Spatialities of queer globalization: Middle- and working-class Hong Kong gay men’s subjective constructions of homophobia

Abstract

This article formulates a class critique that fosters productive tensions between global queering discourses and a Chinese homophobic order affecting Hong Kong and other ethnic Chinese societies. Vis-à-vis middle- and working-class Hong Kong gay men’s subjective constructions of homophobia, the findings demonstrate that class was configured through different geographical referents of everyday queer struggle, namely the West and China, with which my informants compared Hong Kong. This spatial manifestation of class was the result of an unequal cosmopolitan condition which enabled my middle-class informants to see, while excluding their working-class counterparts from seeing, Hong Kong as a gay-friendly city. Drawing on the geography of sexuality and the sociology of class and mobility, this article argues that Hong Kong is a significant site for understanding multidirectional flows of queer globalization.