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3 March；Completion of the dissertation proposal

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3 March；Completion of the dissertation proposal

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Completion of the dissertation proposal, at which point there is no very clear structure for the dissertation and the choice of topic for the dissertation remains vague. However, the topic chosen for the first time was a topic related to the gay and lesbian community.

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My supervisor Hongwei read my proposal very carefully and printed it out, I could clearly see the markings and suggestions on it. My supervisor asked me what I thought about the topic for my dissertation, and I told him that I wanted to use the theory of queer cinema to analyse the queer community using a certain film as a case study. But I wasn't exactly settled on which film it would be. My supervisor suggested that I should have to identify the topic and genre of the film as soon as possible and then consider which aspect of the film I wanted to study. Also, the supervisor gave appropriate advice about my research methodology. Because in the research method of my proposal, I am going to use the case study method and interview method, but he told me that the interview method will be very difficult and I need to consider the feasibility if I am going to use the interview method. This includes, 'who I will interview', 'how I will contact the person' and 'how I will conduct the interview'. But these are questions I did not consider in detail at the beginning. After our discussion, he eventually suggested that I would be better off with the content analysis method.

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It took two days to go searching for a film and ultimately decided on Rainbow Mama and Rainbow Papa for the queer documentary. The reason for choosing them is that for the queer community, I think the family aspect of the queer community is rarely considered, and in a way the family aspect is easily overlooked. Therefore I wanted to focus on the family aspect of the gay community.

By watching these two documentaries, I realised that for the gay community, not all families are against their children's homosexuality. On the contrary, there is still a small percentage of parents who are willing to accept and support their children's homosexuality, which is an unexpected gain for me. But at the same time, since both films are Chinese films, I was unable to watch this film on the official website because of the censorship of Chinese films, and what I watched during these two days was the censored version of the film. But thankfully, I began to have a slightly clearer direction for my thesis topic.

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March 20; Identify films to be used for research, ask supervisor's opinion and schedule the second meeting

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March 20; Identify films to be used for research, ask supervisor's opinion and schedule the second meeting

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After speaking with my mentor, I ended up choosing one of the films. However, I still had a lot of doubts related to the choice of topic for my dissertation, so I made an appointment to meet with my tutor for a second time to discuss the main research questions of my dissertation.

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27 March; Second meeting with supervisor

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27 March; Second meeting with supervisor

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The main discussion today was with my supervisor about the research for my dissertation. I showed my tutor my notes and opinions through watching the two films, and my tutor acknowledged them while also pointing out my problems. He told me that I am currently analysing more the family structure of the Chinese gay community, which is a sociological aspect. This means that I have deviated from the main course and become analysing social relations. After my tutor pointed this out, I was enlightened and realised that my original intention was to use queer film theory to analyse what kind of Chinese queer families queer films show, and that both the point of landing and the point of departure should be from the films.

At the same time, my tutor reminded me to pay attention to the fact that the film is one part, it cannot represent the whole society or even the whole China. Therefore, if I want to analyse the Chinese gay family, I should always start from the film, rather than elaborating too much on the social reality. In addition, my tutor recommended several reference materials to me, hoping that I can have a deeper understanding of the Chinese queer community through reading them.

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5 June; Starting to organise the literature

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5 June; Starting to organise the literature

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Through the books recommended by my continuity tutor during this time, I have gained a certain understanding of Chinese queer media and Chinese queer culture.

Therefore I decided to revisit Rainbow Dad again and revisit my research question.

reference:
1. Bao, H. (2021). Queer Media in China. Routledge.
The domestic and international queer context is described from a political and cultural point of view (p.2-3).
Explains pronouns associated with queer (p.2-3)
Explains the complexity of the Chinese media (p.4)
Related definitions: definition of queer (p.5)；Definition of media (p.6)；Definition of queer meida (p.8)；Definition of community (p.9-12)；Definition of community media (p.12-13)

Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the book are useful chapters, including an exposition of queer documentary, an exposition of queer activism, a review of the milestones of queer de-pathologisation and de-criminalisation, and an exposition of the Beijing queer film festival and the push for internationalisation of queer.

