Mobile genders: the trans* journeys of Chinese students in Australia

Abstract

Inspired by the stories of middle-class P. R. Chinese students and graduates in Australia who were assigned female at birth but whose geographic journeys entwined with their exploration of alternative forms of gendering, this article aims to advance understanding of how the power relations of global (post)coloniality shape diverse discourses and practices of transgender mobility in the context of international education today. Our research participants’ narratives suggest that they understood movement from China to Australia as correlating with improved conditions for trans* becoming. Rather than naturalizing this understanding, however, we approach it as a problem to be solved. We do this b..