Little New Year's Revolutions: Examining Small Queer Spaces in Chunwan

Abstract

Chunwan, China’s annual New Year’s television gala, has been the country’s most popular show since 1983 (Lo, 2019). Chunwan’s performances simultaneously reinforce, disrupt, and potentially provide spaces for changing dominant discourse around queer identities. Specifically, two research questions guide our examination of five Chunwan performances between 2008- 2021: (a) How does Chunwan use queer identities to simultaneously reinforce, critique, and disrupt Chinese cultural norms through humor and performance? and (b) How do Chinese social values support queerness in China and Chinese media? Findings demonstrate that while these performances do not directly represent struggles and successes of the queer community, or feature queer characters in positive ways, or focus on queer protagonists, their inclusion acknowledges the existence of queer Chinese identities with regards to gender and sexuality.