Hong Kong gay men have always been subordinated under heterosexism and the disciplinary notion of hegemonic masculinity in the straight world and hegemonic cult gay masculinity in the gay world. Dominance, however, is not securely held, but must constantly be won. Under the postcolonial administration, Hong Kong gay men are not enthusiastic about the political sphere of life; rather, they have tended to shift from institutional politics to cultural politics. Cultural space has become the primary location for the production of texts that disrupt the norm of hegemonic heterosexuality under the commodity logic of capitalism. Moreover, using their own forms of embodied cultural capital, Hong Kong gay men tend to take the path of micro-resistance in combating societal domination. This can be seen from their engagement in public sex and in their involvement in the commercial gay scene. Based on the ‘voices’ of 34 Hong Kong gay men, this article argues that Hong Kong gay men negotiate a gay identity that is sensitive and flexible to different institutional arenas; this allows them to strive for sexual freedom and create their own space for social interaction and sexual desire.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adam, Barry D., Duyvendak, Jan Willem and Krouwel, AndrÈ (eds) (1999) The Global Emergence of Gay and Lesbian Politics: National Imprints of a Worldwide Movement. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press .
2.
Bell, David and Valentine, Gill (eds) (1995) Mapping Desire: Geographies of Sexualities. London: Routledge .
3.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1986) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge .
4.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1989) ‘Social Space and Symbolic Power’ , Sociological Theory7: 14–25 .
5.
Butler, Judith (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge .
6.
Chauncey, George (1996) ‘Private Could Only be Had in Public: Gay Uses of the Streets’, in Joel Sanders (ed.) Stud: Architectures of Masculinity, pp. 224–267. New York: Princeton Architectural Press .
7.
Chen, Noel (2001). See Chinese References (next section).
8.
Chou, Wah Shan (2001) ‘Homosexuality and the Cultural Politics of Tongzhi in Chinese Societies’ , Journal of Homosexuality40(3/4): 27–46 .
9.
Chou, Wah Shan and Chiu, Man Chung (1995). See Chinese References (next section).
10.
Chow, Rey (1993) ‘Things, Common/Places, Passages of the Port City: On Hong Kong and Hong Kong Author Leung Ping-Kwan’, Differences : A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies5(3): 179–203 .
11.
Chow, Rey (1998a) Ethics after Idealism: Theory-Culture-Ethnicity-Reading. Bloomington: Indiana University Press .
12.
Chow, Rey (1998b) ‘King Kong in Hong Kong: Watching the “Handover” from the USA’ Social Text 5516(2): 93–108 .
13.
Connell, R. W. (1995) Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press .
14.
De Certeau, Michel (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life (trans. Steven Rendall). Berkeley: University of California Press .
15.
Duncombe, Stephen (2002) ‘Introduction’, in Stephen Duncombe (ed.) Cultural Resistance Reader. London and New York: Verso .
16.
Evans, David T. (1993) Sexual Citizenship: The Material Construction of Sexualities. London: Routledge .
17.
Forrest, David (1994) ‘We’re Here, We’re Queer, and We’re Not Going Shopping: Changing Gay Male Identities in Contemporary Britain’, in Andrea Cornwall and Nancy Lindisfarne (eds) Dislocating Masculinity: Comparative Ethnographies, pp. 97–110. London: Routledge .
18.
Foucault, Michel (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (trans. Alan Sheridan). London: Penguin Books .
19.
Foucault, Michel (1980) The History of Sexuality, Volume One: An Introduction, trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage .
20.
Gamson, Joshua (1996) ‘Must Identity Movements Self-Destruct?: A Queer Dilemma’, in Steven Seidman (ed.) Queer Theory/Sociology, pp. 395–420. Oxford: Basil Blackwell .
21.
Hall, Stuart (1977) ‘Culture, Media, and the “Ideological Effect”’, in J. Curran, M. Gurevitch, and J. Woollacott (eds) Mass Communication and Society. London: Edward Arnold .
22.
Hennessy, Rosemary (1995) ‘Queer Visibility in Commodity Culture’, in Linda Nicholson and Steven Seidman (eds) Social Postmodernism: Beyond Identity Politics, pp. 142–183. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
23.
Hong Kong Government (1996) Equal Opportunities: A Study of Discrimination on the Grounds of Sexual Orientation, A Consultation Paper. Hong Kong: The Government Printer .
24.
Ingram, Gordon Brent, Bouthillette, Anne-Marie and Retter, Yolanda (eds) (1997) Queers in Space: Communities, Public Places, Sites of Resistance. Washington: Bay Press .
