Coming out, coming home, coming with: Models of queer sexuality in contemporary China

Abstract

The authors investigate coming out and coming home as models of queer sexuality for contemporary Chinese queer subjects. Through semi-structured interviews with 13 Chinese queer subjects, the authors investigate the distinctness of the coming-out and coming-home models, their points of dissonance and consonance, and the ways in which queer subjects take them up (partially or fully, temporarily or enduringly), revise them, or reject them. Finding that interview narratives exceed the normative parameters shaped by these two models, the authors elaborate a third, distinct model—coming with—which better accounts for how some contemporary Chinese queer subjects are crafting livable lives.