Film and Homosexuality under Martial Law Taiwan

Assistant Professor Chi Ta-wei

This is part of SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies Summer School Programme.

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Abstract

It is commonly presumed that homosexuality in Taiwan is not visible until the lift of martial law. The current presentation, however, adjusts this presumption by showing there were representations, especially in literature, of homosexuality under martial law despite the political oppression in Taiwan. The generally literary representations often needed to allude to films, including European and American ones, to render themselves more intelligible. Many of these film titles functioned as gay slang in the past. The representation will explain how films illustrated the love that dared not speak its name in martial-law Taiwan.

Bio

Ta-wei Chi (PhD, Comparative Literature, UCLA) is currently Assistant Professor of Taiwanese literature at National Chengchi University, Taipei, where he teaches queer theory and disability studies. His lesbian and gay stories in Chinese are available in English, Japanese, and Swedish and French. His History of Tongzhi Literature in Taiwan is published in Taiwan, 2017.

This event is co-sponsored by Queer Asia .

Organiser: Centre of Taiwan Studies

Contact email: hn15@soas.ac.uk