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Religion and Homosexuality in Contemporary China Debates, Identity, and Voices

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Religion and Homosexuality in Contemporary China Debates, Identity, and Voices chapter 8 Religion and Homosexuality in Contemporary China Debates, Identity, and Voices Shun-Hing Chan and Ping Huang Introduction u.s. pop star Lady Gaga, ranked the most powerful celebrity by Forbes business magazine, preaches tolerance, acceptance, and self-love to her fans on Twitter, and as one of the most followed persons in the world, she is seen to wield sig- nificant influence. On 18 June 2011, she defended gay rights and called for an end to discriminatory attitudes toward homosexuality in her tweet: I feel the denial of gay marriage sends a prejudice message. Our youth deserve a fair + hopeful future with government that values us equally.1 In the same month, Lü Liping 吕丽萍, a Chinese actress and Christian celebrity, reposted anti-homosexual messages on Weibo 微博 (a Chinese microblog similar to Twitter) and encouraged her religious brothers and sisters to spread the message further.2 The messages, which described the gay and lesbian com- munity as “shameful” and “sinners,” originated from a u.s. clergyman who was 1 “Born This Way: Saluting Lady Gaga on Gay Pride Weekend,” newsroom.mtv.com, accessed 10 February 2013, http://newsroom.mtv.com/2011/06/24/lady-gaga-gay-pride-born-this-way/. 2 Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter, is one of the world’s most popular social networking sites. Weibo is run by the country’s largest internet portal – Sina.com – and had at least 500 million registered users and over 46 million active daily users at the end of December 2012. Weibo is considered by some analysts to have an especially great impact in China because it provides people a channel to express themselves, which, for political reasons, has previously been almost impossible. See “Xinlang weibo yonghushu chao 5 yi, ri huoyue yonghu dadao 4620 wan,” (“Sina Weibo Boasted at Least 500 Million Registered Users and over 46 Million Active Daily Users”), Xinhua News Agency, accessed 5 March 2013, http://news.xinhuanet.com/info/2013-02/21/c_132181760.htm; and “Weibo Brings Change to China,” Duncan Hewitt, accessed 10 February 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ magazine-18773111. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004271371_010 <UN> Religion and Homosexuality in Contemporary China 171 outraged at the decision by lawmakers to legalize same-sex marriage in New York. After Lü’s reposting, many of China’s microbloggers, including other Chinese celebrities, some of whom are openly gay, fought back quickly in sup- port of homosexual rights.3 Debates about homosexual issues, which were formerly taboo topics, have been widely discussed in China in recent years, appearing in news- papers, magazines, and social media. The debate on Lü Liping’s statements about homosexuality and Protestantism reveals the influence of Prot- estantism in public life and the difficulties Protestantism might encounter in China. Some scholars have noticed that the emergence of urban homosexual spaces in China has been and is being facilitated by the advent of the Internet (see for example Ho 2008). When social media was invented, the influence of the Internet became even more powerful. The government’s restrictions on foreign websites and social media, such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, have resulted in a flourishing of home-grown, state- approved social media sites. YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are blocked in China, but their Chinese equivalents are expanding. Some scholars remind people that Chinese are more active than other populations to engage in social media. This phenomenon is caused by many reasons, which may include rural-to-urban migration that has separated families, the loneliness of the one-child generation, and a distrust of information from government-controlled media (Crampton 2011, 28–31). Nevertheless, at least according to the findings in our research, the impact of social media on homosexuality is powerful, not only in media agenda-setting, but also in empowering homosexual people to act. This chapter examines the role of Protestantism in public life in China regarding homosexual issues. The objectives of this paper are threefold: (1) to understand the positions of Chinese people (particularly those of atheists, and evangelical and liberal Protestants) and the central government’s attitudes on the issues of homosexuality and Protestantism; (2) to study the situation, voice, and identities of Protestant gays and lesbians in Chinese society, which are different from the West; and (3) to reveal how the issue of religion and sexuality in mainland China has been influenced by the globalization of evan- gelical Christianity. The analysis presented here was developed following a literature review, focusing on background information regarding homosexuality in China within the fields of history, politics, and theology; empirical materials, consisting of 3 This includes celebrities and the public from Taiwan and Hong Kong. <UN>.
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