This is the first part of a two-day event, "Encountering Queer China Through Film and Fieldwork." The second part, a film-screening, will take place tomorrow. Click here for tomorrow's film screening. Both events are open to the public. This event is generously co-sponsored by Rutgers Global.
*This lecture will be accompanied by a screening of filmmaker Fan Popo’s documentary “New Beijing, New Marriage” (2009, 18 mins.)*
Abstract
LGBT activism in mainland China faces increasing challenges from the state in recent years. Drawing on decades-long research into Chinese LGBT communities and activism, the study situates challenges and responses of the LGBT communities in the changing social and geopolitical context of a rising China. On the one hand, the increasing regulation from the state further marginalizes mobilization around LGBT identity-politics. On the other hand, the newly emerging LGBT parent families utilize the opportunities of policy change to strive for the state’s recognition. The talk concludes with a discussion of Chinese homonationalism in the making, which may also have implication for queer politics beyond China.
Bio
Wei Wei is a Professor of Sociology at East China Normal University, and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard-Yenching Institute (2022-23) and Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, Brown University (2014-15). His teaching and research interests include gender and sexuality, urban sociology and social movement, with a focus on LGBTQ communities and politics in contemporary China. In addition to authoring two Chinese books Going Public: The Production and Transformation of Queer Spaces in Chengdu, China (2012, Shanghai Joint Publishing Company) and Queering Chinese Society: Urban Space, Popular Culture and Social Policy (2015, Guangxi Normal University Press ), he has published more than thirty articles in both English and Chinese peer-reviewed journals, including Feminist Studies, Culture, Health & Sexuality, Journal of Homosexuality, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, and Chinese Sociological Review.