‘Comrade Literature’: Queer Texts from Offline to Online

Hongwei Bao’s talk at the Royal Asiatic Society Shanghai

Abstract

This talk briefly introduces the development of ‘comrade literature’ (tongzhi wenxue 同志文学) in mainland China since the 1990s. It highlights key authors such as Cui Zi’en, Mu Cao and Wang Xiaobo, as well as key literary works including East Palace, West Palace, Beijing Story and Pink Affairs. The talk also highlights the pivotal role of the Internet in facilitating an online reading and writing community, as well as the online transnational Boys’ Love culture in generating a local danmei fan fiction genre. Overall, the talk makes a case for the role of literary production and consumption in shaping LGBTQ identities and communities in mainland China.

Dr Hongwei Bao is Associate Professor in Media Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK, where he also directs the Centre for Contemporary East Asian Cultural Studies. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, Royal Society of the Arts and the Higher Education Academy in the UK. He is a research associate of the Birmingham School of Art and is also a Trustee of UK New Artists. Dr Bao is the author of three research monographs on Chinese queer history and culture: Queer Comrades, Queer China and Queer Media in China. He serves on the editorial boards of British Journal of Chinese Studies and Chinese Independent Cinema Observer, and the international advisory boards of Queer Asia book series (Hong Kong University Press), Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art and Refeng Xueshu. He writes and edits a column titled Queer Lens for Chinese Independent Film Archive.