繁體 | 简体 | English
How Filipina migrant women in Hong Kong understand their same-sex relationships

日期 : 2018-02-07

时间 : 12.30pm – 2.00pm

地点 : Room 109, Chen Kuo Ben Bldg., The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Chair: Professor Sealing CHENG

Speaker: Zoe Yimin DUAN (MPhil student of gender study programme, with Anthropology as home department)

Language: English

Registration: https://goo.gl/bgRo6e

Abstract: Every Sunday in the Central, Hong Kong Island, a large number of foreign domestic helpers would present themselves in almost every street corner, eating, drinking, shopping, laughing and dressing up alone or with their friends. It is easy enough to identify that among the huge crowd, there exists a certain number of migrant women featured by their loose t-shirt, baseball hat and jellied short hair. Neither is it hard to find out that these masculinity-marked women often stay with another more feminine migrant women and they constantly show an intimate interaction which include flirting, hugging and lip-kissing sometimes. Upon acknowledging that they are from various nations, should we understand those women as the “non-western ‘lesbian’” (which is the prevailing term used in a western context)? Regarding a seemingly high visibility of them, is there any structural elements that have contributed to this phenomenon? Following this inquiry, how the migration process may interact with the same-sex relationship of those migrant women? How can the seemingly sharp boundary between heterosexual/homosexual ever be challenged? All these questions sound fascinating for anyone who is interested in how sexuality can be interacting actively with our social and cultural surroundings. To narrow down the subject of concern, my research is designed to only focus on the Filipina migrant women in HK. I ask the question “how Filipina migrant women in HK understand their same-sex relationships” in order to explore more possibilities of human sexuality/gendering as well as to advocate for public attention to SOGI-related equality in whatever form it may take.