Chinese gay
Simon Desmarais
During the last two years, I lived and worked in China, and while I was there, I noticed a very interesting phenomenon, related to sexuality and gender. Once again, this is based on my own experience; I haven’t done any legitimate research on this, and also, very importantly, I am not Chinese, I’m not an specialist on the Chinese Homosexual community’s linguistic practices, nor do I pretend to be; this post should only be viewed as what it is, an attempt to make feeling of my experience regarding specific linguistic practices while living in China.
I consider Van Herk (2012) does a very good employment of summarizing work on gender and sexuality and language, but I still want to include here the notion of ‘gayspeak’, a set of linguistic features (higher pitch, elongated consonants, etc.) that indexes the speaker as lgbtq+. Drawing on work from Cameron and Kulick (2003), he argues that ‘gayspeak’ is used to achieve a specific identity, in this case being gay.
Now this is where it gets interesting. In China, I was in a relationship; my partner was Chinese and spoke no English, so Chinese was the sole language of communication. Despite Chinese entity my second language, I noticed very e
Tongzhi Tales in Mainland China: Chinese Gay Male Subjectivities in Online Comrade Literature
This thesis considers Comrade Literature (同志文学tongzhi wenxue), a genre of contemporary Chinese lgbtq+ (tongzhi) fiction, as it has emerged on the internet in Mainland China. Although Comrade Literature first emerged in Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 1980s, it was only after the mid-1990s with the advent of the internet that these gay-themed fiction were disseminated online in Mainland China. There are now hundreds and thousands of stories designated as “Comrade Novels” (同志小说 tongzhi xiaoshuo) archived on various Chinese websites. This thesis contends that online Comrade stories are not simply an expression of an underground Chinese male lover culture; they are complex cultural texts with deeper meanings as a site of queer resistance facilitating the intersection of lgbtq+ and heterosexual subjectivities. In addition to providing a catalyst for the local tongzhi subculture, Comrade fiction in Mainland China capitalizes on new media platforms to present same-sex long for to the broader general. A close analysis of four online Comrade stories focuses on the advocacy of male same-sex re
Over half of Chinese people surveyed say LGBTQ people should be accepted by society
A new report by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Statute surveyed a segment of the Chinese population and found over half (53%) of respondents agree that LGBTQ people should be accepted by Chinese population. People who were familiar with an LGBTQ person, younger, female, and had a higher education were more likely to display favorable attitudes toward LGBTQ people.
In addition, 62% of respondents agreed, and 34% somewhat agreed that LGBTQ people should be treated fairly at work. Many also agreed (68%) or somewhat agreed (30%) that LGBTQ students should be protected from bullying and violence in schools.
Researchers surveyed the mainland Chinese general about their familiarity with and acceptance of LGBTQ people. Researchers also asked participants about their attitudes toward policy issues such as discrimination at operate, same-sex marriage, and gay couples raising children—areas where China does not currently recognize the legal rights of LGBTQ people.
Results exhibit that about half of the respondents agreed that same-sex couples can be capable parents (48%), should be able to partner (52%), an
This study uses mixed methods to explore how and why Chinese gay men disclose themselves for dating website purposes on Zhihu, a Chinese question-answering platform usable to all. Through a content analysis (N = 413), we found a notably content-rich self-presentation in gay men users’ answers. In considering the potential stigma and threats toward gay men in China, we then conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 homosexual men who use Zhihu for dating to greater understand this counterintuitive phenomenon. Three themes are identified: stratified privacy concerns, separating ideal audiences, and quantity matters. The findings present the emergence of a polymedia environment of online dating beyond dating apps and, through these Chinese gay men’s dating practices, an alternative queer cosmos has formed on an open platform. Unlike the more secluded queer spaces shaped by gay men’s dating apps, the presence of queer spaces on Zhihu exhibits the potential of challenging heteronormativity.
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