Queer Taiwan and the construction of a Taiwanese queer identity

This article examines Queer Taiwan, a docu-series focusing on LGBTQ topics in Taiwan. Among the very first original content commissioned by GagaOOLala, Asia’s first LGBTQ streaming platform, Queer Taiwan is imbued with messages of social import while tracing the history and recording the current fight for LGBTQ rights. By adopting a participatory approach, Queer Taiwan sparked conversation on hotly debated topics among different social groups with the goal of enhancing mutual understanding and shedding light on common misconceptions. This article explores how these conversations reflect the changing social outlook and public attitudes during Taiwan’s journey towards marriage equality. It includes a discussion of the socialization and politicization of sexual identity by situating it within the history of Taiwan’s national identity politics, a pervasive theme of the island’s queer literature and cinema. The analysis encompasses queer cinema, documentaries in particular, illustrating how non-fiction film envisions the parallels between campaigns to assert queer pride and Taiwanese distinctiveness. This study illuminates the relationship between queer cinema and the wider sociopolitical landscape in the run-up to Taiwan’s legalization of same-sex marriage.