Queers on the move: sinicizing queer theory and theorizing queerness in Taiwan

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article investigates the travel of queerness and queer theory from the U.S. to Taiwan during the 1990s, with special attention to translation and cultural reconfiguration. I begin with a discussion of two preconditions of queer theory's transcultural voyage. Next, I trace the genealogy of three Mandarin Chinese translations of the term queer and offer an inquiry into how queerness and queer theory have been (re-)defined and transformed in popular and academic realms. Then, I carry out a hermeneutic study of select intellectual and activist writings in various publications that used to serve as platforms to disseminate and advocate queer theory in Taiwan. In conclusion, I argue that the travel of queerness and queer theory from the U.S. to Taiwan not only complicates the recurrent pattern expounded by Edward Said of how ideas circulate transnationally, but also reflects the changing Taiwanese cultural and political dynamics in which non-normative sexualities were (re-)constructed during the 1990s.