Sexuality and the Rise of China

In <i>Sexuality and the Rise of China</i> Travis S. K. Kong examines the changing meanings of same-sex identities communities and cultures for young Chinese gay men in contemporary Hong Kong Taiwan and mainland China. Drawing on ninety life stories Kong's transnational queer sociological approach shows the complex interplay between personal biography and the dramatically changing social institutions in these three societies. Kong conceptualizes coming out as relational politics and the queer/<i>tongzhi</i> community and commons as an affective imaginative means of connecting governed by homonormative masculinity. He shows how monogamy is a form of cruel optimism and envisions state and sexuality intertwining in different versions of homonationalism in each location. Tracing the alternately diverging and converging paths of being young Chinese gay and male Kong reveals how both Western and emerging inter- and intra- Asian queer cultures shape queer/<i>tongzhi</i> experiences. Most significantly at this historical juncture characterized by the rise of China Kong criticizes the globalization of sexuality by emphasizing inter-Asia modeling referencing and solidarities and debunks the essentializing myth of Chineseness thereby decolonizing Western sexual knowledge and demonstrating the differential meanings of Chineseness/queerness across the Sinophone world.