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Despite a substantial body of literature examining the campus climate facing queer students in higher education institutions in the Global North, limited attention has been given to the experiences of queer students within HE institutions in China. This article addresses this gap by analysing interviews with 17 student participants from a university in Guangzhou. Participants’ accounts underscore the profoundly queerphobic and heteronormative nature of campus climates in China. To elucidate the operation of power on campus, this article unveils the manifestations of queerphobia and heteronormativity across three crucial aspects of queer students’ campus life: 1) teaching and learning, 2) student management, and 3) interpersonal interactions. By contextualising the campus experiences of queer students within China’s repressive political climate, this article sheds light on the power dynamics of institutional queerphobia and heteronormativity within an authoritarian regime. It is demonstrated that the top-down party-state power reinforces heteronormativity and queerphobia through strict control over teaching and student activities, emphasising ideological conformity and actively monitoring and erasing queer visibility. This article contributes to the existing literature by not only describing the Chinese campus climate, but also by elucidating how authoritarian power structures perpetuate heteronormativity and queerphobia within university settings.
Cui et al. (Mon,) studied this question.