Queer Marxism in Two Chinas

by Petrus Liu

In Queer Marxism in Two Chinas Petrus Liu rethinks the relationship between Marxism and queer cultures in mainland China and Taiwan. Whereas many scholars assume the emergence of queer cultures in China signals the end of Marxism and demonstrates China's political and economic evolution, Liu finds the opposite to be true. He challenges the persistence of Cold War formulations of Marxism that position it as intellectually incompatible with queer theory, and shows how queer Marxism offers a nonliberal alternative to Western models of queer emancipation. The work of queer Chinese artists and intellectuals not only provides an alternative to liberal ideologies of inclusion and diversity, but demonstrates how different conceptions of and attitudes toward queerness in China and Taiwan stem from geopolitical tensions. With Queer Marxism in Two Chinas Liu offers a revision to current understandings of what queer theory is, does, and can be. 

Genres: Queer, China, Nonfiction, Politics, LGBT, Theory, History

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2015

Reviews

[☾⋆｡ A °✩.⟡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“As queer people transform from victims to consumers, queer theory is no longer centred on loss, melancholia or other feelings associated with the AIDS epidemic. Instead, contemporary queer theory mourns the loss of radicality in queer movements, which have been taken over by the assimilationist logic of commodified desire.”
<3 <3 <3

“the phenomenon of gay normalisation, queer-liberalism, homonationalisation and homonormatity…are also attempts to rehumanise the queer without questioning our normative definition of the human.”
<3

I am super biased because I knew I was gunna agree before I read it and I automatically adore any rejection of liberalism <<33
but it made me think about queerness + feminism and their relationships to selfhood in a way I never would have otherwise, and it is very well written and not overly inaccessible

I cannot recommend this book enough!!!!!!!

[Naimah · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Queer sexuality compels a rethinking of human community, intimacy, and connectedness. Queerness refers to the recognition that human bonds, intimacy, desires, alliances, and sexual encounters always exceed identity categories and geopolitical boundaries."

Through the works of queer Chinese artists and intellectuals, author proposes ways queerness can be mobilized for anticapitalist thinking, and demonstrates how queer Marxism can offer a nonliberal alternative to Western models (e.g. homonormativity) of queer emancipation.

[Lo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Petrus Liu critiques the neoliberal homonormativity that has taken over Taiwan, the US, and the West. As homonormativity politically is not set to uproot heteronormativity, it rather aims for mainstream inclusion and gay rights by showing queers to being upstanding citizens. The main problem with that is not only is it consumerist, but it also alienates queers not fit for the cultural norm. Whether they be trans, sex workers, or those living with HIV/AIDS, all are therefore excluded from assimilation politics.

According to Liu, “Queer Marxists analyze the field of socioeconomic conditions in which desire, pleasure, intimacy, human connectedness, and permissible speech become possible, asking how such social relations are reproduced along unequal axes of power for differently positioned human beings.” It is important to look at queer theory in China not because it is ethically imperative to not include the East, but because West queer theory is strangled in the failures of liberal pluralism and how queerness evolves in different cultures beyond Foucault and Sedgwick’s western view of queerness.

If being queer is not just another identity category, but more a strategy for the transformation of state apparatuses (the church, family, school, army). Then would queer theory not need Marxist theory? “For it is in Marxism that we find the most useful tools for [state transformation] analyses.” Wherein liberalism (Taiwan), the new earned legitimacy of tongzhi has deradicalized the queer movement and transformed queerness into an object of consumption and a role for political manipulation *cough Democrats*. The liberal state through selective homonormativity has a discursively constructed political image than a material beneficial reality in relation to queer lives.

In 2 of the chapters, Liu uses Cui Zi’en as an example of growing, independent queer media in China as well as the growing works of tongzhi wenxue (stylized queer literature) that have its roots in Qing Dynasty. Because for Liu, queer literature in communism embodies an anticapitalist thinking. While engaging in questions of interpersonal identity, “it also produces new forms of solidarity, political analysis, and countercultures.” Setting a nice background into the history and zeitgeist of queerness and Marxism in the Sinophone world.

There are some things I want to address. Liu explains that he refers to the PRC and ROC as 2 Chinas not as a political ideology (though it’s hard not to) but rather to describe the coexistence of queerness in the Sinophone world. A more pressing issue I have is a somewhat revisionist history to the “liberal reforms” of the PRC, which I see as conducive to the geopolitical environment, not a failure in fixed-market economies. This book does help with those wanting to understand Cuba’s new family code which redefines family beyond heteronormative, patriarchal, monogamous, and gendered characteristics, but more to a plurality of loving relationships.

[Melina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Works best as a marxist text, not so much as a queer one. Echoing Howard Chiang’s review of this book, there’s definitely some questionable practice in terms of decentering the west as the book sets out to do. If de-centering the west means conceptualizing China as the potential solution to the western ‘tension between Marxism and Queer Theory’ then maybe the west remains too much in the picture. Theorizing the Nonliberal alternative to neoliberalism still considers liberalism as a global and flat concept that it cannot be if we’re considering it a transnational and global problem. Thinking on this I find myself reiterating Spivak’s question, ‘Can the subaltern speak?’ No, not to us. And not through our language and positionality within the very western and very colonial space of the academy.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

as a queer chinese marxist the title and description really intrigued me. for the most part, i enjoyed reading author petrus liu's criticism of respectability politics within queer culture, his analysis of queer leftist chinese works that i'll definitely check out, and the pointing out of the hypocrisy of taiwan's liberalism seemingly supporting lgbt rights as a political gotcha towards mainland china while actually de-radicalizing the movement behind the scenes. however, the jargon was incredibly hard to parse - i had to reread most sentences several times and saw words i've never seen before. overall, i wish this book and its ideas were more accessible to those outside of academia.

[Mills College Library]

306.7601 L7836 2015

[Lili · Rating 1 out of 5]

As you can see the title is already about “two Chinas”, first of all Taiwan is NOT China. Taiwan is Taiwan, it’s is very disrespectful and frustrating too see that the Chinese author is making the west think that Taiwan still somehow belongs to China, and how the Taiwanese are trying very hard to differentiate themselves from the Chinese to legalize same-sex marriage. The author might did well in research and writing, but he didn’t grow up in Taiwan, and more importantly he is NOT from Taiwan, has he even ever been or lived in Taiwan long enough to write a book about this specific topic??

[Mykolas Yamakaitis · Rating 2 out of 5]

someday i’ll stop reading books that use “queer” as a verb. the cultural analysis in this book was kind of interesting but a lot of the criticisms of both western gender theorists and LGBT activists in china felt incredibly unfair. the gender theory parts are very dense in a lot of places—the economic theory is…less dense.

[Ravi]

esp liked the chapter on weaponization of human rights in the roc

[Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fucking book, no idea what was happening in that last chapter 🤙

[Staycties · Rating 4 out of 5]

je comprends la moitié du livre mais work!

[Daphne · Rating 4 out of 5]

wonderful book that suffers from being written in that 2010s queer theory voice

[aerialxav]

Chapter 1

[Vinay Khosla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good to reminisce on my QPE phase

[子墨 周 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps an enlightment that will thrust me towards an academic journey of queer Marxism