2. Bao, H. (2022). Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance. Taylor & Francis.

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10-20 June; continuous reading of relevant literature

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10-20 June; continuous reading of relevant literature

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1. Bao, H. (2019). The ‘queer generation’:queer community documentary in contemporary China. Transnational Screens, pp.1–16. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/25785273.2019.1662197.
Explanation to Chinese queer film makers
An introduction to the representative figures of the queer generation (p.3-4)
Current situation of Chinese queer films (p.4-5)
Description of Popo Fan (p.8)
Film production and techniques (p.10-11)
The current situation and obstacles to the dissemination of queer films (p.12)
The current status of the queer generation (p.14)

2.Robinson, L. (2014b). Voice, Liveness, Digital Video: The Talking Head in Contemporary Independent Chinese Documentary. positions: east asia cultures critique, 22(2), pp.489–515.
Description of documentary filming techniques

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1 July, determine the topic of the dissertation

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1 July, determine the topic of the dissertation

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Through ongoing literature reading, it was determined that the question I wanted to research was to analyse how the film showed how rainbow parents in Chinese families confront their children's queer identities, using Rainbow Dad as a case study.

Literature Reading:
1. Reem V. P, A. and S. Moolakkattu, J. (2023). Changing Contours of Chinese Queer Perceptions and the Taiwanese Model. China Report, 59(2), pp.172–190. doi:https://doi-org.nottingham.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/00094455231181572.
2.Schoonover, K. and Galt, R. (2016). Queer Cinema in the World. Duke University Press.
3.Shaw, G. and Zhang, X. (2017). Cyberspace and gay rights in a digital China: Queer documentary filmmaking under state censorship. China Information, 32(2), pp.270–292. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x17734134.
4. Stephan, W.G. and Finlay, K. (1999). The Role of Empathy in Improving Intergroup Relations. Journal of Social Issues, 55(4), pp.729–743. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00144.

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24 July; third communication with supervisor

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24 July; third communication with supervisor

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I was having problems writing my dissertation and was unsure of which research method to use, being torn between content analysis and textual analysis. After raising the question to my tutor, he suggested that I could consider which method is more practical by comparing the benefits and disadvantages of the two methods, taking into account the reality of the chosen topic. He also pointed out that no matter which method to use, it is necessary to take into account the reality of the film and the research question.

reading
1.Hinsch, B. (1990). Passions of the cut sleeve : the male homosexual tradition in China. Berkeley, Calif: University Of California Press.

2.Jiang, Q., Tan, L. and Sun, M. (2019). Research on Legislation of Homosexuality in China. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Social Science, Public Health and Education (SSPHE 2019), (2352-5398), pp.138–141. doi:https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200205.030.

3.Jin, H. and Ye, Z. (2022). Translating queer elements in Bohemian Rhapsody in China. Perspectives, pp.1–18. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676x.2022.2105155.

4.Leung, H.H. (2012). ‘Homosexuality and Queer Aesthetics’. In: A Companion to Chinese Cinema. Oxford, UK: Wiley‐Blackwell, pp.518–534. doi:10.1002/9781444355994.ch2.

5.Louie, K. (2002). Theorising Chinese masculinity : society and gender in China. Cambridge ; Oakleigh, Vic.: Cambridge University Press.

6.Nagib, L. (2006). Towards a positive definition of world cinema. Remapping world cinema: Identity, culture and politics in film, 2006, 30-37.

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13th August; communicated with supervisor again

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13th August; communicated with supervisor again

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Another problem arose along the way with the thesis. I realised that I might be in danger of running out of ideas, so I emailed my tutor for advice. The tutor gave feedback to try not to change the topic drastically. It was clear that I needed to find more information to support my current research question.

reading：

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Through this long period of time, I have found that continuous reading is a must for writing large essays. Therefore, in this process, I try to keep myself in the habit of reading papers every day to accumulate knowledge for writing.

At the same time, by reading the literature, I can learn from the advantages of other people's dissertation writing, so as to improve my own shortcomings. This thesis is coming to an end, and I also hope that it is a good full stop in my postgraduate career.