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Poster for Man Man Woman Woman, a recent independent film, which Filtered Voices: represents today’s gay men and lesbians in the Representing Gay People in Today’s rapidly globalizing . While ‘scientific research’ on has been legitimatized, ‘artistic creation’ concerning homosexuality Research > still remains illegitimate in today’s China. In 2001, the Chinese society of psychiatry published Categories and China Diagnostic Standards of Mental Illness in China (Third Edition), in which homosexuality was no longer considered an illness. Thus, Chinese homosexuals were ‘released’ from the asylum. The event attracted much attention in the media and in the scholarly community, but homosexuality had become a topic of discussion in China already in the early 1990s. Below I will provide a chronological overview of discourses and debates about homosexuality in scholarship and the media, fiction, and film that have marked, at different levels, Chinese cultural life during the last decade.

By Cui Zi’en published , which also became a best- (translated by Chi Ta-wei) seller. Roughly written, obviously turning the homosexual issue into a commodity, Fang Gang’s book was widely n 1991, the noted sociologist and her husband accused of sloppiness and voyeurism. Fang Gang himself IWang Xiaobo, a famous novelist, published Their World: admitted that his book was ‘journalistic literature’ and A Study of the Male Homosexual Community in China. The entirely based on hearsay. first academic work on male homosexuality in contempo- rary China, Their World chiefly explored its sociological and The media approaching homosexuals anthropological dimensions. When later the book was In 1998, the magazine Hope featured a special issue

revised into The Homosexual Subculture (1998), it became a entitled ‘Understanding Homosexuality’. With its twenty Zi’en Cui bestseller. Thanks to this significant work, Chinese readers pages and the picture of the rainbow flag, the issue provided began to adjust their attitudes towards homosexuality and a positive and comprehensive report on homosexuality, thus later other works of fiction by Cui Zi’en), also printed in to understand its culture. In 1994, another scholar, Zhang making Hope a pioneer in the media as far as the represen- 1998 the collection of short stories Good Man Rogo (‘Rogo’ Beichuan, published Same-Sex Love. Focusing on tation of homosexuality is concerned. In 2000, China News used to be an ice-cream brand name), by the Tianjin-based and sex education, this book also illustrated the research on Weekly published the special issue ‘Blurred Men and Women’, writer Tong Ge. homosexuality conducted by international scientists. In showcasing homosexual culture in literature, the fine arts, One of the first films on homosexuality in today’s China, 1995, Fang Gang, known for his sensational journalism, fashion, the entertainment business, and in everyday life. In East Palace, West Palace, written by the above-mentioned the same year, a television show in Hunan Province, Let’s Talk, writer and directed by , won several Official film poster of broadcast a one-hour panel discussion called ‘Approaching awards at international film festivals in 1996. Man Man the Stanley Kwan film Homosexuals’. Finally, early this year, Modern Civilization Woman Woman, written by Cui Zi’en and directed by Liu Lan yu (, Pictorial, edited by the prestigious Chinese Academy of Social Binjian, was a winner at the 1999 Locarno International Film 2001). The film is Sciences, published a special issue entitled ‘Homosexuals Festival and has been invited to more than fifty international based on one of the Are among Us’. From then on, up to the present day, this film festivals since then. The first film made by gay people earliest and best- magazine regularly devotes ten pages to the issue of homo- in China, Man Man Woman Woman makes a marked effort known contemporary sexuality. to avoid positing any dichotomy between homosexual and Chinese gay novels, The AIDS crisis has also triggered increased attention to heterosexual. Also a winner of international awards, Summer ‘Story from Beijing’, same-sex sexuality. The AIDS Bulletin, edited by Wan Yen- This Year, written and directed by Li Yu in 2000, is the first which has been circu- hai, a very well-known AIDS activist, began to be circulated film on lesbian life and love in China. The following year, Yin lating on the Internet in 1994. In 1998, the aforementioned scholar Zhang Weiwei made a documentary on lesbianism called The Box. since 1996. Using Beichuan took charge of the Friends’ Bulletin. Both publica- Finally, two films shot early this year, The Old Testaments and actors from the PRC, tions emphasize the perspective of the ‘experts’ and centre Enter the Clown, both written and directed by Cui Zi’en, have the film was shot on on two topics: homosexual culture and AIDS prevention. already been invited to international film festivals. location in Beijing, but From the 1990s to the present, every representation of without previous per- Fiction and film homosexuality in China has necessitated legitimatization by mission by Chinese The first novel on homosexuality from today’s China, the ‘academic cause’. No lesbian- or gay-themed book or officials. After the film Scarlet Lips, by the Beijing-based writer Cui Zi’en, was pub- magazine, radio or television show, etc., can ever be allowed had won prestigious lished in Hong Kong in 1997, just before Hong Kong was unless the ‘academic cause’ is brought in. The academic international awards, handed over to China. Owing to its manifest homosexual empire thus becomes a mirror of the political one. Under it very soon found its theme, Scarlet Lips is still not allowed to circulate in China. such circumstances, homosexuals and homosexual culture way to the market in Worldson, the Hong Kong publishing house specialized in continue to be systematically objectified and made into ‘oth-

