Queer Zine Spirits Across Boarder

Queer Zine Spirits Across Borders

Queer and Feminist Zine Spirits Across Borders is a new series of public events exploring self-publishing and ‘unbound’ as a radical strategy in East and Southeast Asian queer culture, designed and produced by Burong Zeng. In Asia, queer and women's zines exist like nowhere else, their formats dancing between extremes: tiny pocket booklets whispering secrets, oversized sheets demanding attention, bindings improvised with thread and hope. Inheriting the lineage of woodblock prints and folk art, they transform traditional craft into radical, at times ephemeral, publishing. A deliberate act of resistance that operates beyond digital surveillance and algorithmic control.

Stage One (R&D): Funded by the British Council Connection Through Culture 2025 programme, the first stage involves a week-long trip for Grrrrl Zine Print to come to Beijing to host zine-making workshops at independent arts venues, including Groundless Factory and Post Post Bookshop and have conversations with artist Funa Ye and other zine-making enthusiasts.
Stage Two: Funded by the National Lottery Project Grant, the second stage involves creating a 30-minute artist film on East and Southeast Asian zine culture titled Unbound Zine: Xiaomei Going Overseas, launching four commissioned bilingual publications by diaspora Chinese artists, a live performance, zine-making workshops and a pop-up mini zine fair in partnership with OUTLAND and Pubis Project, pioneering platforms that creative publishing from Chinese and Sino-diasporic communities in London and beyond.