Content uploaded by Amit Kama
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Amit Kama on Oct 09, 2017
Content may be subject to copyright.
1
Kama, A. (2017). Glocalization trajectories of LGBT identities and
politics in China: A review of Queer/Tongzhi China: New
Perspectives on Research, Activism, and Media Cultures, Journal
of LGBT Youth, 14(2), 237-240.
• http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2016.1264914
AMIT KAMA
1
Academic College of Emek Yezreel, Israel
Queer/Tongzhi China is a collection of essays that delve into the social, political,
and cultural circumstances of contemporary Chinese LGBT communities and
individuals. It sheds light on endeavors of a budding and fragile community to pave a
path for itself in the face of harsh political and social sanctions.
KEYWORDS book review, China, glocalization, Tongzhi
Wei's (2015) assertion regarding the “sad reality faced by gay men in present-day
Chinese society” (p. 202) exemplifies in a nutshell the overall (with minor exceptions)
atmosphere and conditions of Chinese LGBT communities and individuals that are
discussed in Queer/Tongzhi China: New Perspectives on Research, Activism and Media
1
Address correspondence to Amit Kama, Academic College of Emek Yezreel, Yezreel
Valley, 19300 Israel. E-Mail: amit8860@yahoo.com
2
Cultures. This collection of essays written by Chinese and European scholars and
activists sheds light on contemporary endeavors of a budding and fragile community to
pave a path for itself in the face of harsh political and societal sanctions. These
endeavors comprise goals—e.g., individual LGBT identity formation (including
coming out issues) and communal awareness—that seem to be more or less
accomplished in most Western societies, but face obstacles embedded within Chinese
socio-historical traditions and circumstances. Since the book is published in English
2
,
it is undoubtedly oriented towards non-Chinese readers, who may be intrigued and
fascinated to learn how taken-for-granted concerns and questions pertaining to LGBT-
identified peoples in the West have only recently been considered in mainland China.
Furthermore, the book delves into local interrogations and manifestations of imported
conceptions, such as LGBT identities, being in the closet and coming out, pride, and
resistance/activism.
Tongzhi (literally, “comrade”) was used during the Maoist period in mainland
China as an ordinary appellation and is still employed as a formal way of introducing
people. However, the term was appropriated by Hong Kong LGBT activists in 1989,
and since 2000 it has undergone a drastic change in popular usage and now frequently
refers to LGBT persons and communities (Engebresten & Schroeder, 2015; Yip Lo
Kam, 2015). Today, tongzhi is the “indigenous gay identity term adopted by Chinese
gay men across the country because of its positive connotation in the Chinese social
and linguistic context” (Wei, 2015, p. 194). This quite recent socio-linguistic process
2
Another crucial fact may explain the publication in English: Yang and Xu (2015) state
that “it is difficult for scholars to publish research related to homosexuality in
Chinese journals unless they cast the issue in a negative light” (p. 137).
3
attests to larger socio-cultural trajectories of glocalization (for a deeper understanding
of glocalization, see Khondker, 2004; Robertson, 1995), whereby Euro-American (i.e.,
global) ideas are incorporated into foreign contexts albeit with adaptation to local
conditions. See, for instance, the Israeli case (Kama, 2000) or the Japanese experience
(McLelland, Suganuma, & Welker, 2007).
Mainland China is currently undergoing a glocal transformation by which
tongzhi individuals and communities are beginning to conceptualize their existence in
terms that demarcate their identities as different from previous generations of
homosexuals, whose sexual orientation and identities were not conceived as such and
were coerced into heterosexual marriages that were the only recognizable way of a
“normal” life, and from other members of society (Yip Lo Kam, 2015). It is only now
that the Chinese authorities and public are slowly acknowledging homosexuality in
non-pathologizing terms and, consequently, acts deemed “homosexual” were
decriminalized in 1997 (Bao, 2015). This trajectory is conducive for the gradual
burgeoning of tongzhi meeting places, commercial venues, and organizations alongside
communication media. Yet, the public sphere is still marred with negative images of
LGBT people as mentally unstable victims who are at best second-class citizens
(Deklerck & Wei, 2015). Moreover, in 2008 “China’s state media administration
stipulated that media contents involving homosexuality, pornography and violence
cannot be shown in public media” (Bao, ibid, p. 48).
