Is Chinese Queer a Void? Cui Zi’en, Leo Bersani, and the Representations of Voids in Peach-Colored Lips

Despite increasing scholarly attention to Sinophone queer studies, research on mainland China faces critical dilemmas. Due to strict censorship of LGBTQ+ content, scholars often turn to Taiwan and Hong Kong or focus on Republican-era literature. As a result, queer literary discourse on mainland China remains strikingly absent-its narratives seemingly erased, and subjects rendered invisible. How can we navigate this void in the queer literary landscape of the PRC? This paper examines how Cui Zi'en, one of the most prolific openly gay writers in mainland China, navigates this void through his debut novel Peach-Colored Lips (1997). Drawing on Leo Bersani's critiques in queer theory, this paper argues that Cui mobilizes "void" not only as an existential condition of queer subjectivity, namely the self-shattering affect of bottomhood sexuality, but also as a narrative strategy that contests historical and ideological frameworks rendering homosexuality invisible.