Cultural Studies Monthly Call for Papers
Thinking Queer in Asian Cinema
Deadline: Oct 1, 2006
Guest Editor: Chia-chi Wu

As Brokeback Mountain revamps the iconography of one of the oldest American
genres and scores box-office triumphs worldwide as an "art gay cowboy film",
contemporary filmmakers in Asia have also seemed to explore uncharted queer
themes and redraw the art cinema/mainstream production divide. To name just
a few examples, The King and the Clown (Lee Jun-ik, 2005), an explicit
gay-themed film set in pre-modern times, is said to be one of the highest
grossing films in South Korea. Beautiful Boxer (Thailand, Ekachai
Uekrongtham, 2003) and Splendid Afloat (Taiwan, Zero Chou, 2004) feature
male protagonists with transvestite tendencies but engaging in professions
of which macho-masculinity is considered as a quintessential constituent.
Moreover, Butterfly (Hong Kong, Yan Yan Mak, 2004) and The Intimates (Jacob
Cheung, 1997) have exhibited, in strictly and legitimately female homoerotic
terms, visible female-female sexuality that is probably unprecedented in
Chinese language commercial productions. For its November 2006 issue,
Cultural Studies Monthly is inviting essays or critical reviews on Asian
films that evince various degrees and a wide range of queer sensibilities.
The issue welcomes contributions (in English or Chinese) on related topics,
but is not confined to the follows:

* new theoretical or conceptual frameworks in understanding queer emotions
or desire in Asian cinema; or questions raised by Asian cinema for queer
theory or practice
* queer subjectivities crisscrossed with other axes of identity formation or
in relation to other structures of oppression, such as gender, class, race
or ethnicity, age, etc..
* the figuring of nationality, transnationality or globality in queer
culture
* films that point to the ties between pre-modern queer traditions to
contemporary eroticism
* queer and space, or "queerscape" as molded by peculiar cinematic visuality
or stylistics
* survey of any local or international g/l/q film festival, either located
in Asia or boasting a strong showcase of Asian queer films
* camp aesthetics
* films resonating with activism, public opinion or other social discourses
on queer subjects

Cultural Studies Monthly
(http://www.cc.ncu.edu.tw/~csa/journal/56/park_56.htm) is an online journal
launched by CSA Taiwan (Cultural Studies Taiwan). It is a non-referential,
non-peer-reviewed publication. Both English and Chinese submissions are
welcome. Strong English submissions will also, upon the author's approval,
be submitted to Film Appreciation (dianying xinshang published by Taipei
Film Archive, its peer-reviewed film paper section) for its potential
publication in Chinese translation.

Please send submissions to
Chia-chi Wu
jiaqiwu_at_yahoo.com
(Assistant Professor, Department of English
University of National Taiwan Normal University)

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Received on Thu Jun 15 2006 - 07:46:03 EDT