Cha’s LGBTQ muny has long had to al wh not only societal prejudice but also prsure om the state: censorship, surveillance and timidatn, at tim even tentn by police. Durg the early 2000s, though, looked like thgs might be changg. Gay clubs flourished big ci and muny groups sprang up to offer social servic. The days, the feelg has fad. While ’s difficult to pot to any direct crackdown, the realy is that over the past ’s bee to
Contents:
- BEG GAY CHA HAS GOTTEN HARR UNR XI JPG
- CHA’S LGBT COMMUNI: EXPLORG THE CHE “GAY CY”
- CHA’S LGBT COMMUNY DON’T NEED WTERN ‘GAY PRI’
- HOMOSEXUAL STORI, FAY STORI: NEO-CONFUCIAN HOMONORMATIVY AND STORYTELLG THE CHE GAY COMMUNY
BEG GAY CHA HAS GOTTEN HARR UNR XI JPG
* gay community in china *
Durg this year’s Pri Month, soccer star Li Yg ma history as Cha’s first female athlete to e out publicly as gay, a ndid seri of celebratory photos posted on social media, showg her posg happily alongsi her partner.
Some also spect a more direct lk between the crackdown on LGBTQ rights and top officials’ worldviews, which for many were shaped durg the Cultural Revolutn the 1960s and ’70s, when thori attempted to purge any “non-socialist” elements — cludg homosexualy — om Che society.
A more assertive, self-reliant Cha has rulted a subtle but nstant narrowg of gay spacPhotographer: GREG BAKER/AFPHello, I’m Colum Murphy, a reporter on our Cha ernment team based Beijg, wh a look at the steady erosn of gay life Cha.
CHA’S LGBT COMMUNI: EXPLORG THE CHE “GAY CY”
A more assertive, self-reliant Cha has rulted a subtle but nstant narrowg of gay spac * gay community in china *
Even though no current law Cha is explicly agast homosexualy; one n still easily overstep to the forbidn zone of polics when discsg , which leads to censorship as proven by the banned WeChat acunts. For years before my recent trip to Chengdu, iends om the maland had told me that the Sichuan pal was also known lloquially as Cha’s “ gay pal” my five days the cy, I saw plenty of hand-holdg gay upl out public, more than I would Hong Kong. They uld have easily gone unnoticed, given the lack of star a loly that was rehgly Bra’s own unofficial “gay pal” of Brighton, Chengdu do not boast extravagant displays of rabow-themed ratns or an overblown above-ground gay scene.
The lols are que aware that their gay bars and clubs attract people om across the untry, and those of different sexual preferenc live their liv que harmonly whout those matters beg might be difficult for their Wtern unterparts to see how a cy whout those typil ditors n be nsired a “gay pal”. In Chengdu, for example, tea-ho are a popular space where “out and proud” members of the LGBT muny tegrate wh society at homosexualy existed throughout ancient Cha and has been rerd the histori of many non-Wtern civilisatns, “gay pri” is a morn Amerin celebratn so s lack of relevance here is nothg to be appalled about. Cha’s gay muny wants to be ee om the homophobic gaze, but I doubt they would be willg to swap that for an Orientalist Wtern crics have acced Beijg of jtifyg crackdowns by lkg LGBT culture to Wtern fluence or terventnism.
Demandg that Asian gay rights polici bee more Wternised actually rerc the harmful narrative that homosexualy is an exclively Wtern “liftyle” – a view upheld by the unrmed or simply allowg same-sex marriage is ‘state of unnstutnaly’: Japan urtNohels, is difficult to asss the well-beg of maland Cha’s gay muny whout accs to official statistics. However, tly vted alli should seek to meet and better unrstand members of Cha’s gay muny rather than assume they are opprsed based on a limg amework that se the Wt as “liberal” and the East as “nservative” Cha’s gay muny are strangers to Wtern LGBT cultur, and many Wterners are unfaiar wh their Che unterparts’ liftyl. However, I found that wh parison of statistics different untri, particularly wh the US, the trend of Amerins’ attus toward homosexualy is like an hourglass, wh the two extrem acuntg for a high percentage, and the middle, those more uncerta, acuntg for only a small share.
CHA’S LGBT COMMUNY DON’T NEED WTERN ‘GAY PRI’
Rearchers have begun to vtigate, wre and publish stori of Che lbians and gay men, non-ernmental anizatns (NGOs) have started to anize story-sharg activi for gay people and parents of tongzhi Footnote 3 (also known as tongzhi parents), cultural products – such as novels and onle vios about lbians and gay men – have emerged on the ter, and gay people have begun to tell their own stori wh the velopment of new media platforms. Footnote 6 Cght up the transnatnal flow of queer culture, gay inty, muny and activism Cha has been the rise of an assiatnist polics a neoliberal form that has domated the Wtern lbian and gay movement the past several s.
Footnote 7 Focg on equal rights centred on sexualy and sexual cizenship, this neoliberal sexual polics, or what Lisa Duggan lls “homonormativy, ”Footnote 8 distguish the publicly regnized, rpectable, “good” gay om the dangero, cent, “bad” one, implyg “a normative formatn that mak homosexualy more acceptable vis-à-vis heteronormative society. ”Footnote 9 The emergg neoliberal, homonormative chang “have been wnsed most untri the Global North, creasgly several of the more dynamic emergg enomi the Global South … and [] a smatterg of other natns. ”Footnote 10 Unr such circumstanc, homonormativy has gaed populary and signifince related discipl such as soclogy, anthropology, human geography and terdisciplary fields cludg gay and lbian studi, queer studi, genr studi and postlonial studi.
HOMOSEXUAL STORI, FAY STORI: NEO-CONFUCIAN HOMONORMATIVY AND STORYTELLG THE CHE GAY COMMUNY
However, this procs homonormativy has creasgly e to be prented as an “all-enpassg and unassailable” ncept scribg “a homogeneo, global external enty that exists outsi all of and exerts s terrifyg, normative power on gay liv everywhere. ”Footnote 11 In orr to crilly addrs this problem and ntribute to the emergg terdisciplary lerature on homonormativy, this rearch emphasiz the productn, circulatn and nsumptn of fay-themed homosexual stori as an analytil startg pot to pict the enunter between the neoliberal assiatnist sexual polics and neo-Confucian faism ntemporary Cha.
Drawg on life-history terviews and participant observatn nducted Shenzhen, South Cha, this article foc on the val importance of fay-themed homosexual stori anizg the gay muny and shapg gay men's lived experienc Cha. It ronat wh them as they each share an assiatnist strategy that seeks acceptance on heteronormative terms for the privileged, mastream portns of the gay muny while stigmatizg others;Footnote 14 challeng them bee of the val and plited role played by the fay shapg this strategy.
As will be further elaborated, this Che versn of homonormativy that lot dividual queer sire neo-Confucian faial norms, or what we ll “neo-Confucian homonormativy, ” stctur the ntent of the fay-themed homosexual stori, shap the storytellg procs and dog so fluenc the anizatn of the Che gay muny and the lived experienc of Che gay men.