Homosexuality through the Ages in China

[Guest fountainhall]

The prevalence of gay sex (or more accurately simply men having sex with other men) in past centuries in Asia, especially in China, has often been compared to the vastly different Victorian attitudes of more recent times, often thought to have been imported largely through missionaries and colonial governments. When it comes to China, though, what most people don’t seem to realize is the extent of extreme sexual openness in the country through the millennia. And the most recent closing of that particular pleasure door was largely due to Mao.

In 1610, a Jesuit priest visiting China was horrified at what he saw –
 

"That which shows the misery of these people is that no less than the natural lusts they practice unnatural ones that reverse the order of things: and this is neither forbidden by law or thought to be illicit, or even a cause of shame. It is spoken of in public and practiced everywhere, without there being anyone to prevent it..."

 

Whilst homosexuality was finally decriminalized in 1997 and struck from the list of mental illnesses in 2001, there remain taboos throughout much of the country. Yet, sex in all its forms has reappeared and governments seem unable or unwilling to institute anything more than minor crackdowns from time to time.

Richard Burger, the blogger behind Peking Duck, a record of his thoughts on China since 2003, is also the author of the just published book Behind the Red Door: Sex in China.

The book is mostly about all forms of sex in today’s China and contemporary attitudes to sex. It confirms that prostitution remains, as it has throughout most of recorded history, a vast industry in China. In some dynasties – e.g. the Tang – prostitution was legal, prostitutes were registered and taxes collected. The Manchus, however, outlawed prostitution, but it thrived anyway! It was only under Mao that it and homosexuality became illegal, becoming invisible rather than eradicated.

The author spends some time discussing homosexuality through the dynasties. Here is a relevant part of a Q&A with the author.
 

 

What was the pre-modern Chinese attitude to homosexuality?


For centuries (homosexuality) was widely practiced, mainly by the literati and ruling classes, though there is plenty of evidence of same-sex love between ordinary Chinese, even in the countryside. As long as these men married and had children, it was acceptable for them to carry on affairs with men outside the home. Many emperors kept male lovers along with their harems of concubines. Han Dynasty scribes actually catalogued the emperors’ male lovers. Homosexuality was not an identity, it was something men simply did for entertainment, and often to display their class privilege. They were not “gay” — they were married men who carried on with men for amusement and pleasure. With the advent of the Beijing opera and the inflow of “song boys” who performed them, male same sex love soared in the late 19th century as many middle and upper-class men sought the company of these effeminate young boys, who always played the passive role and often dressed in female clothing. This didn’t come to an end completely until the early twentieth century.

When did homosexuality become a crime of hooliganism?

When was this changed? How has life changed for gays and lesbians in China over the last two decades? 
Early in Mao’s rule homosexuality was labeled both a psychological disorder and an act of hooliganism. Most gays at the time had no idea there were millions like them, and believed something was wrong with them. Men could only meet other men in parks and public toilets, where they risked arrest. Punishments varied in different parts of China. Some men were charged a fine, others put in jail, and often they were ostracized in their danwei, where they lived the rest of their lives in stigmatization.

 

It was only in 1997 that homosexuality was decriminalized and four years later it was removed from the official list of mental illnesses. Gay bars opened in the early 1990s and gays in urban areas became part of a community. The days of parks and toilets as the only option was over. Nevertheless, gays still succumb to the pressure to marry — more than 80 percent do so — and are forced to live a life of secrecy. This is tragic both for them and for their spouse, whose needs cannot be fulfilled.

 

Richard Burger Behind The Red Door: Sex in China - published by Earnshaw Books

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/behind-the-red-door-sex-in-china-by-richard-burger-8274140.html

[Guest]

Again we have the typical behaviours, with socialists and religious zealots imposing their views on other people who should be free to make their own choices in life.

 

Whilst China has decriminalised homosexuality, perhaps they need to go a bit further and ensure there is the complete freedom to operate gay businesses & have gay pride parades etc.  One day, perhaps the leaders of Beijing might just march at the front of a gay price march, as Boris Johnson has done.

 

After all, when young males outnumber young females in the country, encouraging those who are gay to enter gay relationships could solve one aspect of this problem.