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December 26, 2005
CHINESE GAYS: THE DARK BEFORE THE DAWN
Today's edition of China Daily -- a national English-language newspaper with a 200,000 circulation published in Beijing, and aimed primarily at the foreign business community -- carries a long article on China's gay and lesbian population, "The Dark Before the Dawn," which portrays some of their tiny first steps toward openness. The article, reprinted from the Beijing Review, while it
contains interesting interviews, omits any reports on recent government crackdowns on gay people -- there is, remember, no free press in China -- and so must be taken with a grain of salt. Here are excerpts, with my notes on some of those omissions:
"Little over four years ago, homosexuality was still officially classified as a mental disorder in China. On December 16, 2005, China's gays and lesbians celebrated their first national festival. It's a huge leap forward in a country long associated with closed attitudes toward alternative lifestyles.
"Despite the stigma and public admonishments, China's gay community is taking its first tentative steps out of a closet that was, until recently, firmly bolted. In 1997, the word "hooligan" was deleted from China's criminal code in reference to gays arrested for soliciting in public places. The move is considered by many as the de facto decriminalization of homosexual acts and was followed in April 2001 by the deletion of homosexuality from the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders. "Now, marking gay-awareness month June 12 by flying kites in Beijing, Shenyang and Fuzhou, and turning out in numbers for the country;s first national gay and lesbian festival December 16 in Beijing, organized by Cui Zi' en, a gay associate professor at the Beijing Film Academy, are acts that illustrate changing attitudes toward the pink revolution. [Photo above left: Cui zi'en, shown below a gay rights poster, was the first Chinese intellectual to come out, in 1990--D.I.]
[Note: This China Daily/Beijing Review article omits to mention that the festival referred to above was raided and stopped by police, The Times of London reported on December 17, the day after it was to have taken place. According to the Times' China correspondent, "Organisers had planned to hold their festival of films, plays, exhibitions and seminars on homosexuality at one of the trendiest artistic communities in China. The venue was to be the studios and warehouses at the 798 complex of converted factory buildings in northeastern Beijing. Most of the capital’s hippest and most happening events take place among the grey concrete blocks, fashionable French bistro-style bars and industrial pipes of 798. Police notified studio owners that the event would not be allowed to proceed. Li Yinhe, a distinguished sociologist from the prestigious Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, had been invited to address the opening, but had to stay away. The group of about 30 participants bold enough to reveal their sexuality in China’s conservative society were undeterred by the cancellation. They decided to move their ground-breaking event to On/Off, a Beijing gay bar. Police swarmed around the bar even before the group arrived. 'This bar is temporarily closed for review,' police told would-be festival participants," the Times of London concluded. Human Rights Watch issued a press release denouncing the ban on the festival. -- D.I. ]
The China Daily/Beijing Review article notes that, "The word tongzhi, literally meaning comrade (people with the same ideals),is now widely accepted by gays and lesbians as a self-reference in this country. Googling the Chinese character for tongzhi produces some astonishing results...." [Note: the term tongzhi for gay was adopted by a national conference of 200 Chinese gays held in Hong Kong in 1996, when Hong Kong was still under British control; the conference issued China's first gay manifesto. There is now an Institute for Tongzhi Studies at the City University of New York -- D.I.]
"Zhang Beichuan (seated in photo on the right) -- China's leading scholar in the field of

"

"In interviews conducted with gay people, Beijing Review found that family members were always the last to know and the most difficult to tell. A Confucius saying may best explain the Chinese difficulty in accepting homosexuality: There are three things that are unfilial--disobeying one's parents, not supporting one's parents and, the most important, not continuing the family line. Hao Ting, a 17-year-old sophomore at Peking University, said that most of his friends know he is gay. But he still felt uneasy telling his parents. Chinese homosexuals do not want to disappoint their families by not being able to produce heirs.
"As Zhang Beichuan noted, homosexuals in China mostly feel guilty and sorry for their family. Homosexuality can be tolerated as long as they still give birth to the next generation, as the Chinese have a strong sense of family ties, said Zhang Beichuan. 'But it is too painful to marry a person that you don't really love.'"
The article adds, "Currently, there are more than 10 bars catering to gays and lesbians across urban Beijing [That's not very many when you consider that Beijing's population is now 15.25 million! -- D.I.]...Moreover, hundreds of websites are devoted to the gay scene in China, with almost every city having a dedicated site." But the article fails to note that -- as a comprehensive Human Rights Watch Report on "Restrictions on AIDS Activists in China" put it in June 2005 -- "Chinese authorities have shut down websites offering information to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people." To read the entire China Daily/Beijing Review article, click here.
For an extensive article by two Chinese scholars on the rapid spread of HIV-AIDS in China, in the Nov.-Dec. 2005 scholarly journal Cell Research, click here. A history of gay life in China over 2,000 years (in Chinese, book jacket in photo left), by Hong Kong's pioneering gay activist Samshasha, can be ordered by clicking here.
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Posted by: ds | Oct 25, 2006 5:42:25 AM
i am a gay man,live in america,and love asian men...
Posted by: Dennis Mahoney | Jan 1, 2006 11:14:11 PM
That is cheerful news. But one highly placed bigot can still shut it all down... Well, cross your fingers.
Posted by: Sandals | Dec 28, 2005 3:01:22 AM
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