Denise Tang

Denise Tse-Shang Tang is an interdisciplinary ethnographer specializing in gender, lesbian sexualities, social spaces and cultural politics in Chinese societies. Tang’s book Conditional Spaces: Hong Kong Lesbian Desires and Everyday Life (Hong Kong University Press, 2011), maps the complex relations between personal subjectivities and spatialities as they emerge and interact with various social justice movements and alternative communities. She has published in The Sociological Review, Crime, Media, Culture, Sexualities, Media, Culture & Society, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. Tang's current book project is on inter-Asia intimacies among older lesbians and bisexual women in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. Present ethnographic focus is on everyday lives of trans men in Thailand and Hong Kong.

Tang is a recipient of international and local grants for inter-Asia research in the following topics: Being Trans and Masculine: A Comparative Ethnography of Trans Men in Bangkok and Hong Kong (General Research Fund, 2020-23), Building Inclusive Workplaces for Lesbian and Bisexual Women in Hong Kong’s Financial Services Industry (Knowledge Transfer Fund, 2019-20) Marriage equality in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan (Sumitomo Foundation, 2016-17), Ageing and lesbian bodies in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan (General Research Fund, 2016-19), Migration of Hongkongers to Taiwan (Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, 2016-18).

Prior to entering academia, Tang worked as program manager and HIV testing counselor for communities including LGBTQI Asian & Pacific Islander youth, survivors of sexual violence, First Nations women, HIV-affected communities and youth in juvenile justice system, in San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver B.C. She coordinated the first queer A&PI oral history exhibit, Leaving Silence: Queer Asian & Pacific Islander Oral History Exhibit (Seattle) and the first queer Asian conference in Vancouver B.C., Lotus Roots (funded under Health Canada). Upon returning back to Hong Kong, Tang became the film festival director with the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and was a guest curator at Women Make Waves Film Festival, Taiwan.

Education

• PhD in Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• MA in Educational Studies, The University of British Columbia
• BA in Women’s Studies, The University of British Columbia