Toward an Aesthetic of Tongzhi Camp

Abstract

This chapter investigates the significance and articulation of tongzhi camp. It first unpacks the nebulous concept of “gay sensibility” by supplementing it with a structure of feeling mediated by gay shame and gay melancholy, alongside their particular ramifications in a Chinese cultural setting. It then examines how such a queer structure of feeling is potentially transformed into camp expressions in Corner’s (2001) and Splendid Float (2004), directed by lesbian-identifying filmmaker Zero Chou. This chapter finally analyzes the way camp is adapted by Tsai Ming-liang in The Hole (1998) into a powerful implement that negotiates heteronormativity by playing on the mechanism of the homosexual closet: homosexual presence thus becomes imbricated in the audio-visual expressions that characterize the film’s patent tongzhi camp style.