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Queer Asian Anthologies
FEATURE FILMS
NEWLY RELEASED
Best Gay Asian Erotica by Joel Barraquiel Tan
2004, Paperback.
Best Gay Asian Erotica pulls together smart and subversively explicit stories exploring gay Asian sexuality in all its diversity. From Chinese bodybuilders to Samoan giants, from hand-holding Viet Cong to drag queens at the Peking Opera, Best Gay Asian Erotica stimulates the libido, invigorates one's sense of art, and challenges notions of what erotic literature might be. Contributors include R. Zamora Linmark, Sandip Roy, Andy Quan, Noël Alumit, and many others.
Made in India: Decolonizations, Queer Sexualities, Trans/national Projects by Suparna Bhaskaran
2004, Paperback.
Made In India explores the making of queer consciousness and identities in light of economic privatization, global condom enterprises, sexuality-focused NGOs, the Bollywood-ization of beauty contests, and activism. Indispensable reading for anyone interested in the radical transformation of what it means to be queer."--
Manga Boys by Kinu Sekigushi
2004, paperback
A sexy first solo book for Japanese gay hunk illustrator, Kinu Sekigushi, a talented manga artist.
Men On The Loose: Portraits of Asian Men by joSon
2005 calendar
Men on the Loose" is the first of a broad effort by joSon to increase the visibility of Asian men in popular culture. Through this and future calendars, along with a book of portraits of Asian men, joSon hopes to reveal the beauty of Asian men through the lens of his camera.
Naked Asia: Photographs of Asian American Men by Clifford Baker
2003, Paperback.
Photographer Cliffor Baker's latest title is comprised of color and black-and-white photographs of single subjects, duos and groups. There are short quotations from the work of Yukio Mishima which accompany some of the gorgeous photography.
Queer Japan from the Pacific War to the Internet Age (Asian Voices) by Mark McLelland
2005, Paperback.
Scholarship on Japan has recently broadened to include minority perspectives on communities from marginal workers to those whose sexuality has long been overlooked. This volume, with its combination of fieldwork in the gay and lesbian communities and the use of historical sources such as journals and documents, breaks important new ground in this field. It examines gay life in the Japanese Pacific War, addresses transgender and lesbian as well as gay issues, examines the interface of queer society with the U.S. occupation and the international community, contests major interpretations of contemporary queer society, and introduces readers to the development of lesbian, transgender, and gay communities in postwar Japan. Including a wealth of images from the perverse press, this book will appeal to students and general readers interested in modern and contemporary Japan and in gender studies and sexuality.
Red Threads : The South Asian Queer Connection in Photographs by
by Poulomi Desai and Parminder Sekhon
2004, Paperback.
The British Asian Queer experience is intimately documented, exploring themes of race, identity, sexuality and culture. It ultimately presents the reader and viewer with positive and vibrant images of queer visibility through documnetary images of two lesbian phtographers and three essays by Sunil Gupta, Raman Mundair and Cherry Smyth. Depicted are people who don't fit into boxes: queer Asian Brits, queens in Bollywood drag, women in men's suits or naked in the street.
Situating Sexualities: Queer Representation in Taiwanese Fiction, Film and Public Culture by Fran Martin
2003, hardcover.
This is the first book in English to analyse the stunning rise of cultures of dissident sexuality in Taiwan during the 1990s. It approaches the queer sexualities represented in recent Taiwanese fiction, film and public culture as dynamic formations that combine local knowledge with globalizing discourses on gay and lesbian identity to produce sexualities that are multiple, shifting and inherently hybrid. The book challenges the Eurocentrism of much queer theory to date. Consistently critical of essentializing accounts of 'Chinese' culture, it highlights some of the important ways in which Taiwanese formations of dissident sexuality differ from the familiar Euro-American formations.
Utopia Guide to China
2005, paperback.
The first printed guidebook to the gay and lesbian scene in 45 Chinese cities including Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau, Shanghai, and Xian. Compiled by Utopia, listings include bars, discos, bookshops, spas, restaurants, and much more. Plus, a special section of highlights Chinese groups, clubs and spaces that are especially welcoming for women. Enjoy hundreds of savvy comments and recommendations from local Utopians and travelers who share their experiences and discoveries in rainbow China. Collector's First Edition.
Feature Films
301-302 directed by Park Chul-Soo
Korea, 1995.
A mysterious disappearance of one of two young women who live across the hall from each other in a modern apartment complex in Seoul. The women, referred to by their apartment numbers, each share common but dissimilar obsessions: eating disorders and problematic relationships with men. 301(Bang) is an amateur cook whose spare time is spent preparing and eating lavish meals, while her bookish and reclusive neighbor 302 (Hwang) becomes ill at the mere sight or smell of food. In a series of flasbacks, we see how the relationship between the two women develops and learn the shocking secret of what happened to 302.