25.
Jackson, Peter A. (1995) Dear Uncle Go: Male Homosexuality in Thailand. Bangkok: Floating Island, Bua Luang Books .
26.
Jagose, Annamarie Rustom (1996) Queer Theory: An Introduction. New York: New York University Press .
27.
Kong, Travis S. K. (2000) ‘The Voices In-Between...: The Body Politics of Hong Kong Gay Men’. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Essex, UK.
28.
Kong, Travis S. K. (2002) ‘The Seduction of the Golden Boy: The Body Politics of Hong Kong Gay Men’ , Body & Society8(1): 29–48 .
29.
Kong, Travis S. K. (2004) ‘Queering Masculinity of Hong Kong Movies’, in Laikwan Pang and Day Kit-mui Wong (eds) Masculinities and Hong Kong Cinema. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press .
30.
Kwan, Stanley (1995) Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema. (Video Format). London: Connoisseur Video .
31.
Lau, Siu-kai (1982) Society and Politics in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press .
32.
Law, Wing-Sang (1998) ‘Managerializing Colonialism’, in Chen Kuan-Hsing (ed.) Trajectories: Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, pp. 109–121. London: Routledge .
33.
Leap, William L. (ed.) (1999) Public Sex/Gay Space. New York: Columbia University Press .
34.
Leung, Helen Hok-Sze (2001) ‘Queerscapes in Contemporary Hong Kong Cinema’ , Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique9(2): 423–447 .
35.
Long, Scott (1999) ‘Gay and Lesbian Movements in Eastern Europe: Romania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic’, in Barry D. Adam, Jan Willem Duyvendak and AndrÈ Krouwel (eds) The Global Emergence of Gay and Lesbian Politics: National Imprints of a Worldwide Movement, pp. 242–265. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press .
36.
Mouffe, Chantal (1995) ‘Feminism, Citizenship, and Radical Democratic Politics’, in Linda Nicholson and Steven Seidman (eds) Social Postmodernism: Beyond Identity Politics, pp. 315–331. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
37.
Murray, Stephen O. (1992) ‘The “Underdevelopment” of Modern/Gay Homosexuality in Mesoamerica’, in Ken Plummer (ed.) Modern Homosexualities: Fragments of Lesbian and Gay Experience, pp. 29–38. London: Routledge .
38.
Plummer, Kenneth (1999) ‘The Lesbian and Gay Movement in Britain – Schisms, Solidarities, and Social Worlds’, in Barry D. Adam, Jan Willem Duyvendak and AndrÈ Krouwel (eds) The Global Emergence of Gay and Lesbian Politics: National Imprints of a Worldwide Movement, pp. 133–157. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press .
39.
Plummer, Kenneth (ed.) (1992) Modern Homosexualities: Fragments of Lesbian and Gay Experience. London: Routledge .
Rubin, Gayle S. (1993) ‘Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality’, in Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale and David M. Haplerin (eds.) The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, pp. 3–44. London: Routledge .
42.
Scott, James (1985) Weapon of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press .
Seidman, Steven (1993) ‘Identity and Politics in a “Postmodern” Gay Culture: Some Historical and Conceptual Notes’, in Michael Warner (ed.) Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory, pp. 105–142. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press .
45.
Seidman, Steven (ed.) (1996) Queer Theory/Sociology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell .
46.
Strauss, Anselm L. and Juliet M. Corbin (1997) Grounded Theory in Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications .
47.
Weeks, Jeffrey (1985) Sexuality and Its Discontents: Meanings, Myths and Modern Sexualities. London: Routledge .
48.
Weeks, Jeffrey (1986) Sexuality. Chichester and London: Ellis Horwood Ltd. and Tavistock Publications .
49.
Woodhead, David (1995) ‘“Surveillant Gays”: HIV, Space and the Constitution of Identities’, in David Bell and Gill Valentine (eds) Mapping Desire: Geographies of Sexualities, pp. 231–244. London: Routledge .
50.
Chen, Noel (ed.) (2001) Special Study on a Discrimination Case – Hong Kong Red Cross (Guidelines for Prospective Donors). Hong Kong: Rainbow of Hong Kong, Rainbow Action and Phenomena Study Centre .
51.
Chou, Wah Shan and Chiu, Man Chung (1995) The Closet Sexual History: Gay Movements in Hong Kong and Britain/USA. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Tongzhi Research Centre .
