EMERGING LESBIAN: FEMALE SAME-SEX DESIRE IN MODERN CHINA, THE

Comparative Literature, Summer 2004 by Berry, Chris

In the final two sections of the book, Sang turns to the recent efflorescence of literature about female same-sex desire in post-Mao China and in Taiwan. On the mainland, she finds a situation where, after the total repression and denial of the existence of homosexuality during the Maoist era, lesbianism has been slow to emerge into public discourse in comparison with male homosexuality and remains heavily disparaged. As a result, it cannot be named or claimed without great opposition and danger, and emphasis on female same-sex relationships appears in the work of various female authors only as part of a broader interest in "female consciousness" and "feminine writing." In close analyses of the work of Lin Bai and Chen Ran, she finds a protest against die homophobia associated with the history of the People's Republic in the former and an emphasis on female same-sex desire as part of a general bisexuality or refusal of gender-specific desire in the work of the latter.

In contrast to the mainland, Taiwan in the 1990s has seen both the development of a vibrant gay, lesbian, and queer social movement and the eager appropriation of queer theory from the West by Taiwan's literary critical establishment. Where female same-sex desire has been subsumed into interest in "female consciousness" on the mainland, in Taiwan there have been heated disputes between heterosexual feminists and lesbian feminists. As Sang points out, "the Taiwanese lesbian feminist persona is notjust a new lesbian identity. It is an unprecedented public female identity, at least as far as the Chinese-speaking world is concerned" (p. 245). At the same time, the commercial mass media has seized upon gays and lesbians as objects of interest to consumers, but not always in a way that works to the advantage of gays and lesbians. The anguish this provokes is the topic of the late Qiu Miaojin's famous novel Eyu Shouji (The Crocodile's Journal), which Sang analyzes in detail.

The detailed research and astute critical thinking in each chapter of The Emerging Lesbian make for rewarding and exciting reading. Of course, one book can do only so much, and it is to be hoped that it will inspire further work on the topic by others. What directions might this take? In her opening chapter Sang contrasts her emphasis on historiography with other work on the globalization of sexuality that is more contemporary in focus. She argues, rightly so, that the latter work runs the risk of implying that SinoWestern encounters around the topic of sexuality did not begin before the post-Mao era, and lier careful construction of a history that avoids the imposition of a false linear progress and continuity is one of the great achievements of this book. But at the same time, her emphasis on the Chinese historical context necessarily limits consideration of how the Chinese experience may add to our general understanding of sexuality as internationally diverse and disjunctive, as il is in China itself. The comments about the emphasis on inter-subjectivity and resistance to identity cited above are a fleeting and tantalizing exception. Other work will have to pursue these questions, and Fran Martin's book on queer Taiwan begins that work. Of course, it is not a case of choosing between one or the other approach; they should be seen as complementary not competitive.