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Afraid to Die directed by Yasuzo Masumura
Japan, 1960.
First US release! Notorious gay Japanese novelist, bodybuilder and queer icon, Yukio Mishima, makes a rare screen appearance as Takeo, a young yakuza gangster who reluctantly leaves prison to re-enter a dizzying world of kidnappings, attempted assassinations, attacks and retaliations. Japanese New Wave master Yasuzo Masumura propels this delirious, fast paced satire with a jazzy score, eye-popping visuals, and a trademark sense of the absurd.
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Beautiful Mystery directed by Nakamura Genji.
Japan, 1983.
A Japanese boy joins a bodybuilding paramilitary clique whose regimen involves strenuous exercise during the day, and brutal gay sex at night! Inspired by Yukio Mishima's private army of male lovers and the tragic consequences of their devotion.
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Black Lizard directed by Fukasaku Kinji
Japan, 1968.
A must-have film for your collection! Campy and luridly colored Japanese detective noir classic, adapted for screen by infamous gay author/body builder/suicide Yukio Mishima (who has a cameo as a nude love statue!). Starring the stupendous drag actor, Akihiri Maruyama playing the villianous master criminal and poetic seductress, The Black Lizard, who'll stop at nothing to acquire new exhibits for her secret island museum of beauty.
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Bugis Street directed by Yonfan
Singapore, 1995.
Singapore's infamous, immoral Bugis Street (bulldozed for a subway station) is resurrected and granted divine immortality in this tawdry and over-the-top comedy/melodrama. A bevy of gorgeously attired, love-lorn transgender prostitutes blaze across the screen in a firestorm of sequins, squeels and drunken American sailors. Nudity and sexual situations, lah.
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The Delta directed by Ira Sachs
1997, VHS and DVD.
The doomed romance of Minh, an immigrant son of a Vietnamese mother and a black G.I., and Lincoln, an affluent white teenager. Their brief, but indelible, love affair invokes a larger picture of troubled America. TOP TEN GAY FILMS of 1997.
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Doom Generation directed by Gregg Araki.
1996.
AmerAsian heartthrob James Duval stars in Araki's hilarious and lurid love triangle between three teenagers on the run from the law, hoodlums, crazies and their own sexual ambiguities.
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Drift by Quentin Lee
2001.
A handsome Asian Canadian screenwriter, Ryan (R.T. Lee), has to choose between continuing his 3-year relationship with Joel or chasing Leo, a young student who may be his soul mate. A fresh perspective on love and relationships which follows the possible ramifications of Ryan's choices in realistic, sexy and unexpected directions.
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East Palace, West Palace by Zhang Yuan
1999.
Si Han performs brilliantly as a young gay writer who falls madly in love with a fierce police officer (played by Hu Jun) who arrests him for cruising public toilets.
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Fire directed by Deepa Mehta
1997.
The story of two Indian women, sisters-in-law, who are trapped in loveless relationships with men in modern New Delhi. One is the dutiful wife of a celibate religious eccentric, the other is the new bride of the brother who is embroiled in his own self-centered affair with his sex kitten mistress; the women turn to each other for companionship and find erotic pleasure and emotional strength in their friendship.
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Fleeing by Night directed by Li-Kong Hsu and Chi Yin
Taiwan, 2000.
Fleeing By Night is a lush period piece that follows the love triangle of three men against the backdrop of the Chinese opera and wonderfully conveys a universal tale of unrequited love. Written and directed by a producer of both The Wedding Banquet and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this film was an official selection of the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and the Los Angeles Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. One of the most striking films to come out of Asia in recent years, this Chinese epic has everything: romance, history, spectacle and sheer go-for-broke melodrama.
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QUNCI VILLAS, a tropical resort on the island of Lombak, Indonesia...
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Taiwanese GLBT rights activist, Wang Ping, at the 2003 Utopia Awards.
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UTOPIA GUIDE TO CHINA: the gay and lesbian scene in 45 Chinese cities including Hong Kong!
order here CHINA - Aug 20, 2005
Fudan University adds a 2nd course on homosexuality to its curriculum as subject proves popular with students.
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JAPAN - Aug 20, 2005
Osaka legislator announces that she is a lesbian in the hopes of ending prejudice.
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THAILAND - Aug 18, 2005
The Thai military promises to stop calling sissies names. Ladygrunts still unwelcome, however.
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