Emerging Queer Sister Studies: The Transmedia Futurity of Adult Lesbianism From the “Sister-Kid Literature” to the “Older Sister”-Centered TV in Post-2010 China

Abstract

This study explores a pronounced queer women-centered pop cultural imaginary in post-2010 China, namely, “older sister” (jie 姐) fantasies that center around mature women. It contextualizes this imaginary in relation to Asian and Chinese-language girls’ love (GL) and queer women’s cultures. I trace this “older sister” trope on contemporary Chinese TV to the enduring popularity of an online 2012 autobiographical-styled queer women’s story known as the “sister-kid literature.” My analyses of the transmedia metamorphosis of the trope and the wide recitation of the story in contemporary Chinese media and pop cultural terrains reveal an evolving, heteronormativity-intervening temporal logic of adult female homoerotic narratives. By (re)considering the significance of reconstructing this “older sister” imaginary across divergent media to dismantle China’s heteronormative-patriarchal assertions of the (non-)futurity of adult lesbianism, I suggest transformative ways to understand queer women-driven (trans)media productions and cultural activities that are situated in largely LGBTQ-suffocating social and fantasy worlds.