ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a specific form of Chinese queer activism by taking queer filmmaker Fan Popo's films and the activism in which he engages as examples. Fan's documentaries are usually made during the process of queer activism or constitute part of his activist practices. Such activism effectively brings together theatrical performance and documentary filmmaking. I argue that such activism is widely practiced in China's LGBTQ communities because of its acute attention paid to cultural contexts and its effective use of digital media. I also suggest that this form of media and cultural activism has significant implications for how we conceptualise queer activism in a transnational context dominated by a strong ‘global queering’ discourse. I illustrate what we can learn about mediated queer activism with what I call the ‘theatre–documentary convergence.’
