Dr HONGWEI BAO

On Being Queer and Underclass: Mu Cao and His Poetry (2025)
Journal Article
Bao, H., & Van Crevel, M. (in press). On Being Queer and Underclass: Mu Cao and His Poetry. Made in China Journal,

This essay introduces the life and work of the queer, underclass Chinese poet Mu Cao, one of six Prince Claus Impact Award laureates worldwide in 2024. With reference to both his ‘comrade poetry’ and his ‘battler poetry,’ the essay highlights the ori... Read More about On Being Queer and Underclass: Mu Cao and His Poetry.

Digital Economy Industries, the Logic of Globalisation, and the Engineered and Entangled Cultures of Production and Consumption Behind the China-Africa Nexus (2025)
Book Chapter
Mutibwa, D. (2025). Digital Economy Industries, the Logic of Globalisation, and the Engineered and Entangled Cultures of Production and Consumption Behind the China-Africa Nexus. In H. Bao, & D. Mutibwa (Eds.), Entanglements and Ambivalences: Africa and China Encounters in Media and Culture. Taylor & Francis (Routledge)

This chapter discusses China-Africa relations in the development of digital economy industries within the context of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Digital Silk Road (DSR) flagship. In doing so, the chapter explores related encounters, en... Read More about Digital Economy Industries, the Logic of Globalisation, and the Engineered and Entangled Cultures of Production and Consumption Behind the China-Africa Nexus.

Introduction: Entangled Histories and Ambivalent Feelings in Africa-China Relations (2025)
Book Chapter
Bao, H., & Mutibwa, D. H. (2025). Introduction: Entangled Histories and Ambivalent Feelings in Africa-China Relations. In H. Bao, & D. H. Mutibwa (Eds.), Entanglements and Ambivalences: Africa and China Encounters in Media and Culture (1-15). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003581949-1

Two prominent developments in global geopolitics in the twenty-first century have been the rise of Africa and China, and the growing prominence of their entangled histories and present. 1 But these histories, and the present they have engendered, are... Read More about Introduction: Entangled Histories and Ambivalent Feelings in Africa-China Relations.

Entanglements and Ambivalences: Africa and China Encounters in Media and Culture (2025)
Book
Bao, H., & Mutibwa, D. H. (Eds.). (2025). Entanglements and Ambivalences: Africa and China Encounters in Media and Culture. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003581949

This book explores the media and cultural exchanges between Africa and China in the twenty-first century against the backdrop of the rise of Africa and China in global geopolitics. It situates these cultural encounters in historical and contemporary... Read More about Entanglements and Ambivalences: Africa and China Encounters in Media and Culture.

The Queer Global South: Transnational Video Activism Between China and Africa (2025)
Book Chapter
Bao, H. (2025). The Queer Global South: Transnational Video Activism Between China and Africa. In H. Bao, & D. H. Mutibwa (Eds.), Entanglements and Ambivalences: Africa and China Encounters in Media and Culture (235-259). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003581949-14

This chapter examines grassroots cinematic connections and video activism between China and Africa by taking the Queer University as a case study. Through semi-structured online interviews with some Queer University organisers and participants in 202... Read More about The Queer Global South: Transnational Video Activism Between China and Africa.

Queering the Asian Diaspora (2024)
Book
Bao, H. (2024). Queering the Asian Diaspora. SAGE Publications

The current COVID-19 pandemic has exuberated global geopolitical tensions and led to rising Sinophobia and anti-Asian racism worldwide. At the same time, there has been a nascent Asian diaspora consciousness emerging in the West, celebrating Asian id... Read More about Queering the Asian Diaspora.

Becoming a Trans Celebrity in Contemporary China: Visibility, Embodiment and Post-Mao Gender Politics (2024)
Book Chapter
Bao, H. (2024). Becoming a Trans Celebrity in Contemporary China: Visibility, Embodiment and Post-Mao Gender Politics. In E. L. Engebretsen, & J. Zeng (Eds.), Feminist Activism in Post-2010s China: Identifying Issues, Sharing Knowledge, Building Movements. Bloomsbury Publishing

This chapter examines the media representation of trans identities and the articulation of trans politics in the contemporary Chinese context. Focusing on the case studies of three trans celebrities in post-2010s China, I demonstrate how their identi... Read More about Becoming a Trans Celebrity in Contemporary China: Visibility, Embodiment and Post-Mao Gender Politics.

Queering the Asian Diaspora : East and Southeast Asian Sexuality, Identity and Cultural Politics (2024)
Book
Bao, H. (2024). Queering the Asian Diaspora : East and Southeast Asian Sexuality, Identity and Cultural Politics. SAGE Publications

The COVID pandemic has exacerbated global geopolitical tensions and exposed Sinophobia and anti-Asian racism. Meanwhile, a nascent Asian diasporic consciousness has been emerging worldwide, celebrating Asian identity and cultural heritage. In the spa... Read More about Queering the Asian Diaspora : East and Southeast Asian Sexuality, Identity and Cultural Politics.

Introduction: Queer Literature in the Sinosphere (2024)
Book Chapter
Bao, H., & Ma, Y. (2024). Introduction: Queer Literature in the Sinosphere. In H. Bao, & Y. Zhengtang Ma (Eds.), Queer Literature in the Sinosphere. Bloomsbury Publishing

In this introductory chapter of the book, we first trace a brief literary history in the Sinosphere, focusing on the modern and the contemporary eras. We then review major scholarship in English on the topic, identifying the book’s scholarly contribu... Read More about Introduction: Queer Literature in the Sinosphere.

