My gender identity and who I’m attracted to is nature, right? Well, actually it’s complicated.

Everything I thought I knew about love, gender and sexuality has been turned upside down. Hi, my name is LAZOU and I'm the host of Nuances: Our Asian Stories. Typically it’s an interview show but I’m switching things up for season 5 with a limited series called Queering Premodern Asia.

Why? Because before the modern era, there was a LOT of sexual diversity in Asia. But I bet your Asian parents didn’t know that. How do I know? ¼ of my interviews were with queer Asians and one theme that often came up is feeling a disconnect with their Asian culture because queerness is taboo in their family. But being queer wasn’t always taboo in Asia and there’s a lot of research to back this up. It’s all out there but unless you’re in that field, you probably don’t know about it. This is where this series comes in.

Prof. Wu CunCun: “We have 24 official Chinese history and 23 have special catalog about the emperor’s male favorite”

There’s the prince charmings and the Kings who adored them in China, Vietnam, and Korea, dating back to 500 BC. There’s the premodern Japanese version of BTS that had monks wrapped around their *cough* finger. The sufi poet and his lover who became one and are still celebrated every year with a festival in pakistan. A lesbian play written in China in 1651. Cross-dressing women in premodern Iran. Korean princesses who slept with their maids. Gender fluid deities in the Philippines and India. There’s even a god of same sex love in China. There’s so many stories and I can’t wait for you to hear them.

Join me and my queer guest host to uncover the hidden roots of our queer Asian history. Whether you’re straight like me or queer, I promise you it will be fascinating.

Queering Premodern Asia drops on June 2nd, 2024.

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