Han Tao is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Guangdong, China, this book asks: what does it mean for Chinese non-heterosexual people to go against existing state regulations and societal norms to form a desirable and legible queer family?
Chapters explore the various tactics queer people employ to have children and to form queer or 'rainbow' families. The book unpacks people's experiences of cultivating, or losing, kinship relations through their negotiation with biological relatives, cultural conventions and state legislations. Through its analysis, the book offers a new ethnographic perspective for queer studies and anthropology of kinship.
Introduction: Have 'Families of Choice' Arrived in China?
1. Queering Research: Ethnography, Positionality, and Ordinary 'Queer'
2. Queering Intimacy: 'Just-as-Married' Same-Sex Relationships
3. Queering Reproduction: Changing Moral Dilemmas for Chinese Non-heterosexual People
4. Queering Technology: Becoming Queer Parents through Assisted Reproductive Technologies
5. Queering Parenting: Raising 'Our Children'
6. Queering Family: Modern Rainbow Families
Conclusion: Queering Chinese Kinship and Futures
Appendix I: Key Research Participants
Appendix II: Roman (Pinyin) to Simplified Chinese