Queer(ing) Taiwan and its future: from an agenda of mainstream self-enlightenment to one of sexual citizenship

Abstract

As parts of an ongoing reflection on the tongzhi (roughly equivalent to lesbian/gay/queer, hereafter abbreviated as l/g/q) developments in Taiwan, three critical theses are put forward in this essay. The first is a historical understanding of the excitingly prosperous l/g/q emergence in the 1990s. I offer here a contextual analysis which views this phenomenal rise as the amplified effects of what I call a ‘self-enlightening’ process pursued by the mainstream society since the democratization process started in the late 1980s. Yet as fortunate as it seems, this coincidence also dictated the specific form the l/g/q movement has taken as well as caused its apparent ‘cool-off’ near the year 2000. The second is the follow-up critical observation, along the line already mapped out, on the latest change of direction – i.e. what I call the ‘civic turn’ of the l/g/q movement since 2000. This in effect further proves my thesis put forth in the first section and also points at a general perspective on the relative strength (or lack of it) of the Taiwan society versus political power. At the end, O distinguish the l/g/q civil movement in Taiwan from its US counterpart by showing the local transformations of this largely imported discourse with the purpose of providing a glocal comparative framework. To further demonstrate the glocal difference, I also anticipate the historical significance of this new phase of development itself as well as for Taiwan in general.