It’s around pm on a affectionate November evening in Jiaji, the county capital of Qionghai, on the east coast of Hainan, an island province of the People’s Republic of China. I’m standing in a park watching middle aged women dance in formation to music blaring from a loudspeaker when a voice from behind me shouts: “Ah Kang! Let’s go! I’ll get you to see the place where the gays go to play mahjong.”
I turn around to find Ah Tao* hurrying towards me, scrambling over a short hedge. With a population of about , Jiaji is a small city. I’m here to take a tour of its gay scene and year-old Ah Tao is my guide.
The past 20 years have seen increasing research interest in issues of gender and sexuality in China. This work has explored how, under Maoist socialism (and especially during the fraught years of the Cultural Revolution) “acceptable” modes of gender and sexuality were largely confined to reproductive, cisgender, and heterosexual coupledom.
Following Mao’s death in , China’s transition into a market economy, its reconnection with global capitalism and the arrival of the internet have com
In this interview, our partner Cass Chen from Xian tells us what same-sex attracted life is like in China and offers some invaluable advice for LGBTQ travelers to China.
China has the potential to be the gayest nation on our planet.
Think about it: a country with a population of billion people. That's a billion! You do the maths, how many gays does that work out to…?
Today, China is slowly emerging from an oppressive Communist rule under which homosexuality was criminalized and seen as a mental illness. It wasn't until that it was legalized and then subsequently declassified as a mental illness in
Historically it wasn't always like this. Homosexuality in ancient China appears to have been widely acknowledged well before the s. For example, Ming Dynasty () literature (like the Bian Er Chai – &#;&#;&#;/&#;&#;&#;) portrays homosexual relationships as being positive, and writings from the Liu Anthem Dynasty (– AD) allege that homosexuality was an everyday common thing!
The fabulous LGBTQ folk we met during our travels as a gay couple in China were conf
Intro to Gay Chengdu
At first glance, China might not look like an evident gay destination. Its LGBTQ+ scene can feel mysterious and unknown to outsiders. While outwardly liberal countries like Taiwan and Thailand often take the Diverse spotlight in Asia, many travelers wonder: where does the massive country of China stand, and what is the reality of queer Chengdu?
After meeting up with an aged Chinese friend in Malaysia, he joint that the Gay ecosystem in China has shifted since I last visited in Due to a slowing economy and the impact of COVID, eastern cities like Shanghai and Beijing own become less attractive for queer communities, with many of the old same-sex attracted bars closing down. However, the male lover Chengdu scene, as well as nearby Chongqing, has started to thrive, making Chengdu one of the most thrilling and welcoming cities for LGBTQ+ people in China today.
We had to notice what the hype was all about in gay Chengdu (which also has way more going for it than just LGBTQ+ animation, by the waystarting with the world's cutest pandas).
FAQ: Being Same-sex attracted in Chengdu
What Is It
'Every word has come support to haunt me': China cracks down on women who write gay erotica
Yi Ma
BBC News
Reporting fromLondon
Eunice Yang
BBC Chinese
Reporting fromHong Kong
X / errslance
"I've been warned not to talk about it," the woman wrote, before revealing snippets of the day she says she was arrested for publishing gay erotica.
"I'll never overlook it - being escorted to the car in full view, enduring the humiliation of stripping naked for examination in front of strangers, putting on a vest for photos, sitting in the chair, shaking with fear, my heart pounding."
The handle, Pingping Anan Yongfu, is among at least eight in recent months which hold shared accounts on Chinese social media platform Weibo of being arrested for publishing gay erotic fiction. As authors recounted their experiences, dozens of lawyers offered pro bono help.
At least 30 writers, nearly all of them women in their 20s, hold been arrested across the country since February, a lawyer defending one told the BBC. Many are out on bail or awaiting tria