Event — Lecture

Queer Existence under Global Governance: Or, Is Global Governance Bad for Asian Queers

24 May 2007

24/05/2007 - 17:00

24 May 200717.00-18.30 hrs

Mosse lecture by Prof. Josephine Ho (National Central University, Taiwan)

Heeren 17 Room, University of Amsterdam
Kloveniersburgwal 48, Amsterdam

In the past decades, developments in urban governance and sexual citizenship in various major cities in the world (San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Sidney, etc.) have helped produce successful cases of gay/queer space, yet such developments are not without continued surveillance of sexual practices and desires in those exact locations, which often results in seeming cultural tolerance accompanied by implicit legal regimentation. In the meantime, despite increasing visibility of queer cultural representation, the politics of such fashionable cultural productions are becoming increasingly complex, if not obscure, as rapid commercialization shifts the contexts in which such cultural productions are embedded. The broad-based development of what has come to be known as "global governance," this multi-layered alliance network of transnational non-governmental organizations (NGOs), treaties, and commissions, is not only impacting upon Asian queer existence but also posing serious challenge to queer politics and queer theory in the region. The talk will center upon two major points: (1) the emerging global hegemony of morality that has quantum-leaped its assault on queer representations and queer interaction by bringing into place new legislations and litigations against them, as well as mobilizing and transforming conservative vigilance into an active surveillance network against any non-normaive sexuality; (2) the construction of child protection as a universal imperative that in actuality works both to re-enforce heterosexual monogamy and to debunk cultural diversity as inherently confusing and thus harmful for children. While global governance, as its proponents claim, may signal the weakening of state power and domination in certain national contexts; global governance, envisioned as a benign network of collaboration among the various segments of civil society, has more often than not instigated a new form of power and surveillance which has proven to be especially inimical to queers. And it is in relation to this new global development that Asian queer theory and queer activism must reconfigure their scope and engagement.

Hijra - Anita Khemka

photo: Anita Khemka

Josephine Ho
Now Chair of the English Department, National Central University, Taiwan and President of the Cultural Studies Association, Taiwan, Josephine Ho has been intensely involved in the burgeoning counter-cultural movement as well as the feminist movement since her return to Taiwan in 1988 after receiving two doctorates from US universities. As perhaps the best-known feminist scholar in Taiwan, she later founded the Center for the Study of Sexualities at National Central University in 1995, widely-recognized for both its activism and its intellectual stamina. The Center's annual conferences have been continuously opening up social space for marginal issues in gender/sexuality-related theory and research. Josephine Ho herself has been writing both extensively and provocatively on many cutting-edge issues in the Taiwanese context, spearheading sex-positive views on female sexuality, gender/sexuality education, queer studies, sex work studies and activism, transgenderism, and most recently body modification, which greatly enhanced and challenged Taiwanese academic research into marginal gender/sexualities. For her tireless effort in resisting bigotry and prejudice, and her work on human rights and sex rights, she was selected as one among the thousand women from all over the world who are collectively nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. See also http://sex.ncu.edu.tw/members/ho/english/jo_english.htm