The Beijing Rainbow Film Festival: between depoliticisation and performative activism

Abstract

This article examines Chinese queer activism by offering an empirically grounded discussion of the Beijing Rainbow Film Festival. The central argument is that while the exterior image of the film festival is to foster a context for queer culture and transform queer politics, an interior view of the festival’s aim is to widen repertoires of acquaintance. The Beijing Rainbow Film Festival nourishes discursive urban experiences of foreseeable obstacles and expected coalitions, which fully embrace local indie filmmakers, tongzhi activists, cinephiles and LGBT spectatorship. It mirrors a ritual gathering, filled with conflict, resistance and variability alongside celebration. The analysis offered utilises a wide-ranging methodology drawn from urban, film, queer and organisational studies and seeks to juxtapose the tactics of depoliticisation with performative activism. In examining the relationship between the film festival and queer communities, cinephiles, (queer) auteurs, and the festival’s curators, the article first examines the film festival for its depoliticising tendencies, in line with hegemonic neo-liberal society and the dynamics of urban politics in the context of an authoritarian state. The article finally analyses the organisation’s performative practices, which I argue advance an ostensibly subversive position vis-à-vis political agents and the aesthetics of tongzhi films.

Keywords:

• Gender
• film festival
• queer
• depoliticization
• performative

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Originally meaning “comrade”, the word tongzhi has been appropriated as an umbrella term to refer to LGBT minorities in the Sinophone queer world.

2 In the remainder of this article, I use the generic term “Beijing Rainbow Film Festival” or its acronym “BJRFF” for this film festival. Furthermore, I clearly state its designations in each phase of its history from its establishment in 2001 to the present. This practice is designed to eliminate any confusion in terms of historical accuracy while refusing the creation of a false sense of continuity.

3 The original text is written in Chinese. Quotations from Li’s work are my translation.

4 Gay Spot is a gay-centric independent magazine, based in Beijing.

5 For example, many apps oriented towards tongzhi communities are available in China.

6 The original text is written in Japanese. Quotations from Kanno’s work are my translation.

7 Queer as Folk is a Chinese online forum that gathers information on LGBT films.

8 Rela is a webcasting and dating app oriented towards lesbian communities.

9 Blue is a dating app oriented to gay communities.

10 See Yang Yang’s documentary Our Story: The 10-Year “Guerrilla Warfare” of the Beijing Queer Film Festival (herein abbreviated to Our Story).

11 See https://www.bjqff.com/.

12 The Songzhuang Art Gallery is a distant art commune located in suburban Beijing.

13 The festival’s Chinese titles include 中国同性恋电影节 (the China Homosexual Film Festival 2001-2004), 北京同性恋电影节 (the Beijing Homosexual Film Festival 2004-2007), 北京同志影展 (the Beijing Comrade Film Festival 2007-2009), 北京酷儿影展 (the Beijing Queer Film Exhibition 2009-2015) and 爱酷电影周 (the Love Queer Cinema Week 2015-present).

14 Bao used the name “Beijing Queer Film Festival” for the film festival in his work. Here, I choose the generic title Beijing Rainbow Film Festival to maintain narrative consistency.

15 Cui Zi’en is an independent filmmaker and a professor at the Beijing Film Academy. Yang Yang was then a sophomore at Peking University. Zhang Jiangnan was the director of a campus student club of Peking University called The Motion Picture Association (see Our Story).

16 The headquarters of the Beijing Independent Film Festival was located in the Songzhuang Art Gallery, which is well-equipped with screening facilities.

17 Talking about the 2009 festival, Cui Zien in interview said, “We were particularly lucky this time as there was no interference from the authorities. We had no trouble holding the Festival” (see Yang Yang’s documentary Our Story).

18 Siheyuan, meaning quadrangle, is a traditional Chinese courtyard surrounded by buildings on all four sides.

19 For example, the screening venues of the 2018 Shanghai PRIDE Film Festival included a lesbian bar called “Roxie” and a centre attached to British Consulate General in Shanghai. The 2019 film festival was held in the Royal Danish Consulate General in Shanghai (see https://www.shpride.com/films/?lang=en).

20 Begun in 2015, the Shanghai PRIDE Film Festival ended in 2020 for a number of reasons including problems with sponsorship (See https://www.shpride.com/films/?lang=en).

21 See l http://www.bjqff.com/.

22 See https://www.queercomrades.com/. Accessed 26 January 2019.

23 For example, in a programme with a focus on Diversities, curators from the Kansai Queer Film Festival of Japan participated in a panel debate entitled ‘At the Margins of the LGBT Movement’. See https://www.bjqff.com/

24 See the pamphlet from the 2014 Beijing Queer Film Festival.

Additional information

Funding

This research was made possible by support from fellowship support and grants from Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing. The project described was also partially supported by the Japanese Government’s Monbukagakusho Scholarship.