Facilitated by Louisa Schein (Anthropology, Rutgers), Ying-Chao Kao (Sociology, Virginia Commonwealth University), and Wei Wei (Sociology, East China Normal University)
How to distinguish gender from sex in Chinese? How to grasp that across the Chinese world, gay is frequently glossed as tongzhi, the historical Maoist term for comrade? Can the word for intimate union, "hun(yin)" - which is incommensurable with "marriage" - enable re-imagining a wider range of unions? Translations from English may pose challenges, but vocabularies for gender and sexuality abound in Chinese and are lenses onto Chinese social life.
Come join members of the Chinese-English Keywords Project (CEKP) in a lively discussion of what Chinese words can tell us about dynamics of gender and sexuality in China. Basic knowledge of Chinese will be helpful for participation.
The CEKP is a global and growing network of scholars interested in conceptual gaps that emerge when key terms migrate between English and Chinese. Representing fields such as anthropology, sociology, literature, politics, geography, and media studies, participants are based in China, the U.S., Europe, Australia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
For more information on the CEKP, please contact Louisa Schein at
