The matrices of female bonding and lesbian sexuality: female homoerotic cinema in Mainland China

ABSTRACT

The mis-representation of female homoeroticism in China and misunderstanding of films in this regard leads to the question: What explanatory frameworks should we adopt to analyze Chinese female homo-erotic films in the way that respects the local historical and cultural context? After studying the local history of women’s separatism and formation of lesbian identity under Western influences, I suggest two frameworks, namely, the matrix of female bonding and the matrix of lesbian sexuality. Adopting these two frameworks, respectively, I conduct close analysis of Sweet Eighteen (甜蜜18岁, 2012) and Fish and Elephant (今年夏天, 2001), to locate the “Chinese lesbianism” in these not very lesbian films in the eyes of American audience. I will argue that the narrative of homosexual-maternal transferability in the former resonates with Chinese women’s literature, while the narrative of homosexual normality and a coming-home rather than coming-out strategy in the latter film speak to the local specificity of lesbian discourse since the 1990s.

KEYWORDS:

• Lesbianism
• Homoerotic cinema
• Mainland China

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Misha Kavka for her invaluable suggestions, continued support, and encouragement. I also thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their generous feedback on this manuscript

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Publications

Yang, F. (2022). Feminist Podcasting: a New Discursive Intervention on Gender in Mainland China. Feminist Media Studies,1–16.

Yang, F. (2021). Possession by Devil: Women’s Alternative Language; A Feminist Reading of Kim Ji-young, Born 1982. Feminist MediaStudies, 1–6.

Yang, F. (2020). Post-feminism and Chick Flicks in China: Subjects, Discursive Origin and New Gender Norms. Feminist MediaStudies, 1–16.

Notes

1. Here, lesbian as sexual identity is understood as the typical Western concept, not to simplify the heterogenicity and complexity of the social change of such an understanding in the Western context. Concepts such as “lesbian continuum” in Rich’s term challenge and broaden such sexual-orientation-based understanding. But, homosexuality as sexual identity is the most important concept that has influenced China since the 1990s. Therefore, it is used as the typical Western framework here in this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fan Yang

Fan Yang is a lecturer at Hangzhou Normal University. Her research interests are discursive trajectories of various feminisms in mainland China, women’s cinema and feminisms on Chinese social media.