Policy Press

Queering Kinship

Non-heterosexual Couples, Parents, and Families in Guangdong, China

By Han Tao

Published

May 30, 2024

Page count

202 pages

Browse the series

Gender, Sexuality and Global Politics

ISBN

978-1529233278

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

May 30, 2024

Page count

202 pages

Browse the series

Gender, Sexuality and Global Politics

ISBN

978-1529233285

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

May 30, 2024

Page count

202 pages

Browse the series

Gender, Sexuality and Global Politics

ISBN

978-1529233285

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press
Queering Kinship

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Guangdong, China, this book asks: what does it mean for Chinese non-heterosexual people to go against existing state regulations and societal norms to form a desirable and legible queer family?

Chapters explore the various tactics queer people employ to have children and to form queer or ‘rainbow’ families. The book unpacks people’s experiences of cultivating, or losing, kinship relations through their negotiation with biological relatives, cultural conventions and state legislations. Through its analysis, the book offers a new ethnographic perspective for queer studies and anthropology of kinship.

“A timely and engaging ethnographic intervention into urgent scholarly debates on kinship done and imagined otherwise, through a rich and nuanced analysis of lesbian assisted reproduction, family making and queer futurity.” Elisabeth Lund Engebretsen, University of Stavanger

Han Tao is Postdoctoral Researcher at the IT University of Copenhagen.

Introduction: Have ‘Families of Choice’ Arrived in China?

1. Queering Research: Ethnography, Positionality, and Ordinary ‘Queer’

2. Queering Intimacy: ‘Just-as-Married’ Same-Sex Relationships

3. Queering Reproduction: Changing Moral Dilemmas for Chinese Non-heterosexual People

4. Queering Technology: Becoming Queer Parents through Assisted Reproductive Technologies

5. Queering Parenting: Raising ‘Our Children’

6. Queering Family: Modern Rainbow Families

Conclusion: Queering Chinese Kinship and Futures

Appendix I: Key Research Participants

Appendix II: Roman (Pinyin) to Simplified Chinese