Singapore-born, but Shanghai-adopted Kenneth Tan is the editor of the English blog Shanghaiist.com and the owner of Manifesto.com.cn, a designer men’s underwear e-tailer. Here he looks at the development of GLBT rights in China.
While no official data exists on the number of homosexuals in China, experts estimate there are at least 40 million of them  roughly twice the population of Australia. Anti-sodomy laws were repealed in 1997, ahead of many other Asian nations, and China stopped classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder in April 2001.
The advent of the Internet has further fueled something of a sexual revolution. Gay websites have blossomed all across the People’s Republic, with little or no censorship except for pornography, and gay communities are flourishing from the coast to the inland as more and more individuals come out online.
In the last few years, open or semi-open gay spaces have emerged in nearly every Chinese province and municipality. In key cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, there is now a plethora of gay bars, bathhouses, massage parlours, cruising grounds and other gathering places.
Legally, GLBT activists are starting to call for greater recognition. A leading sexologist-sociologist, Li Yinhe, has gone to the National People’s Congress three times (in 2003, 2005 and 2006) with proposals to legalise same-sex marriages. While none of the proposals have been successful, the fact that same-sex marriage has been proposed in China’s highest state body is more than can be said for many other Asian nations. This is perhaps due in part to the absence of a religious right in a country whose government is officially atheist.
This is not to say that all has been plain sailing in the development of gay rights. In 2005, Chinese police shut down a gay and lesbian cultural festival in Beijing. While gay activists have been careful not to rock the boat, some of their colleagues working in HIV prevention have not been so lucky. Recently, HIv/AIDS activist Hu Jia was detained by national security police in Beijing on charges of ‘incitement to subvert state power’. With the New England School of Medicine (2004) putting the number of people living with HIV in China between 430,000-1.5 million, there has been some concern that the government is not doing enough to address HIV. While in a country of more than a billion, these figures do not currently represent an epidemic, HIV infection could easily become an epidemic in the future, particularly if infection rates among injecting drug users and sex workers remains unchecked.
With the Olympics this year, China is keen to put its best and show its progress. Having had a first foretaste of freedom with China’s economic liberalisation and globalisation, the GLBT Chinese now want more. And there is many indications that nothing will stop them from having it.
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And now, T.D. Smith, an American who has lived in Shanghai for 4 years, reports on the experience of GLBT individuals in the Middle Kingdom.
Picking up a newspaper nowadays China seems to be everywhere – its politics, economy and culture abound. Something not oft mentioned are the lives of GLBT individuals. In a country with stark regional differences, one universal is the aversion to living an openly gay lifestyle. Jin, a 24-year-old Shangainese who asked for his identity to be protected explains, ‘It is hard you know for us gay Chinese, the pressures of family and work. I think many of us feel like outsiders in our own country.’
It is ironic that a culture that today seems to have such an openly visceral reaction to homosexuality has a past filled with documented accounts of the practice. According to a book by Li Yinhe, A History of Chinese Homosexuality, homosexual male relationships were quite common for thousands of years. Interestingly, there is no written record of lesbianism. Relationships between same-sex partners were not outlawed until 1740, but the darkest days for GLBT individuals were yet to come.
The Cultural Revolution of the 1960s deepened the despair by labeling homosexuality a ‘social disgrace’ and classifying it as a mental illness. It was not until the country opened up economically that a budding of GLBT rights also took place.
In Shanghai, things have changed a lot, according to Mary (another local uncomfortable with being named), ‘Seven years ago all you had if you were a lesbian or gay person was Eddy’s, but now there are 15 places you can go and meet people just like yourself.’
With a variety of nightlife choices for GLBT visitors, expatriates and locals, Shanghai does seem one of the most open areas of China. That said, one can go into almost any city in China and find at least one kitschy gay bar or club.
The lives of GLBT individuals are continuing to improve as organizations, such as the Shanghai and Beijing LGBT build bridges across communities and cultures.
‘I think my life as a gay man is so much better than it would have been 20 years ago, and although I may encounter many difficulties from my family, I think there is a sense of curiosity in the minds of Chinese people,’ Jin says.
Let’s all hope this curiosity leads to acceptance and a better future for all those whoare GLBT in the Middle Kingdom.
