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Current discussions of LGBTQ+ resistance in education, particularly in Western contexts, often centre on visibility and coming out (Lee, 2020). Yet for many LGBTQ+ teachers in China, openly disclosing their identities may carry significant professional and social risks (Atkinson-Ross & Wu, 2025; Wu, 2026). In these circumstances, how, if at all, do they resist heteronormativity in their everyday work?

Drawing on interviews with 25 LGBTQ+ teachers in Chinese schools, my research (Wu, 2025a, 2025b) suggests that resistance is not always expressed through visibility or coming out. Instead, I develop the concept of ‘Confucian queer agency’ to understand how teachers negotiate the relationship between ming (name) and shi (actuality) – that is, the tension between how they are socially recognised and how they actually live. Through this lens, resistance is not always confrontational; it can also take quiet, tactical and everyday forms.

‘Resistance is not always confrontational; it can also take quiet, tactical and everyday forms.’

Quietly reinterpreting norms

Some teachers resisted not by openly naming their identities but through subtle pedagogical practices that challenged assumptions about gender and sexuality. Fei, a gay teacher, described how he disrupted traditional gender expectations in the classroom:

When carrying books, I’ll pick the tallest and strongest students to do it, rather than calling five boys to do it directly. (Fei, gay man)

Resistance was also expressed through self-presentation, where the body can become a performative site of both regulation and subversion (Butler, 1990). Yezi, a lesbian teacher, explained that she deliberately cut her hair short and wore trousers because she wanted her appearance to reflect how she understood herself, rather than conforming to conventional expectations of femininity. She also hoped this would encourage students to question stereotypical assumptions about gender expression. Reflecting on this, she said:

I want to be myself … I hope I come across as being neither too feminine nor too masculine. (Yezi, lesbian)

These practices may appear minor, yet they subtly reshape the ‘actuality’ of everyday school life and quietly expand what students perceived as normal and possible.

Separating public identities from lived realities

Some participants strategically occupied socially legible identities while simultaneously challenging heteronormativity. Gaoshan, a gay teacher preparing to enter a pro forma marriage with a lesbian, was publicly perceived as heterosexual, yet he also described himself as a feminist educator, saying:

Because I am a feminist, I incorporate a lot of gender equality into my classroom … Many students said they had never thought that a male teacher would teach them about feminism in school. (Gaoshan, gay man)

These accounts complicate common assumptions about closetedness. By separating socially recognised ‘names’ from lived ‘actualities’ – and sometimes using those ‘names’ for protection – teachers were able to maintain professional legitimacy while still engaging in meaningful forms of resistance.

Introducing new identities and possibilities

Other LGBTQ+ teachers adopted a more explicit strategy by introducing identities that exceeded dominant understandings of gender and sexuality. Shan, a genderqueer teacher, came out to students using the Chinese term xingbie ku’er (genderqueer):

I told them straight out … My students went around saying it, but the teachers weren’t even sensitive to it, they didn’t even know what the word ku’er was. (Shan, genderqueer and asexual)

In the Chinese context, ku’er – literally meaning ‘cool kid’ – lacks the historical stigma associated with the English term ‘queer’ and remains relatively unfamiliar in mainstream discourse (Bao, 2021). This enabled Shan to introduce a new ‘name’ into the classroom: one subtle enough to avoid scrutiny, yet meaningful enough to open up conversations about gender diversity.

Why this matters

These findings challenge the assumption that resistance must always be visible or centred on public disclosure. LGBTQ+ teachers in China are not simply constrained by heteronormative systems; they are actively negotiating and reshaping them through culturally situated forms of agency. More broadly, this research invites educational researchers to rethink how queer resistance is understood across contexts, recognising quieter and relational forms of transformation that often go unnoticed in schools.

References

Atkinson-Ross, C., & Wu, W. (2025). Inside the Chinese heterosexual matrix: Lesbian and gay middle leaders’ experiences in Chinese schools. Gender and Education, 37(5), 525–542.

Bao, H. (2021). ‘A cool kid’: Queer theory travels to China. Translation and Interpreting Studies, 16(2), 219–239.

Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge.

Lee, C. (Ed.). (2020). Courage in the classroom: LGBT teachers share their stories. John Catt Educational Ltd.

Wu, W. (2025a). Conceptualising Confucian queer subjectivation: How Chinese LGBTQ teachers make sense of and navigate their sexuality in schools. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. Advance online publication.

Wu, W. (2025b). Confucian queer agency: Conceptualising the mechanisms of LGBTQ teachers’ resistance in Chinese schools. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 46(6), 937–953.

Wu, W. (2026). Elucidating Confucian heteronormativity: The case of Chinese schooling. Sociology, 60(2), 449–467.