The book authors are cautious and reflexive to varying degrees about the
(almost habitually, I would add) propensity shared by scholars as well as “lay” LGBT
individuals who dwell under the Euro-American global influences to identify,
understand, and conceive LGBT lives, experiences, and identities more or less
homogeneously. For example, we all share an ontological bifurcation view regarding
4
the in/out of a closeted state of being; even if we do acknowledge coming out as a
lifelong process (Sedgwick, 1990). It is also widely agreed in the West that coming out
is the ultimate act LGBT individuals should perform in regards to their sexual
orientation or gender identity. The book’s contributors “strive to refrain from
comparative tendencies that may pit China against the West through evolutionary
timelines our Eurocentric benchmarks” (Huang, 2015, p. 117). Tongzhi persons and
their lived realities should thus be understood within the Chinese systems of politics,
history, and culture. And, yet, in spite of all these caveats, the book does indeed unfold
a story in which China and tongzhi people are actually—and perhaps inevitably—
undergoing a significant process of adoption/adaptation of global values and norms,
albeit within localized situation and circumstances. For instance, the notion of a
community whose members share sexual orientation as the cementing common
denominator has actually been infiltrating the Chinese frame of reference (Deklerck &
Wei, 2015).
Another illustration of the glocalization conundrum is insinuated by the Britain-
based Schroeder (2015) who is baffled by the hesitation tongzhi people exhibit
concerning social/political change towards equal rights. “Having fun” is the prevalent
motivation for taking part in social and recreational activities and establishing tongzhi
cliques. Schroeder, a fine ethnographer, yet deeply entrenched in the Euro-American
epistemology, is baffled in the face of hesitation and avoidance among tongzhi to admit
to seeking social and political change. He accounts for this “strange” phenomenon by
explaining that doing so may risk people who would be targeted by the authorities as
"disruptions of stability” (p. 66). He perceives "a real sense of annoyance with my
attempt to introduce the seriousness of politics", and thus feels “disappointed to know
that subversion was not their purpose” (ibid.). By Western standards, the refusal of
5
political action is grounded in the perceived threat and even real danger (e.g., police
interventions and harassment
3
) that may be inflicted on Chinese people who challenge
authorities or the existing social order. Schroeder concludes by suggesting how
a discussion of contemporary tongzhi politics that not only questions the staid
notion that queer resistance anywhere must be overt, antagonistic and
purposive, [must] also challenge perspectives that view resistance as the only
effort worthy of documentation.… In tongzhi China, this politics of the
everyday is frequently characterized by an emphasis on fun and does not seek
to effect immediate structural change. (p. 76)
Engebresten (2015), a Norwegian anthropologist, sheds more light on the
global—local tension. She admits that queer anthropology “is folded back into a
familiar narrative of identity politics and understood within an underlying framework
of Western sexual modernity.… This model is fuelled by a powerful rhetoric of
identity-based pride and public visibility” (p. 91). However, the Chinese case proves
how these taken-for-granted Western assumptions cannot simply be generalized into
non-Western contexts. Indeed, the few and far between tongzhi grassroots activists
employ coping mechanisms and strategies that are possibly uniquely Chinese by
avoiding official censorship and social confrontations in ad-hoc, “guerilla-type”
maneuvers.
Wang’s (2015) portrayal of the popular music scene constitutes a refreshing and
cool wind in the otherwise gloomy picture of tongzhi life. Openly gay pop stars are
3
The famous case of the 2005 Beijing Gay & Lesbian Culture Festival that was shut
down and its organizers and participants risked police detention constitutes a bona
fide warning.
6
increasingly visible, “as if queerness has become a popularity strategy” (p. 157).
However, even within this somewhat cheerful context, pop artists should not be “too
ideologically or politically provocative” (p. 175), otherwise the Chinese government
will intervene. In other words, pop stars should not seek to “transform queer
entertainment into queer politics” (p. 175).
In conclusion, Queer/Tongzhi China is highly recommended to anyone
interested in contemporary non-Western LGBT lives and identities. It expands the
rather scant literature that interrogates the inherent tensions between globally
disseminated ideas regarding what homosexuality is, or should be, and local
manifestations, concerns, and circumstances (Kama, 2006). Queer/Tongzhi China is
nevertheless rather dispensable for readers who wish to learn about tongzhi youth, since
they are not mentioned, discussed, or considered as such. The younger tongzhi
generation is, I assume, not only exposed to global currents via new media, but also
was born and raised after the Maoist regime and the decriminalization of
homosexuality. Hence studies that delve into the incorporation or resistance of these
ideas are required in order to learn how the new ideological and social climate along
with the ease to acquire knowledge from overseas are manifested in tongzhi youth
today. Vital issues—like school bullying or the ramifications of coming out at a young
age—that interest scholars of LGBT youth remain to be dealt with in China as well as
in other non-Western contexts.
