Humanities in Asia: Women's Trans Cinema in Taiwan: "As We Like It"

About the Talk

Women's cinema encompasses female-led films or narratives that focus on women’s experiences. It also includes films that target female audiences. As We Like It (Jieda huanxi, 2021) is an important milestone for Taiwanese women’s cinema. Shot on the heels of the 2019 legalization of same-sex marriage in Taiwan, As We Like It envisions a post-gender future. Taiwan was the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, initiating a new mode of coalition politics.

The all-female cast does away with such binary gender accessories as mustaches or wigs. It presents characters of all genders (played by actors identifying as women) matter-of-factly without apology or additional justification. Thematizing mixed-race and transgender practices, the queer film (in Mandarin, Taiwanese, and French) presents gender as a translational practice.

Gender becomes legible or illegible in new ways when translated into different languages. It is commonly assumed that some ideas are lost in translation. We can instead think of transness and translation as a concept through which embodied experiences evolve into social signs for interpretation.

Join Professor Joubin for this illustrated presentation and discover the latest in women’s cinema.

Doors will open no sooner than 15 minutes before the start time.

The Elliott School can coordinate with the university to reasonably accommodate most disabilities. If you need specific accommodations, please contact the Sigur Center at gsigur@gwu.edu. Requests should be made as soon as possible, but at least three days prior to the program to ensure accommodation.

About the Speaker

Alexa Alice Joubin co-directs the Taiwan Education Research Program. She is Professor of English, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Theatre, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures at George Washington University. She also serves as co-director of the Digital Humanities Institute. Her latest books include Race (Routledge New Critical Idiom series, 2019) and Shakespeare and East Asia (Oxford University Press, 2021). At MIT, she is co-founder and co-director of the open-access Global Shakespeares digital performance archive. Her publications can be accessed on ResearchGate.