Podcast Summary

New Books Network: Interview with Alvin K. Wong

Book: Unruly Comparison: Queerness, Hong Kong, and the Sinophone (Duke UP, 2025)
Host: Sarah Bramao Ramos
Guest: Alvin K. Wong
Date: January 13, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode features Alvin K. Wong discussing his new book, Unruly Comparison: Queerness, Hong Kong, and the Sinophone. The conversation explores Wong’s intellectual journey, the development and aims of the book, the concept of "unruly comparison," and the ways queerness and Sinophone studies intersect in the context of Hong Kong’s cultural, political, and historical landscapes. Wong discusses the materials and methods of his analysis—spanning literature, cinema, visual art, and personal encounters—as well as the impact of recent events in Hong Kong and the future directions of his research.

Alvin K. Wong’s Intellectual Trajectory

Academic Roots and Evolving Focus

• Wong began in English and Women's Studies at UC Davis, initially to develop his English after immigrating to the US (03:03).
• Early interests: intersection of queer theory, early modern drama, and transnational sexuality.
• Influence of queer diaspora studies at UC Davis, especially under scholars like Gayatri Gopinath and encounters with critical race and feminist frameworks (03:03–06:37).

Quote:
"From the beginning, more firmly rooted in modern Chinese literature and humanities, to now more invested in disrupting some of the entrenched assumptions in Area Studies and China Studies and through queer Sinophone theory…"
— Alvin K. Wong (05:58)

• Gradually, moved into modern Chinese literature and film during graduate work, shaped by mentors Frances E. Dolan, Zhang Ying Jing, Lisa Lowe, and Shumei Shih (07:29–11:59).

The Role of Comparative Literature

• Comparative Literature offers a home for Wong’s transdisciplinary and transregional approach, which resists the confines of traditional Area Studies, East Asian Languages, or North American Women and Gender Studies (05:58).

The Book’s Theoretical Framework

What Makes Hong Kong “Unruly”?

• Hong Kong as a site for theorizing transnational and comparative queer analysis, pushing against China-centrism, British colonialism, and global capitalism (13:32).
• Sinophone studies as articulated by Shu-mei Shih: examining communities using Sinitic languages but developing identities apart from Chinese nationalism (13:32–18:46).
• Hong Kong’s unique position invites “unruly comparison”—models that go beyond East/West binaries and nationalist or diasporic frameworks.
• The book positions Hong Kong’s queerness as inherently comparative and disruptive.

Quote:
"Unruly comparison allows us to see other ways of being and becoming Chinese or deviating from these nationalist frames of Chineseness."
— Alvin K. Wong (15:30)

South–South Comparison

• Moves beyond conventional ‘East-West’ to facilitate South–South comparative thinking, especially in chapters 3 and 4 (18:46).

Key Influences and Methods

Mentorship and Interdisciplinary Foundations

• Acknowledges the intellectual debts to mentors who helped sharpen his comparative method and global perspective, combining close reading, archival research, and intersectional queer and feminist approaches (07:29–11:59).

The Art Exhibition (Jan 2021): Impact on the Book

• 2019–2021 protests and upheaval transformed the book’s direction and sense of urgency (20:45).
• Encounter with Ze Khamen’s queer/trans art exhibition (WMA Gallery): art linked to protest and broader historical legacy, challenging state and colonial gazes through queer visuality and “the right to look” (20:45–25:53).

Quote:
"It's a way of... reckoning with the colonial gaze and in this case, the state authorities' gaze as well by staring back at us, the viewer..."
— Alvin K. Wong (24:41)

The Structure and Comparative Method (“Unruly Comparison”)

Rethinking Archives and Queer Interventions (Chapter 1)

• Disrupts male-centered historical narratives by foregrounding queer archives and feminist perspectives during WWII and the postwar era.
• Examines Wang Anyi's and Ma Ga Fai's works: female-centered survival stories, queer family histories, and male homosocial alliances under colonial and wartime conditions.

