Activism and Shifting Identities of Self-Identified Gay Men in Postsocialist China

Activism and Shifting Identities of Self-Identified Gay Men in Postsocialist China

Tiantian Zheng - Professor of Anthropology at SUNY- Cortland

Monday, April 18, 2011 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm
Room 212, Department of Anthropology See map
10 Sachem Street
New Haven, CT 06511

Based on ethnographic research in Northeast China, this talk addresses the ways in which self-identified gay men cope with the hostile social environment through consciously shifting their identities between the public and the private. In public, these gay men perform manhood and seek to erase traces of their gayness to emulate and achieve legitimacy in mainstream culture. In private, they draw on mainstream discourse to infuse new meanings in it, refute and defy against social prejudice, and re-signify gayness. In so doing, they are caught in a paradox of simultaneously resisting and embracing mainstream culture, thereby re-inscribing and reinforcing negative images of gay identity.

Tiantian Zhengʼs book Red Lights is the Winner of the 2010 Sara A. Whaley book prize from the National Womenʼs Studies Association. Her research interests include sex, gender, migration, HIV/AIDS, and the state. Based on ethnographic research in Northeast China, this talk addresses the ways in which self-identified gay men cope with the hostile social environment through consciously shifting their identities between the public and the private. In public, these gay men perform manhood and seek to erase traces of their gayness to emulate and achieve legitimacy in mainstream culture. In private, they draw on mainstream discourse to infuse new meanings in it, refute and defy against social prejudice, and re-signify gayness. In so doing, they are caught in a paradox of simultaneously resisting and embracing mainstream culture, thereby re-inscribing and reinforcing negative images of gay identity.

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Sponsored by the Council on East Asian Studies and the Department of Anthropology
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