Calling on Queer Asians: Richard Fung’s Orientations (1984)

Abstract

Abstract This article considers Richard Fung’s Orientations (1984) as a work of early pan-Asian community organization and self-recognition for lgbtq+ Asian North Americans. Located between the founding of the community as a part of the legacy of Third World Liberation Front and aids activism starting in the mid-1980s, the video was made at a key juncture when visibility and self-affirmation were the main objectives for Asian North American queer communities. The autoethnographic documentary, which has received less scholarly attention than Fung’s video works addressing Asian diasporic sexualities and postcolonial subjectivity, marks an important turning point for the historiography of Asian lgbtq+ groups in North America and for the understanding of Fung’s oeuvre over the past four decades.