Queer Literature in the Sinosphere (2024)
Book
Bao, H., & Ma, Y. Z. (Eds.). (2024). Queer Literature in the Sinosphere. Bloomsbury Publishing

Queer Literature in the Sinosphere is the most up-to-date English-language study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) themed literature and culture in the Chinese-speaking world. From classical homoerotic texts to contemporary bo... Read More about Queer Literature in the Sinosphere.

Cinematic Fabulation: Transgender Representation in Zhang Yuan’s Film Miss Jin Xing (2024)
Book Chapter
Bao, H. (in press). Cinematic Fabulation: Transgender Representation in Zhang Yuan’s Film Miss Jin Xing. In C. Berry, L. Robinson, S. Qiong Yu, & L. Wu (Eds.), Chinese Independent Cinema: Past, Present, and a Questionable Future. Amsterdam University Press

This chapter offers a critical reading of the film Miss Jin Xing by focusing on the formal and narrative strategies that the filmmaker Zhang deploys to represent Jin Xing the trans person. I draw on the Deleuzian (2004) concept of fabulation to elabo... Read More about Cinematic Fabulation: Transgender Representation in Zhang Yuan’s Film Miss Jin Xing.

Cui Zi'en on Queer Literature: A Conversation (2024)
Book Chapter
Bao, H., & Zi'en, C. (2024). Cui Zi'en on Queer Literature: A Conversation. In H. Bao, & Y. Z. Ma (Eds.), Queer Literature in the Sinosphere (245-252). Bloomsbury Publishing

Decolonising Drag: When Queer Asian Artists Do Drag (2024)
Book Chapter
Bao, H. (in press). Decolonising Drag: When Queer Asian Artists Do Drag. In M. Edward, & S. Farrier (Eds.), Drag Vistas and Visions: Drag in a Changing Scene. Volume 3

This chapter starts with a question: how do queer artists of Asian heritage living outside Asia do drag? This question is primarily motivated by the understanding that there are distinct drag traditions in each country and culture, and that there has... Read More about Decolonising Drag: When Queer Asian Artists Do Drag.

Queerness as Masquerading: Displaying Queer Art in Contemporary China (2024)
Book Chapter
Bao, H. (2024). Queerness as Masquerading: Displaying Queer Art in Contemporary China. In P. Gladston, L. Howarth-Gladston, J. Tsong-zung Chang, & J. Kuo (Eds.), Rethinking Displays of Chinese Contemporary Art: Cultural Diversity and Tradition (91-108). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-2906-7_4

This chapter discusses some of the ways in which queer art is displayed in contemporary China, where the public expression and circulation of queerness is prohibited. The government ban on queer content does not mean that queer art does not exist in... Read More about Queerness as Masquerading: Displaying Queer Art in Contemporary China.

The Passion of the Rabbit God (2024)
Book
Bao, H. (2024). The Passion of the Rabbit God. Valley Press

Hongwei Bao’s debut collection charts an emotional journey through centuries and between nations, with the poet’s own migration from Inner Mongolia to Nottingham offering a unique, fascinating perspective through which to examine Asian and queer iden... Read More about The Passion of the Rabbit God.

Dream of the Orchid Pavilion (2024)
Book
Bao, H. (2024). Dream of the Orchid Pavilion. Big White Shed Press

Informed by his life experience as a queer Chinese migrant living in the UK, Hongwei Bao’s book ruminates upon love, intimacy, memory, heritage and identity.

On a late spring day of 353 CE, to celebrate the Spring Purification Festival, a group of... Read More about Dream of the Orchid Pavilion.

When Queer Theory Speaks Chinese: Translating Queer in China (2024)
Book Chapter
Bao, H. (2024). When Queer Theory Speaks Chinese: Translating Queer in China. In J. J. Zhao, & H. Bao (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Chinese Gender and Sexuality. Routledge

Tracing a brief genealogy of the emergence of queer theory in Mainland China, this chapter identifies three key historical moments when queer theory travelled to the People’s Republic of China at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of... Read More about When Queer Theory Speaks Chinese: Translating Queer in China.

Introduction: New Directions in Chinese Gender and Sexuality Studies (2024)
Book Chapter
Zhao, J. J., & Bao, H. (2024). Introduction: New Directions in Chinese Gender and Sexuality Studies. In J. J. Zhao, & H. Bao (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Chinese Gender and Sexuality. Routledge

This introduction to the Routledge Handbook of Chinese Gender and Sexuality provides an overview of the edited volume. In this chapter, the co-editors of the Handbook discuss the book’s disciplinary interventions and scholarly contribution, as well a... Read More about Introduction: New Directions in Chinese Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Routledge Handbook of Chinese Gender & Sexuality (2024)
Book
Jamie J., Z., & Bao, H. (Eds.). (2024). Routledge Handbook of Chinese Gender & Sexuality. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003273943

This Handbook offers a rich survey of topics concerning historical, modern and contemporary Chinese genders and sexualities.

Exploring gender and sexuality as key dimensions of China’s modernisation and globalisation, this Handbook effectively si... Read More about Routledge Handbook of Chinese Gender & Sexuality.

Dr HONGWEI BAO's Outputs (82)