Presenter biographies will be linked below as they become available. Final program subject to change.
While marriage has been opened up to same-sex couples in a growing number of countries, the practices of queer kinship that are ‘more than marriage,’ especially those from non-Western cultures, deserve much more attention. In this panel consisting of academics and activists from China and Taiwan, we present an array of queer family experiences: marriages between lesbians and gay men, intergenerational relations, discourse around mixed-orientation marriages, complexities of a cross-strait partnership, and parenting under different marital conditions.
Through examining these diverse family forms, we ask: What family strategies do people employ when there is little legal recognition of same-sex partnership or parenthood? Is the turn toward a seemingly normative life necessarily a turn away from queerness? With growing global emphasis on ‘marriage equality,’ what marginal subjects are likely to be further excluded? What do Chinese and Taiwanese perspectives contribute to the future of LGBTQ politics and scholarship around the globe?
Shuzhen Huang: “Queering Marriage: The Practice of Xinghun in Contemporary Mainland China” (full abstract)
Elisabeth Lund Engebretsen: “Chinese PFLAG Narratives: Family Relations, Moral Values, and Identity Politics in Popo Fan’s Mama Rainbow and Pink Dads” (full abstract)
Jingshu Zhu: “‘I’m Gay, and I Won’t Marry A Straight Person’: Critical Reflection on the Campaign Against Mixed-Orientation Marriage in China” (full abstract)
Amy Brainer: “Queer Parenting in Taiwan” (full abstract)
Aiwan Liao: “A Cross-Strait (“STRAIGHT”) Future?” (full abstract)