Xiaodi + The VaChina Monologues

Xiaodi 晓迪
Chen Junmi / Gao Guo, China 2021, 45 min. OV with English subtitles

With a video message by Chen Junmi and Gao Guo 

This documentary shines a spotlight on the experiences and conditions of transgender groups in China, featuring the 17-year-old transgender girl Xiaodi and her story of escaping from violent conversion therapy at a military school. The story of Xiaodi, as recent as 2018, reflects some of the multi-faceted, conflicting realities that exist in contemporary China and prompts us to think about how to narrow the divide between different values and ideologies. How do we form solidarity with stigmatized and disciplined groups? 

Chen Junmi 陈军米 was born in Guizhou, Southwestern China, and currently lives in Beijing. They received their B.S. degree in Software Engineering from Shandong University. After graduation, they joined Beijing Gender, one of the first NGOs that focus on issues of gender, sexuality, and sexual health. Through film, they campaign for anti-bullying and suicide-prevention among LGBT teenagers. They currently work as an independent producer and interviewer for Beijing Gender’s Chinese LGBT pathology oral history program.

Gao Guo高国 is a queer filmmaker. They studied in the Printmaking Department of Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts. During this period, they began to be interested in sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression (SOGIE) issues. After graduating in 2019, they went to Beijing and worked as a choreographer and filmmaker. They produce videos on disability, feminism, LGBTQIA+, and other related issues. 

The VaChina Monologues 来自阴道
Popo Fan, 2013, China 30 min., OV with English subtitles

After the screening talk with Popo Fan

This short documentary is a retrospective look at how the influential American feminist play “The Vagina Monologues” was introduced to China. Initially presented by a group of university students and their professor, the film explores how the adoption of the play incites a hurricane regarding the representation of vaginas and feminist debates, particularly among young urban Chinese women.

Popo Fan, born 1985, is a Berlin-based Chinese diaspora filmmaker, curator and writer. His films include queer activism documentaries and scripted, sex-positive shorts. For more than a decade, he has organized the Beijing Queer Film Festival and founded the Queer University Video Training Camp in China.