News from Asia
Genya FUKUNAGA
East Asia Queer Film Project
[The article below is the same as the article that appears in the eighteenth issue of the CGS Newsletter.]
Gender and sexuality movements progress through negotiation with legal and administrative systems, and the path woven by every movement di ers depending on the country or region. Genya Fukunaga, whose research focuses on sexual minorities in East Asia, is also involved in organizing the China Queer Film Festival in Japan. In this article, he discusses recent developments in China.
Social movements all over the world have carved out a history of battles, and the sexuality movement in China is no exception. As in other parts of Asia, such as Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, a sexual minority movement that problematizes heterosexual norms has gained momentum in China since the 1990s. In relation to this, I will discuss the case of the Beijing Queer Film Festival, which I was involved in organizing.
The Beijing Queer Film Festival was initiated in 2001, mainly by students from Peking University. The students wanted to provide an opportunity for people to see films on homosexuality, but the university intervened and forced the festival to shut down early. The festival continued to be blocked by the authorities until it finally evolved into a trailblazing queer movement in China. Ironically, it was this official pressure that turned this film festival into a social movement. The 2014 Beijing Queer Film Festival encountered problems with local authorities and the police, but organizers succeeded in screening films for three months by adopting resourceful "guerrilla" tactics to dodge official eyes, including one screening that was held at short notice in a random train car.
This film festival has suffered many kinds of oppression by the authorities. The reasons given for this official crackdown all seem so inconsequential that we can only speculate about its true intent. One factor is China's film censorship laws, which have targeted homosexuality, along with religious references and sexually violent images. In fact, the first Beijing Queer Film Festival in 2001 featured only six domestic films. However, in 2014 there were over 40 films, reflecting how the film festival has helped to foster queer representations that challenge heterosexual norms in China, covering such themes as homosexuality, transgenderism, and sex work.
Another factor is the position of social movements in China. The Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 deeply scarred relations between authorities and activists. Many activists have declared that their activities are not part of a "social movement" and redefined them as civic or non-profit activities, while the authorities have severely clamped down on any "movements" that may lead to potentially large gatherings of people.
The film festival has frequently encountered problems with the authorities over the years. However, the crafty organizers have managed to keep the festival alive, artfully avoiding any head-on clashes with the authorities such as what happened with the Stonewall riots in New York. For post-Tiannanmen activists in China, avoidance is also a form of resistance.
The arrest of China's "Feminist Five" in March 2015 garnered much attention in Japan. The five women had all been campaigning for the rights of women and sexual minorities. They were young "feminist activists" who were critical of the lack of action in the contemporary feminism movement in China ? although their activism achieved some measure of success, it was this very success that led to their arrest as "troublemakers."
Avoidance or activism? Both are forms of resistance that are being adopted and developed today by our fellow activists in China and from which we may find inspiration.