Homosexuality in China - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Homosexuality in China refers to homosexuality

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

in Chinese culture

Culture of China

Chinese culture is one of the world's oldest and most complex. The area in which the culture is dominant covers a large geographical region in eastern Asia with customs and traditions varying greatly between towns, cities and provinces...

; which, as a term, is relatively ambiguous in the contemporary context, although many instances have been recorded in the dynastic histories.

Terminology in China

Traditional terms for homosexuality included "the passion of the cut sleeve" (断袖之癖, Mandarin, Pinyin

Pinyin

Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

: duànxiù zhī pǐ), and "the bitten peach" (分桃 Pinyin

Pinyin

: fēntáo). An example of the latter term appears in a 6th century poem by Liu Xiaozhuo:

Other, less literary, terms have included "male trend" (男風 Pinyin

Pinyin

: nánfēng), "allied brothers" (香火兄弟 Pinyin

Pinyin

: xiānghuǒ xiōngdì), and "the passion of Longyang" (龍陽癖 Pinyin

Pinyin

: lóngyángpǐ), referencing a homoerotic anecdote about Lord Long Yang in the Warring States Period

Warring States Period

The Warring States Period , also known as the Era of Warring States, or the Warring Kingdoms period, covers the Iron Age period from about 475 BC to the reunification of China under the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC...

. The formal modern word for "homosexuality/homosexual(s)" is tongxinglian (同性戀, Pinyin

Pinyin

: tóngxìngliàn, literally same-sex relations/love) or tongxinglian zhe (同性戀者, Pinyin

Pinyin

: tóngxìngliàn zhě, homosexual people). Instead of this formal word, "tongzhi

Tongzhi

Tongzhi is a term which literally means "same will" or "same purpose" in Chinese. Idiomatically, it means "comrade". It has taken on various meanings in various contexts since the 20th century, and now its use among the younger generation is slang for members of the LGBT community. The term was...

" (同志 Pinyin

Pinyin

: tóngzhì), simply a head-rhyme word, is more commonly used in the gay community. Tongzhi (literally means 'comrade', and sometimes nü tongzhi, (女同志 Pinyin

Pinyin

: nǚ tóngzhì, literally "female comrade") which was first adopted by Hong Kong researchers in Gender Studies, is used as slang in Mandarin Chinese referring to homosexuals; such usage is seen in Taiwan, however in Mainland China tongzhi is used both in the context of the "comrade" definition (e.g. used in speeches by Communist Party officials) and to homosexuals. In Cantonese gei1 (基), adopted from English gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

, is used. "Gay" is sometimes considered to be offensive when used by heterosexuals or even by homosexuals in certain situations. Another slang term is boli (玻璃, Pinyin

Pinyin

: bōli, crystal or glass), which is not so commonly used. Among gay university students, the acronym

Acronym and initialism

Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These components may be individual letters or parts of words . There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms , nor on written usage...

"datong" (大同, Pinyin

Pinyin

: dàtóng, literally "great togetherness

Great unity

The Great unity is a classical Chinese term found in classical Chinese philosophy which has been invoked many times in modern Chinese history...

"), which also refers to utopia

Utopia

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...

, in Chinese is becoming popular. Datong is short for daxuesheng tongzhi (university students [that are] homosexuals).

Lesbians usually call themselves lazi (拉子, Pinyin

Pinyin

: lāzi) or lala (拉拉, Pinyin

Pinyin

: lālā). These two terms are abbreviations of the transliteration of the English term "lesbian". These slang terms are also commonly used in Mainland China now.

Traditional views towards homosexuality in China's society

All major religions in ancient China have some sort of codex, which have traditionally been interpreted as being against exclusive homosexuality when it interferes with continuation of the family lineage. Confucians

Confucius

Confucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....

believe that begetting children (especially sons) is a very important duty, so a person who only has same-gender lovers is not dutiful. Taoism

Taoism

Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...

emphasizes maintaining the balance between Yin and Yang

Yin and yang

In Asian philosophy, the concept of yin yang , which is often referred to in the West as "yin and yang", is used to describe how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn. Opposites thus only...

. An exclusively male relationship is thought to be a Yang-Yang relationship and believed to be imbalanced and destructive; similarly a female relationship would be read as Yin-Yin.

