Lecture | China Seminar
Info session: The Leiden Chinese Queer Collection
- Date
- Wednesday 16 September 2026
- Time
- Serie
- LIAS China Seminar
- Address
-
University Library
Witte Singel 27
2311 BG Leiden - Room
- Vossius Room
Speaker: Marc Gilbert
Assistant: Ruixi Liu (ResMA student; student representative on the LCQC steering committee)
Chair of the event: Ying Zhang
The Leiden Chinese Queer Collection (LCQC) was created in 2024. It aims to collect, preserve, and make accessible primary source material and scholarship on the Chinese queer experience, and to facilitate collaboration between academics, activists, and archivists. Thus, it hopes to help advance gender and sexual equality and diversity through research, education, and outreach, with a key role for community involvement.
Goals of the info session
To help the students better understand these holdings, this presentation will explore the creation, development, and organization of the LCQC. It will discuss the motivations behind its creation and explain the complexities of organizing and describing materials in a wide range of formats—including print, audiovisual materials, artwork, and born-digital resources. It will show sample archival items to inspire researchers and students to visit and use this collection. Leiden China Studies program gives an annual LCQC challenge award to MA and BA students. Students can attend this information session to learn more about accessing and navigating the collection for their creative and scholarly work.
LCQC in broad strokes
In the LCQC, “queer” is a broad signifier for people identifying with non-normative genders and sexualities, including Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, and more (LGBTQIA+). “Chinese” denotes the Chinese-speaking world (mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore) and its diasporas. “The Chinese queer experience” is an overarching expression for diverse experiences at individual and collective levels, in different spheres of life. These can relate to identity and community formation, familial and social relationships, public health, social justice, legal rights, language, cultural production, discourses and histories of queerness, queering theory and method in scholarship, etc.
One component of LCQC is official publications in Chinese and other languages that the library held at the start of the project or subsequently acquired. This includes both primary and secondary sources (e.g. books, periodicals, audiovisual materials). The collection can include various focal points over time (a recent example being danmei or Boys’ Love fiction).
Materials of this kind are accessible through the library catalog and are generally available for loan. All items identified as relevant to LCQC have been tagged as “Leiden Chinese Queer Collection,” which can be used as a keyword. Tagging is an open-ended, ongoing process for which completeness is a tall order, in light of the sheer amount of material to be examined and the considerable scope of “queer” and related notions.
A second component of LCQC consists of archival materials, including ephemera, unofficial publications, and objects. Their description is available here. This inventory is updated annually. Archival materials are accessible only in the library’s Special Collections reading room, and embargoes may apply for privacy reasons.
A third component of LCQC comprises born-digital materials that first emerge online and outside conventional publishing channels. These materials are not currently accessible, as the library is exploring best practices for providing access while complying with copyright and privacy regulations, with due regard for the safety of LCQC donors and collaborators (which may require their anonymization). As this work progresses, the relevant information will be included in project updates, etc.
Ultimately, this info session aims to introduce the best ways to discover and access these materials through the library catalog, providing practical guidance to help users make the most of the collection.