"Taiwan's Multicultural Tongzhi: Popular Representations, Activist Engagements, Markets and Space"

Abstract

This thesis takes as its object of inquiry the current formations of Tongzhi representation and subjectivity within contemporary modernist multicultural discourses in Taiwan. The subject is discussed from three angles across three different chapters. First, using the example of Crystal Boys as allegory, the paper discusses the optics of new and emerging forms of popular representation. By comparing the earlier 2003 public television series with the more recent rendition upon the stage of the national theater, the chapter aims to complicate concepts of visibility, highlighting how different forms of representation are produced at different levels for different audiences. The proceeding chapter then takes an ethnographic turn, exploring how activists and educators involved in the Gender Equity in Education Act engage and perform within paradigms of multiculturalism, as they interact, challenge, and participate in the state's civil society curriculum, as well as broader national goals of gender equity. The final chapter explores issues of space, consumerism, and city branding, arguing that markets and consumer spaces constitute key venues through which many contemporary Tongzhi subjectivities are negotiated. The thesis concludes with the notion that these processes affiliated with contemporary conventions of multicultural modernity contribute to large scale depoliticizations that present a distinct set of challenges to a more radical politics of difference.