It can be interpreted that although each man is regarded as yang (陽, masculine), every man also has some yin (陰, feminine) in him. Some men can have much yin in them, so the presence of some feminine behavior is not viewed as unnatural for men. In this view, homosexuals can be regarded as something natural, according to the flow of the states of yin and yang. It is also remarkable that many Taoist gods and goddesses live alone or together with some equal deities of the same sex. The very common example is Shanshen (山神, mountain spirit) and Tudigong

Tu Di Gong

Tu Di Gong , also known as Tu Di , Tu Gong , and Dabo Gong , is a Chinese earth god worshipped by Chinese folk religion worshippers and Taoists. A formal name for Tu Di Gong is , meaning the earth god of wealth and merit....

(土地公, "keeper of earth", i.e., local god). Every place has its Shanshen and Tudigong, and they sometimes live together. Shanshen and Tudigong are often both males (Tudigong is always a male). More intriguingly, they sometimes manifest themselves as an old man and an old woman (such appearances are described quite often in the classical novel Journey to the West

Journey to the West

Journey to the West is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It was written by Wu Cheng'en in the 16th century. In English-speaking countries, the tale is also often known simply as Monkey. This was one title used for a popular, abridged translation by Arthur Waley...

). On top of this, the philosophy of Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States Period, a period corresponding to the philosophical summit of Chinese thought — the Hundred Schools of Thought, and is credited with writing—in part or in whole—a work known by his name,...

puts an emphasis on freedom and carefreeness, so anything that is seen as 'out of the ordinary' is really 'ordinary' according to the natural way of things.
The reaction of both taoists and confuncians about the subject is diverse.

Same-sex love in literature

Same-gender love can sometimes be difficult to differentiate in Classical Chinese

Classical Chinese

Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese based on the grammar and vocabulary of ancient Chinese, making it different from any modern spoken form of Chinese...

because the pronouns he and she were written with the same character. And like many East and Southeast Asian languages, Chinese does not have grammatical gender. Thus, poems such as Tang Dynasty poems

Tang poetry

Tang poetry refers to poetry written in or around the time of and in the characteristic style of China's Tang dynasty, and/or follows a certain style, often considered as the Golden Age of Chinese poetry...

and other Chinese poetry

Chinese poetry

Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, which includes various versions of Chinese language, including Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Yue Chinese, as well as many other historical and vernacular varieties of the Chinese language...

may be read as either heterosexual or homosexual, or neutral in that regard, depending on the reader's desire. In addition, a good deal of ancient Chinese poetry was written by men in the female voice, or persona

Persona

A persona, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. The word is derived from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask. The Latin word probably derived from the Etruscan word "phersu", with the same meaning, and that from the Greek πρόσωπον...

. Some may have portrayed semi-sexual relationships between teen-aged girls, before they were pulled apart by marriage. Male poets would use the female narrative voice, as a persona, to lament being abandoned by a male comrade or king.

Another complication in trying to separate heterosexual and homosexual themes in Chinese literature is that for most of Chinese history, writing was restricted to a cultivated elite

Scholar-bureaucrats

Scholar-officials or Scholar-bureaucrats were civil servants appointed by the emperor of China to perform day-to-day governance from the Sui Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, China's last imperial dynasty. These officials mostly came from the well-educated men known as the...

, amongst whom blatant discussion of sex

Sex

In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...

was considered vulgar. Until adopting European values

Homophobia

Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...

late in their history, the Chinese did not even have nouns to describe a heterosexual or homosexual person per se. Rather, people who might be directly labeled as such in other traditions would be described by veiled allusions to the actions they enjoyed, or, more often, by referring to a famous example from the past. The most common of these references to homosexuality referenced Dong Xian

Dong Xian

Dong Xian was a Han Dynasty politician who quickly rose from obscurity as a minor official to being the most powerful official in the imperial administration of Emperor Ai within a span of a few years....

and Mizi Xia

Mizi Xia

Mizi Xia is a semi-legendary figure from the Zhou Dynasty Period of China. He was first recorded in the work Han Fei Zi, by Legalist philosopher Han Fei, as the companion of the historical figure Duke Ling of Wei. While Mizi Xia may have actually existed, nothing is known about him beyond this...

