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Article published In:
Pink Dot: Discursive Formations, Constructions, and Contestations
Edited by Adi Saleem Bharat, Pavan Mano and Robert Phillips
[Journal of Language and Sexuality 10:2] 2021
► pp. 157–179

Tracing trans-regional discursive flows in Pink Dot Hong Kong promotional videos

(Homo)normativities and nationalism, activism and ambivalence

| Hong Kong Baptist University, China
| National University of Singapore, Singapore
In this article, we extend discourse analytical research that has focused on Pink Dot events in Singapore to events in Hong Kong. As such we engage queer Sinophone perspectives to examine the simultaneously local and transregional epistemological flows that converge and diverge within the margins of the Sinophone cultural sphere. Using a multimodal analysis of two Pink Dot Hong Kong promotional videos, we investigate the extent to which these videos follow the (homo)normative and (homo)nationalist discursive strategies identified in the literature on Pink Dot Singapore. Our analysis suggests that ambivalences surrounding national identity, citizenship and state-sponsored national values in the Hong Kong videos bring into question readings of the Pink Dot movement as a (homo)nationalist enterprise, thus indicating an emergent relocalization of Pink Dot strategies that draws attention to how queer movements in Hong Kong are currently being shaped within the city’s broader sociopolitical context.
Keywords: Asian LGBT+ activism, Pink Dot, Hong Kong, normativities, queer Sinophone cultures, multimodal discourse analysis, homonationalism, citizenship
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Hong Kong and Singapore: Perspectives from queer Sinophone cultures
  • 3.Intra-regional flows: From tongzhi discourse to Singaporean homonationalism (and back again)
  • 4.Analytical approach
  • 5.Pink Dot HK 2014 – Embrace our differences. Celebrate diversity!
  • 6.Pink Dot 2018 – Pink Ambassadors 粉紅大使 – Angus Leung and Scott Adams
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 July 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.20007.row
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