Selection Process and “Queer Scavenger” Methodology

• Writing the book was unruly, drawing from previous academic work, community contacts, chance encounters, and invitations to contribute to edited volumes (34:26–41:30).
• Emphasizes the importance of being open to new connections and the serendipitous assembly of sources, networks, and stories—resulting in a book that is richly intertextual and deeply connected to community realities.

Quote:
"The process of writing also connects me to all these incommensurable parts of queer communities..."
— Alvin K. Wong (40:45)

Notable Chapters and Material

Diverse Material—“Fascinating Documentaries” and Underexplored Texts

• The book’s breadth covers beauty pageants, labor disputes, documentary film, underground literature, queer migrant stories—and features rare visuals and stills (41:30–43:42).
• Chapter 4 stands out for its focus on documentaries and visual material related to Filipino migrant workers and queer communities in Hong Kong.

"Border Crossing" and Queerness in Cinema (Chapter 5)

• Focuses on Fruit Chan’s “Prostitute Trilogy” (Durian Durian, Hollywood Hong Kong, Three Husbands).
• Examines how depictions of sex workers and border crossing figures unsettle national and cultural boundaries.
• Three Husbands: borders of land/sea, familial and national allegory, nonhuman/human boundaries.

Quote:
"The sex worker figure might not be immediately queer. But the way in which she unsettles these national allegories... It evokes the national allegory... but it also undoes it."
— Alvin K. Wong (48:55)

The Epilogue: Rethinking Endings

Unsettled Endings and the Question of Home

• Concludes with new material, rather than restating arguments:
  • Film: Drifting (2021, dir. Jun Li) — explores homelessness, police violence, and queer/cross-racial bonds in post-2019 Hong Kong (52:26).
  • Poem: “Fricatives” (Eric Yip) — touches on diaspora, language, and queer desire in the British context.
• Uses “unsettlement” and diaspora as ways to continue unruly comparison—ending on affect, rather than academic closure.

Quote:
"It's about unsettlement, right? It's about displacement and the undoing of the queer self abroad..."
— Alvin K. Wong (55:46)

Anticipated Projects and Future Research (59:24–66:01)

• Queer Sinophone Ecology:

  • Work on the mythological “lo ting” figure as a posthuman/queer ecological lens for understanding Hong Kong’s developmentalist/colonial histories (see also his article in Diacritics).

• Queer Sinophone Visuality:

  • Examining lesser-known queer filmmakers and artists active since the mid-1980s, e.g., Yonfan, Allen Pau, and Scotty So, tracing non-nationalist articulations of Hong Kong and Sinophone queer identity.

Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• On Comparative Literature:
  "Comparative literature seems to be perfect discipline for somebody like me who doesn't fit within conventional strictures of Area Studies, East Asian Languages and Literature, or Women and Gender Studies..." (05:58)

• On “Unruly Comparison”:
  "Unruly comparison allows us to see other ways of being and becoming Chinese or deviating from these nationalist frames of Chineseness." (15:30)

• On Queer Visuality:
  "The right to look is a way of reckoning with the colonial gaze and in this case, the state authorities' gaze as well by staring back at us, the viewer..." (24:41)

• On New Endings:
  "It's about unsettlement, right? It's about displacement and the undoing of the queer self abroad..." (55:46)

Conclusion

This episode offers an in-depth look at Unruly Comparison, spotlighting Wong’s distinctive theoretical interventions, expansive source base, and his commitment to queering both Hong Kong Studies and Sinophone Studies. Listeners will come away with a nuanced understanding of how queer and feminist frameworks unsettle dominant regional, national, and disciplinary boundaries—and how comparative work can remain dynamically attentive to current sociopolitical disruptions as well as underexamined archives.

Key Segments & Timestamps

• 02:26 — Wong’s intellectual trajectory
• 07:29 — Mentorship and methodological formation
• 13:32 — Why Hong Kong? Theorizing Sinophone unruliness
• 20:45 — Art exhibition and 2019 as rupture
• 34:26 — Methodology: Queer scavenger, assembling materials
• 43:42 — Chapter 5 and the Fruit Chan “Prostitute Trilogy”
• 50:03 — Epilogue: Drifting, “Fricatives,” and queer unsettlement
• 59:24 — Future research directions