The paper examines how tongzhi (queer) communities in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China use digital media as arenas of both opportunity and regulation. Drawing on interviews with LGBT individuals and cultural creators, and analysis of online fan cultures, social media content, and platform policy documents, I examine how algorithmic governance, content moderation, and commercial imperatives shape contemporary Sinophone queer cultural production. In Mainland China, queer content is constrained by overlapping censorship regimes, "clean internet" campaigns, and risk-averse corporate strategies, prompting everyday acts of subterfuge: creative punctuation, homophones, visual memes, and constant platform-switching to circulate narratives, fan works, and political commentary. In Hong Kong and Taiwan, where state restrictions are lighter, market and algorithmic pressures still privilege palatable, marketable LGBTQ representation while marginalizing others. Bringing cultural studies into conversation with queer theory and critical platform studies, I argue that digital media in Sinophone East Asia cannot be neatly classified as either liberatory or repressive; it constitutes a shifting terrain of uneven visibility and ongoing tension. I develop "coded visibility" to describe how users exploit consumer-friendly images of queer life while smuggling in more radical critiques through in-jokes, fan rituals, and ephemeral content. Situating these practices within broader formations of censorship, neoliberalism, and postcolonial politics, the paper highlights the specificity of Sinophone queer media ecologies and contributes to wider debates on platform power, surveillance capitalism, and the commodification of queer aesthetics.

Authors:
Desmond O'Doherty, York University, Canada

About the Presenter(s)
Desmond A. D. O’Doherty is a SSHRC-funded PhD candidate in Humanities at York University whose dissertation on tongzhi in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China explores queer citizenship, intimacy, and belonging in Sinophone East Asia.

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