Abstract
This essay presents a queer Sinophone rethinking of Marx’s concept of value. Specifically, a queer theory informed by materialist critique can account for how certain bodies are rendered normative and valuable and others as devalued within neoliberal globalisation in contemporary China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. I coin the term ‘perverse use-value’ to name the reification of queer bodies as risky, socially non-reproductive, and hence perverse; alternatively, a critical reckoning of how queer bodies assume perverse meanings can point to the ways queer subjects and cultural producers boldly occupy the negativity of perversion. Examining Cui Zi’en’s 2003 film Money Boy Diaries based in Beijing, Simon Chung’s 2009 Hong Kong film End of Love and the queer Taiwan poet Chen Kehua’s 2006 collection of poems called A Kind Man, this essay demonstrates the queer potentiality to remake lifeworlds within and against the developmental logics of neoliberalism and homonormative sexual respectability.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 209-225 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Culture, Theory and Critique |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 Apr 3 |
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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Cultural Studies
- Sociology and Political Science
Cite this
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Queering the quality of desire : Perverse use-values in transnational Chinese cultures. / Wong, Alvin Ka Hin.
In: Culture, Theory and Critique, Vol. 58, No. 2, 03.04.2017, p. 209-225.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Queering the quality of desire
T2 - Perverse use-values in transnational Chinese cultures
AU - Wong, Alvin Ka Hin
PY - 2017/4/3
Y1 - 2017/4/3
N2 - This essay presents a queer Sinophone rethinking of Marx’s concept of value. Specifically, a queer theory informed by materialist critique can account for how certain bodies are rendered normative and valuable and others as devalued within neoliberal globalisation in contemporary China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. I coin the term ‘perverse use-value’ to name the reification of queer bodies as risky, socially non-reproductive, and hence perverse; alternatively, a critical reckoning of how queer bodies assume perverse meanings can point to the ways queer subjects and cultural producers boldly occupy the negativity of perversion. Examining Cui Zi’en’s 2003 film Money Boy Diaries based in Beijing, Simon Chung’s 2009 Hong Kong film End of Love and the queer Taiwan poet Chen Kehua’s 2006 collection of poems called A Kind Man, this essay demonstrates the queer potentiality to remake lifeworlds within and against the developmental logics of neoliberalism and homonormative sexual respectability.
AB - This essay presents a queer Sinophone rethinking of Marx’s concept of value. Specifically, a queer theory informed by materialist critique can account for how certain bodies are rendered normative and valuable and others as devalued within neoliberal globalisation in contemporary China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. I coin the term ‘perverse use-value’ to name the reification of queer bodies as risky, socially non-reproductive, and hence perverse; alternatively, a critical reckoning of how queer bodies assume perverse meanings can point to the ways queer subjects and cultural producers boldly occupy the negativity of perversion. Examining Cui Zi’en’s 2003 film Money Boy Diaries based in Beijing, Simon Chung’s 2009 Hong Kong film End of Love and the queer Taiwan poet Chen Kehua’s 2006 collection of poems called A Kind Man, this essay demonstrates the queer potentiality to remake lifeworlds within and against the developmental logics of neoliberalism and homonormative sexual respectability.
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U2 - 10.1080/14735784.2017.1288581
DO - 10.1080/14735784.2017.1288581
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85013127875
VL - 58
SP - 209
EP - 225
JO - Culture, Theory and Critique
JF - Culture, Theory and Critique
SN - 1473-5784
IS - 2
ER -