Representations and Self-representations of Queer(s) in East Asia

 About the conference

 About the conference

The coverage of ‘queer’ topics and their representatives in popular culture, media, and the general public is changing in many east asian regions. The transformation in the representation of the ‘queer’ in traditional channels has been accompanied by a surge within the ‘new media’. While visibility enables networking among persons who identify with a queer lifestyle it simultaneously establishes proscriptive standards and norms, producing a pressure to adapt. Local and foreign scholars in Gender Studies, Sexuality Studies, and Queer Theory have analyzed diverse aspects of ‘representation’ (cf. McLelland und Mackie 2014). Additionally, certain scholars have pointed out a perceived ‘western’ influence in form of activist practices (such as pride parades) or through the usage of the term ‘queer’ (cf. Shimizu 2007). With this conference we hoped to encourage a critical examination of representations and self-representations of queer(s) in East Asia. We inquired after contemporary foreign depictions of queer people and queerness in East Asia and interrogated whether and how marginalized groups form, define, and spread their own conceptions of ‘queerness’ using different media and resources such as social media. 

The conference was organized by students of East Asian Studies in Vienna in cooperation with the LGBTI*Q* Department of the Austrian Students Union (ÖH).