The contributors explore the emergence of contemporary working class lesbian and butch/femme relationships and communities throughout Asia and their location within the context of nationalist struggles, religious fundamentalism, state gender regimes, and global queer movements. Table of contents: Globalization, Sexuality and Silences: Women's Same-Sex Experiences in a Globalizing Asia / Evelyn Blackwood & Saskia E. Wieringa: Silence, Sin and the System: Women's Same-Sex Practices in Japan / Saskia E.Wieringa: Desire and Deviance in Classical Indian Philosophy: A Study of Female Masculinity and Male Femininity in the Tamil Folk Legend Alliyarasanimalai / Kanchana Natarajan: The Spring that Flowers between Women / Abha Bhaiya: Performing Gender along the Lesbian Continuum: The Politics of Sexual Identity in the Seitô Society / Peichen Wu: 'But no one has explained to me who I am now…”: 'Trans' Self-perceptions in Sri Lanka / Shermal Wijewardene: Gender Subjectivity: Dees and Toms in Thailand / Megan Sinnott: Hunting down Love: Female Masculinity in Bugis South Sulawesi / Sharyn Graham Davies: Lesbian Masculinities: Identity and Body Construction among Tomboys in Hong Kong / Franco Lai: Transnational Sexualities in One Place: Indonesian Readings / Evelyn Blackwood: Flames of Fire: Expressions and Denial of Female Sexuality / Abha Bhaiya: Dying to Tell: Sexuality and Suicide in Imperial Japan / Jennifer Robertson: 'She has come from the world of the spirits…”: Life Stories of Working-class Lesbian Women in Northern India / Maya Sharma