Queer Otherwise

Anti-Sociality in Wuhe’s Gui’er and Ayao

Abstract

Generally, there is elation amongst marginalized communities when their struggle to be heard culminates in the actual acknowledgement of their existence by the mainstream. The exuviation of marginality (supposedly) creates hope that the status quo can and is transforming. However, questions come to mind: what happens to the (queer) subaltern after gaining this new articulatory power? Does acknowledgement by the centre demand compliance to hetero/normative expectations? Can the discourse of be-coming actually be inhibiting? These are the central issues explored in Wuhe’s 舞鶴  contemporary novel Gui’er yu Ayao 鬼兒與阿妖  (Gui’er and Ayao ) (2000). By situating the text in contradistinction to the normativising impulses of Taiwan’s ku’er 酷兒  community – evident right from the start by Wuhe’s choice of gui’er 鬼兒  to transliterate queer – this paper contends that the novel is of strategic importance for its journey into queer negativity and for its be-ing otherwise than what is expected. In short, it is argued that the text calls stringent attention to the means by which Taiwan’s queer community, in its struggle for hetero/normative respect, has perhaps sacrificed its internal heterogeneity and become, contrary to its original intent, a normativising discourse that silences attempts to be sexually otherwise.