Queer Sinophone Media across Asian Regionalism

Abstract

In March 2022, in the midst of a fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong that generated more than 10,000 new cases per day, two colleagues invited me to take a short weekend trip to Tai O, a fishing village located on the western side of Lantau Island. At first, I was not very excited about the trip: I had already been to Tai O several times, and in recent years the fishing village has been overtaken by tourists. It’s just another village that is commodified for its traditional and exotic appeal, I thought. My colleagues soon proved me wrong by taking us on a hiking trail that overlooks the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. While pleasantly rejuvenated by the breathtaking view, I was also struck by how regionally integrated Hong Kong is with the rest of mainland China within the spatial imaginary of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. After the hike, we decided to take a rest at a local café. Our server was a talkative, middle-aged, sporty-looking woman who gave off queer vibes. Once she found out that one colleague was from Taiwan, she shared her own experiences of working in Taipei and how much she missed Taiwan. On our way out, I spotted a postcard of Anson Lo and Edan Lui, the protagonists of the latest hit Boys’ Love (BL) television series Ossan’s Love (ViuTV, 2021), which is adapted from the highly successful 2018 Japanese BL television drama of the same name. As we passed by the Tai O Heritage Hotel, another lesbian butch-femme couple passed us by. I halfjokingly told my friends, “Tai O is becoming a gay Mecca of Hong Kong!” I recount my trip to Tai O to focus three ideas that might not appear related to one another at first glance: queer media, the Sinophone, and