Description
A comprehensive, far-reaching study of queer identities and communities across Asia, re-envisioning the queer through Asian perspectives.
Queer studies is now a rapidly expanding field, as scholars from a variety of disciplines seek to address the long-running marginalisation of queer perspectives and experiences. But there has so far been little effort to unify the study of queer communities outside the West, and much of the current writing views these communities through a narrowly Western lens.
Building on the work of the annual Queer Asia conference, which the editors helped to establish, this collection represents the most comprehensive work to date on queer studies in an Asian context. Featuring case studies and original research from across the continent, covering the Middle East, South and East Asia, and Asian diasporas, the collection offers a genuinely pan-Asian perspective which places queer Asian identities and movements in dialogue with each other, rather than within a Western framework.
By considering how queerness is imagined within plural Asian experiences and contexts, the contributors show a that re-envisioning of ‘queer’ through Asian perspectives has the potential to challenge existing discourses and debates in the wider field of contemporary gender, sexuality, and queer studies.
Both being queer and being Asian remain alienating experiences today. This sophisticated volume examines their negotiated syncopation in diverse ordinary contexts. The chapters build a timely solidarity across disciplinary, professional, identitarian, and geopolitical lines to de-universalize Western privilege and unleash the power of liminal synergies.
Howard H. Chiang, University of California, Davies
Zed Books, 2019. 280 pages, paperback. 21.5 cm x 14 cm.
ISBN 9781786995810