.

The Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

"Poetical Essay on the Supreme Joy" is a good example of the allusive nature of Chinese writing on sexuality. This manuscript sought to present the "supreme joy" (sex

Sex

) in every form known to the author; the chapter on homosexuality comes between chapters on sex in Buddhist monasteries and sex between peasants. It is the earliest surviving manuscript to mention homosexuality, but it does so through phrases such as "cut sleeves in the imperial palace", "countenances of linked jade", and "they were like Lord Long Yang", phrases which would not be recognizable as speaking of sexuality of any kind to someone who was not familiar with the literary tradition.

While these conventions make explicit mentions of homosexuality rare in Chinese literature in comparison to the Greek or Japanese traditions, the allusions which do exist are given an exalted air by their frequent comparison to former Golden Ages and imperial favorites. A Han Dynasty

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...

poem describes the official Zhuang Xin making a nervous pass at his lord, Xiang Cheng of Chu

Chu (state)

The State of Chu was a Zhou Dynasty vassal state in present-day central and southern China during the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States Period . Its ruling house had the surname Nai , and clan name Yan , later evolved to surname Mi , and clan name Xiong...

. The ruler is nonplussed at first, but Zhuang justifies his suggestion through allusion to a legendary homosexual figure and then recites a poem in that figure's honor. At that, "Lord Xiang Cheng also received Zhuang Xin's hand and promoted him."

A remarkable aspect of traditional Chinese literature, in contrast to English literature, is the prominence of same-gender friendship. Bai Juyi is one of many writers who wrote dreamy, lyrical poems to male friends about shared experiences. He and fellow scholar-bureaucrat Yuan Zhen

Yuan Zhen

Yuan Zhen , courtesy name Weizhi , was a politician of the middle Tang Dynasty, but is more known as an important Chinese writer and poet, particularly for work Yingying's Biography , which was often adapted for other treatments, including operatic and musical ones...

made plans to retire together as Taoist recluses once they had saved enough funds, but Yuan's death kept that dream from being fulfilled. In Water Margin

Water Margin

Water Margin , also known as Outlaws of the Marsh, All Men Are Brothers, Men of the Marshes, or The Marshes of Mount Liang, is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.Attributed to Shi Nai'an and written in vernacular Chinese, the story, set in the Song Dynasty,...

, a Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

novel, male revolutionary soldiers form deep, long lasting, and arguably romantic friendships.

Other works depict less platonic

Platonic love

Platonic love is a chaste and strong type of love that is non-sexual.-Amor Platonicus:The term amor platonicus was coined as early as the 15th century by the Florentine scholar Marsilio Ficino. Platonic love in this original sense of the term is examined in Plato's dialogue the Symposium, which has...

relationships. A Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

rewriting of a very early Zhou Dynasty

Zhou Dynasty

The Zhou Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty. Although the Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the Ji family lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as...

legend recounts a passionate male relationship between Pan Zhang & Wang Zhongxian

Pan Zhang & Wang Zhongxian

The story of Pan Zhang & Wang Zhongxian comes from the state of Chu during the Zhou Dynasty of China and is first recorded in a Song Dynasty collection of tales called Anthology Of Tales From Records Of The Taiping Era ....

which is equated to heterosexual marriage

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

, and which continues even beyond death. The daring 17th century author Li Yu

Li Yu (author)

Li Yu , also known as Li Liweng was a Chinese playwright, novelist and publisher. Born in Rugao, he lived in late-Ming and early-Qing dynasties....

combined tales of passionate love between men with brutal violence and cosmic revenge. In China's best-known novel, Dream of the Red Chamber

Dream of the Red Chamber

Dream of the Red Chamber , composed by Cao Xueqin, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. It was composed in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty. It is considered to be a masterpiece of Chinese vernacular literature and is generally acknowledged to be a pinnacle of...

, from the Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

, there are examples of males engaging in both same-sex and opposite-sex acts.

There is a tradition of clearly erotic literature

Erotic literature

Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of human sexual relationships which have the power to or are intended to arouse the reader sexually. Such erotica takes the form of novels, short stories, poetry, true-life memoirs, and sex manuals...

