top of page

Introductory Note to Queer and Media

酷兒與媒體簡介

From 1949 to the end of the Cultural Revolution, “homosexuality” as a taboo word was rarely mentioned in the public sphere in China. In the 80s, when the Chinese government aimed to develop its modern sexual sciences, homosexuality was allowed to be discussed in science as “sexual perversion” and “sexual abnormality.” However, except in the psychological and medical fields, homosexuality was still a taboo in public discussion.

 

The 1990s saw the emergence of some alternative studies on homosexuality beyond psychology and medicine. Take Li Yinhe and Wang Xiaobo’s Their World published in 1992 as an example example. It was the first book on homosexuals in China from a sociological perspective. At the same time, some active gays and lesbians in Beijing began to organize activities and gradually built up a homosexual community. However, at that time, the terms “tongzhi” and “ku’er” (queer) had not yet traveled to the homosexual community in mainland China.

 

“Before the Chinese terms tongzhi and ku’er gained currency in LGBT communities in recent years in China, they had become popular in Taiwan and Hong Kong in the 1990s, especially in the media and literary scenes. For example, the 1991 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival had a tongzhi section that showed gay-themed movies. Since its inception in 1989, the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival has continued to deploy the term tongzhi in its Chinese name. Pride parades in both Hong Kong and Taiwan are also named tongzhi youxing. Tongxinglian, literally meaning ‘same-sex love,’ was replaced with tongzhi in order to resist the stigma attached to tongxinglian in Taiwan in the early 1990s. Subsequently, the term tongzhi ‘has become a theoretical engine for generating a prolific body of scholarship’ (Yue 2014: 149)” (Tan 2017: 141). 

 

At the end of the 1990s, through exchanges with the gay and lesbian organizations in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the homosexual activists in China became familiar with the word “tongzhi” and introduced “tongzhi” to the Mainland community. It thus replaced “homosexual” and became the popular term for self-identification. Since then, it has become a popular word within the homosexual circle and even in the mainstream media in China. Hongwei Bao (2011: 134) points out that, the reference to “tongzhi”, which means “comrade”, shows that socialist subjectivity is entrenched in contemporary China and the term “comrade” in the post-socialist context evokes “socialist longing for egalitarianism, social justice, and public intimacy.”

 

With regard to the traveling of the term “queer”, Tan Jia (2017: 142) points out that “in contrast to the academic interest in queer theory in Taiwan, queer theory has yet to be considered a legitimate area of study in academe in mainland China. The few Chinese books and journal articles published in China about queer theory are mainly translations of key readings of queer theory from the ‘West.’ Among the few exceptions are academic writings that use queer theory to analyze Chinese films. In comparison, English publications on China and queer theory have grown significantly in recent years”. For the circulation of “queer” within the tongzhi community in China, the Chinese term “ku’er” was explicitly used after 2007 in China. It was introduced and mainly used by LGBT film and video directors, lala activists (lesbian, bisexual and transgender women in China), some feminists, and in film festivals. For example, Beijing Queer Film Festival (Beijing Ku’er Yingzhan) [1]; China Queer Independent Films (Zhongguo Ku’er Duli Yingxiang Xiaozu) founded by a group of LGBT artists, critics, activists, [2] and fans to screen queer films and videos across the nation; and Queer Lala Times (Ku La Shibao), an e-journal launched by a group of lesbians and queer women [3] are all dynamic cultural platforms for queer-related discourse, discussions, and debates.

