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LGBTQ in China

LGBTQ in China
The latest news, analysis and opinion on LGBTQ in China. In-depth analysis, industry insights and expert opinion.
last updated:
16 August, 2024
Police in China are cracking down on gay-themed erotic fiction, with reports that up to 50 writers have been arrested since June. Photo: Shutterstock
Crime in China

Chinese police target writers of gay erotica with prison terms and heavy fines

The crackdown in Anhui has triggered debates about possible abuses of power and whether the law itself is too heavy-handed.

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Hong Kong healthcare and hospitals

Hong Kong at risk of mpox outbreak as population has low immunity, experts say

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Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Chinese Taipei fans hammer JK Rowling over ‘trans’ comments aimed at boxer

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Art

My tour of Shanghai’s art scene with Talk Art podcast host Russell Tovey

Gay British actor, podcaster and LGBTQ icon Russell Tovey visits Shanghai where, in between gallery visits, he co-curates a David Hockney show and de facto Pride party.

LGBTQ British actor Russell Tovey at the David Hockney exhibition he co-curated at Shanghai’s Modern Art Museum. Photo: MAM
Hong Kong society

Video | How a HK$1 billion manhunt pushed Gigi Chao from the closet to LGBTQ activist

Hong Kong LGBTQ activist Gigi Chao talks about her life and relationship with tycoon father, who offered a ‘dowry’ for any man who could marry her.

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LGBTQ

Video | How Chengdu became known as China’s ‘gay capital’

Although same-sex unions aren’t legally recognised in China, the first symbolic gay marriages happened in Chengdu.

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LGBTQ

How Chengdu became known as China’s ‘gay capital’

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LGBTQ

Taiwan’s drag queens celebrate Nymphia Wind’s win on RuPaul’s Drag Race

Taiwan-raised Nymphia Wind recently won RuPaul’s Drag Race – the first East Asian drag artist to do so. We look at how drag culture has evolved on the island and talk to some of its leading lights.

From our archives

On This Day | Taiwan legalises same-sex marriage in landmark ruling – from the SCMP archive

On this day five years ago, Taiwan lawmakers voted in favour of recognising same-sex unions, making it the first place in Asia to do so.

Hong Kong youth

Letters | We can inspire young people to dream by just giving them a chance

Readers discuss the best ways to support young people, how Hong Kong should use its tourism dollars, and the importance of gender diversity and expression in sports.

Graduates celebrate at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on November 9, 2023. Photo: Elson Li
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How Stanley Kwan explored sexuality in his films Lan Yu and Hold You Tight

Hold You Tight and Lan Yu were daring films for their time. The first stars Chingmy Yau, then an actress in adults-only films, as a bored wife who has an affair, while the latter is a stylish gay drama.

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Hu Jun (left) and Liu Ye in a still from Lan Yu, the 2001 film by Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan.
Old Hong Kong

Then & Now | All you need to know about soybeans – including their lesbian link

Healthy and full of protein, soybeans have been a popular foodstuff in China for centuries. Here’s how they’re processed, made into products like soy sauce – and used in Cantonese to refer to lesbians.

Hong Kong society

Hong Kong introduces national security risk test for all visa applicants

Director of Immigration Benson Kwok reveals department will evaluate background and ‘past statements’ of visa applicants to determine whether they pose a risk.

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Lessons from China's history

Reflections | Did Chinese emperor identify as a woman like Roman emperor Elagabalus?

Reports of Roman emperor Elagabalus begging to undergo gender transition and Chinese emperor Ming of the Wei dynasty wearing feminine fashions show why we should sometimes question historical accounts.

Roman emperor Elagabalus parades on a chariot in an engraving from 1888. A British museum now refers to the emperor as a trans woman. Did Chinese emperor Ming of the Wei dynasty also identity as a woman, as records suggest? Photo: Getty Images
Trending in China

Trans rights boosted in China as court backs sacked worker, calls for ‘respect’

The rights of transgender workers in China have been given a shot in the arm after a Beijing court ruled in favour of an employee who was fired for taking time off to recover from gender reassignment surgery.