, which is less known. It is supposed that most such works have been purged in the periodic book burnings that have been a feature of Chinese history. However, isolated manuscripts have survived. Chief among these is the anthology "Bian er chai" (弁而釵，Pinyin

Pinyin

: Biàn ér chāi), Cap but Pin, or A Lady's Pin under a Man's Cap, a series of four short stories in five chapters each, of passion and seduction. The first short story, Chronicle of a Loyal Love, involves a twenty-year-old academician chasing a fifteen-year-old scholar and a bevy of adolescent valets. In another, "Qing Xia Ji" (情俠記 Pinyin

Pinyin

: Qīng xiá jì, Record of the Passionate Hero), the protagonist, Zhang, a valiant soldier with two warrior wives, is seduced by his younger friend Zhong, a remarkable arrangement as it is stereotypically the older man who takes the initiative with a boy. The work appeared in a single edition some time between 1630 and 1640.

More recently, Ding Ling

Ding Ling

Dīng Líng was the pseudonym of Jiǎng Bīngzhī , also known as Bīn Zhǐ , a Chinese woman author from Linli in Hunan province. She was awarded the Soviet Union's Stalin second prize for Literature in 1951....

(丁玲 Dīng Líng), an author of the 1920s in China, was a prominent and controversial feminist author, and it is generally agreed that she had lesbian (or at least bisexual) content in her stories. Her most famous piece is "Miss Sophia's Diary" (莎菲女士的日記 Pinyin

Pinyin

: Shāfēi Nǚshì de rìjì), a seminal work in the development of a voice for women's sexuality and sexual desire. Additionally, a contemporary author, Huang Biyun (黄碧云, Pinyin

Pinyin

: Huáng Bìyún, Cantonese: Wong Bikwan), writes from the lesbian perspective in her story "She's a Young Woman and So Am I" (她是女士，我也是女士 Pinyin

Pinyin

: Tā shì nǚshì, wǒ yě shì nǚshì"). Author Pai Hsien-yung

Pai Hsien-yung

Kenneth Hsien-yung Pai , born July 11, 1937) is a writer who has been described as a "melancholy pioneer." He was born in Guilin, Guangxi, China at the cusp of both the Second Sino-Japanese War and subsequent Chinese Civil War...

created a sensation by coming out

Coming out

Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....

of the closet in Taiwan, and by writing about gay life in Taipei

Taipei

Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...

in the 1960s and 70s.

Same-sex love was also celebrated in Chinese art, many examples of which have survived the various traumatic political events in recent Chinese history. Though no large statues are known to still exist, many hand scrolls and paintings on silk can be found in private collections http://www.androphile.org/preview/Museum/China/NEWindex.htm.

People's Republic

Homosexuality has been legal in the mainland PRC since 1997; it was removed from the Ministry of Health's list of mental illnesses in 2001. Same-sex unions and adoptions are not legal, and there are no anti-discrimination laws. Though men who have sex with men

Men who have sex with men

Men who have sex with men are male persons who engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, regardless of how they identify themselves; many men choose not to accept sexual identities of homosexual or bisexual...

are included in anti-HIV efforts, gay relationships are censored from television and movies, and police raids continued in 2010 (see LGBT history in China

LGBT history in China

The history of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in China spans thousands of years of history. Unlike the histories of European and European-ruled polities in which Christianity formed the core of heavily-anti-LGBT laws until recent times, non-heterosexual states of being were...

Hong Kong

Homosexuality was legalized in Hong Kong in 1991, and the age of consent was equalized with heterosexual acts in 2006. Same-sex unions are not recognized, but transgendered people can have gender on most official documents changed. The Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance 1991 outlaws government discrimination, but not private discrimination.

Macau

Same sex marriage is not legal in Macau, but otherwise homosexuality is not addressed by law.

Slang in contemporary Chinese gay culture

The following terms are not standard usage, rather they are colloquial and used within the gay community.

