Law, film, and trans identity in Hong Kong

Abstract

This article examines the construction of trans identity in Hong Kong law and cinema. By juxtaposing the key Hong Kong court cases on trans rights and some recent feature films on trans experience, it argues that film can reproduce and reinforce the understanding of identity in the court cases, and that they can unwittingly perpetuate the dynamic of exclusion enacted in those cases. Law and popular film may seem to be distinct discursive domains, but their constructions of trans identity are in fact intertwined. The article contends that to break out of these limiting identity formulations, we need to move beyond the dominant imaginaries of law and popular culture. It offers one way of doing so by turning to independent queer filmmaking as a forum for articulating and recognizing alternative trans subjectivities.