Shanghai’s Gay Bars: Here and Queer for 20 Years

Contents:

• GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
• GAY HANGZHOU
• FOR A NSERVATIVE CY, BEIJG HAS A REMARKABLE GAY NIGHTLIFE
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• GAY CHA
• THE 5 BEST CHA GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS CHA
• ‘LAST CALL’ TE STORY: HBO DOC IS ABOUT THE SERIAL KILLER RICHARD ROGERS, WHO TARGETED MANHATTAN’S GAY BARS

GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT

Andrew Ahn’s father once told him that there were “no gay people Korea. In a culturally nservative muny, where gog to church and buildg a fay were heavily emphasized, Ahn felt his gay inty kept him “om beg able to participate Korean culture.

GAY HANGZHOU

” Then, he started equentg GAMeBoi, a weekly Asian Amerin gay party at Wt Hollywood’s Rage Nightclub. He learned to embrace beg both Korean and gay, so much so that he directed “Fire Island, ” a groundbreakg queer Asian Amerin rom- released last year.

Beg Asian Amerin and LGBTQ+ n feel lonely, wh stutns such as ethnic church often disavowg non-heterosexual relatnships while tradnal LGBTQ+ spac such as gay bars n be unwelg to people of lor. “Fdg plac like GAMeBoi, where beg queer and Asian do -exist … It’s not like a 1, 000-year-old Korean cultural rual, but I uld create a new rual, ” said Ahn, a recent Friday, hundreds packed QT Nightlife’s monthly K-Pop Night at Micky’s, a Wt Hollywood gay club a block or so east om the old GAMeBoi posed for selfi a pk Barbie box wh dis balls hangg overhead.

FOR A NSERVATIVE CY, BEIJG HAS A REMARKABLE GAY NIGHTLIFE

” (Michael Owen Baker / For The Tim) Even historilly gay neighborhoods like Wt Hollywood or San Francis’s Castro district, Asian Amerins have long been ignored or fetishized, seen as feme and weak.

In 2019, then-Wt Hollywood Mayor John Duran argued that he did not appropriately touch a member of the Gay Men’s Chos of Los Angel bee “he’s a skny Korean kid wh pimpl on his cheek. ” Asian Amerin advocy groups cricized Duran’s remark, wh API Equaly-LA potg to the long history of discrimatn agast Asian men gay muni such as Wt Hollywood, whose clubs “ed to require three forms of photo intifitn om anyone they perceived as Asian. ” said Crisman, a 36-year-old gay Korean Amerin rearcher and artist.

On this night, he had brought some female high school iends who wanted to experience the gay clubbg scene. The history of gay bars Shanghai spans a ltle over 20 years.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

As a member of the first wave of Che people to equent gay bars, I have wnsed their evolutn. The many years of patronage form a special chapter my was around 1995 that Shanghai’s gay male populatn began to “migrate” om parks and public rtrooms across the cy toward bars and clubs. Before then, plac where men uld meet like-md “ras” — a slang term for gay people — clud a ltle garn on the wt si of Jiangxi Middle Road central Shanghai’s Huangpu District, as well as the roadsi newspaper gallery on nearby Nanjg East Road.

GAY CHA

Asi om a handful of women whom the bar owner ved as “beards” — ctomers whose prence ncealed the fact that was a gay bar — the overwhelmg majory of s patrons were men. This was perhaps the first gay bar maland this time, a group of relatively well-to-do gay men beme more receptive to the ia of meetg partners private tablishments, as opposed to public cisg spots. This change mentaly among gay Che men, bed wh the enuragement of queer expats livg Shanghai, ensured that the bar was able to operate whout any fancial difficulti.

First, at that time, homosexualy was monly owned upon Che society. Upon learng that their property was beg ed as a gay bar, many landlords would send tenants and patrons packg regardls of whether or not the lease had expired. The send reason was that as an creasg number of rival gay bars opened their doors, proprietors would move elsewhere as soon as their bs began to 1997, the Che ernment abolished the crime of “hooliganism, ” whose loose fn clud homosexual activy.

Later, 2001, the Che Society of Psychiatry removed homosexualy om s list of psychiatric disorrs. The velopments, which are generally viewed as symbolic of the crimalizatn and stigmatizatn of homosexualy Cha, cid wh a shift Shanghae attus toward different sexual 2002, Eddy’s found a stable lotn where would ntue to serve the gay muny for the next 14 years: Huaihai Middle Road, Shanghai’s premier shoppg street. This reflects chang the environment which gay bars and gay men themselv prevly stggled to though I have equented gay bars ever sce they first arrived on the maland, I don’t rell any particularly unpleasant experienc wh homophobia.

THE 5 BEST CHA GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS CHA

One eveng 1998, the owner of a recently opened gay bar and s patrons, myself clud, were taken to the lol police statn. However, my iend Andy, a -owner of a gay bar found the early 2000s, once told me of a ls fortunate enunter. A group of loyal patrons at the popular bar Asia Blue had put together a set of rmal sks reflectg some of the more amg aspects of gay life.

‘LAST CALL’ TE STORY: HBO DOC IS ABOUT THE SERIAL KILLER RICHARD ROGERS, WHO TARGETED MANHATTAN’S GAY BARS

Fortunately, owners of gay bars no longer fd themselv the kds of awkward prediments.

Begng at the turn of the century, a nstellatn of gay bars opened across Shanghai.