Show Notes
What makes Hong Kong queer? Alvin K. Wong joins me to speak about how queer and decolonial thought can help us better understand Hong Kong and its relation to the Sinophone world, to Eurocentric queer theory, and to global protest culture. Alvin speaks about queer and trans photography, films and novels from Hong Kong and sprinkles in some excellent theory reading recommendations. Listen now to learn more about Hong Kong and why it is such a frequent site of (unruly) comparison.
References: Wong, Alvin. Unruly Comparison: Queerness, Hong Kong, and the Sinophone (Duke UP, 2025) Wong, Alvin. “Transgenderism as a Heuristic Device: On the Cross-historical and Transnational Adaptations of the Legend of the White Snake,” in Transgender China, ed. Howard Chiang (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 127-158. https://complit.hku.hk/index.php/faculty/alvin-wong/ [email protected] Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures Society of Sinophone Studies Michel Foucault Judith Butler Rey Chow Ackbar Abbas Umbrella Movement in 2014 Milton Friedman Roderick Ferguson José Esteban Muñoz Queer of colour critique Gayatri Gopinath’s Impossible Desires (Duke UP, 2005) and Unruly Visions (Duke UP, 2018) Emily Apter’s The Translation Zone (Princeton UP, 2006) Nelson Tang Chak-man’s Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been? (2019-20) Ann Stoler Jacques Derrida Anjali Arondekar Wong Bik-wan’s Lienü tu 烈女圖 (Portraits of martyred women, 1999) Ma Ka Fai’s Long tou feng wei 龍頭鳳尾 (Once Upon A Time in Hong Kong, 2016) Lisa Lowe Scud Mak Yan Yan’s Butterfly Jun Li’s Tracey (2018) W v. Registrar of Marriages A Woman is A Woman Mimi Wong Chen Ran’s A Private Life
Questions you should be able to respond to after listening: What happened on 1 July 1997? Why was 2019 a central year in Hong Kong’s history? Why is Hong Kong such a frequent site of comparison? What makes Hong Kong (seem) exceptional? What does Alvin observe about Eurocentrism in queer studies? Which other power dynamics does he put this in relation with? Alvin speaks about juxtaposing different types of texts. What does he juxtapose and why? Several of Alvin’s reading recommendations have been published in translation. How often do you read translated texts?
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