Lesbian ’) Women in Beijing

The London School of Economics and Political Science Love in a big city: Sexuality, kinship, and citizenship amongst lala (‘lesbian ’) women in Beijing Elisabeth Lund Engebretsen A thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, July 2008 UMI Number: U613391 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U613391 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 iv^aes p TO 11551^ Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of the author. I warrant that this authorization does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. Abstracts This thesis is a critical analysis of individual and collective aspects of same-sex sexuality between women in post-millennial Beijing. I argue that sexual subjectivity (Tala’), rather than being a stable core constituent of self, is continually being produced by, and produces, social aspects of personhood, including bonds of kinship and national belonging. In particular, the fundamental interrelationship between gender and sexual difference in producing subjectivity is probed. I argue that transformations in gender norms in the domain of family, marriage, and alongside national socio-economic development, have enabled lala subjectivity to emerge. I demonstrate the Chinese-specific anchoring of lala, and thereby I critique globalization, sexuality, and China scholarship that predict inevitable Westernization and progress-oriented modernity, including Western-like queer life. My thesis is based on twenty months’ anthropological fieldwork, mainly utilizing the methods of participant observation, semi-structured and informal conversations. The core group of informants numbers ninety-five. Chapters 1 and 2 develop an ethnographically informed theoretical framework for the study of sexuality and gender in China. Chapters 3 and 4 present social geographies and narratives to demonstrate the interrelationship between gendered sexual subjectivity and social factors that together constitute selfhood, including age/generation, socio-economic background, marital status, motherhood, and residency. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss the enduring importance of kinship and marriage, and present ethnographies of marital strategies including same-sex, lala- gay contract marriages, ‘conventional’ marriages, and resistance. Chapter 7 discusses lala community and social activism. It compares post-millennial initiatives with those in the 1990s, and with regional and global activism. The extensive ethnographic material and critical analysis of kinship, marriage, relationships, and community demonstrate that non-normative sexuality is not inherently transgressive. Conforming is a strongly felt personal desire, not simply an imposed duty. Strategies which ensure the appearance of hetero-feminine and marital conformity and normative national belonging (‘Chineseness’) are being creatively and continually combined with growing possibilities for lala ways of life in Beijing. 3 Acknowledgements This research was made possible by a postgraduate studentship from the Economic and Social Research Council (PTA-030-2003-00215), and an award from the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Radcliffe Brown Fund. I am fundamentally indebted to the numerous women and men in Beijing and China who welcomed me and my research, and who made my fieldwork possible - and very enjoyable. For confidentiality reasons it would be inappropriate to name them here. I am immensely grateful to my two supervisors Henrietta L. Moore and Charles Stafford, for their generous support, constructive comments, and - most of all - patience with me throughout this process. I am indebted to Toni and Wang Wei who transcribed many of my audio files. I am very grateful to Vicky Boydell, Tina Chronopoulos, Katie Dow, and Andrew Sanchez for proof reading thesis chapters. I have benefited enormously from the kindness, patience, challenges, and overall support of many friends, acquaintances, professors, and colleagues: Ole Abildsnes & Mark Burnett, Hongwei Bao, Chris Berry, Anna Boermel, Agnes Bolso, Ola Breidal & Anne Kari Johansen, Tina Chronopoulos, Lena Finseth, Arne Neijordet & Carlos Zachrisson, Emi Kanno, Kimiko Suda, Derek Hird, Will Schroeder, Susi Kaiser & John Digby, Fran Martin, Lisa Rofel, Florian Schictling, Dinah Gardner, Nuria Querol, Clare Hemmings, Silvia Posocco, Carolyn Williams, Annu Jalais, Lincoln Vaughan, Hannah Miller, Ilsa McBryde, Loretta Ho, Lucetta Kam, Isak Niehaus, Katja Pettinen, Billy Stewart, Susie Jolly, Beth