This book provides a cultural history of queer representations in Chinese-language film and media, negotiated by locally produced knowledge, local cultural agency, and lived histories. Incorporating a wide range of materials in both English and Chinese, this interdisciplinary project investigates the processes through which Chinese tongzhi/queer imaginaries are articulated, focusing on four main themes: the Chinese familial system, Chinese opera, camp aesthetic, and documentary impulse. Chao's discursive analysis is rooted in and advances genealogical inquiries: a non-essentialist intervention into the "Chinese" idea of filial piety, a transcultural perspective on the contested genre of film melodrama, a historical investigation of the local articulations of mass camp and gay camp, and a transnational inquiry into the different formats of documentary. This book is a must for anyone exploring the cultural history of Chinese tongzhi/queer through the lens of transcultural media.

"Chao Shi-yan's book is a jewelry box of delights, sparkling with sharp analysis of Chinese-language queer culture ranging from Maoist melodrama to Taiwanese musicals, lesbian documentaries, and adaptations from queer literary classics. Arranged in three sections on kinship, camp, and documentary, they illuminate a little known and complex landscape." - Chris Berry, King's College London

"From PRC socialist classic and Hong Kong popular cinema to DV lesbian documentaries and Taiwan camp aesthetics, this richly researched, deeply contextualized, and theoretically sophisticated tome offers an expansive queer reading of Chinese-language film and media work. An important contribution to Sinophone queer cinema studies." - Song Hwee Lim, Professor of Cultural Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong