Shanghai Lalas by Lucetta Yip Lo Kam

The first ethnographic study of lala (lesbian, bisexual and transgender) communities and politics in China, focused on Shanghai. Drawing on years of interviews, Lucetta Yip Lo Kam examines lalas' daily struggle to reconcile same-sex desire with the demands of family harmony and compulsory marriage in a culture that denies women sexual agency. She analyzes discourses of homophobia and 'Chinese tolerance,' and the 'politics of public correctness' as a tongzhi survival strategy, weaving her own queer biography with her fieldwork.