Queer Taiwan: A Critical Overview of Discourses on Queer in Taiwan From 2006 To 2016

Abstract

Queer studies in Taiwan has its own developing trajectory for over two decades. Scholars from different disciplines have been engaging themselves with queer theories, politics, activism, and performing arts, all of which have, in turn, redefined the relationship between gender and identity. However, through a critical reading of Taiwanese queer discourses from 2006 to 2016, this essay argues that, while broadening one's perspective on gender, recent discourses about queer in Taiwan seem to restrict the meaning of queer within gay or lesbian desires and identities. That is to say, queer becomes an exclusive term that ignores its potential to look after those who are positioned in-between heterosexuals and gays and lesbians. By appropriating Michel Foucault's ideas of madness and sexuality and queer theorist Nikki Sullivan's conceptualization of queer, this essay provides a reinterpretation of the queer subject as a way to construct a blueprint for future theoretical work or political activism. 

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Author Information
Shuo Lee, Open University of Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Li-An Kuo, National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan
Hsin-Chien Lee, Hsiuping University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

• Category: ACCS2017, Oral Presentation
• Tag: Gender studies / Feminist Theory

Posted by James Alexander Gordon

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