Chinese	Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...	English
同性	tóng xìng	same sex
拉拉	lā lā	lesbian
小攻	xiǎo gōng	top
小受	xiǎo shòu	bottom
1 號	yī hào	top
0 號	líng hào	bottom
T	\| Tomboy lesbian
P （婆）	po	Wife (femme) lesbian
G吧	g BAR	gay bar Gay bar A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender clientele; the term gay is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT and queer communities...
18禁	shí bā jìn	forbidden below 18 years of age
同性浴室	tóng xìng yù shì	same-sex bathhouse Gay bathhouse Gay bathhouses, also known as gay saunas or steam baths, are commercial bathhouses for men to have sex with other men. In gay slang in some regions these venues are also known colloquially as "the baths" or "the tubs," and should not be confused with public bathing.Not all men who visit gay...
出櫃	chū guì	come out of the closet Coming out Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
直男	zhí nán	straight (man)
賣的	mài de	rent boy can also be called MB for money boy Male prostitution Male prostitution is the practice of engaging in sexual acts for money. Compared to female sex workers, male sex workers have been far less studied by researchers, and while studies suggest that there are differences between the ways these two groups look at their work, more research is needed.Male...
熊	xióng	bear
狒狒	fèi fèi	someone who likes bears - literally 'baboon Baboon Baboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominoid members of the primate order; only the mandrill and the drill are larger... '
猴子	hóu zi	twink Twink (gay slang) "Twink" is a gay slang term describing a young or young-looking gay man with a slender, ectomorph build, little or no body hair, and no facial hair. In some societies, the term chick or chicken is preferred. The related term twinkle-toes, which implies that a man is effeminate, tends to be used in... - literally 'monkey Monkey A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys... '

People

The following are prominent Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese people who have come out to the public or are actively working to improve gay rights in Mainland China and Taiwan:

Wan Yanhai
Wan Yanhai
Wan Yanhai is the best-known AIDS activist in China born 20 November 1963.His "frank and aggressive" approach toward AIDS have led to frequent run-ins with authorities and landed him in detention three times in the past 12 years. Wan, 43, is the director of the country's foremost AIDS-awareness...

(signatory on The Yogyakarta Principles and participant of 2009 World Outgames
2009 World Outgames
The 2009 World Outgames, the 2nd World Outgames, was hosted by Copenhagen, Denmark from July 25 to August 2, 2009. It was one of the largest international sports and cultural event ever held on Danish soil, with 8,000 people from all corners of the world expected to participate. The World...

)
Leslie Cheung
Leslie Cheung
Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing , nicknamed elder brother , was a film actor and musician from Hong Kong. Cheung was considered as "one of the founding fathers of Cantopop", and "combining a hugely successful film and music career".In 2000, Cheung was named Asian Biggest Superstar by China Central...

(bisexual or gay singer and actor from Hong Kong - died 2003)
Pai Hsien-yung
Pai Hsien-yung
Kenneth Hsien-yung Pai , born July 11, 1937) is a writer who has been described as a "melancholy pioneer." He was born in Guilin, Guangxi, China at the cusp of both the Second Sino-Japanese War and subsequent Chinese Civil War...

(gay writer from Taiwan)
Li Yinhe
Li Yinhe
Li Yinhe is a sociologist, sexologist, and an activist for LGBT rights in People's Republic of China. She was married to the late writer Wang Xiaobo...

(the well known scholar on sexology in China)
Josephine Ho
Josephine Ho
Josephine Chuen-juei Ho is the chair of the English department ofNational Central University, Taiwan, and coordinator of its.She has withstood lawsuits directed at her outspokenness on gender and rights issues. She holds two doctorates from US universities. She has published many books.-External...

(researcher and political activist in Taiwan)
Siu Cho (researcher and political/ social activist in Hong Kong)

Movies and TV series

Many gay movies or TV series have been made in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China, including:

Bishonen
Bishonen (film)
Bishonen... , is a 1998 Hong Kong romantic drama film about an ill-fated gay romance. It is directed by Yonfan and starred Stephen Fung, Daniel Wu and Shu Qi....

(HK)
Buffering (HK)
Butterfly
Butterfly (2004 film)
Butterfly is a 2004 Hong Kong film based on Taiwanese writer Xue Chen’s novel The Mark of Butterfly . The film was directed by female award-winning director Yan Yan Mak and produced by Jacqueline Liu and Yan Yan Mak with the sponsorship of Hong Kong Art Development Council.-Plot:The film follows...

