Nuances: Our Asian Stories

See full show notes for transcript: https://nuancespod.com/2026/02/15/lunar-new-year-episode/@nuancespod on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook.

To participate in our Lunar New Year episode, see instructions on nuancespod.com (final deadline Feb 8)
Today's episode is a re-run of my nuanced conversation with Dr. Manijeh Moradian, an Iranian American feminist and professor at Barnard College. The episode originally aired in 2023. 
You can view the original full show notes here.https://nuancespod.com/2023/07/02/s3-e03-dr-manijeh-moradian-on-why-iran-isnt-always-considered-part-of-asia-and-how-the-west-may-be-misinterpreting-what-iranians-truly-want-out-of-the-current-feminist-revolution/
 

Season finale!!!! See full show notes for references & additional info.
Queering Premodern Asia is a limited series and the 5th season of the Nuances podcast about Our Asian Stories. Each episode explores different aspects of sexual diversity in premodern Asia with commentary from guest scholars. Episodes are divided into a narrative portion, and a discussion with a guest co-host from the queer Asian community.
Ep. 9: In search of the “socially acceptable”
Introduction
Military makeup and good looks
Women in trade & female agency
Gender fluidity as a plus
Love, marriage and their casual (and recent) relationship
Why it all changed
Icons and rebels
Why premodern Asia?
Why me?
Discussion with co-host Ryan Ah Seek
Credits
Spotify playlist
Did you enjoy this episode?
🧧 If you would like to help me spread the word about the show, or support it financially, learn more at nuancespod.com/support
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you’d like to tell other people how much they will enjoy this show, please consider writing a review.
☎️ You can even leave me a voicemail!
💌 Subscribe to LAZOU’s substack, where I’ll be sharing some behind-the-scenes + additional essays!
Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | Facebook
Guest co-host bio
Ridwan (Ryan) Ah Seek, known as Ryan, is LGBTQIA+ activist in Mauritius. He is the former President and current vice president of Collectif Arc-En-Ciel, the biggest LGBTQIA+ NGO in Mauritius. He challenged Section 250 of the Mauritian Penal Code in 2019 and won the case on 4th Oct 2023, against the State of Mauritius.Instagram | TikTok | Facebook

See full show notes for references & additional info.
Queering Premodern Asia is a limited series and the 5th season of the Nuances podcast about Our Asian Stories. Each episode explores different aspects of sexual diversity in premodern Asia with commentary from guest scholars. Episodes are divided into a narrative portion, and a discussion with a guest co-host from the queer Asian community.
Ep. 8: For the Record
Introduction & content warnings
We were here
Other sources than official records
Power in numbers
Who’s missing?
Official vs unofficial stance on queerness
Court documents
Decolonizing history
Porn, erotic art
Conclusion
Discussion with co-host Dr. Izat El Amoor
Outro
Did you enjoy this episode?
🧧 If you would like to help me spread the word about the show, or support it financially, learn more at nuancespod.com/support
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you’d like to tell other people how much they will enjoy this show, please consider writing a review.
☎️ You can even leave me a voicemail!
💌 Subscribe to LAZOU’s substack, where I’ll be sharing some behind-the-scenes + additional essays!
Guest bio
Izat El Amoor is an assistant professor of sociology, public scholar, and a queer Palestinian (citizen of Israel). He studies queer issues in Palestine with a focus on education, family life, and the Palestinian Queer Movement. He also studies queer life in the SWANA Region with a focus on political and cultural factors of mobilizing for towards queer change since the Arab uprisings erupted in 2011.

Queering Premodern Asia is a limited series and the 5th season of the Nuances podcast about Our Asian Stories. Each episode explores different aspects of sexual diversity in premodern Asia with commentary from guest scholars. Episodes are divided into a narrative portion, and a discussion with a guest co-host from the queer Asian community.
Content warnings
Introduction
Performing gender in Indonesia, Philippines, Japan
Cross-dressing in theater in Korea, China, India, Japan
Gender bender icons from China, Vietnam, Korea
Gender boundaries in premodern China, Japan and Iran
Conclusion
Discussion with co-host Stella Gold
Did you enjoy this episode?
🧧If you would like to help me spread the word about the show, or support it financially, learn more at nuancespod.com/support
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you'd like to tell other people how much they will enjoy this show, please consider writing a review.
💌 Subscribe to LAZOU's substack, where I'll be sharing some behind-the-scenes + additional essays!
CONTACT @nuancespod on socials!
Instagram | TikTok | Web | LinkedIn | Twitter
Host: Lazou
 
GUEST BIO
Stella Gold is a queer and nonbinary Rebirth + Wealth Coach for changemakers and comes from a lineage of activists. They are the founder of My Gold Standard, a believer in wealth activism, pro liberation from all oppressive systems, and collective care. They believe in using business as an ecosystem for financial solidarity for yourself AND the collective. Their ancestors are filipinx, romanian jewish, scottish, irish, chinese, italian, iranian, french, german, british, and likely so much more. They hold values and beliefs in abolitionism, anarchism, decolonization, collective and ancestral liberation, and leftism. Instagram | LinkedIn | Web

Queering Premodern Asia is a limited series of Nuances: Our Asian Stories. Each episode explores different aspects of sexual diversity in premodern Asia with commentary from guest scholars. Episodes are divided into a narrative portion, and a discussion with a guest co-host from the queer Asian community.
Introduction & content warnings
China & the missionaries
China, Britain, and the Opium Wars
Japan, gun boat diplomacy, and rapid modernization
Thailand, Iran, Turkey
Regulating prostitution
Conclusion
Discussion with co-host Cece
Acknowledgments
Guest co-host: Cece is a Canadian born Chinese transgender trans model, advocate, poet, and public speaker who is using her voice to lift up the marginalized, fill in the gaps, and instigate journeys of discovery
Did you enjoy this episode?
🧧If you would like to help me spread the word about the show, or support it financially, learn more at nuancespod.com/support
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you'd like to tell other people how much they will enjoy this show, please consider writing a review.
💌 Subscribe to LAZOU's substack, where I'll be sharing some behind-the-scenes + additional essays!
 
CONTACT
Instagram | TikTok | Web | LinkedIn | Twitter

Nuances podcast about Our Asian Stories. Each episode explores different aspects of sexual diversity in premodern Asia with commentary from guest scholars. Episodes are divided into a narrative portion, and a discussion with a guest co-host from the queer Asian community.
Introduction & content warnings
Why is this series focusing on premodern Asia?
The West isn't the only imperial power
From the Silk Road to the Age of Exploration
British colonization of India, Section 377 & vagrancy Laws
Premodern Chinese law about sexual crimes (w. Prof. CunCun Wu)
Portuguese vs British India (w. Prof. Anjali Arondekar)
Spanish colonization of the Philippines
French colonization of Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos
Discussion with co-host Stella
Acknowledgments
Guest co-host: Stella is a writer, editor, and co-host for the Brazn Azn podcast along with the lovely Virginia Duan. 
Did you enjoy this episode?
🧧If you would like to help me spread the word about the show, or support it financially, learn more at nuancespod.com/support
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you'd like to tell other people how much they will enjoy this show, please consider writing a review.
💌 Subscribe to LAZOU's substack, where I'll be sharing some behind-the-scenes + additional essays!
 
CONTACT
Instagram | TikTok | Web | LinkedIn | Twitter

If you enjoy this show and would like to help me spread the word about it, or support it financially, you can find out more at ⁠nuancespod.com/support⁠.
 
View the full show notes⁠⁠.
 
Subscribe to ⁠LAZOU's substack⁠.
 
GUEST BIO
Shreya Sharma, pronouns she and her, is a podcast marketer by day who finds herself immersed in questions about intersectional identity by night. Thankfully for her, she is a writer too. She occasionally publishes her love affairs with sounds and audio on the Shreya's Audio Affairs newsletter on Substack..
Instagram
 
CONTACT
Instagram | TikTok | Web | LinkedIn | Twitter
 
Host: Lazou
Support this podcast: nuancespod.com/support
Subscribe to Lazou's Substack

Queering Premodern Asia is a limited series and 5th season of the podcast Nuances: Our Asian Stories. Each episode explores different aspects of sexual diversity in premodern Asia with commentary from guest scholars. Episodes are divided into a narrative portion, and a discussion with a guest co-host from the queer Asian community.
4. LOVE, MARRIAGE & THEIR CASUAL RELATIONSHIP
Introduction & content warnings
Marrying for love
China
China - Male-Male marriages in Fujian
China - Marrying ghosts
Iran - the many forms of love
How the definition of love and marriage evolved in Korea and Japan
Vietnamese village customs
Female agency in South East Asia (Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines
The only people without marriage
When did love and marriage tie the knot?
Discussion with Dr. Badie
What monogamous people can learn from polyamorous folks
Outro
If you enjoy this show and would like to help me spread the word about it, or support it financially, you can find out more at nuancespod.com/support
If you'd like to leave a review, these are the places you can do so write a review
GUEST BIO
Dr. Manijeh Badiee (she/her/hers) is an Iranian, queer, bisexual, polyamorous, neurospicy, cisgender femme professor, psychologist, and CEO of Poly Therapist Psychology Corporation..
Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn | Web
CONTACT
Instagram | TikTok | Web | LinkedIn | Twitter
Host: Lazou
---
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nuancespod/support

See the FULL SHOW NOTES for references, links & more.
Queering Premodern Asia is a limited series and the 5th season of the Nuances podcast about Our Asian Stories. Each episode explores different aspects of sexual diversity in premodern Asia with commentary from guest scholars. Episodes are divided into a narrative portion, and a discussion with a guest co-host from the queer Asian community.
Introduction & content warnings
Third Gender as spiritual leaders/ people with special powersAsog Babaylans (Philippines)
Manangbali (Malaysian Borneo)
Hijras (South Asia)
Bissu (South Sulawesi, Indonesia)
Bayasa (Central Sulawesi, Indonesia)
RatoNale/Seaworm Priest (West Sumba, Indonesia)
Balian and Basir (Kalimantan, Indonesia)
Sexuality as fluidChigo (Japan)
Beyond the Western modelGay & Lesbian non-equivalence
Baklâ (Philippines)
Heterosexuals and Lesbians in Thailand vs. the West
Kathoey (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia)
Gender ambiguity in premodern Muslim societies
5 genders of the Bugis culture (Indonesia)
Intersex
Outro
Discussion with TONIE
Featured Song: More Than My Body by TONIE
Guest scholars:
Sachi Schmidt-Hori, professor of Japanese literature & culture at Dartmouth College.
Wu CunCun, ⁠⁠professor of Chinese literature at the University of Hong Kong⁠⁠.
Guest co-host
TONIE is doing their very best to make you cry, in all the best ways. The LA-native writes and produces each synth-pop track from the comfort of their skylit home studio in Brooklyn, NY — a perfect backdrop for the emotional vulnerability that colors their lyrics. Proudly Vietnamese American, nonbinary, and themselves!
TONIE can be reached on Instagram & TikTok and their website Itstonie.com
Connect with Nuances: Our Asian Stories on Instagram, TikTok, Threads or YouTube
---
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nuancespod/support