Queer China ‘Comrade’ China

60 mins | 2009 | Documentary | Mandarin | English Subtitles

Content Advisory: This film contains scenes of nudity, violence and tobacco use

Since the dramatic social reforms of China started in the 1970s, gender identity and sexual orientations are getting increasing public attention. Androcentrism and heterosexual hegemony are confronted with challenges from feminism and queerness. Sexual liberation and media representations of LGBT have been fumbling and stumbling their ways among opposition from diehard conservatives in the last 40 years.

Queer China ‘Comrade’ China aims to trace, document and review the topic of homosexuality in China from 1970s to 2000s, particularly those pivotal moments in the homosexual equal rights movement, such as the decriminalization and depathologization of homosexuality. Through interviews with more than 30 prominent figures in the Chinese LGBT community, this film provides a visual report of Chinese people’s shifts in their perception and attitude towards LGBT community.

CUI Zi’en is a leading Chinese independent filmmaker, writer, and critic. He lived in Beijing for a long time and is now based in northern Florida. A trailblazing, internationally recognized queer filmmaker, CUI has written, directed and produced nearly two-dozen fiction and non-fiction films, notably Enter the Clowns (2002), The Old Testament (2002), Night Scene (2004), We Are the … of Communism (2007), and Queer China, ‘Comrade’ China (2009). A prolific writer and critic, his fiction and critical works include Travel in Film (1993), Peach-Colored Lips (1997), Uncle’s Secular Life (2003), Pseudo-Science Fiction Stories (2003), Memories of Light and Shadow (2005), and Big Dipper (2012). He is also the Co-Founder of the Beijing Queer Film Festival.