Gay and Lesbian Asia

Culture, Identity, Community

Gerard Sullivan, PETER A JACKSON, Gerard Sullivan, PETER A JACKSON

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781560231455
• eBook ISBN: 9781317992813
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

How do Asian cultures construct queer genders, sexualities, and eroticism?Gay and Lesbian Asia demonstrates the astonishing diversity of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered identities in countries including Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Although many Asian cultures borrow the language of the West when discussing queerness, the attitudes, relationships, and roles described are quite different. Gay and Lesbian Asia discusses cultural issues as well as the unique political position of gays in Asian societies. For example, the Thai concept of phet--eroticized gender--is quite different from the Western view that classifies people by the sex of the partners they desire, not by their level of masculine or feminine traits. Similarly, some gay and lesbian Chinese people "come home" rather than "come out." By bringing their partners into the extended family, they can maintain the filial relationships that define them while being able to love whom they choose. The essays in Gay and Lesbian Asia cover a broad range of approaches and subjects:

• globalization theory exploring the political and cultural ramifications of the Western gay identity movement
• Foucauldian discourse on sexuality and sharply distinct erotic cultures
• political and cultural analyses of gay and lesbian comradeship and filial relationships in Chinese societies
• research on the "T" and "po" lesbians (similar to butch and femme) in Malaysian bars
• the formation of gay cybercommunities in Asia
• the effects of class distinctions on Jakarta lesbians
• studies of local historical forms of homoeroticism and transgenderismGay and Lesbian Asia continues Haworth's landmark series of books on gay and lesbian issues in Asia and Australia. Along with Tongzhi: Politics of Same-Sex Eroticism in Chinese Societies; Queer Asian Cinema; Multicultural Queer: Australian Narratives; Gays and Lesbians in Asia and the Pacific; and Lady Boys, Tom Boys, Rent Boys: Male and Female Homosexualities in Contemporary Thailand, this book presents some of the most original, powerful current thought available on cultural, political, sexual, and gender issues for queer subcultures within Asian cultures.

Index

Action For AIDS (AFA), 84–85

AIDS

education efforts in China, 56–61

and homosexuality in China, 54–55

response to, in Singapore, 84–85

AIDS organizations, 237–238

Altman, Dennis, 1, 211–212, 237

Anxiety of Inexpression, The (Hong Kong/USA film), 226–228

Appadyraum, Arjun, 14

Asia

diversity in, 5

g/l/t identities in, 3

human rights in, 238–239

marginalization in, 5–6, 10–12

new gender/sex categories in, 1

sexual/gender minorities in, 2

understanding gay/lesbian, 5–8

Asian Lesbian Network (ALN), 173–174

Australia

concept of homosexuality in, 235–236

homosexual rights and, 245–246

Azhary, H., 240

Baba, Ismail, 143–163

Bakla ideology, 120–123

Bali, 172

Bangkok, g/l/t cultures in, 3. See also Thailand

Berry, Chris, 211–231, 237

Bhabha, Homi, 212–213

Broken Branches (South Korean film), 214, 218, 219–220

Burden of identity, definition of, 236, 243

Bureaucratization, 258–259

Butch-femme

in Jakarta, 177

meanings of, in Indonesia, 169–170

Cantrell, Leon, 233–252

Capitalism, 257, 258

Chan, Joseph, 237

Chandra Kirana, 243

Chang Chinsok, 72

Chao, Y. Antonia, 185–209

Chen Bingzhong, 57, 59, 60

Cheng Hao, 31

Chen Yiyun, 57

Cheung, Leslie, 43

China. See also Taiwan; Tongzhi

coming out in, 32–35, 61–62

concept of self in, 217

gay representation in films in, 214

history of sexuality in, 29–32

homophobia in, 30–31

importance of family in, 34

individuality in, 32

legal issues of homosexuality in, 52–56

topic of homose...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• The Journal of Homosexuality Monographic "Separates"
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• About the Editors
• Acknowledgements
• Pre-Gay, Post-Queer: Thai Perspectives on Proliferating Gender/Sex Diversity in Asia
• Homosexuality and the Cultural Politics of Tongzhi in Chinese Societies
• Becoming a Gay Activist in Contemporary China
• Mapping the Vicissitudes of Homosexual Identities in South Korea
• Tiptoe Out of the Closet: The Before and After of the Increasingly Visible Gay Community in Singapore
• Culture, Sexualities, and Identities: Men Who Have Sex with Men in India
• Survival Through Pluralism: Emerging Gay Communities in the Philippines
• Gay and Lesbian Couples in Malaysia
• Let Them Take Ecstasy: Class and Jakarta Lesbians
• Drink, Stories, Penis, and Breasts: Lesbian Tomboys in Taiwan from the 1960s to the 1990s
• Asian Values, Family Values: Film, Video, and Lesbian and Gay Identities
• Homosexual Rights as Human Rights in Indonesia and Australia
• Variations on a Common Theme? Gay and Lesbian Identity and Community in Asia
• About the Contributors
• Index