Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance

170 Pages·2022·22.611 MB·English

by  Hongwei Bao

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F Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies
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N CONTEMPORARY CHINESE
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QUEER PERFORMANCE
Hongwei Bao
Contemporary Chinese Queer
Performance
In this ground-breaking study, Hongwei Bao analyses queer theatre and per-
formance in contemporary China.
This book documents various forms of queer performance – including
music, film, theatre, and political activism – in the first two decades of the
twenty first century. In doing so, Bao argues for the importance of perfor-
mance for queer identity and community formation. This trailblazing work
uses queer performance as an analytical lens to challenge heteronormative
modes of social relations and hegemonic narratives of historiography.
It will be of great interest to students and scholars of theatre and perfor-
mance studies, gender and sexuality studies and Asian studies.
Hongwei Bao is Associate Professor in Media Studies at the University of
Nottingham, UK.
Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies
This series is our home for cutting-edge, upper-level scholarly studies and
edited collections. Considering theatre and performance alongside topics
such as religion, politics, gender, race, ecology, and the avant-garde, titles
are characterized by dynamic interventions into established subjects and
innovative studies on emerging topics.
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Steve Gibson, Donna Leishmann, Stefan Arisona, Atau Tanaka
The Celestial Dancers
Manipuri Dance on Australian Stage
Amit Sarwal
Marginality Beyond Return
US Cuban Performances in the 1980s and 1990s
Lillian Manzor
Staging Rebellion in the Musical, Hair
Marginalised Voices in Musical Theatre
Sarah Browne
Shakespeare and Tourism
Valerie Pye, Robert Ormsby
Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance
Hongwei Bao
Rapa Nui Theatre
Staging Indigenous Identities in Easter Island
Moira S. Fortin Cornejo
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Advances-in-Theatre–Performance-Studies/book-series/RATPS
Contemporary Chinese
Queer Performance
Hongwei Bao
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Hongwei Bao
The right of Hongwei Bao to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-50024-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-50027-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-04854-1 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003048541
Typeset in Bembo Std
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Contents
List of figures vii
List of abbreviations ix
Notes on translation, transliteration, and names x
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Part I
Performing queer memory 13
1 A queer way of life: Ren Hang’s photography 15
2 Postsocialist structures of feeling: Coming out in
global queer cinema 31
Part II
Mediating queer activism 45
3 ‘Gently change the world with singing’: Beijing Queer
Chorus and queer audibility 47
4 Performing queer at the theatre–documentary convergence:
Fan Popo’s screen activism 62
Part III
Enacting intercultural communication 81
5 Theatre of cruelty: Performing queer desire in East Palace,
West Palace 83
vi Contents
6 About My Parents and Their Child: Intergenerational
communication in transcultural documentary theatre 101
7 Sharing food, vulnerability and intimacy: The digital
performance of the queer diaspora in a global pandemic 120
Bibliography 136
Index 150
Figures
0.1 Crossdressing Chinese opera performer 1 at the
Shanghai Pride opening ceremony, 2009 4
0.2 Crossdressing Chinese opera performer 2 at the
Shanghai Pride opening ceremony, 2009 5
0.3 The Three Billboards performance art to protest
against gay conversion therapy, Shanghai, 2019 6
0.4 Trans celebrity and contemporary dancer Jin Xing 6
0.5 Drag performer at a CINEMQ event, Shanghai 7
1.1 Ren Hang in Beijing, June 2008 16
1.2 Chun Sue, photograph by Ren Hang for Moon
magazine, 2008 21
1.3 Photograph 1 by Ren Hang for Out magazine, 2013 21
1.4 Photograph 2 by Ren Hang for Out magazine 23
1.5 Photograph 3 by Ren Hang for Out magazine 23
1.6 Photograph 4 by Ren Hang for Out magazine 26
1.7 Photograph 5 by Ren Hang for Out magazine 26
1.8 Ren Hang and his friends at a party, Beijing, 2013 30
2.1 Handong and Lan Yu break up 39
3.1 Beijing Queer Chorus webpage on Weibo, screenshot,
10 February 2019 51
3.2 Beijing Queer Chorus in Japan, April 2019 57
4.1 ‘My short skirt is not an invitation’ 72
4.2 Forum theatre What Shall I Do? 76
5.1 East Palace, West Palace production, Hart Art Centre,
Beijing, 2005 88
5.2 East Palace, West Palace production, Star Live Theatre,
Beijing, 2009 91
5.3 The ‘one table and two chairs’ minimalist stage design
(From the East Palace, West Palace production, Star Live
Theatre, Beijing, 2009) 98
5.4 The candles and the Lego castle on stage (From the East
Palace, West Palace production, Star Live Theatre,
Beijing, 2009) 99
viii Figures
5.5 Ah Lan and his alter ego (From the East Palace, West Palace
production, Star Live Theatre, Beijing, 2009) 99
6.1 About My Parents and Their Child poster 102
6.2 Actors stand in front of a house 109
6.3 A scanline hits the actors 109
6.4 Zou Xueping talks to her mother 111
6.5 Actors experience modern Chinese history 116
7.1 ‘Learn German in my kitchen’ 123
7.2 The C Word digital performance (characters from left to right
and from top to bottom: Bea, Sue, Steve and Pat) 130
Abbreviations
AIDS Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
BDSM Bondage, Discipline, Sadism and Masochism
BQC Beijing Queer Chorus
CCMD Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders
COVID Coronavirus disease
GDR German Democratic Republic
HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus
ISBN International Standard Book Number
LGBTQ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer
MSM Men Who Have Sex with Men
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
PFLAG Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
PRC People’s Republic of China
SAPPRFT State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film
and Television
UNDP United Nations Development Programme