A Preliminary Exploration of the Gay Movement in Mainland China: Legacy, Transition, Opportunity, and the New Media

Abstract

AbstractIn traditional Chinese society, homosexuality engendered little concern. But in the 1920s, the Western medicalized notion of homosexuality was imported into China and became the dominant interpretive framework. Homosexuality was no longer simply a kind of behavior. It was also an identity, stamped with a pathological label. A series of events in the 1980s heralded another era of transition. In the new contexts provided by the social transition ignited by market-oriented economic reform, as well as the AIDS crisis, the gay and lesbian movement has developed steadily in China. This development has coincided with the expansion of new information and communication technologies, especially the Internet, which have come to play a crucial role in contributing to self-identification among gays and lesbians, extending the public spaces available to gay people, and promoting the online visibility of homosexuality among mainstream society. While the gay movement in China has benefited greatly from the expans...