Glossy Subjects: G&L Magazine and ‘Tonghzi’ Cultural Visibility in Taiwan

The burgeoning cultural practices among gays and lesbians in Taiwan in the 1990s provide an important context for considering broader questions about what has been called ‘weak group’ (ruoshi tuanti) identity politics, family life and modernity in Taiwan. This article examines the construction of gay and lesbian identities in Taiwan as expressed in their cultural consumption of an enormously popular magazine G&L (1996 - present). Through a qualitative, critical reading of the magazine, we explore the questions of consumption, family life and relationships, in the context of the practice of filial piety central to the Taiwanese sociocultural formation and individual subjectivity. We argue that ‘commodification’ is an insufficient framework for understanding queer identity constructions in G&L, unless it recognizes the contradictory dynamics of new liberal democratic ideals and family politics negotiated in Taiwan's queer popular culture. © 2001, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.