THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO WHAT’S IN A NAME? LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND TONGZHI STRATEGIES FOR SOCIAL CHANGE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY BY CATERINA FUGAZZOLA CHICAGO, ILLINOIS DECEMBER 2019 This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Carla and Enzo. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….iv Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...v A Note on Terminology……………………………………………………………………………………………………………x Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...xi Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter 1 – Tongzhi, Lala, Deviants, and Queers: Legacies and Politics of Sexual Identity Language………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..23 Chapter 2 – Coming Out, Coming Home: Sexual Identity and Family Belonging………………..49 Chapter 3 – Rainbow Umbrellas and Wedding Qipao: Pushing the Limits of Contention…...75 Chapter 4 – Going to Court: Legal Advocacy and the Limits of Rights Discourse……………….99 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………....132 Methodological Appendix……………………………………………………………………………………………………138 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..150 iii List of Figures Figure 1. Cities and Number of Study Participants………………………………………………………….18 iv Acknowledgments This dissertation has been a long journey spanning across three continents, as many languages, and so much support from so many communities. I am eternally grateful to everyone who has been a part of this adventure. I would be nothing without you. I made it here in no small part thanks to the incredible teachers and mentors I have been lucky to encounter along my path. When I was still a high school orange-mohawked punk rock misfit, Antonella Barbagallo taught me to love and respect language—at this point, I think we can confidently say you won the battle against my stubborn refusal to see the value in linguistic analysis. Cristina Re knew that Italy was boxing me in well before I did, and always pushed me towards new challenges and new horizons. You are the reason I started studying Chinese in the first place, and look at where that led me. Thank you for believing in me even when I was impossible. I fell in love with academia at the University of San Francisco, where for the first time I sat in a graduate seminar and my mind was blown. Who knew there was a world outside the giant lecture halls I had grown accustomed to in Italy, where students never speak. It took me a while to figure out the strange universe where university professors talked to me, and actually cared about my ideas. Christopher Moreman was the first person to show me this new world, and my first academic publishing mentor. Thank you for teaching me there is a way to write to academics about zombies and horror movies. Doowan Lee was one of my greatest supporters in San Francisco, and he was my rock while I was applying to PhD programs. Your dinners and BBQs helped me keep my sanity in those months. Perhaps the most significant decision I made at USF was that of sneaking into a class I was not really supposed to take and meeting Dorothy Kidd. Our conference in Uppsala v remains one of the fondest memories of my academic life. You have been the most kind and patient mentor, and you have taught me what it means to deeply care about the communities I study. When we met I had no idea what a PhD in the United States even entailed, and I would have never considered going down this road if it weren’t for you. Thank you. Being at the University of Chicago has been the most challenging and rewarding experience of my life. I am lucky to have found a community of friends that have been there with me every step of the way. A cheer goes to the survivors of my disappearing cohort, Alex Brewer, Sophie Fajardo, Nathan Gonzalez, Wen Xie—we are still here, still going strong. Kanyi Huang, you have moved on to better things but my dissertation owes a great deal to you and to the serendipitous coffee conversation that started it all. Xiaogao Zhou, you are my favorite new addition to the Sociology department, and you have been one of the biggest supporters of this project since the day we fortuitously connected on WeChat in 2017. You have probably read more chapter drafts than my committee. Thank you for your endless patience with all my language questions. Katie Hendricks, I don’t know how but you somehow came to be the guiding beacon for my whole cohort during our first year in the program. I am thankful for your friendship, a I look forward to many Assassin’s Creed marathons with you and Roger. A particular thank you to Melissa Osborne, my departmental half and the cat to my dog. Your patient explanations of all things American saved me from succumbing to my ever-growing culture shock. Osbornia gives me hope for the future. I hope you all are prepared to have a gelato chef living in your backyard—I promise I will tend the baby goats. vi My deepest gratitude undoubtedly goes to my two lifelines, Hanisah Binte Abdullah Sani and Sneha Annavarapu. This dissertation would not have come together without you. You caught me when I was in free fall, and if I made it to the finishing line it is only because of your support. You managed to make me smile during the hardest summer of my life, and gave me the strength to laugh at myself and to keep going. I feel so lucky to have you in my life. Thank you for not letting me run to the Rockies. Many other people contributed to making the University of Chicago feel like home in the past seven years. Thanks Maryam Alemzadeh, Pranathi Diwakar, Rebecca Ewert, Cayce Hughes, Jane McCamant, Nisarg Mehta, Sarah Outland, Jeffrey Parker, Yaniv Ron-El, and Yuchen Yang. Pat Princell, Meredith Clason, and Linnea Martin, we would all be fumbling in the dark without you. You keep this department standing. Thank you. The Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality has been my second home at the University of Chicago, and I want to thank all the incredible people that make that place special. Bonnie Kanter, Tate Brazas, Gina Olson, you are the beating heart of CSGS and hands down the best event organizers on campus. I am thankful to everyone involved in the Gender and Sexuality Workshop and Working Group, particularly Annie Heffernan, Omie Hsu and Agatha Slupek. Two other centers played I large role in my doctoral journey. I am forever grateful to the Writing Center, and particularly to Linda Smith, Kathy Cochran, and Margaret Fink. I am a better writer, teacher, and mentor because of you. And although it is a recent addition on campus, I am grateful for the MADD Center and for the amazing humans who made it possible. A particular thanks goes to Patrick Jagoda and Ashlyn Sparrow. Thank you for introducing me to some of the best videogames I know, even the ones that make me want vii to break my television in fits of rage. Sorry I had to steer clear of the Center while dissertating. This research was made possible by the financial support of the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, the Social Science Division, the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, the Center for East Asia Studies, the Alumni Club of Italy, the University of Chicago Beijing Center, and the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights Research. I couldn’t have asked for a better dissertation committee than Elisabeth Clemens, Kristen Schilt, and Dingxin Zhao. Working with you has been a dream, and I am so grateful for all your support throughout this adventure. Dingxin, you were one of the first people to help me figure out how to survive my barely-funded first years in the program. Thank you for pushing me to think critically and for helping me turn my curiosity into sociological questions. Kristen, you have been so much more than a mentor throughout my doctoral years. I couldn’t have done this without you. You made me a better teacher, writer, sociologist, and academic. Thank you for reminding me to breathe, and for always being there for me. You believed in me when I was ready to give up, and I can never thank you enough for that. Lis, you have been the best dissertation Chair I could have ever asked for. Your patience, support, and terrifyingly sharp questions helped me make this project what it is now. Thank you for always pushing me to think deeply about the significance of my findings. While working towards this degree I could always count on the unwavering support from my family, feline and human. Dina, Tolo, Spritz, Napo, I miss you dearly and I know you would be proudly ignoring me if you were still here. Nitro, you are a weirdo but you are still family. Dalia, I have never met you in person but I am sure you will hate me. Ziggy e viii Bau, your aunty loves you very much even though you are hopeless. And a special thanks to Loki, the little daemon who came into my life during the writing mayhem and who has kept me grounded with his unstoppable mischief. Please stop stealing my pasta. I owe much to the human counterparts to this feline assemblage. Alessia, you have been a wonderful and complicated part of this wonderful and complicated journey. Thank you for these years, and for teaching me strengths I didn’t know I had. Andrea and Valeria, it took me a bit more than three years but I finally joined you two doctors. And no, I am not changing my title on airline tickets.