Activism, Coming Out, and the Know-How to Zoujan/Zuoren

This chapter opens with an intergenerational encounter in which an informant met with younger lesbians, bisexual, queer, and nonbinary persons to exchange views on pop culture, social media, relationships and LGBTQ visibility. Issues of coming out, discrimination, and same-sex marriage were comprehended at multiple levels, crossing boundaries between the self and others and naming experiences or desires that had previously gone unnamed. Expanding upon the notion of zoujan / zuoren as a key characteristic of a form of Chinese personhood, this chapter explores the cultural meanings of being visible and out as a woman with same-sex desires (or a lesbian and bisexual woman), and discusses the impact of women’s movements, LGBTQ movements, Christianity, and the fight for marriage equality on this particular generation of women.