Routledge Handbook of Sexuality Studies in East Asia

This collection brings together cutting-edge work by established and emerging scholars focusing on key societies in the East Asian region: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, North and South Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam. This scope enables the collection to reflect on the nature of the transformations in constructions of sexuality in highly developed, developing and emerging societies and economies. Both Japan and China have established traditions of ‘sexuality’ studies reflecting longstanding indigenous understandings of sex as well as more recent developments which interface with Euro-American medical and psychological understandings. Authors reflect upon the complex colonial and economic interactions and cultural flows which have affected the East Asian region over the last two centuries. They trace local flows of ideas instead of defaulting to Euro-American paradigms for sexuality studies. Through looking at regional and global exchanges of ideas about sexuality, this volume adds considerably to our understanding of the East Asian region and contributes to wider discussions of social transformation, modernisation and globalisation. It will be essential reading in undergraduate and graduate programs in sexuality studies, gender studies, women’s studies and masculinity studies, as well as in anthropology, sociology, history, cultural studies, area studies and health sciences.

'At last, a dazzling and comprehensive collection that sets a new benchmark in East Asian studies. The international experts in this smart volume explore a range of significant topics, from sexual minorities to sexual politics, placing sexuality studies front and center on the Asian studies bookshelf. Pioneering, thought-provoking, and deeply knowledgeable.' – Laura Miller, University of Missouri-St. Louis, USA'Widely-ranging and rigorous, the essays in McLelland and Mackie’s important anthology are robustly materialist, in that they entwine the historical, sociocultural, postindustrial, and intersubjective terrains that spawn local-global forms and practices of sexualities. This book will give East Asian studies a cutting-edge research agenda, while refurbishing the cultural studies of sexuality in the region with new vitality.' – John Nguyet Erni, Professor of Humanities & Cultural Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University'This handbook is a stunning achievement that brings together a wide range of careful but innovative scholars to explore East Asian sexualities in a "transnational frame." The handbook attends to both regional comparison and local specificity, exploring topics ranging from marriage to politics, from subcultures to national rhetorics of belonging.' – Tom Boellstorff, University of California, Irvine, USA

Mark McLelland is Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Wollongong, Australia.Vera Mackie is Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Wollongong, Australia.