This project researches Chinese gay fans of yue opera. It asks, how do gay fans of yue opera form queer culture within the community to negotiate with heteronormative mainstream society and identity politics in China? To answer this research question, participant observation was conducted at three gay fan galas in rural Zhejiang and twenty-three in-depth interviews were held with both rural and urban gay fans in southern China, starting in 2016. There are three key findings. First, through the celebration of a shared passion for yue opera, these gay fans establish queer kinship bonds and seek sexual relations in the community so as to leave heterosexual marriages and families behind. While many gay fans gain a sense of sisterhood, mutual support, and sometimes sexual fulfillment, some become bitter victims of the hierarchy constructed inside the community and of non-consensual sex. Second, through the appropriation of yue opera, gay fans are enabled to resist heteronormativity and gender stereotypes; their immersion in this traditional culture and mimicking of opera characters help them find their own path to establish and maintain a connection with mainstream social values and discourses. Third, these gay fans have strong attachments to the southern Chinese culture and their rural locality, which cannot be overshadowed by global gayness or overarching Chineseness. However, these local attachments are undergoing changes as trans-regional and transnational mobility increases. These findings provide new perspectives on Chinese gayness beyond the metropolitan elite, revealing a form of queer culture that bonds with not only modernity and the West, but also tradition and locality.
Yue Opera in Queer Gaze: Chinese Gay Fans of Yue Opera in Negotiation with Heteronormative Mainstream Society and Identity Politics
Mu, Z. (Author). 1 Apr 2022
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy