{"id":5285,"date":"2025-01-04T00:36:31","date_gmt":"2025-01-04T00:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/?p=5285"},"modified":"2026-02-05T19:04:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:04:23","slug":"jan-22-cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang-with-nicholas-de-villiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2025\/01\/04\/jan-22-cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang-with-nicholas-de-villiers\/","title":{"rendered":"JAN 22 &#8211; &#8216;Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy: Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang&#8217; with Nicholas de Villiers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Join us <strong>JANUARY 22, 2026<\/strong>\u00a0at\u00a0<strong>3:30 PM in Thomson Hall 317<\/strong> for a special book talk by Professor <strong>Nicholas de Villiers<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>of University of North Florida for his talk \u2018<em>Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy: Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4T3OIVqj58w\"><strong>VIDEO NOW AVAILABLE<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n<p>In his book, de Villiers contends that we need to theorize both queer time and space to understand Taiwan-based director Tsai Ming-liang&#8217;s cinematic explorations of feeling melancholy, cruisy, and sleepy. Building on those arguments, this presentation starts with a reading of Tsai\u2019s short film <em>It\u2019s a Dream<\/em> (2007)\u2014set in a movie theater in Malaysia\u2014as a microcosm of Tsai\u2019s themes and motifs of sleep\/dreaming, cruising, nostalgia, and the space of the cinema. It then addresses Tsai\u2019s \u201cpost-retirement\u201d (after 2013) films and museum installations, including the queer Teddy award-winning digital feature film <em>Days<\/em>\u00a0(Rizi, 2020) shot in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Thailand, and the short film\u00a0<em>The Night<\/em>\u00a0(2021) shot in Hong Kong in 2019. Both were featured in the solo exhibition\u00a0<em>Tsai Ming-liang\u2019s Days<\/em>\u00a0at the Museum of National Taipei University of Education (MoNTUE) in 2023, experimenting with &#8220;expanded cinema&#8221; and collaborative curation of Tsai&#8217;s still expanding body of work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nicholas de Villiers<\/strong> is Professor of English and film at the University of North Florida and 2023\u20132024 Fulbright U.S. Senior Scholar in Taiwan at National Central University at the Center for the Study of Sexualities. He is the author of\u00a0<em>Opacity and the Closet: Queer Tactics in Foucault, Barthes, and Warhol<\/em>\u00a0(2012),\u00a0<em>Sexography: Sex Work in Documentary<\/em>\u00a0(2017), and\u00a0<em>Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy: Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang<\/em>\u00a0(2022), all from the University of Minnesota Press.<\/p>\n<p>This event is sponsored by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Accommodation requests related to disability or health condition should be made at least ten days ahead of event date.\u00a0<strong>Contact\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:taiwanst@uw.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">taiwanst@uw.edu<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Join us JANUARY 22, 2026\u00a0at\u00a03:30 PM in Thomson Hall 317 for a special book talk by Professor Nicholas de Villiers\u00a0of University of North Florida for his talk \u2018Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy: Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang\u2019. VIDEO NOW AVAILABLE In his book, de Villiers contends that we need to theorize both queer time<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2025\/01\/04\/jan-22-cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang-with-nicholas-de-villiers\/\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":692,"featured_media":5286,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,10,65],"tags":[99,102,101,76],"class_list":["post-5285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic","category-news","category-video","tag-cinema","tag-de-villiers","tag-film","tag-taiwan-studies","region-east-asia","region-taiwan","research-theme-events"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>JAN 22 - &#039;Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy: Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang&#039; with Nicholas de Villiers - Taiwan Studies Program<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2025\/01\/04\/jan-22-cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang-with-nicholas-de-villiers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"JAN 22 - &#039;Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy: Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang&#039; with Nicholas de Villiers - Taiwan Studies Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Join us JANUARY 22, 2026\u00a0at\u00a03:30 PM in Thomson Hall 317 for a special book talk by Professor Nicholas de Villiers\u00a0of University of North Florida for his talk \u2018Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy: Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang\u2019. VIDEO NOW AVAILABLE In his book, de Villiers contends that we need to theorize both queer time\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2025\/01\/04\/jan-22-cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang-with-nicholas-de-villiers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Taiwan Studies Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-04T00:36:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-05T19:04:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2025\/12\/deVilliersAuthorPhoto-939x1024.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"939\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tin Yu Pak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tin Yu Pak\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2025\/01\/04\/jan-22-cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang-with-nicholas-de-villiers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2025\/01\/04\/jan-22-cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang-with-nicholas-de-villiers\/\",\"name\":\"JAN 22 - 'Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy: Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang' with Nicholas de Villiers - Taiwan Studies Program\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2025\/01\/04\/jan-22-cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang-with-nicholas-de-villiers\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2025\/01\/04\/jan-22-cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang-with-nicholas-de-villiers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2025\/12\/deVilliersAuthorPhoto-750x818.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-04T00:36:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-05T19:04:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/#\/schema\/person\/b7ac3f69ddb950e9f7e11a9228ed37d6\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2025\/01\/04\/jan-22-cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang-with-nicholas-de-villiers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2025\/01\/04\/jan-22-cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang-with-nicholas-de-villiers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2025\/01\/04\/jan-22-cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang-with-nicholas-de-villiers\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2025\/12\/deVilliersAuthorPhoto-750x818.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2025\/12\/deVilliersAuthorPhoto-750x818.png\",\"width\":2308,\"height\":2516},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2025\/01\/04\/jan-22-cruisy-sleepy-melancholy-sexual-disorientation-in-the-films-of-tsai-ming-liang-with-nicholas-de-villiers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"JAN 22 &#8211; 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