Digital video activism: Fan Popo’s queer Asian diasporic politics

Bao, Hongwei

Abstract

This article examines queer Chinese filmmaker Fan Popo's fiction films and curatorial practices since he moved from Beijing to Berlin in 2017. It focuses on how Fan's subject position as queer Asian diaspora impacts on his filmmaking, identity and politics. In doing so, this article offers a critical insight into how people in the queer Asian diaspora use digital media and films to articulate their identity and politics. It also delineates the conditions and possibilities of the activist use of digital video and film in a transnational and diasporic context. By examining the continuities and discontinuities of Fan's digital filmmaking and screen activism, this article argues that Fan's recent adoption of the queer Asian diaspora identity has facilitated a context-specific, transnational, intersectional and transversal queer politics. It also showcases how digital video and film, situated in a transnational and diasporic context and used for political and activist purposes, can help articulate a more capacious understanding of Chineseness and queerness.

Citation

Bao, H. (2023). Digital video activism: Fan Popo’s queer Asian diasporic politics. Journal of Chinese Cinemas, 17(1), 10-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508061.2024.2312681

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 1, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Feb 9, 2024
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: Feb 2, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 12, 2024
• Journal: Journal of Chinese Cinemas
• Print ISSN: 1750-8061
• Electronic ISSN: 1750-807X
• Publisher: Intellect
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 10-23
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17508061.2024.2312681
• Keywords: Fan Popo; queer; film; digital video; activism; diaspora
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/30664843
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17508061.2024.2312681