Panel Discussion on Documenting Taiwan’s Queer History: In Memory of Mickey Chen

Key information

Date
Time
1:00 PM to 2:30 PM
Venue
Virtual Event

About this event

Ta-Wei Chi 紀大偉, Gofyy 喀飛, How Wee Ng 黃浩威

This session will be held using Microsoft Teams. Click the LINK to join.

Not Just a Wedding Banquet - Dir. Mickey Chen, Mia Chen | Taiwan | 1996 | 44 min

In December 2018, renowned documentary filmmaker and writer Mickey Chen (1967 - 2018) passed away unexpectedly, leaving behind a legacy of social activist films and writings that challenged social norms. Focusing on LGBTQ+ stories in Taiwan, Chen gave disenfranchised communities the voice they needed. He documented significant milestones in Taiwan’s LGBTQ+ history, bringing to the big screen topics never discussed before, such as the lives and loves of the elderly queer community, and the taboo of AIDS and HIV. He actively fought for change on the streets and in the schools of Taiwan, and on the international stage. Chen successfully pushed for the revision of multiple discriminatory laws and systemic practices, striving for justice and understanding.

Although a widely recognised figure in Taiwan, for too long the world has overlooked Chen’s work. Therefore, in commemoration of Mickey Chen two years after his passing, we are hosting a free week-long online screening from 4th to 10th December, featuring four of his documentaries: Not Just A Wedding Banquet (1996), Boys for Beauty (1999), Memorandum on Happiness (2003), and Scars on Memory (2005). Over the past few decades, Taiwan has come a long way – from the first public gay wedding in 1996, to the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2019. Register here to watch the films for free online.

Accompanying this film series will be an online panel discussion on Wednesday 8th December with queer writer and researcher Chi Ta-Wei 紀大偉, as well as Gofyy 喀飛, gay activist and co-founder of Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association. In the panel, moderated by Dr How Wee Ng from the University of Westminster, we will discuss Taiwan’s queer communities as represented through Chen’s camera lens. We will revisit the key stages of LGBTQ+ movements in the past decades and look ahead to the future advancement of LGBTQ+ rights in Asia.

Panellists

Ta-Wei Chi 紀大偉
Ta-wei Chi (taweichi.com) is a queer writer in Taipei. His science fiction novel, The Membranes, originally published in Chinese, is available in Japanese, French and English. His speculative fiction story collection, The Pearls, is available in French. With a PhD in Comparative Literature from UCLA, he is associate professor of Taiwanese literature at National Chengchi University, where he teaches LGBT studies and disability studies. His monograph in Chinese discusses LGBT representations in Taiwanese literature from the 1960s to the new millennium.

Gofyy 喀飛
Gofyy has devoted over 25 years of his life to LGBTQ+ activism: he is one of the founders and the founding chairperson of Taiwan Tongzhi (LGBTQ+) Hotline Association, the largest LGBTQ+ association in Taiwan. He was the key driving force behind the birth of two oral history books about elderly LGBT+ populations in Taiwan: Rainbow Daddy Bus (2010, Gbooks), Grandmas’ Girlfriends (2020, Locus Publishing Company). Most recently, he is the author of The 30-year Crusade of LGBT Rights Movments in Taiwan (2021, Gate Books), a retrospective of the LGBT+ movement in Taiwan.

Moderator

How Wee Ng 黃浩威
Dr Ng is Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Westminster. His research interests include censorship in Sinophone cinema and television, audience studies and the exclusionary politics of representation related to ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality and class in theatre and media. He has publications on the Taipei Golden Horse film awards, Singapore Cinema, Mainland Chinese television censorship and Singapore Chinese theatre.

This film screening event is organised by Queer East Film Festival in partnership with the Centre of Taiwan Studies, SOAS University of London. With support from the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan, and Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute X Taiwan Docs

Organiser: Centre of Taiwan Studies

Contact email: bc18@soas.ac.uk