On the first episode of the second season of the NüVoices podcast, Alice Xin Liu and Sophie Lu are joined by Alex Li, senior editor at Vice China. Alex has a Ph.D. in gender and sexuality studies and a master’s degree in psychology. She is also the host of the gender and sexuality channel Biede Girls for Vice China. Alice was previously a guest on her podcast, Biede Girls Podcast, to talk about her bicultural background.
Alice, Sophie, and Alex talk about the meaning of “queer,” bisexuality, Vice China, Chris Lee (Lǐ Yǔchūn 李宇春) and Tilda Swinton, and representations of queer, bisexual, and gay figures in the media. Alex has written for Vice on Chinese female filmmakers.
In the self-care and recommendations section, Alex recommends saying no to social requests, and reading fan fiction that has themes of “shipping,” which refers to when characters are paired up in relationships that did not exist in the original work. Sophie recommends In the Turn, a documentary about a transgender girl discovering herself through roller derby. Alice recommends New Seeds of Contemplation, by Thomas Merton, especially Sue Monk Kidd’s introduction, as well as Janelle Monáe’s fabulous bisexual performance at the Grammys and her feminist, queer album titled Dirty Computer.