CHAO Shi-yan; Translator: FAN Xiang
Abstract
Aiming to sketch the contour of ‘queer moving images’ in mainland Chinese independent cinema, this article does not aim to be exhaustive, but mainly unfolds along the axes of fiction and non-fiction filmmaking. Drawing attention to the influence of the digital technology, this article maintains that queer fiction filmmaking witnessed an experimental turn in the early 2000s due to the availability of this new technology, which also proved fundamental to the emergence of queer non-fiction filmmaking. Whereas the activist turn of the queer digital documentary reflected and reinforced the formation of the local tongzhi/queer community, women’s marginalization remains a structural issue in the queer community-building and documentary making. The article concludes by pointing out two directions for further research: one involves the fiction/non-fiction divide; the other is underlined by China’s newly evolved media environment that further complicates the article’s premise of ‘independent’ cinema as affiliated with alternative, non-commercial productions.