Hongwei Bao

By: Hongwei Bao
Subjects: Asian Studies, Gender & Intersectionality Studies, Gender & Sexuality, Psychology

By: Hongwei Bao

Imagining the Rabbit God: Visualising and Hearing Queer East Asian Heritage  

This paper looks at how the mythical figure of the Rabbit God, often known as the patron saint of queer people in East Asia, is imagined by contemporary queer East Asian artists. Specifically, it examines two artists’ works: Whiskey Chow’s 2019 performance The Moon is Warmer than the Sun and Andrew Thomas Huang’s 2019 film Kiss of the Rabbit God. By creatively imagining and enacting what the Rabbit God may look and sound like, queer East Asian artists such as Chow and Huang trace their queer East Asian heritage and, in doing so, address contemporary social issues such as racism, migration, trauma and queer desire.

By: Hongwei Bao

'Offering in-depth analyses of a wide range of queer performance in the People’s Republic of China in the post-Mao era, Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance is an excellent project of queer theatre and performance in the contemporary PRC context. This interdisciplinary research makes a prominent contribution to the existing literature on LGBTQ identities and communities through the lens of performance culture. Ranging from theatre, performance art, music, photography, and digital media to social activism, the dynamic interplay between cultural texts and practices is closely examined to unravel the pivotal role played by performance in shaping contemporary queer public culture in China and the Chinese diaspora. 

'Bao’s analyses capture the creativity, enthusiasm and tenacity of queer artists and communities under ongoing social pressure. The author makes a cutting-edge and critical contribution to studies of Chinese queer culture through the lens of ‘soft activism’. For me, the powerful influence of cultural and social activities expands readers’ understanding of the confrontational type of queer politics across many Western contexts. The performative forms of queer activism are effective and empowering by attending to cultural and social specificities of contemporary China; they also construct a non-heteronormative, and sometimes even non-anthropocentric, space for both queer and queer-friendly people.'

(Dr Siyang Cao, Feminist Encounters)

By: Hongwei Bao

In this talk, Hongwei Bao will discuss his new book Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance (Routledge, 2022). In this pioneering study of queer performance in China and the Chinese diaspora from 2000 onward, Bao takes readers on an exciting journey to see and experience an eclectic range of spellbound performance: from urban black box theatre to pop-up performance art, from underground photography to choral music, and from feminist activism to queer digital art. Performance serves as a crucial way for LGBTQ people to imagine identity, community and politics. Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance brings together analysis of artworks and interview with cultural producers. It showcases the creativity, imagination and resilience of LGBTQ people in creating queer worlds; it also highlights the pivotal role of performance in global queer culture and activism. Situated in a contemporary, transnational, transcultural and transmedia context, the book demonstrates the productivity of thinking about queer performance out of the Western canon and along with media, technology, culture and politics.

Registration: https://cscc.sas.upenn.edu/events/2023/03/17/contemporary-chinese-queer-performance 

By: Hongwei Bao

Queer Chinese Voices is the first forum of its kind, organised by the Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture (IAC) at Western Sydney University in partnership with The China Studies Centre (CSC) at the University of Sydney. This online forum will be held on Tuesday 14 March 2023, 4 pm to 7.30 pm (AEST) in celebration of Sydney WorldPride 2023 – the first WorldPride in the Southern Hemisphere. The forum features prominent voices in art, literature and history, music, cultural studies and queer studies via keynote speeches and panel discussions by leading experts on LGBTIQA+ topics throughout the Sinosphere  (mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong), Australia and around the world.

Date: Tuesday, 14 March 2023

Time: 4:00-7:30 pm

Venue: Online https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/iac/events/queer_chinese_voices 

By: Hongwei Bao

In Queer China: Lesbian and Gay Literature and Visual Culture Under Postsocialism (Routledge, 2020), associate professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Nottingham Hongwei Bao returns with a theory-driven, methodologically-diverse, empathetic, and insightful analysis of LGBTQ literature and visual culture in postsocialist China. A thorough introduction positions Bao as a participant observer and explores key concepts including “postsocialist metamorphosis,” defined as “the transformation of subjectivity, desire and sense of belonging in the postsocialist era” (4). After exploring the history of homosexuality’s (re-)emergence in China’s reform era by tracing public, intellectual discourse, Bao counters the misperception that Chinese gay and lesbian identities are the result of the influence of global (Western) gay culture. Instead, he identifies a variety of gender and sexual subjectivities unique to China’s postsocialist conditions and historical context. Each chapter then explores rich case studies from queer China, touching upon a wide variety of cultural production types. From poetry to papercutting art, from comrade (tongzhi)/gay literature to girls’ love fan fiction, from lesbian films to activist documentaries, and from a drag show in Shanghai to a public performance of a same-sex wedding in Beijing, Queer China provides unique analysis and insights and also acts as an archive of queer cultural production in postsocialist China.

Listen to the interview here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/queer-china?fbclid=IwAR2ngqUwLuEXX69YuK-UMGBdzyLmVkGMqrPq_UOC0-2fCWeSx-dP9EvzMnA 

Laurie Dickmeyer is an Assistant Professor of History at Angelo State University, where she teaches courses in Asian and US history. Her research concerns nineteenth century US-China relations. She can be reached at [email protected].