(HK)
Crystal Boys
Crystal Boys
Crystal Boys is a novel written by author Pai Hsien-yung and first published in 1983 in Taiwan. In 1988, this novel went into circulation in China; its French and English translations were published in 1985 and 1989...

(Taiwan)
East Palace, West Palace
East Palace, West Palace
East Palace, West Palace is a 1996 Chinese film directed by Zhang Yuan starring Hu Jun, Si Han. It is also known as Behind the Forbidden City or Behind the Palace Gates....

(China)
Eternal Summer
Eternal Summer
Eternal Summer is a 2006 Taiwanese film starring Joseph Chang, Bryant Chang and Kate Yeung. It was directed by Leste Chen. In 2006 the film received four nominations at the 44th Golden Horse Awards, including Best Supporting Actor and Best New Performer for Joseph Chang, and Bryant Chang won Best...

(Taiwan)
Farewell My Concubine (China)
Fleeing by Night (Taiwan) http://www.greencine.com/webCatalog?id=24041
Formula 17
Formula 17
Formula 17 is a 2004 film which was directed by Chen Yin-jung . It stars Tony Yang , Duncan , King Chin , Dada Ji , Jimmy Yang , and Jason Chang . It is a gay romantic comedy film about Chou T'ien-Tsai, a romantic Taiwanese male who takes a trip to visit an online boyfriend in person for the first...

(Taiwan)
Happy Together (HK)
I Am Not What You Want
I Am Not What You Want
I Am Not What You Want is a romance movie produced by Kit Hung in Hong Kong in 2001. This movie is about 48 minutes.- Plot :...

(HK)
Lanyu (China)
Spider Lilies
Spider Lilies (film)
Spider Lilies is a 2007 Taiwanese lesbian drama film. It is the second feature-length film by director Zero Chou, and stars Rainie Yang and Isabella Leong in the lead roles. Spider Lilies was screened at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Teddy Award for best feature film...

(Taiwan)
Spring Fever
Spring Fever (2009 film)
Spring Fever is a 2009 Chinese film directed by Lou Ye. The production of the film is in defiance of a five-year ban on filmmaking imposed by China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television for his previous film, Summer Palace. The film was reportedly surreptitiously shot in the city...

(2009)
Tongzhi in Love
Tongzhi in Love
Tongzhi in Love 《彼岸浮生》 is a 30-minute documentary film directed by Ruby Yang which portrays the life of gay men in China. The film was produced by Thomas Lennon and features music by Bill Frisell and Brian Keane. The film's world premiere was at the Silverdocs Film Festival in Washington, D.C...

(documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

, China/US, 2008)
The Wedding Banquet
The Wedding Banquet
The Wedding Banquet is a 1993 film about a gay Taiwanese immigrant man who marries a mainland Chinese woman to placate his parents and get her a green card. His plan backfires when his parents arrive in the United States to plan his wedding banquet....

(Taiwan)
Yóuyuán Jīngmèng

External links

Homosexuals and Gay Life in China, Factsanddetails.com
Smile4Gay Action Network 同志你好行动网络
Gayographic.org
GayChina.com
Civil Rights for Sexual Diversities (CR4SD) A rights advocacy group based in Hong Kong
CSSSM (Chinese Society for the Study of Sexual Minorities)
Center for the Study of Sexualities at National Taiwan Central University
Manifesto of 1996 Chinese Tongzhi Conference
A piece of news about tongzhi in Hong Kong
Chinese Tradition of Male Love
Male Love Art from Ancient China
First Chinese website to provide gay information in Hong Kong
Gay rights in 90s China:Paper Presented at the Human Rights Forum on People's Summit on APEC, November, 1997
Lesbian information for China
The plight of China's gays (The Peking Duck)
Comrades-in-arms: Gay rights in China - The long march out of the closet, The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...

, Jun 18th 2009
Homosexuality in China, US-China Today, Mar 10, 2010

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Terminology in China

Traditional views towards homosexuality in China's society

Same-sex love in literature

People's Republic

Hong Kong

Macau

Slang in contemporary Chinese gay culture

People

Movies and TV series

See also

External links