Past Events

Sociology Department Colloquium (CANCELED)

Co-sponsored by Rutgers Center for Chinese Studies, Institute for Research on Women, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, Asian American Cultural Center, Center for Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities, American Studies, and Tyler Clementi Center

Abstract:
Situated in the current sociological debate of non-western modernities in general but queer Asia studies in particular, this paper compares and contrasts sexual identities of young gay men in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China through 90 in-depth interviews of such men in three locales (Hong Kong, Taipei and Shanghai) during 2016 to 2017 (n=30 in each). It shows how these three Chinese locales, each has its own disjunctive path of modernity, exhibit different ways of being ‘gay’ and being ‘Chinese’ by examining the relationship between sexual and cultural identities and their intertwining effects under the thesis of sexual citizenship. Using ‘Asia as method’, the paper offers a critique to the Western model of sexual emancipation and gay identity/citizenship formation and provides an example of ‘connected sociologies’.

Bio:
Dr. Travis S.K. Kong is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong. He teaches media and culture as well as gender and sexuality. His research expertise includes homosexuality, prostitution, and transnational Chinese sexualities. He is the author of Chinese Male Homosexualities: Memba, Tongzhi and Golden Boy (London: Routledge 2011) and the co-editor of Sexualities: Studies in Culture and Society (2013-). To date, his publications have appeared in international journals such as Urban Studies, The Sociological Review, British Journal of Criminology, Gender, Work & Organization, Qualitative Research, Culture, Health & Society, Body & Society, Lancet and AIDS Care.