Abstract
In the book Queer Comrades: Gay Identity and Tongzhi Activism in Postsocialist China, the author explores how queer identity and activism was formed and developed in the People’s Republic of China by focusing on three main cities, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai. All the fieldwork and interviews within the book were conducted between 2007 and 2009. The book also examines how historical conditions and current situations shape and influence Chinese national identity, power and governmentality. The author also combines Marxism with queer theory to explain social movements and queer identity in mainland China. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1, from Chapter 2 to Chapter 4, focuses on the emergence of Tongzhi identity and its possible articulations. Part 2, from Chapter 5 to Chapter 7, focuses on media and cultural activism.
Chapter 1 introduces some terminologies used within the queer community in mainland China. Such as 同志 (comrade), 酷儿 (queer) and 同性戀 (homosexual). Most gays and lesbians in China are known as 同性戀 or 同性愛, a direct translation of the English word homosexuality. The two words mean ‘same-sex love’. Despite the legal and medical connotations associated with 同性戀, many people nowadays still refer to themselves as 同性戀. Under the increasing influence of transnational queer culture in the 1990s, more terms emerged in China referring to same-sex subjects such as Tongzhi (同志, comrade) and Ku’er (酷兒, queer). 酷兒 is the literal translation of the English word queer and was first popularised in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Yinhe Li introduced the term queer to mainland China in her book titled Queer Theory (酷兒理論) which is China’s first book on queer theory. Queer is a term that is only popular in the realm of academia. Many people prefer to identify themselves as ‘gay’, ‘Tongxinglian (同性戀)’ or ‘Tongzhi (同志)’ in mainland China. This is because for people who are not ‘in the know’, Ku’er (queer) means ‘cool kids’ as what the two Chinese characters literally mean. After explaining the cultural and historical meaning of these three words, the author indicates that he would be using all three of the terms interchangeably in the book.
Chapter 3 further explores these three terms in much more detail and focuses more on the term Tongzhi. The term Tongzhi could be interpreted from two perspectives, the first is in a revolutionary sense, Tongzhi indicates a membership with the CPC. In the communist era, Tongzhi shares the same meaning as 人民 (the people) like in the saying 革命尚未成功， 同志仍需努力. (The revolution has yet to succeed, the people still have to work hard.) In the 1990s, more and more people started to use the word Tongzhi to refer to their sexual identity. Gays and lesbians were western constructed terms with their specific histories; they failed to capture the essence of Chinese sexual minorities.
Chapter 4 shifts the focus toward conversion therapy in postsocialist China. It also focuses on how governmentality and the role of gender and sexuality influence the formation of the self.
The second half of the book focuses on media and cultural activism. Chapter 5 presents a portrait of Cui Zi’en, China’s leading queer filmmaker, director, writer, and activist. By using Petrus Liu’s concept of Chinese queer Marxism, Cui Zi’en’s films and documentaries challenge the Eurocentric and American-centric queer theory and illustrate how queer identities are formed in China. Cui Zi’en uses his camera to illustrate his political opinion. Chapter 6 examines travelling queer film festivals in mainland China organised by young queer filmmakers like Fan Popo and Shitou. By going to the people and getting connected with the communities, they contributed to the construction of queer identities and communities. Chapter 7 starts off by looking at a clash between gay men and the police in Guangzhou. This case does not only show ordinary gay men’s online and offline self-mobilisation, but it also demonstrates how the internet and social media shapes gay identity and queer politics in mainland China. The chapter also reflects critically on the uses and limitations of western queer theory and queer activism in the Chinese context.
The book is a great interdisciplinary work that focuses on cultural studies, queer studies, Chinese studies, sociology and so on, touching upon different aspects of queer identity construction in mainland China. The book would be more in-depth if the author could focus on queer identity constructions in other cities. Not only focusing on Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou but also focus on second and third-tier cities, it would show how queer experiences differ between cosmopolitan and small cities. More importantly, like the author mentioned in the conclusion of the book, further research could focus more on how queer experiences differ between urban centres and rural areas in mainland China. Lastly, since the book mainly focuses on Chinese male queer population, further researches in the field could potentially focus on lesbian community in mainland China and how their identification might differ from 同志 (Tongzhi, comrade), 同性戀 (Tongxing’lian, homosexual) and 酷兒 (Ku’er, queer).
The book is well written, interesting and thoughtful and may be useful to researchers who are interested in queer identity construction, transnational gay identity, and media queer studies in contemporary mainland China.
