72-year-old gay man rells life of supprsed feelgs

Contents:

• FOR CHA’S GAY MEN, DONGDAN PARK BEIJG OFFERS HAVEN
• A GAY MAN CHA
• THE HIDN LIV OF GAY MEN CHA
• KEYWORDSCHAAGEMIGRATNPOST-MAOISMSEXUALYHOMOSEXUALYCLASSFRANçAISDE L’« AMOUR VIX-JNE ». ÂGE, CLASSE ET HOMOSEXUALé MASCULE EN CHE POST-MAOïSTEAXéE TOUR LA DIFFéRENCE D’âGE ENTRE PARTENAIR MASCULS, NTREVENANT TANT, EN MATIèRE éROTIQUE, X NVENTNS D’âGE QU’X PRCRIPTNS SEXUé, LA NFIGURATN L’« AMOUR VIX-JNE » (LAOSHAOLIAN) HOMOSEXUEL DIFFèRE SGULIèREMENT S FORM CULTURE GAY QUI SE DéPLOIENT DANS L PAC URBAS CENTRX éQUENTéS PAR L NOUVELL CLASS MOYENN ET SUPéRIR CHOIS. CONSTUéE S LIENS SEXUELS ET AFFECTIFS QUI S’éTABLISSENT DANS LA MéTROPOLE ENTRE VIX « LOUX » ET JN TRAVAILLRS MIGRANTS, IMBRIQUéE DANS L FORM ET L LIX ORDAIR D’UNE SOCIABILé PRCIPALEMENT MASCULE, POPULAIRE ET TERGéNéRATNNELLE, ELLE APPARAîT AVANT TOUT ANCRéE DANS LE NTEXTE LA CHE S RéFORM ET L’OUVERTURE POST-MAOïST, SE DUQUEL L RENFIGURATNS L’PACE DISCURSIF, L’ANISATN éNOMIQUE ET LA STCTURE SOCIALE JOUENT UN RôLE CENTRAL.MOTS-CLéS
• 72-YEAR-OLD GAY MAN RELLS LIFE OF SUPPRSED FEELGS

FOR CHA’S GAY MEN, DONGDAN PARK BEIJG OFFERS HAVEN

There has been some excellent rearch to the emergence of gay and lbian inti Cha, cludg how the have been shaped by ro-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. 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.

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. “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. 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.

A GAY MAN CHA

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. 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”.

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. 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”. 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.

THE HIDN LIV OF GAY MEN CHA

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. 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. 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.

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.

It may sound over the top but as I reflect on my time wh Ah Tao – and all I have learned om gay men Haan – I fd myself ntemplatg the meang of life. ”NEWSLETTER: Get the day’s top headl om Tim Edor Davan Maharaj >>For more than three s, Dongdan Park, one e east of Tiananmen Square, has attracted gay men om across Cha.

KEYWORDSCHAAGEMIGRATNPOST-MAOISMSEXUALYHOMOSEXUALYCLASSFRANçAISDE L’« AMOUR VIX-JNE ». ÂGE, CLASSE ET HOMOSEXUALé MASCULE EN CHE POST-MAOïSTEAXéE TOUR LA DIFFéRENCE D’âGE ENTRE PARTENAIR MASCULS, NTREVENANT TANT, EN MATIèRE éROTIQUE, X NVENTNS D’âGE QU’X PRCRIPTNS SEXUé, LA NFIGURATN L’« AMOUR VIX-JNE » (LAOSHAOLIAN) HOMOSEXUEL DIFFèRE SGULIèREMENT S FORM CULTURE GAY QUI SE DéPLOIENT DANS L PAC URBAS CENTRX éQUENTéS PAR L NOUVELL CLASS MOYENN ET SUPéRIR CHOIS. CONSTUéE S LIENS SEXUELS ET AFFECTIFS QUI S’éTABLISSENT DANS LA MéTROPOLE ENTRE VIX « LOUX » ET JN TRAVAILLRS MIGRANTS, IMBRIQUéE DANS L FORM ET L LIX ORDAIR D’UNE SOCIABILé PRCIPALEMENT MASCULE, POPULAIRE ET TERGéNéRATNNELLE, ELLE APPARAîT AVANT TOUT ANCRéE DANS LE NTEXTE LA CHE S RéFORM ET L’OUVERTURE POST-MAOïST, SE DUQUEL L RENFIGURATNS L’PACE DISCURSIF, L’ANISATN éNOMIQUE ET LA STCTURE SOCIALE JOUENT UN RôLE CENTRAL.MOTS-CLéS

Some seek a long-term love tert, some a one-time sex partner, others crimalized homosexualy 1997 and removed om s official list of mental illns four years later. Though same-sex marriage has not been legalized, Che media regularly report on high-profile gay home weddgs and gay upl gettg marriage certifit the Uned for many gay Che, is still difficult to buck social prsure to fd a spoe of the oppose sex and have children.

Che media equently portray HIV/AIDS as a “gay disease, ” even though natnal statistics show heterosexual sex was the route of transmissn 66% of new s reported the first 10 months of 2014. Zeng Yi, a profsor Confucianism at Tongji Universy, lled homosexualy “a crime agast humany” an say for the Shanghai-based news webse the Paper after the U. “Superstars don’t want to lose their heterosexual fans, and those polics need a ‘normal’ fay to survive and get promoted, ” said soclogist Li Yhe, a longtime advote for gay rights timat there are 39 ln to 52 ln gay men among Cha’s 1.

Wh same-sex marriage unregnized, adoptn by gay upl prohibed and surrogacy banned, a majory of this group, she says, would marry women (cludg some lbians, who face a siar stigma). Some eventually bee regulars, returng to seek a sense of the meantime, a few Che gay-rights activists persist phg for greater social regnn, and even marriage rights. “Cha needs to have reprentativ for the homosexual muny the Natnal People’s Congrs to brg up proposals of gay marriage for the revisn of the law, ” said knows he’s unlikely to bear wns to such a velopment.

72-YEAR-OLD GAY MAN RELLS LIFE OF SUPPRSED FEELGS

Xiao Cao, a 57-year-old gay man, performs as a cultural revolutn red guard at a 's gay muny has long been on the edg of society but is gradually beg more accepted. As society Cha morniz, s gay muny is ls myster and creasgly part of the untry’s fabric, pursug dreams and happs like other settg out to document this story, I had a somewhat stereotypil image of gay Che – that they lived lorful and fortable liv, wh proment members often active the fashn and entertament dtri, that they wore exquise cloth and were top physil shape. Drsg drag is not necsarily a strange phenomenon Cha, as men ually played women’s rol Pekg operas tim gone Cao told me that he realized he was gay when he was around 15 years old, junr high school.