【新書座談 Book Launch】 Sexuality and the Rise of China

Speaker / 江紹褀 Travis Shiu Ki Kong
(Associate Professor, Sociology / the University of Hong Kong)
Review / Sara Friedman
(Professor, Gender Studies / Indiana University)
Host / 呂青湖 Lake Lui
(Associate Professor, Sociology / National Taiwan University)

Date / 2023.06.15
Time / 12:30-14:00
Place / College of Society R108

Abstract /

In Sexuality and the Rise of China (Duke, 2023) Travis S. K. Kong examines the changing meanings of same-sex identities, communities, and cultures for young Chinese gay men in contemporary Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China. Drawing on ninety life stories, Kong’s transnational queer sociological approach shows the complex interplay between personal biography and the dramatically changing social institutions in these three societies. Tracing the alternately diverging and converging paths of being young, “Chinese,” gay, and male, Kong reveals how both Western and emerging inter- and intra- Asian queer cultures shape queer/tongzhi experiences. Most significantly, at this historical juncture characterized by the rise of China, Kong criticizes the globalization of sexuality by emphasizing inter-Asia modeling, referencing, and solidarities and debunks the essentializing myth of Chineseness, thereby decolonizing Western sexual knowledge and demonstrating the differential meanings of Chineseness/queerness across the Sinophone world.

 

*The book talk will be conducted in English.

 

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