Cody Westin had been a man on a mission since the moment his wife, Cassie, walked away under a cloud of secrecy. She had her reasons, but a Westin never gives up without a fight. So when, after six long months, he was reunited with the woman he'd sworn to love, honor and cherish, it was her very pregnant belly and the fact that she'd been accused of unspeakable crimes that made him realize just how much had changed. Knowing she'd be safer by his side, they headed back to Wyoming and the life Cassie seemed desperate to leave behind. Unfortunately, danger followed, and now Cody not only had a marriage to protect, but the lives of those who mattered most. Would the trouble bring them closer together—or tear their newfound family apart?

What does it mean to be queer in a Confucian society in which kinship roles, ties, and ideologies are of such great importance? This book makes sense of queer cultures in China—a country with one of the largest queer populations in the world—and offers an alternative to Euro-American blueprints of queer individual identity. This book contends that kinship relations must be understood as central to any expression of queer selfhood and culture in contemporary cultural production in China. Using a critical approach—“queering Chinese kinship”—Lin Song scrutinizes the relationship between queerness and family relations, and questions Eurocentric queer culture’s frequent assumption of the separation of queerness from blood family. Offering five case studies of queer representations across a range of media genres, this book also challenges the tendency in current scholarship on Chinese and East Asian queerness to understand queer cultures as predominantly counter-mainstream, marginal, and underground. Shedding light on the representations of queerness and kinship in independent and subcultural as well as commercial and popular cultural products, the book presents a more comprehensive picture of queerness and kinship in flux and highlights queer politics as an integral part of contemporary Chinese public culture. “The book makes a strong contribution to Asian queer studies through an in-depth theorization of queer kinship in the Chinese context, a comprehensive coverage of different types of queer media and popular culture, and an innovative discussion of homonormativity in the context of contemporary China. In a fast-developing and very competitive academic field, this book stands out as an important contribution.” —Hongwei Bao, University of Nottingham “Queering Chinese Kinship represents the cutting edge of Chinese queer studies. Its sophisticated media analyses and provocative theoretical contentions reveal two central paradoxes: the interdependence of queerness and kinship despite China’s notoriously homophobic patriarchal familism, and the flourishing of queer public culture in spite of its infamously restrictive media environment. Brilliantly demonstrating how queer possibility emerges through a confluence of familial, media, state, and market forces, this book is a joy to read and a major contribution to the field.” —Fran Martin, University of Melbourne

Cody Westin had been a man on a mission since the moment his wife, Cassie, walked away under a cloud of secrecy. She had her reasons, but a Westin never gives up without a fight. So when, after six long months, he was reunited with the woman he'd sworn to love, honor and cherish, it was her very pregnant belly and the fact that she'd been accused of unspeakable crimes that made him realize just how much had changed. Knowing she'd be safer by his side, they headed back to Wyoming and the life Cassie seemed desperate to leave behind. Unfortunately, danger followed, and now Cody not only had a marriage to protect, but the lives of those who mattered most. Would the trouble bring them closer together--or tear their newfound family apart?

The Westons were among the most well-known abolitionists in antebellum Massachusetts, and each of the Weston sisters played an integral role in the family's work. The eldest, Maria Weston Chapman, became one of the antislavery movement's most influential members. In an extensive and original look at the connections among women, domesticity, and progressive political movements, Lee V. Chambers argues that it was the familial cooperation and support between sisters, dubbed "kin-work," that allowed women like the Westons to participate in the political process, marking a major change in women's roles from the domestic to the public sphere. The Weston sisters and abolitionist families like them supported each other in meeting the challenges of sickness, pregnancy, child care, and the myriad household responsibilities that made it difficult for women to engage in and sustain political activities. By repositioning the household and family to a more significant place in the history of American politics, Chambers examines connections between the female critique of slavery and patriarchy, ultimately arguing that it was family ties that drew women into the activism of public life and kept them there.