The double liv of gay men Cha’s Haan provce

Contents:

• THE DOUBLE LIV OF GAY MEN CHA’S HAAN PROVCE
• THE EVERYDAY LIV OF GAY MEN HAAN
• THE DOUBLE LIV OF GAY MEN CHA’S MARGAL PROVC
• HOTEL SANYA POPULAR FOR GAY UPL? - SANYA FOM
• THE EVERYDAY LIV OF GAY MEN HAAN1ST EDN
• THE EVERYDAY LIV OF GAY MEN HAAN
• THE EVERYDAY LIV OF GAY MEN HAAN
• EVERYDAY LIV OF GAY MEN HAAN
• GAY IENDLY HOTELS HAAN
• THE DOUBLE LIV OF GAY MEN CHA’S MARGAL PROVC
• THE EVERYDAY LIV OF GAY MEN HAAN
• THE EVERYDAY LIV OF GAY MEN HAAN

THE DOUBLE LIV OF GAY MEN CHA’S HAAN PROVCE

I’ll take you to see the place where the gays go to play mahjong. I’m here to take a tour of s gay scene and 29-year-old Ah Tao is my gui. There has been some excellent rearch to the emergence of gay and lbian inti Cha, cludg how the have been shaped by Euro-Amerin ias of “gay sensibily” and characterised by “dividualy, difference, sophistitn, liberatn and morny”.

One 2018 study tailed gay bars Shanghai that rivalled those of any wtern pal, the anisatn of “pri” events and the tense ntexts which “queer” film ftivals and wir cultural productn and activism occur the face of ntued regulatn by the thorarian state. Back 2009-10, I spent 12 months studyg Mandar Che Haan and ma iends lol gay muni.

THE EVERYDAY LIV OF GAY MEN HAAN

Inspired by those experienc, for the past eight years, I have been rryg out rearch wh gay men the regn and, 2018, pleted a PhD this explorg gay liv Haan. I wanted to fd out how gay liv are lived on the margs of global LGBT polics and activism, away om ci imaged as smopolan centr of morny.

THE DOUBLE LIV OF GAY MEN CHA’S MARGAL PROVC

My rearch explor how gay men Haan unrstand themselv, build muni and negotiate the prsur to nform to the heterosexual life script of marriage and reproductn. I looked to how gay liv are figured out everyday teractns, how they are shaped by the spac which they unfold and how this plays out over time.

Hidn gay spac. “When we get there, don’t say any gay stuff, ” Ah Tao warns me as we approach a shop the cut-out rner of a buildg at an tersectn wh an even narrower alley.

When I first beme volved gay muni Haan back 2009, I was taken by iends to the sole gay bar Haikou, the provcial pal. I later learned that the petg dynamics of centraly and obscury are characteristic of gay spac Haan.

HOTEL SANYA POPULAR FOR GAY UPL? - SANYA FOM

In the island’s biggt ci, Haikou and Sanya, there are gay bars and tablished cisg areas certa parks, centrally loted yet variably beyond the view of the wir public.

Haikou’s current gay bar is accsed by climbg through a wdow on the fifth floor of an ageg tower block, out onto a balny, past a long dried-up swimmg pool and down a stg stairse. In Sanya, the well trodn pathways that criss-cross a bamboo grove where the edge of a park meets a riverbank are a by gay meetg spot, while the cy’s gay bar, durg the time of my fieldwork, was aga loted a dised hotel.

To anyone not faiar wh gay works the ci, the plac are visible and often impossible to fd. As Xiaomai, a 19-year-old gay man Sanya, put :.

THE EVERYDAY LIV OF GAY MEN HAAN1ST EDN

Bee there really aren’t that many of gays … It’s good that we have the kds of plac.

Outsi of the island’s ma ci, gay spac take a different form. There are no gay bars or dark rners of parks ed exclively by gay men (or at least I have never found such plac).

Instead, Haan’s smaller ci and towns, gay men meet teaho, nvenience stor and park spac shared wh other visors.

