Elucidating Confucian Heteronormativity: The Case of Chinese Schooling

This article employs Confucianism and queer theory to examine the experiences of 25 LGBTQ schoolteachers in China. Drawing on the Confucian concept of li , understood as the normative regulation of social roles, and the queer notion of heteronormativity, I propose the novel concept of Confucian heteronormativity to better explain how gender and sexual norms are (re)produced and negotiated in societies shaped by Confucian values. Grounded in the case of Chinese schooling, I conceptualise Confucian heteronormativity as operating through three key features: the construction of social sameness, the role of elders as key agents in transmitting norms and the imposition of self-restraint on individuals. As schools are crucial sites for the (re)production of social norms, this hybridised framework contributes to sociology by expanding understandings of heteronormativity beyond western paradigms and addressing the cultural specificities of normativity in contemporary China and other Confucian-influenced contexts.