Audrey Tang, A Queer Mascot? On Taiwan’s International (In)visibility and Latent Transphobia

This public lecture explores how Taiwan's media narratives shape gender expressions, using the example of Audrey Tang, and reveal contradictions in Taiwan's LGBT human rights discourse.

Sartorial codes and speech acts are two ways in which gender materializes. In a same-sex marriage-sanctioned state such as Taiwan, these forms of expression might appear to be more diverse and subversive. However, these expressions are still framed by the media discourse, which often produces effects that contradict the identification of their agents.

In this speech, I argue that the transgender expression of Audrey Tang (Tang Feng), Taiwan's first minister of digital affairs, is one such case. Through a media narrative analysis of Tang, I demonstrate that as a public figure, arguably globally recognized, Tang's transgender expression represents a site of contradiction within Taiwan's discourse on LGBT human rights.