Critical Writing Index

Calling on Queer Asians

by Liz Kim

Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and The Americas, May 2023, v. 9, no. 1 - 2, pp. 101 - 120

Leiden: Brill, 2023

ISSN 2352-3077 (print) 2352-3085 (online)

"This article considers Richard Fung's Orientations (1984) as a work of early pan-Asian community organization and self-recognition for LGBTQ+ Asian North Americans. Located between the founding of the community as a part of the legacy of Third World Liberation Front and AIDS activism starting in the mid-1980s, the video was made at a key juncture when visibility and self-affirmation were the main objectives for Asian North American queer communities. The autoethnographic documentary, which has received less scholarly attention than Fung's video works addressing Asian diasporic sexualities and postcolonial subjectivity, marks an important turning point for the historiography of Asian LGBTQ+ groups in North America and for the understanding of Fung's oeuvre over the past four decades" (abstract taken from the journal).

ITEM 2023.002 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Orientations: Lesbian and Gay Asians – Richard Fung

Lesbian Mothers – Norma Bahia Pontes

Lesbian Mothers – Rita Moreira

If She Grows Up Gay – Karen Sloe Goodman

Tongues Untied – Maron Riggs

Looking for Langston – Isaac Julien

Khush – Pratibha Parmar

Chinese Characters – Richard Fung

Looking for my Penis – Richard Fung

Bright Eyes – Stuart Marshall

Re:Orientations – Richard Fung

Paris is Burning – Jennie Livingston