Abstract
Pathologization of homosexuality (the idea that homosexuality is a disease or illness) in China began during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and this idea has continued into current modern China. Confucianism’s emphasis on filial piety and binary gender roles, Chinese intellectuals’ appropriation of early European sexologists’ texts into their own anti- homosexuality writings during anti-traditional social movements such as the May Fourth Movement, and China’s criminalization of homosexuality during the socialist era all contributed to the pathologization of homosexuality. This paper investigates how the Chinese-language queer film Wong Kar-Wai’s Happy Together and the film Li Yu’s Fish and Elephant both challenge the idea that homosexuality is a disease and challenge the past influences that contributed to pathologization through cinematic allegory and representation.
How to Cite
Borra, K., (2021) “Pathologization of Homosexuality in China and Chinese Language Queer Films: The Impact of Representation and Cinematic Allegory”, Capstone, The UNC Asheville Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship 34(2).
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