the PRC. (http://lanyu.gstage.com). Taiwan in used posters film the of one is This lesbian and gay literature that published Scarlet Lips (and ers’. If homosexuals want to voice their subjectivity, the process must necessarily be filtered by ‘experts’; or alterna- tively, homosexual people have to disguise themselves as the experts. Still now, any representation of homosexuality (in fiction, film, drama, academic research, magazines, websites, and so forth) carried out by openly homosexual people is reg- ularly pushed underground. The only promising exception notions of the familial nature of Japan- throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and one’s place is socially sanctioned?2 In is the already mentioned special issue of Modern Civilization ese society intersect across many areas 1990s there have been growing num- some ways and for the moment anyway, Pictorial early this year, which contained personal stories that of the social, economic, and political bers of lesbian women who have the ability of Japanese lesbians to move homosexuals themselves wrote, and internationally award- life, as shown by the fact that over the become more visible, albeit generally in and across identities may allow them winning fiction by homosexual writers – a most rare chance past 20 years the government, business still within the confines of the various more space and free them up from an for homosexuals to exhibit their subjectivities. < sector, and bureaucracy have attempt- lesbian scenes that exist throughout identity politics that tends to demand ed to re-invent so-called traditional Japan. As a result, there now exists a to know ‘who that girl really is’. < References ‘family values’ as the basic unit of variety of communities, tastes, and pol- – Cui Zi’en, Scarlet Lips (Taose zuichun), Hong Kong: Worldson Japanese society. itics that one can access, including Dr Sharon Chalmers is a postdoctoral Publication (1997). Within this political milieu it is not loose networks that offer various forms research fellow at the Centre for Cultural – Li Yinhe and Wang Xiaobo, Their World: An Inquiry of the Male surprising that lesbian sexuality has of support such as meeting spaces, the Studies at the University of Western Sydney, Homosexual Community in China (Tamen de shijie: Zhongguo nan remained largely invisible in main- mini-komi newsletters, lesbian week- Australia. [email protected] tongxinglian chunluo toushi), Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin (1991); repr. stream Japan. The Japanese ‘gay boom’ ends (which have taken place for over Hong Kong: Tiandi tushu (1992). of the early 1990s did increase the vis- 17 years), various bars, lesbian busi- – Liu Binjian (dir.), Man Man Woman Woman (Nan nan nu nu) (1999). ibility of homosexuality, but the ways in nesses, lesbian mothers’ groups, exhi- – Tong Ge, Good Man Rogo (Hao nan Louge), Hong Kong: Worldson which both women and men were rep- bitions, workshops, and the annual Notes > Publication (1998). resented remained fixed in the catego- Japanese Gay and Lesbian Film Festi- – Zhang Yuan (dir.), East Palace, West Palace (Dong Gong Xi Gong) ry of voyeurism. While there was some val. On the other hand, despite the 1 ‘Butch’ and ‘femme’ refer to masculine and feminine (1996). increase in the number of lesbian mag- emergence of these events, for the vast women respectively, in lesbian relationships that azines, due to the lack of resources and majority of Japanese self-identified les- emphasize gender role-playing. Cui Zi’en, MA is a novelist, playwright, and the lower wages that women earn, the bians the risks involved in ‘stepping 2 For a detailed discussion of the specific conditions director. He is currently an associate opportunities for lesbians to produce, out’ are still too great, and this is not under which, in Japan, ‘form’ takes precedence over professor, teaching at the Beijing Film distribute, and buy lesbian-focused necessarily a desired goal. Indeed, what ‘tolerance’, see Sharon Chalmers, Emerging Lesbian Academy. Out of the closet, he is one of the magazines remain extremely limited. would the benefits of ‘coming out’ be in Voices from Japan, London and New York: few advocates for gay people in China. Most Yet, no story is ever that simple. On a society where ‘form’ holds precedence RoutledgeCurzon (2002). of his works are published and win awards the one hand, as discussed above, over ‘tolerance’ and where knowing outside of China. [email protected]

IIAS Newsletter | #29 | November 2002 13