Gay Icons Of The Past #5: The Unhappy Concubine

[PeterRS]

Today the gay community in much of the world has gained a freedom unthought of even half a century ago. Along with this liberation has come an understanding that gay icons are important, especially for younger gay boys and girls. Chatting with friends over dinner recently, the conversation drifted into two rather interesting directions. Who were the first gay icons, and why are there none in Asia?

As for the first gay icon, was it perhaps Alexander the Great? Deeply in love with his childhood friend Hephaestion, the Greek philosopher Aristotle described them as “one soul abiding in two bodies.” But the best known of the ancient figures to attract iconic status is surely St. Sebastian, the young, beautiful, near-naked youth, his body tied to a tree and pierced by arrows. Throughout history, hosts of artists have painted their ideals of his martyrdom. Gay film-maker Derek Jarman’s 1976 “Sebastiane” used him to examine the overlap between sexual and spiritual ecstasy. In the novel “Confessions of a Mask” by the gay right-wing Japanese Yukio Mishima who committed ritual seppuku in 1970, one character has his first ejaculation over a reproduction of St. Sebastian.

As far as Asia is concerned,  those in the west tend to forget there was a near thriving gay culture in many Asian countries long before the arrival of Arab traders and the missionaries who followed in the wake of western colonists desperate to convert souls for Christ. 

Going back in time, Chinese emperors not infrequently had concubines of both sexes. A tale often told concerns the tenth Han Dynasty Emperor Ai Ti (6 – 1 BC) who had numerous male lovers. Sharing his couch with his favourite Dong Xian, the young man fell asleep across the Emperor’s sleeve. Rather than wake him, the Emperor took his sword and simply cut off the royal sleeve. From then on, “cut sleeve” (黄九郎) became just one of many terms that appear throughout China’s literary history as a euphemism for homosexual love and devotion.

Homosexuality was introduced to Japan by a bonze who had returned from China around 800 A.D. Thereafter many young boys entered into relationships with monks, a concept called nanshoku. The monks would look after the boys and teach them life skills, with sex as one of those skills. With samurai warriors being Buddhists, it became accepted that they, too, would take boys under their wing to teach them martial arts and other skills.

Close by, homosexual activity was far from uncommmon at court during the the three main Korean Dynasties. During the Silla Dynasty, King Hyegong was known for his adventures with other men. One group of his elite warriors were the Hwarang or ‘Flower Boys’, so called because of their homoeroticism and femininity. During the later Koryŏ Dynasty, King Mokjong and King Gongmin are both on record as having several male lovers. When his wife died, Gongmin even went so far as to create a Ministry whose sole purpose was to seek out and recruit young men from all over the country to serve at his Court. His sexual partners were called “little brother attendants”!

But as Asian countries have developed their own independent identities in the 20th century, a new gay culture has slowly re-emerged. As mentioned earlier, the novelist, playwright, essayist, actor and model Mishima has become a Japanese gay icon, albeit a controversial one due to his extreme right-wing views. Although married, he frequented gay bars and had several affairs with men. Another more recent is the adored Hong Kong singer and actor, Leslie Cheung.

Handsome in the extreme and discovered in a singing competition, he was hugely successful as a silky-voiced singer, actor and songwriter. Unlike other movie stars, Leslie played several gay characters in Hong Kong movies, mirroring his secret life as a closet homosexual. He came to world attention in Chen Kaige’s 1993 movie “Farewell My Concubine” with a superb portrayal of a gay Chinese opera singer involved in a love triangle set against the violent political turmoils in 20th century China who ends up committing suicide. This gorgeous film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category.

By this time, Leslie was known as one of the Canto-pop “kings”, four Hong Kong singers who dominated record sales around Asia for over a decade. In 1997 he starred in another major movie, “Happy Together”. This was a dark, grim tale of two 30ish gay Hong Kong lovers who decide to travel to Argentina’s Iguazu Falls on a tiny budget in an attempt to reignite their relationship. It does not work. Both end up seeking other sexual encounters. Throughout, the entire movie themes of loneliness and emotional pain are intertwined in a recurring cycle of mutual abuse and dependence. “Happy Together” gained worldwide acclaim, including another Palme d’Or for its director Wong Kar-wai and a third Best Actor nomination for Leslie.

As a singer, in 1989 Leslie filled 10,000 seats in the Hong Kong Coliseum for an astonishing 33 consecutive nights. Eight years later at another series of concerts for which Jean-Paul Gaultier designed his costumes, he announced that he was gay and had had a banker lover for many years. It did nothing to upset his adoring female fans, although some of the guys were disappointed! Not known then was that despite his legendary fame in Asia and his growing fame around the world, Leslie suffered from severe clinical depression. On April 1st 2003 his manager was waiting for a meeting in the mezzanine lounge in Hong Kong’s Mandarin-Oriental Hotel. Unknown to her, Leslie was already in the hotel having a coffee on the 24th floor. Phoning to check why he was so late, she later claimed his last words to her were “I’ll be down in a moment!” He then jumped to his death. He was just 46 years old. Millions of hearts around Asia and in Chinese communities around the world were broken.

Can you imagine three cuter young Hong Kong guys? Actors Danny Chan, Leslie Cheung and Paul Chung in the 1981 Hong Kong movie “On Trial”. Danny and Leslie were closet gays at the time. All died tragically young. Danny of a drug overdose aged 35. Paul like Leslie committed suicide aged 30.

Leslie left a short note thanking his family, his lover and his psychiatrist. He added, “I can’t stand it anymore . . . In my life I have done nothing bad. Why does it have to be like this?” His funeral was the largest Hong Kong had seen since the death of another movie icon, Bruce Lee, with many thousands flying in from all over Asia as well as North America and Australia.

In a 2010 CNN poll Leslie was voted the Third Most Iconic Musician of all Time after Michael Jackson and The Beatles. Had he lived, he would be 65 on September 12.

[Lonnie]

Thanks PeterRS

Sebastian:

Dong Xian