The 'Queer Generation': Queer Community Documentary in Contemporary China

Bao, Hongwei

Abstract

In this article, I chart a brief history of the queer community documentary in the PRC since the 2000s by introducing its historical conditions of emergence and development. In doing so, I highlight the activist dimension of queer filmmaking and its transnational nature. I focus specifically on the aesthetics and politics, together with modes of production and circulation, of these queer community documentaries. I call the group of filmmakers working around the Beijing Queer Film Festival and the China Queer Film Festival Tour the ‘queer generation’. The ‘queer generation’ filmmakers use documentary films as a tool to engage in political and social activism. Their films and activist practices should be put in a transnational context and seen as part of the transnational cinema and international queer movements. As these filmmakers documented queer community histories, they also ‘queered’ Chinese documentaries and Chinese film industries at large. Their works represent grassroots, community-based and activist-oriented political engagements in contemporary China; these works also point to the political potential of queerness and documentary films in the world today.

Citation

Bao, H. (2019). The 'Queer Generation': Queer Community Documentary in Contemporary China. Transnational Screens, 10(3), 201-216. https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2019.1662197

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 24, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Sep 6, 2019
• Publication Date: Sep 6, 2019
• Deposit Date: Aug 28, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 7, 2021
• Journal: Transnational Screens
• Print ISSN: 2578-5273
• Electronic ISSN: 2578-5265
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 201-216
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2019.1662197
• Keywords: Queer; Documentary; China; the 'Queer Generation'; Film festival; Queer activism
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2512462
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/25785273.2019.1662197
• Related Public URLs: https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rtrc21
• Additional Information: Transnational Cinemas changed its title to Transnational Screens in 2019. ; This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Transnational Screens on 06/09/2019, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/25785273.2019.1662197.
• Contract Date: Aug 28, 2019