Shanghai Lalas: Female Tongzhi Communities and Politics in Urban China

by Lucetta Kam

This is the first ethnographic study of lala (lesbian, bisexual, and transgender) communities and politics in China, focusing on the city of Shanghai. Based on several years of in-depth interviews, the volume concentrates on lalas' everyday struggle to reconcile same-sex desire with a dominant rhetoric of family harmony and compulsory marriage, all within a culture denying women’s active and legitimate sexual agency. Lucetta Yip Lo Kam reads discourses on homophobia in China, including the rhetoric of "Chinese tolerance" and considers the heteronormative demands imposed on tongzhi subjects. She treats "the politics of public correctness" as a newly emerging tongzhi practice developed from the culturally specific, Chinese forms of regulation that inform tongzhi survival strategies and self-identification.

Alternating between Kam's own queer biography and her extensive ethnographic findings, this text offers a contemporary portrait of female tongzhi communities and politics in urban China, making an invaluable contribution to global discussions and international debates on same-sex intimacies, homophobia, coming-out politics, and sexual governance.

Lucetta Yip Lo Kam is an assistant professor in the Department of Humanities and Creative Writing at Hong Kong Baptist University. She is the editor and illustrator of Lunar Her First Same-Sex Love in Her Own Words (in Chinese, a collection of 26 self-narratives of women from Hong Kong, Macau and the overseas, 2001).

"More than just an ethnographic observation of women who identify as lala in China, this compelling and impressively researched study analyses the numerous social forces that produce sexual normativity while documenting the intricate ways through which women with same-sex desire negotiate these forces, in public as well as in private. Written with tremendous insight and compassion, this admirable and timely work sheds an important light on the injurious effects of sexual normalization in contemporary Chinese society." — Helen Hok-Sze Leung, author of Queer Culture and Postcolonial Hong Kong

"Weaving between her own queer biography and extensive ethnographic data of 25 lala women, Kam presents the up-to-date lesbian communities and politics in urban China which contribute to the international debates of same-sex intimacies, coming out politics and the nature of homophobia." — Travis S. K. Kong, The University of Hong Kong

Genres: Nonfiction, LGBT, Queer

216 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2012

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing. It looked at the lives of Chinese women living in Shanghai who were part of a new queer subculture. The word these women used to identify themselves was lalas. They were women who loved other women, but who many were married or feeling pressure to marry. These women were part of a new subculture where the internet had been instrumental in helping them to find others "like them". There were chat rooms and discussion groups which led to meetings at lesbian bars and clubs and karaoke nights. There were also discussions and talks about political activism. The author was herself queer, had been born in Shanghai but then left the mainland when she was a child. She had become involved in queer activisim in Hong Kong and returned to Shanghai to carry out oral history interviews with the women living there at the time. It was interesting to see how much the culture mirrored that of 1950s lesbian culture in New York, there was still a butch/femme ideal, there was pressure to marry, the existance of marriage between lalas and gay men, the pressure to remain in the closet and many of the women didn't realise there were other women like them until they had grown up and left home. But there was also a lot that was very specific to modern Chinese culture, the importance of family and the role of online communities. The author discussed how modern lesbian communities had been largely ignored in both the popular media and in scholarly studies about queer people. The focus had been almost entirely on gay men. The only disappointing thing was considering how little had been written it's a shame this book was so short as it would have been interesting to have many more examples from the oral histories included as well as more detailed discussions about the communities, and about the activism the women were involved in. I just hope that more books are written on this topic.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very important book for anyone interested in queer studies. It may be probably the only work that provides a specific insight on the lala (lesbian) community in China, giving us full information on different dimensions such as societal pressure, marriage law, family, understanding of love and so on.
Being someone that lives in the West and assumes that LGBTQ+ community is wide but as connected as possible, learning that lesbians and gays, in China, do not have an amicable and close relationship was, for sure, terrifying but interesting. Please give it a try if you are interested!

[RYAN PHAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's weird how class and LGBTQ politics interact. Apparently, if you have moved out and are well-off, you have more bargaining power with parents to get them to accept an alternative lifestyle in urban China. However, if you are well-off but live with the parents, you have less bargaining power. It's most likely the worst bargaining position to not be well-off and living with parents when pursuing an LGBTQ lifestyle in urban China.

[Yanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly lit review, less ethnography. By the end of the book you feel like you've only read an introduction. And the study group was a bit small to make conclusions on society as a whole (university students are not a good sample to make claims about economic mobility imo)

[Anna C]

dnf@60%

[willowdog · Rating 3 out of 5]

This ethnographic study of female lalas (lesbian, bisexuals and transgendered) in China outlines the survival strategies of the "tongzhi" society brought about by the internet and the new economic market policies.