REFERENCES
Bao, H. (2015). Digital video activism: Narrating history and memory in queer China,
‘Comrade’ China. In E. L. Engebresten, & W. F. Schroeder (Eds.),
7
Queer/Tongzhi China: New perspectives on research, activism and media
cultures (pp. 35-56). Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
Deklerck, S., & Wei, X. (2015). Queer online media and the building of China’s LGBT
community. In E. L. Engebresten, & W. F. Schroeder (Eds.), Queer/Tongzhi
China: New perspectives on research, activism and media cultures (pp. 18-34).
Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
Engebresten, E. L. (2015). Of pride and visibility: The contingent politics of queer
grassroots activism in China. In E. L. Engebresten, & W. F. Schroeder (Eds.),
Queer/Tongzhi China: New perspectives on research, activism and media
cultures (pp. 89-110). Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
Engebresten, E. L. & Schroeder, W. F. (2015). Introduction: Queer/Tongzhi China. In
E. L. Engebresten, & W. F. Schroeder (Eds.), Queer/Tongzhi China: New
perspectives on research, activism and media cultures (pp. 1-17). Copenhagen:
Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
Huang, A. (2015). On the surface: “T” and transgender identity in Chinese lesbian
culture. In E. L. Engebresten, & W. F. Schroeder (Eds.), Queer/Tongzhi China:
New perspectives on research, activism and media cultures (pp. 111-130).
Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
Kama, A. (2006). Bridging some intercultural gaps: Methodological reflections from a
far. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Issues in Education, 3(2/3), 121-126. doi:
10.1300/J367v03n02_13
Kama, A. (2000). From terra incognita to terra firma: The logbook of the voyage of
gay men’s community into the Israeli public sphere. In M. R. Botnick (Ed.), Gay
community survival in the new millennium (pp. 133-162). New York: Harrington
Park Press.
8
Khondker, H. H. (2004). Glocalization as globalization: Evolution of a sociological
concept. Bangladesh e-journal of Sociology, 1(2), 1-9. Retrieved from
https://mukto-mona.com/Articles/habibul_haque/Globalization.pdf
McLelland, M., Suganuma, K., & Welker, J. (Eds.) (2007). Queer voices from Japan:
First-person narratives from Japan’s sexual minorities. Lanham, MD: Lexington
Books.
Robertson, R. (1995). Glocalization: Time-space and homogeneity-heterogeneity. In
M. Featherstone, S. M. Lash, & R. Robertson (Eds.), Global modernities (pp. 25-
44). London: Sage.
Schroeder, W.F. (2015). Research, activism, and activist research in Tongzhi China. In
E. L. Engebresten, & W. F. Schroeder (Eds.), Queer/Tongzhi China: New
perspectives on research, activism and media cultures (pp. 57-80). Copenhagen:
Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
Sedgwick, E. (1990). The epistemology of the closet. Berkley, CA: University of
California Press.
Wang, Q. (2015). Queerness, entertainment, and politics: Queer performance and
performativity in Chinese pop. In E. L. Engebresten, & W. F. Schroeder (Eds.),
Queer/Tongzhi China: New perspectives on research, activism and media
cultures (pp. 153-178). Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
Wei, W. (2015). Queer organizing and HIV/AIDS activism: An ethnographic study of
a local tongzhi organization in Chengdu. In E. L. Engebresten, & W. F. Schroeder
(Eds.), Queer/Tongzhi China: New perspectives on research, activism and media
cultures (pp. 192-216). Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
Yang, L., & Xu, Y. (2015). Queer texts, gendered imagination, and grassroots feminism
in Chinese web literature. In E. L. Engebresten, & W. F. Schroeder (Eds.),
9
Queer/Tongzhi China: New perspectives on research, activism and media
cultures (pp. 131-152). Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
Yip Lo Kam, L. (2015). Coming home, coming out: Doing fieldwork in an unfamiliar
homeland. In E. L. Engebresten, & W. F. Schroeder (Eds.), Queer/Tongzhi
China: New perspectives on research, activism and media cultures (pp. 179-191).
Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
CONTRIBUTOR
Amit Kama, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer at the Department of Communication, Academic
College of Emek Yezreel, Israel. His research focuses on various minority groups
(lesbigays, people with disabilities, migrant workers) and the construction of their
identities vis-à-vis media(ted) (re)presentations. Recently, he has been studying LGBT
tourism, sport, and other leisure patterns. His works include numerous internationally
published papers and five books in Hebrew. Amit has been active in LGBT
organizations in Israel since 1982.
