Towards queer cultural rights [Review of the book Situating sexualities: Queer representation in Taiwanese fiction, film and public culture, by Fran Martin]

The ambiguity of Taiwanese tongxianlian practices is a social reality in a state of ‘unconcluded colonialism’ in Taiwan; at the same time it is also a political resource for imagining a new sexual culture in the nation. Committed to this positive ambiguity about tongxinglian, Fran Martin’s Situating Sexualities explores the relationships that Taiwanese ku’er literature and film has with the spatiality of Taipei city (and more broadly with the national space), with the ideology of the ‘traditional family’, and with the politics of tongzhi subjectivities. Furnished with an outline of a theory of psychic reparation, Situating Sexualities is an elegantly written and politically savvy analysis of ku’er cultural productions in Taiwan. Copyright © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd.