Past Events
This is the second part of a two-day event, "Encountering Queer China Through Film and Fieldwork." The first part, a presentation by Wei Wei, "Family Matters: Chinese Queer Politics around the Rise of a Family-State," takes place the day before. Click here for info about Wei Wei's presentation. Both events are open to the public. This is generously co-sponsored by Rutgers Global.
Films
1. "Mama Rainbow" (Fan Popo director, 2012, 28 mins.): 6 Mothers from all over China step up and speak out on their love for their gay kids
2. "Beer! Beer!" (Fan Popo director, 2019, 18 mins.): set in Berlin, Tao, a Chinese guy, meets Sebastian, a local German in this “anti-romantic comedy”
Respondent: Wei Wei
Bios
Popo Fan is a Berlin-based filmmaker, writer, and activist from China, where his queer documentary films have made a notable impact. Since 2016, he has concentrated on writing and directing scripted, sex-positive shorts. He is the founder of the Queer University Video Training Camp and has been an organizer of the Beijing Queer Film Festival for more than a decade. Popo was invited to sit on the jury of the Teddy Award of the Berlinale in 2019.
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.