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Digital Masquerade
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14 February 2023

Charts a new wave of feminist and queer media activism in post-millennial China
Digital Masquerade offers a trenchant and singular analysis of the convergence of digital media, feminist and queer culture, and rights consciousness in China. Jia Tan examines the formation of what she calls “rights feminism,” or the emergence of rights consciousness in Chinese feminist formations, as well as queer activism and rights advocacy. Expanding on feminist and queer theory of masquerade, she develops the notion of “digital masquerade” to theorize the co-constitutive role of digital technology as assemblage and entanglement in the articulation of feminism, queerness, and rights.
Drawing from interviews with various feminist and queer media practitioners, participant observation at community events, and detailed analyses of a variety of media forms such as social media, electronic journals, digital filmmaking, film festivals, and dating app videos, Jia Tan captures the feminist, queer, and rights articulations that are simultaneously disruptive of and conditioned by state censorship, technological affordances, and dominant social norms.
"Tan’s book is a timely contribution to feminist, queer and (new) media scholarship, not only in the Chinese context but also with resonance to the world at large."
"For readers outside of China, Tan’s book offers important insights into China’s incredibly diverse feminist and queer cultures and their reliance on digital platforms. This alone makes Digital Masquerade an important and unique contribution to the field."
"Jia Tan’s Digital Masquerade offers a sophisticated analysis of queer and feminist cultures in contemporary China in the dual contexts of ever-tightening restrictions on activism and digital media’s saturation of everyday life."
"Different from other feminist research on digital feminism and queer activism in China, Digital Masquerade is truly unique as it explores the relationship between the pre-existing LGBTQ activism, or lala movement, and the emergence of the new rights feminism."
"A compelling intervention in feminist media studies, queer theory, and Chinese digital culture. Tan’s nuanced, nonbinary account demonstrates how digital feminist and queer activism in China transcends liberalism and repression paradigms... an essential read for scholars interested in feminist media activism and queer cultural politics in the Global South."
"Digital Masquerade makes a compelling intervention in feminist media studies, queer theory, and Chinese digital culture. Tan’s nuanced, nonbinary account demonstrates how digital feminist and queer activism in China transcends liberalism and repression paradigms...This book is an essential read for scholars interested in feminist media activism and queer cultural politics in the Global South."
"Digital Masquerade is an exemplary feminist analysis and critique that embraces the complexities of China’s society. By weaving feminist and queer activism together in this book, Tan recognizes the important alliance between feminism and queer politics, offering a powerful response to the ‘heterocentrism in the existing historiography of gender and feminism about China.’"