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The workplace rights of transgender people in China have been boosted after a Beijing court ruled in favour of a trans staffer who was sacked for taking time off to recover from gender reassignment surgery. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock
Hong Kong society

Opinion | Open and inclusive society? Not judging by ongoing outrage over Gay Games

Priscilla Leung’s off-script warning at a Basic Law forum that any discussion of gay marriage could tear society apart and have a bigger impact than the enactment of local national security laws merits deeper scrutiny.

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Hong Kong society

Are Hong Kong government agencies giving Gay Games the cold shoulder?

Four ‘supporting organisations’ have done little to help with grants, venues or promotion efforts

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Women and gender

Opinion | China banning clothes that hurt national feelings would be a stitch too far

Proposal to criminalise clothes that hurt national feelings is a step too far. Concerns are already growing as young people wearing kimonos or T-shirts with rainbows are barred by security, even detained by police

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First-grade students in hanfu hold up cards with the character “ren” meaning “person” during an initiation ceremony to learn about traditional culture at a primary school in Anlong county, Guizhou province, on August 28. Photo: AFP
Thailand

China’s LGBTQ tourists flock to Thailand to ‘forget all upsetting things’

Bangkok is only a five-hour flight from Beijing, and Thailand’s tourism authorities actively promote it as among the region’s most open destinations to LGBTQ people.

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Human rights in China

Chinese LGBTQ organisations look for ways to survive crackdown

LGBTQ groups in China battling increased censorship and police checks since Covid-19 pandemic

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China-EU relations

The odd couple: German far right shows unlikely affinity for Communist China

China has embraced the relationship with the Alternative for Germany party, which sent a high-ranking delegation to Beijing and Shanghai for a week-long visit in June.

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Illustration: Eunice Tse
LGBTQ

‘I tried my very best’: host of Hong Kong’s axed LGBTQ radio show reflects

Brian Leung, the host of Hong Kong’s recently cancelled LGBTQ radio show We Are Family, reflects on 17 years of the programme, and why he’s not surprised about its abrupt axing.

Brian Leung, the host of Hong Kong’s recently cancelled LGBTQ radio show “We Are Family”, is “proud” of working on the show for 17 years, but wasn’t surprised when he found out it was going to be cancelled in July. Photo: Edmond So
Hong Kong healthcare and hospitals

‘No need to panic’ over Hong Kong’s spike in mpox cases, as vaccination centre opens

Concern groups urge individuals at risk to get vaccinated, and make sure to know their sex partners.

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Hong Kong society

RTHK cancels Hong Kong’s only LGBTQ radio show, ‘a step backward for community’

Host Brian Leung and others say show made a big impact on LGBTQ community by airing issues that mattered.

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Japan

Chinese diplomat causes stir in Japan after calling trans people ‘deformed’

Chinese consul general in Osaka Xue Jian said ‘tampering with gender is a deformity, not the evolution of human civilisation’.

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Japan is the only G7 nation with no legal protection for same-sex unions. Photo: AFP
LGBTQ

Opinion | China’s LGBT community doesn’t need Western ‘gay pride’

For LGBT people in China, sexuality is part, not all, of who they are as their familial role and national identity take precedence. What they want most is love and acceptance, not pride parades.

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A Beijing-based choir comprising members of the LGBT community prepares backstage before a concert during Shanghai’s Pride celebrations in June 2018. Photo: Simon Song
Taiwan

Taiwan grants joint adoption rights to same-sex couples

Legislature passes amendment to civil code making adoption process the same for all couples.

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Hong Kong Gay Games 2023

Gay Games ‘will bring out Hong Kong’ thanks to sponsors after no public funding

Postponed event set to attract 30,000 participants and spectators to the city in November, having raised over US$3million in absence of government support.

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