THE EVERYDAY LIV OF GAY MEN HAAN

In the spac, fears of beg “outed” and the possible damage this uld do to fay and profsnal relatnships, mean that, as I was warned by Ah Tao, is bt not to “say any gay stuff”.

Standg by my si, he nudg me wh his elbow and whispers my ear: “All the men here are gay.

THE EVERYDAY LIV OF GAY MEN HAAN

Careful regulatn of the language and knowledge that is allowed to circulate the spac ensur that gay men are only visible as gay men to one another. Non-metropolan gay spac Haan are therefore characterised by dualy – they are both gay and straight spac. Spendg time the spac is a val way which gay men experience forms of llective belongg.

EVERYDAY LIV OF GAY MEN HAAN

Yet, the time spent the spac is marked by anxieti that, at any moment, cracks might appear the barrier between parallel gay and straight worlds. In distct ways, gay spac Haan’s ci and towns are characterised by juxtaposns of visibily and visibily, centraly and margaly, prence and absence.

In Haikou and Sanya, gay men are occupyg spac the heart of the ci. Here gay men meet one another pla sight, but their visibily as gay men is refully managed. Gay spac Haan are a physil maniftatn of the muni, inti and liv they sta.

Such patterns of juxtaposn and dualy speak volum about the possibili for livg gay liv. Concealed om the heterosexual worlds of fay, work and general public life, gay liv, inti and muni are joyo and affirmg. Yet, there is ltle sire among gay men for public visibily and ltle tert overall livg gay liv beyond the hidn worlds.

GAY IENDLY HOTELS HAAN

Still standg that nvenience store Jiaji, a gay meetg place visible pla sight, Ah Tao has jt told me that all the men here are gay.

Sensg her spicn, Ah Tao says his goodby and we move on wh our tour of the Jiaji gay scene, visg a teahoe before returng to the park. Jt as gay spac Haan exist as cracks an otherwise heterosexual public sphere, so too do the time that gay men dite to socialisg gay muni. But they are also a nstant prence everyday life, terptg moments of gay life – like the mundane and aggrsive remr Ah Tao received that he had “no wife, no children”.

THE DOUBLE LIV OF GAY MEN CHA’S MARGAL PROVC

In the face of such prsur, many gay men Haan take much pleasure om their social and sexual relatnships wh other men and their sens of belongg to gay muni. But they often fear that the ways of livg are unstaable and that they mt eventually leave the gay world and nform to their fai and the wir society’s expectatns that they marry and have children.

Gay muni n provi rich rourc for livg the prent, but they provi ltle terms of orientatns towards the future.

The thgs that make me happy are the gay iends that I’ve ma … we have a lot to talk about and we belong to the same scene, we’re all homosexuals.

THE EVERYDAY LIV OF GAY MEN HAAN

Ensurg the ntuy of the fay le is generally nsired the specific rponsibily of sons and is therefore an acute prsure for gay men.

This has further entrenched the role of children as necsary rers for their ageg parents and gay men’s perceptns of their futur as oriented towards marriage and reproductn are wrapped up ncerns for self-prervatn. For many gay men Haan, heterosexual marriage and reproductn rema the only practil life urs.

Very few gay men Haan seek to actively ntt the limatns placed upon their liv. The tense social stigma that is attached to viatns om heterosexualy means that public visibily as gay is unsirable, pecially smaller ci and towns where bumpg to an nt, uncle or -worker is a nstant ncern. They are also takg legal actn agast ntued fns of homosexualy as a mental disorr.

THE EVERYDAY LIV OF GAY MEN HAAN

Organised activism has arrived Haan too, wh the tablishment of a regnal branch of the Parents and Friends of Lbians and Gays Cha 2016. But this may signal at least some tert challengg the stat quo and the potential for future chang to gay liv Haan through greater public visibily and engagement wh activism. Whatever forms sexual polics and activism take Haan, close attentn should be paid to the ncerns and sir of gay men, lbians and other margalised genr and sexual groups.