The Corner Society : Identity construction inside the gaycommunity in Shanghai

Sammanfattning: This master thesis, written by Magnus Lindström, deals with how gay identities are created and maintained in contemporary Shanghai - China. After the communist revolution (1949) homosexuality was said to be non-existing, however, much has happened since then; nowadays homosexuality is acknowledged by the state, moreover, it is no longer considered to be a mental disorder; nevertheless, this does not imply that homosexuality as such is embraced by the society. Contrary, gay people still have to act in the outskirts of the society, which the title - The Corner Society - is reference to. The study is based upon observations in the Shanghainese gay-bars and conversations with their clientele, where among others Judith Butler's concept of performativity, Michel Foucault's theory of power relation and micro politics, and Eve K. Sedgwick's concept of the closet are used to analyze the creation of these identities. The thesis is divided into two parts, the first part deals with the context and the second part deals with the scene. The first part - the context - focuses on the family institution - implications surrounding marriage, etc.; the state - the relation between communism, the emerging capitalism and identity construction, etc.; and the social (public) sphere - homosociality and heteronormativity, etc. The second part - the scene - draws upon Erving Goffman's theatrical analysis structure, which centers around the gay-bars - the architecture and design where the concept of queer space is used in the analysis; and the clientele - the off and on stage behavior and the clientele's representation of their own situation. Although the family still holds grip over the individual, its power has started to cease due to the introduction of market economy/capitalism, which has begun to create stratification both in society as a whole and inside the family, which has created some sort of diversity. Even so, there is another side to the introduction of market economy/capitalism as well, which creates a feeling of entrapment. This feeling has its roots in the ambiguity of having visible access to the world, whilst not having physical access to it, via traveling and so on. Nevertheless, these trends have called forth the window that expressions as the gay-bars have used.