Povinelli, Sandhya Shukla, Stephan Feuchtwang, Harriet Evans, Genia Kostka, Siri Lindstad, my father Finn Engebretsen, and all my friends in Arendal/Tromoy. I owe special thanks to Nicola Casarini for his field assistance, generous company, and the Florentine escape. Thanks are also due to participants in the LSE Anthropology department post fieldwork writing-up seminars, the New York University Queer dissertation writing group (spring 2007), and the many people who have offered feedback to my seminar and conference presentations over the years. I would like to acknowledge my profound gratitude to Baisha Liu who first taught me Chinese and encouraged my passion for the Chinese language, history, and culture; Clare Hemmings who made me realize that queer and academia are not incompatible after all; and Henrietta Moore whose constructive challenges and unswerving support fostered the confidence and resilience necessary to complete my thesis. Finally, I dedicate my thesis and my work herein to the memories of my mother, Mary Elisabeth Engebretsen (b. Lund), 1932-2001, and brother, Haavard, 1963-1992. 4 Table of contents ABSTRACTS 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 TABLE OF FIGURES 9 KEY ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS 10 NOTE ON USE OF KEY TERMS AND LANGUAGE 11 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION, CONTEXT, AND BACKGROUND 13 1.1. Research questions and thematic framework 14 1.2. Literature review 18 1.2.1. Chinese sexualities 19 1.2.1.1. An overview of general discourses on sexuality in Chinese history 19 1.2.1.2. Scholarship on homo-sexualities in modem China 22 1.2.1.2.1. Literature on official discourse in the English and Chinese languages 22 1.2.1.2.2. Alternative literature in the English and Chinese languages 26 1.2.1.3. Scholarship on intimacy between women and lesbianism 28 1.2.2. Changing marriage and kinship norms in contemporary China 35 1.2.2.1. Transitions in kinship dynamics and filial obligation in urban China 39 1.2.2.1.1. Filial obedience and gender dynamics 39 1.2.2.1.2. Same-sex strategies in navigating conjugality and kinship 42 1.2.3. Research themes on contemporary urban China 46 1.3. Conclusion 49 CHAPTER 2: A CRITICAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF SEXUALITY: EPISTEMOLOGY, ETHNOGRAPHY, AND METHODOLOGY 50 2.1. Introduction: An anthropology of sexuality 50 2.1.1. Lala: Defining the topic of inquiry 54 5 2.2. Theorizing sexuality and globalization 55 2.2.1. Local/global tensions: Definitions, scales, and their limits 58 2.3. Foregrounding women: Female desire, gender variance, and transgenderism 64 2.3.1. Transgenderism 69 2.3.2. Gendered analytics and sexual categories 71 2.4. Self, subject, and identity 73 2.5. Research methodology and fieldwork 78 2.5.1. Arrival, entry and location 78 2.5.2. Fieldwork: Recruitment, data management, and writing 80 2.5.3. Logistics: Affiliation, living, and risk management 82 2.5.4. ‘Insider’ positioning and the erotic equation 83 2.5.5. The constraints of ethical methodology 85 CHAPTER 3: A SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE WOMEN IN MY STUDY 87 3.1. Variables in lala social geography explained 92 3.2. Facets of lala lives I: Younger women’s circumstances 98 3.2.1. Living with kin in Beijing 101 3.2.2. Marital status and marriage experience 104 3.2.3. Education level and career attainment 106 3.2.4. Relationship patterns 108 3.3. Facets of lala lives II: Older women’s experiences 110 3.3.1. Marriage experience 113 3.3.2. Unmarried women in lesbian relationships 118 3.4. Conclusion 122 CHAPTER 4: WOMEN, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY: THE MAKINGS OF LALA SUBJECTIVITY 124 4.1. “A special self’: Being different and becoming lala 127 4.1.1. “Ah, this is me!” Younger women coming to awareness of being different 128 4.1.2. Older women’s experiences 137 4.2. The gender of lala: TP subject categories 143 4.2.1. Female masculinities: The T role 146 4.2.2. Same difference: The P role 151 6 4.3. Erotic equations: Sexual ideology and practice 156 4.3.1. ‘Truth or dare’ - Playing sexual games in Miyun 157 4.3.2. “Lala talking sex” - Debating good sex in the Salon 159 4.4. Conclusion 162 CHAPTER 5: HOW THE MARITAL FIELD SHAPES LALA RELATIONSHIPS 164 5.1. Introduction 164 5.2. ‘Normal’ troubles: Marital ideology in China and conjugal queer debates in the United States 166 5.3. The consequence of counter-intimacy: Marriage as standard for desirable forms of love 171 5.3.1.

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