urban
gay communities and documents queer public cultural events such as the
Shanghai LGBT Pride, the Beijing Queer Film Festival, the China Queer Film
Festival Tour, as well as a clash between cruising gay men and the police
over the use of public space in the People’s Park, Guangzhou.

This book also offers a queer Marxist analysis of sexual identity and
social movements in contemporary China, where ideological negotiations
between socialism and neoliberalism are constantly played out in the
formation of public cultures and intimate spheres. In doing so, it
critically assesses the role of Marxism and China's socialist legacies in
shaping sexual identity, queer popular culture and political activism.
Although the first of its kind from a cultural studies perspective, this
interdisciplinary study speaks to scholars working in disparate fields
including anthropology, sociology, media studies, film studies, political
theory, and Asian Studies.

*CONTENTS*

Acknowledgements

Notes on Translation and Transliteration

1.      Introduction: Queer Comrades

2.      Imagined Cosmopolitanism: Queer Spaces in Shanghai

3.      From Comrade to Queer: A Genealogy of *Tongzhi *

4.      How to Transform the Self: Lessons from Conversion Therapy

5.      Cui Zi’en the Queer: Portrait of A Filmmaker

6.      ‘To the People’: Travelling Queer Film Festivals

7.      ‘Comrades Are Also People’: T*ongzhi* in Mobilisation

8.      Conclusion

Bibliography

Filmography



*About the author: *

Hongwei Bao is Assistant Professor in Media Studies at the University of
Nottingham, UK. He holds a PhD in Gender and Cultural Studies from the
University of Sydney, Australia.

*For further information*

http://www.niaspress.dk/books/queer-comrades

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Queer-Comrades-2018-Postsocialist-Gendering/dp/8776942368/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr
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