 

在中國建國以後到文革結束之前,「同性戀」一詞作為禁忌鮮少出現在公共話語中。80年代以後,中國逐漸開放性科學研究,而「同性戀」作為一種「性變態」、「性異常」出現在中國的性科學討論中。但除了心理學和醫學會提到「同性戀」, 「同性戀」仍然是公共領域中的禁忌話題。

 

90年代開始,一些學者及專家開始從其他角度來全面討論同性戀議題,例如李銀河和王小波出版了中國第一部同性戀社會學著作《他們的世界》(1992)。與此同時,一些比較活躍的同性戀者在北京開展活動並逐漸建立同性戀組織和社區。當時,「同志」及 「酷兒」 這兩個詞在中國的同性戀社區並没有被廣泛使用。

 

「同志(tongzhi)及酷兒 (ku’er) 這兩個詞,先在90年代的臺灣與香港流行起來,後來才逐漸受到中國內地LGBT社區,特別是媒體和文學界的歡迎。1991年,臺北的金馬電影節中就設有一個同志電影項目,專門放映以同性戀為主題的電影。從1989年開始,香港的同性戀電影節就開始將同志這個詞發揚光大。香港及臺灣的驕傲遊行也命名為同志遊行。在90年代初的臺灣,『同性戀』是一個充滿污名化的詞,後來就被『同志』一詞就所取代,作為對同性戀污名的抗擊。自此,『同志』這個詞就『成為一個理論引擎,催生了大量的同志研究』(Yue 2014: 149) 」(Tan, 2017:141)。

 

90年代末,通過和香港、臺灣的同志組織進行交流,中國的同性戀活躍分子把「同志」一詞帶到國內的同性戀社區,而「同志」也取代「同性戀」成為國內同性戀者的自我認同和流行詞彙。Hongwei Bao (2011: 134) 指出,用同志作指涉表明了社會主義主體性在當代中國得以確立。Bao認為同志在後社會主義的語境裡喚醒了「對平等主義、社會公正和公共親密性的社會主義渴望」。

 

「酷兒」在中國的傳播方面,「與臺灣的酷兒學術研究熱不同,酷兒理論在中國大陸尚未被納入正式的學術研究中。國內關於酷兒理論的寥寥幾本中文書及文章主要是對西方重要的酷兒理論著作的翻譯。其中的特例是中國電影研究中對酷兒理論的運用。在最近幾年,關於中國與酷兒理論的英文文章卻已經大幅度增加了」(Tan, 2017: 142)。 在中國同志社區內,「酷兒」一詞則大約在2007年已經通過同志導演、影展、女同志組織、女權組織的熱烈討論,逐漸在中國LGBT社區中流行起來。例如,北京酷兒影展[1] 、 中國酷兒獨立影像小組(CQIF)(由LGBT藝術家、評論家、運動家及社區成員建立的與酷兒影像傳播相關的小組)[2] 、 由一群女同性戀及酷兒女性發行的網絡期刊《酷拉時報》等[3], 就激發許多與酷兒相關的話語、討論和爭辯。

 

 

Endnotes:

尾注:

 

[1] For the history of Beijing Queer Film Festival, refer to/關於北京酷兒影展的歷史,請參看:Tan, Jia. 2017. “Beijing Meets Hawai‘i: Reflections on Ku’er, Indigeneity, and Queer Theory.” GLQ 23, no.1: 137-50.

[2] Please refer to the page on “China Queer Independent Films” in this website/請參看此網頁 「China Queer Independent Films 」的介紹。

[3] Please refer to the page on “Queer Lala Times” in this website/請參看此網頁關於《酷拉時報》(Queer LaLa Times)的介紹。

  

References:

參考文獻:

 

Tan, Jia. 2017. “Beijing Meets Hawai‘i: Reflections on Ku’er, Indigeneity, and Queer Theory.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 23, no.1: 137-50.

 

Bao,Hongwei. 2011. “‘Queer Comrades’: Transnational Popular Culture, Queer Sociality, and Socialist Legacy.” English Language Notes 49, no. 1: 131–37.

 

Yue,Audrey. 2014. “Queer Asian Cinema and Media Studies: From Hybridity to Critical Regionality.” Cinema Journal 53, no. 2: 145–51.

 

李銀河,王小波. 1992. 《他們的世界》. 山西:山西人民出版社.

 

 

bottom of page