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Maxine Clarke looks at queer life in China over the centuries.
A lot has happened for the cause of gay rights in China since Cuizi’en, awarded the title of China’s first openly gay man, stepped tentatively out of his claustrophobic Beijing closet in 1990.
China’s first gay and lesbian cultural festival has been held; gay rights advocates have staged public protests in relation to equal marriage rights; the first gay and lesbian group has been officially registered at a Chinese university; and several GLBT services and support groups have been set up by the government.
The crimes of hooliganism (under which gay men publicly searching for sex could be arrested and charged), and sodomy were decriminalised in China in 1997, and prohibitions on the act of ‘buggery’ (sexual relations between two males under the age of 21) were found to be unconstitutionally discriminatory in 2006.
Perhaps most significantly for the courageous Cuizi’en, and his GLBT tongzhi’s, in 2001 homosexuality was officially struck off the list of mental illnesses in China.
The revolutionary Chinese word tongzhi, introduced as a unisex term for comrade in Mao’s New China, has now been pointedly appropriated by the GLBT community as they attempt to penetrate the post-Maoist puritanism of the communist state (under which homosexuality was thought to be a capitalist construction).
Recent victories in the march towards a more tolerant, open and sexually diverse China demonstrate a positive step backwards for the Chinese gay and lesbian community; a return to a time when sexual ambiguity and same-sex attraction was explored, understood or at the very least, equalised in the context of Confucian theory, Taoism and Buddhism.
General social perspectives in relation to same-sex attraction in China are unique in that, as opposed to most Western or European colonised countries, the religion of the land does not unequivocally condemn homosexuality as a categorical evil.
Despite this fundamental difference in religious opinion, most Chinese religions have been interpreted as being opposed to exclusive homosexuality.
For example, the concept of balancing yin and yang polarities is a cornerstone of Chinese Taosim.
Feminine behaviour from males is acceptable in the acknowledgement that yang (the male essence) will always hold elements of yin (the female essence). On the other hand, Taosim also preaches that sole yang-yang, or yin-yin relationships are intrinsically unbalanced, and therefore unhealthy.
Similarly, whilst Confucianism does not include homosexuality in its list of ‘sins’, Confucian theory encourages males and females to take traditional gender roles.
Homosexuality in ancient China is well-documented in existing scrolls, tapestries and erotic literature; and common scholarly opinion has it that every emperor in the Han Dynasty took male lovers.
Although the first Chinese laws against homosexuality were enacted in 1740, the tide of public opinion in relation to sexual diversity only turned to prejudice, suspicion and persecution at the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1912), following increased contact with foreign powers.
The further stigmatisation of sexual diversity propagated after the formation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 led to state-sanctioned prison persecution for Chinese gays and lesbians, and on occasion, execution.
Though public opinion of sexual diversity has changed considerably in the last three decades, mainstream China still remains conservative in relation to sexuality.
Since 2000, there have been several unsuccessful attempts to legalise gay marriage, but while the People’s Republic of China no longer criminalises homosexual behaviour, the general social policy (supported by free-press restrictions) is to actively and deliberately disengage with dialogue around gay rights and gay issues; and presently there is no anti-discrimination legislation protecting GLBTI Chinese from unfair discrimination.
Indeed, in 2007 China opted to enact new legislation which further enshrines discrimination against GLBTI people. New adoption laws were introduced, prohibiting the adoption of Chinese children by single or unmarried adults, and specifying that marriage is only between a man and a woman.
The mainstream press in the People’s Republic of China is notoriously ‘regulated’. Coverage of events and political and social issues within the GLBTI community is almost non-existent, and the impartiality of what little mainstream media coverage does exist is questionable at best. Even in the less regulated arts sphere, ‘gay themed’ movies are not permitted to be publicly screened, including Ang Lee’s recent blockbuster Brokeback Mountain.
In 2005, China’s first queer arts and film festival, the Beijing Gay and Lesbian Culture Festival was forced to change venues at the last minute after government officials banned the event. The new venue was then raided and closed down shortly before the festival opened.
While more cosmopolitan cities such as Shanghai and Beijing have an, albeit discreet, gay nightlife, venues frequented by GLBTI Chinese citizens are often earmarked for raids and other police harassment.
Both politically, and legally, Chinese queers still experience widespread discrimination. In 1999, during a targeted raid on a gay gym, police forced gay victims to simulate sex for photographs in order to prosecute owners and workers at the fitness centre. In 2004, over 90 gay men were arrested at a party, in an operation co-ordinated with media photographers to ensure maximum humiliation. Arrestees were then forced to undergo illegally cross-referenced AIDS testing, and those found to be HIV positive were prosecuted.
In Ancient China, lesbianism was often fondly referred to as ‘the bitten peach’, and gay relationships as ‘the passion of the cut sleeve’.
Although the post-Mao Chinese state has somewhat improved its treatment of gays and lesbians, for GLBTI Chinese it is likely to be a long march to a world in which sexual diversity is widely accepted, and in which peach-biting and cut sleeves are no barrier to comradeship, in the true spirit of the word.
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