A Beijing-based choir comprising members of the LGBT community prepares backstage before a concert during Shanghai’s Pride celebrations in June 2018. Photo: Simon Song
Opinion
Cyril Ip
Cyril Ip
China’s LGBT community doesn’t need Western ‘gay pride’
For LGBT people in China, sexuality is part, not all, of who they are as their familial role and national identity take precedence. What they want most is love and acceptance, not pride parades
For years before my recent trip to Chengdu, friends from the mainland had told me that the Sichuan capital was also known colloquially as China’s “gay capital”.
During my five days in the city, I saw plenty of hand-holding gay couples out in public, more than I would in Hong Kong. They could have easily gone unnoticed, given the lack of stares in a locality that was refreshingly unbothered.
Unlike Britain’s own unofficial “gay capital” of Brighton, Chengdu does not boast extravagant displays of rainbow-themed decorations or an overblown above-ground gay scene. The locals are quite aware that their gay bars and clubs attract people from across the country, and those of different sexual preferences live their lives quite harmoniously without those matters being dramatised.
It might be difficult for their Western counterparts to see how a city without those typical indicators can be considered a “gay capital”. But such a lack of cultural and contextual awareness must not lead to assumptions that China’s gay community is living in misery and suppression.
This is not to say that sexual minorities in the country haven’t faced curbs and setbacks of late. In 2021, WeChat moderators shut down multiple student-run LGBT accounts without explanation. And, just last month, a leading advocacy group in Beijing closed after 15 years of service, citing “unpreventable circumstances”. Moreover, not all places in China are as gay-friendly as Chengdu.
Whenever the community suffers a blow, I see friends and acquaintances voice their concern and disappointment. However, what I have seen in real life has never matched the bleak portrayals in the mainstream Western media.
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Rainbow cruise: love lessons from China’s LGBT community and their families
Rainbow cruise: love lessons from China’s LGBT community and their families
For many in China, sexuality is part of, not all of, who they are. Most often, their familial role and national identity take precedence. What they want most are a loving relationship and family acceptance, which won’t be determined by whether there are, for example, pride parades in the country.
Gay venues and activities on the mainland are unlike those in the West. In Chengdu, for example, tea-houses are a popular space where “out and proud” members of the LGBT community integrate with society at large.
While homosexuality existed throughout ancient China and has been recorded in the histories of many non-Western civilisations, “gay pride” is a modern American celebration so its lack of relevance here is nothing to be appalled about. In recent years, this celebration has featured consumerist and commercialised festivities, with brands and corporations updating their logos with rainbow designs for 30 days and high street stores promoting limited-edition rainbow-themed products.
People attend the 2023 LA Pride Parade on June 11 in Hollywood, California. Photo: AFP
Using these as a metric for a society’s open-mindedness is very Western-centric and not applicable to China and most other Asian societies. China’s gay community wants to be free from the homophobic gaze, but I doubt they would be willing to swap that for an Orientalist gaze.
Some Western critics have accused Beijing of justifying crackdowns by linking LGBT culture to Western influence or interventionism. However, the West itself seeks to monopolise “gayness” by using specific language and suggesting that the East should aspire to embrace its approach, deeming other modes of social order oppressive.
Without diminishing the value of Pride Month to Americans, it is simply not among the greatest concerns of China’s gay youth. In fact, some Chinese who have lived abroad say pride parades are not culturally suited to their birthplace, which values collectivism over individualism.
Demanding that Asian gay rights policies become more Westernised actually reinforces the harmful narrative that homosexuality is an exclusively Western “lifestyle” – a view upheld by the uninformed or simply prejudiced.
Nonetheless, it is difficult to assess the well-being of mainland China’s gay community without access to official statistics. Its representation in mainstream media channels may be limited, but it has a vigorous presence in cyberspace. Advocacy groups are diminishing, yet informal surveying – mostly done by social media influencers – seems to show a tolerant public.
However, truly invested allies should seek to meet and better understand members of China’s gay community rather than assume they are oppressed based on a limiting framework that sees the West as “liberal” and the East as “conservative”.
Many in China’s gay community are strangers to Western LGBT cultures, and many Westerners are unfamiliar with their Chinese counterparts’ lifestyles. People should keep that in mind before deciding whether those on a different continent feel free or not, based on their own country’s traditions.
