Decolonising and queering praxis: the unanswerable questions for ‘Queer Asia'

What does it mean by putting ‘Queer’ and ‘Asia’ together? This question –complicated by several concepts – arose many times at occasions of the Queer Asia 2017. Left with series of unanswerable questions, such as the presumption of nation/state, the discontent of sexual/national modernity, and the making of counterpublics, Queer Asia posts challenges for both queer theory and postcolonialism. The Conference participants have reified and (hopefully) resisted the White settler’s dilemma of desiring modernity without the West that has haunted most parts of the world in all aspects, needless to say the production and operationalisation of gender equality, sexual rights and all sorts of queer knowledge. This article, ruminating upon certain observations, reflects the ambivalences and intensions between people of diverse perceptions of modernisation and normalisation for or against queer existence. By elaborating on three main series of debates, I consider the importance of destabilising, by repeatedly questioning, the ‘concepts’ we are familiar with, although the ‘decolonial queer praxis’ is rather traumatising than entertaining.