By: Hongwei Bao

新书出版：《当代华语酷儿表演》

图书信息

Hongwei Bao, Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance. London: Routledge, 2022. 

ISBN 9780367500245 (精装本); ISBN 9781003048541 (电子书); 170 页 27张 黑白插图。(本书为英文版，暂无中文版)

https://www.routledge.com/Contemporary-Chinese-Queer-Performance/Bao/p/book/9780367500245

内容简介

《当代华语酷儿表演》一书梳理和分析了当代中国以及海外的华语酷儿戏剧和多种类型的表演艺术。该书聚焦千禧年之后出现的酷儿艺术、音乐、电影、戏剧和社会行动，着重强调表演在酷儿身份和社群建构中的重要意义。本书以酷儿表演为视角，批判和挑战以异性恋霸权为主导的社会关系和历史叙述。本书对传媒和文化研究、戏剧和表演研究、性别研究以及亚洲研究等学术领域都有着重要的贡献。

目录

第一部分: 展演酷儿记忆

• 像酷儿一般地生活： 任航的摄影作品
• 后社会主义的情感结构：在酷儿电影中出柜

第二部分： 酷儿行动的媒介化

• “用歌声温柔改变世界”：北京酷儿合唱团的酷儿声线
• 处在戏剧和纪录片临界点的酷儿表演：范坡坡的酷儿影像

第三部分： 酷儿跨文化交流

• 残酷戏剧：《东宫西宫》中的酷儿情欲展演
• 《关于我父母和他们的孩子》：跨文化文献剧场中的代际沟通
• 分享美食、脆弱性和亲密关系：疫情中海外华语酷儿的数字影像表演

作者简介

包宏伟，澳大利亚悉尼大学性别与文化研究专业博士，现任英国诺丁汉大学文化、媒体与视觉研究系媒介研究专业副教授，并任该校东亚文化研究中心主任。包宏伟博士兼任英国伯明翰城市大学华语视觉艺术中心客座研究员。

By: Hongwei Bao

‘This comprehensive book is one of the first scholarly works to capture the recent history, changes, and complexities of LGBTQ activism and practice-based media cultures (produced by, in, about, and for gender and sexual minority communities) in an increasingly globalized and digitized China. In a society and a scholarly world where queer Chinese women’s media practices and cultures are far less valued and critically appraised than those of their male counterparts, the attention Bao pays to both traditional and digital media and public spaces, carved out by queer women filmmakers and activists of the past several decades, deserves readers’ appreciation … This important academic source in queer Chinese studies will be useful for undergraduate and graduate courses on Chinese gender and sexuality studies, queer and feminist studies, global and transnational communication, and film and media cultures.’

Dr Jamie J. Zhao, in The China Journal

By: Hongwei Bao

July 23th, 12 pm BST/ British Summer Time (GMT +1), Jamie J. Zhao (NingboTech University) and Hongwei Bao (University of Nottingham), ‘Queer/ing China: An Emerging Field in the Study of Global Queer Culture’

projects include books entitled Queer/ing TV China, Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance, and Contemporary Queer Chinese Art, as well as a forthcoming special issue with the Journal of Chinese Cinemas on the topic of queering Chinese screen cultures. The projects share a commitment to documenting and theorizing various queer cultures in a transnational context, challenging conventional understandings of China and Chineseness, and internationalizing and decolonizing queer studies. In this talk, the speakers will map out the development and the main strands of queer Chinese media, popular culture, as well as visual and performing arts. The theorization and discussion of “queer/ing China” will point to promising directions for future research and open up critical conversations concerning how to mobilize cultural studies in globalized, digitized contexts and beyond disciplinary and methodological boundaries.

Bios: Jamie J. Zhao (PhD in Film and TV Studies, University of Warwick, UK; PhD in Gender Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, HKSAR) is a global queer media scholar and currently Honorary Professor and Director of the Center for Gender and Media Studies in the Department of Journalism and Communication at NingboTech University, PRC. Her research spans female gender and sexuality in East Asian and Chinese-language entertainment and pop culture in a globalist, digital age. She is the editor/co-editor of four anthologies and seven special issues on the topics of global queer cinema, TV, and fan cultures. She is the editorial board member of Communication, Culture & Critique and the International Journal of East Asian Studies, as well as Routledge’s “Transdisciplinary Souths” book series and Bloomsbury’s “Asian Celebrity and Fandom Studies” book series. Since 2022, she has served as the founding co-editor of the “Queering China: Transnational Genders and Sexualities” book series published by Bloomsbury.

Hongwei Bao (PhD in Gender Studies and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney, Australia) is currently Associate Professor in Media Studies and Director of the Center for Contemporary East Asian Cultural Studies in the Department of Cultural, Media and Visual Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK. He is the author of four research monographs in Chinese queer studies: Queer Comrades: Gay Identity and Tongzhi Activism in Postsocialist China (NIAS, 2018), Queer China: Lesbian and Gay Literature and Visual Culture under Postsocialism (Routledge, 2020), Queer Media in China (Routledge, 2021) and Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance (Routledge, 2022). He serves on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Chinese Studies, Chinese Independent Cinema Observer and the Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. He is a founding co-editor of the “Queering China: Transnational Genders and Sexualities” book series published by Bloomsbury.

By: Hongwei Bao