Author Archive
Many lament loss after Chinese magazine for gay, AIDS-affected communities closes
by Xinhua writer Yang Dingdu
BEIJING, July 20 (Xinhua) — A retired colonel in China’s armed police force and a gay, Zhang Guowei was delighted to find an extra-thick copy of “Friend Exchange” had arrived one morning after returning from his morning exercises.
He had been a subscriber to the magazine for the homosexual and AIDS-affected communities [...]
Gay, lesbian community’s pride of place
By Todd Balazovic and William Axford (China Daily)
Drag queens dotted the sidewalks of Solana on Saturday as members of the gay and straight community descended on Langtung Thai Bar to celebrate their “Jing Pride”.
Organized by volunteers from Beijing’s gay community, Jing Pride is one of the first gay pride charity events to take place in [...]
Chinese gays are chasing the elusive rainbow
By Linda Gibson (China Daily)
Watching gay men and lesbians in China struggle for basic rights and dignity is like hurtling through a time warp to the past.
Job discrimination. Social ostracism. Broken-hearted parents. Lives of deception, denial and depression. Police oppression. Brutality from vicious straight men or teenage hoodlums looking for easy targets.
And those are just [...]
Gay group finds a public place to call home
Center promotes understanding on a shoestring budget supply
In apartment 2108, there’s a small second-hand book market. It seems nothing special but the dozens of rainbow-colored signs decorating the room offer some clues to the uniqueness of the event.
This is a gay-themed sale in the unit, which functions as the Beijing LGBT Center, for the lesbian, [...]
My wife, your husband
By Mei Jia (China Daily)
Lesbian partners are tying the knot with gay couples to satisfy their parents, but find the deception exhausting. Mei Jia reports
Zhang Nana (not her real name), a 32-year-old working for a Beijing-based magazine, and her 58-year-old parents are caught in a crisis that threatens to tear apart the family.
But it was [...]
International gay day in Beijing
An event celebrating an “International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia” (IDAHO) was held last night at Beijing’s Café Copy in the Today Art Gallery, and was organized by the British Em-bassy and Queer Comrades, a Beijing-based LGBT awareness group.
“We are delighted that the embassy could support this evening’s event,” said Chris Wood, deputy British ambassador [...]
Getting behind the camera: Fan Popo
by Nigel Collett, Fridae.com
Chinese film maker, Fan Popo speaks with Fridae.com’s Hong Kong correspondent, Nigel Collett about having his first “gay experience” when he was just three and how he found his calling as a filmmaker.
Valentine’s Day 2010; China Daily’s picture of a lesbian couple from the Beijing Tongzhi Group dressed in wedding dresses on [...]
Mr. Gay China: The Movie
I was present at January’s Mr. Gay China Pageant the night it was suddenly cancelled just an hour before it was set to start. Following the numerous LGBT events that had not been cancelled in 2009, the Mr. Gay China pageant felt like another step toward the community’s “coming out,” making its cancellation all the [...]
Shanghai: No More Gay Bars!
Down the cement stairs to the underground dungeon of Shanghai Studio, the long hallway leads to several roomfuls of men drinking under dim pink, blue and green lights. I squeeze past and my eyes quickly scan every man on my radar: he’s cute, he’s hot, he’s gross, he’s a dork. I feel everyone else’s eyes [...]
Amid family pressures, gays in China turn to marriages of convenience
In China, where homosexuality remains taboo, many gays enter marriages of convenience to satisfy family pressure to wed and have children. While they act like a couple in front of their families, many don’t live together.
A couple presents wedding dress during the Wedding Expo in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, April 9. In [...]
