2-Day Event: Encountering Queer China Through Film and Fieldwork
Day 1: Family Matters: Chinese Queer Politics around the Rise of a Family-State (Wei Wei, Eastern China Normal University)
Wednesday, February 08, 2023, 04:00pm – 05:30pm
Contact Louisa Schein (
This is the first part of a two-day event, “Encountering Queer China Through Film and Fieldwork.” The second part, a film-screening, will take place tomorrow. Click here for tomorrow’s film screening. Both events are open to the public.
This lecture will be accompanied by a screening of filmmaker Fan Popo’s documentary “New Beijing, New Marriage” (2009, 18 mins.)
Abstract
LGBT activism in mainland China faces increasing challenges from the state in recent years. Drawing on decades-long research into Chinese LGBT communities and activism, the study situates challenges and responses of the LGBT communities in the changing social and geopolitical context of a rising China. On the one hand, the increasing regulation from the state further marginalizes mobilization around LGBT identity-politics. On the other hand, the newly emerging LGBT parent families utilize the opportunities of policy change to strive for the state’s recognition. The talk concludes with a discussion of Chinese homonationalism in the making, which may also have implication for queer politics beyond China.
Bio
Wei Wei is a Professor of Sociology at East China Normal University, and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard-Yenching Institute (2022-23) and Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, Brown University (2014-15). His teaching and research interests include gender and sexuality, urban sociology and social movement, with a focus on LGBTQ communities and politics in contemporary China. In addition to authoring two Chinese books Going Public: The Production and Transformation of Queer Spaces in Chengdu, China (2012, Shanghai Joint Publishing Company) and Queering Chinese Society: Urban Space, Popular Culture and Social Policy (2015, Guangxi Normal University Press ), he has published more than thirty articles in both English and Chinese peer-reviewed journals, including Feminist Studies, Culture, Health & Sexuality, Journal of Homosexuality, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, and Chinese Sociological Review.
Day 2: Film Screening with Director (Fan Popo, independent filmmaker)
Thursday, February 09, 2023, 04:30pm – 06:00pm
Contact Louisa Schein (
This is the second part of a two-day event, “Encountering Queer China Through Film and Fieldwork.” The first part, a presentation by Wei Wei, “Family Matters: Chinese Queer Politics around the Rise of a Family-State,” takes place the day before. Click here for info about Wei Wei’s presentation. Both events are open to the public.
Films
1. “Mama Rainbow” (Fan Popo director, 2012, 28 mins.): 6 Mothers from all over China step up and speak out on their love for their gay kids
2. “Beer! Beer!” (Fan Popo director, 2019, 18 mins.): set in Berlin, Tao, a Chinese guy, meets Sebastian, a local German in this “anti-romantic comedy”
Respondent: Wei Wei
Bios
Popo Fan is a Berlin-based filmmaker, writer, and activist from China, where his queer documentary films have made a notable impact. Since 2016, he has concentrated on writing and directing scripted, sex-positive shorts. He is the founder of the Queer University Video Training Camp and has been an organizer of the Beijing Queer Film Festival for more than a decade. Popo was invited to sit on the jury of the Teddy Award of the Berlinale in 2019.
Wei Wei is a Professor of Sociology at East China Normal University, and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard-Yenching Institute (2022-23) and Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, Brown University (2014-15). His teaching and research interests include gender and sexuality, urban sociology and social movement, with a focus on LGBTQ communities and politics in contemporary China. In addition to authoring two Chinese books Going Public: The Production and Transformation of Queer Spaces in Chengdu, China (2012, Shanghai Joint Publishing Company) and Queering Chinese Society: Urban Space, Popular Culture and Social Policy (2015, Guangxi Normal University Press ), he has published more than thirty articles in both English and Chinese peer-reviewed journals, including Feminist Studies, Culture, Health & Sexuality, Journal of Homosexuality, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, and Chinese Sociological Review.