Queer heterotopias : smaller-screen queer moving images in China

Abstract

 This dissertation examines the queer moving images on the smaller-screens in China. Drawing on the literal meaning of the term “smaller-screen” coined by Paola Voci,“smaller-screen moving images” in this dissertation refer to the audiovisual texts that are circulated and consumed on the “smaller-screens” such as computer and mobile phone screen. This dissertation will in particular focus on the queer-themed online films and video series that are (co-)produced and/or invested by the gay app companies in postsocialist China. Borrowing Michel Foucault’s idea of “heterotopias”, this dissertation argues that online spaces in China can be construed as queer heterotopias where “sexual deviant” like gay men can consume queer moving images with relatively loose official censorship. As heterotopias of deviation and compensation, these onlines paces engender the queer visibility and representations of same-sex eroticism and sexuality that have been left out from the mainstream silver screen. Such representations also upset the heteronormative structure of sexual regime in the mainland Chinese media scene. This dissertation seeks to explore the possibility and potentiality of digital technologies and cultures for facilitating novel forms of queer visual cultures in China. Since these online queer video series and films are usually more accessible for the local audiences, it illuminates the rather mass-distributed and democratized queer cinematic practices in China. While this dissertation is positioned as a place-based study, I will also shed light on the transnationalism of queer cultures in terms of genres, narratives and aesthetics in my readings of the selected audio visual texts in order to highlight the transnational and transcultural queer encounters in the context of globalization.