“Love Is Love” LGBTQ+ film festival.<\/strong> (Netherlands Embassy in China<\/a>)<\/p>\n Co-organized by 15 general consulates in Guangzhou, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Brazil, the Netherlands, and Mexico, the film festival took place from June 6 to June 30. As one of the very few queer events that was allowed to occur in China during this year\u2019s Pride Month, the festival offered screenings of a variety of international LGBTQ+ films and was free to the public.<\/p>\n China\u2019s LGBT community doesn\u2019t need Western “gay pride”<\/strong> (South China Morning Post<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u201cFor 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Activist detained in Hong Kong begins final appeal for recognition of his overseas same-sex marriage<\/strong> (AP<\/a>)<\/p>\n In a landmark case for the city\u2019s LGBTQ+ community, an activist detained in Hong Kong began his final appeal in late June seeking recognition for his same-sex marriage registered overseas.<\/p>\n Queer China<\/a> is our fortnightly roundup of news and stories related to China\u2019s sexual and gender minority population.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Frustrated by emotionally unavailable men, a growing cohort of educated young women in China are\u00a0experimenting with dating other women, whom they say can better fulfill their emotional needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20125,"featured_media":278340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12908],"tags":[14881,19478,14026,19083,14294],"column":[],"class":[],"coauthors":[21166],"acf":[],"la_post_categories":{"society-and-culture":"Society & Culture"},"la_post_tags":{"gender":"gender","lesbian":"lesbian","lgbtq":"LGBTQ","queer-china":"Queer China","sexism":"sexism"},"content_writeup":{"rendered":" A college student at an art institute in China, Mia only dated boys and thought she was straight \u2014 until last fall, when she fell for a new schoolmate, a very handsome young woman who\u2019s always dressed in simple but elegant black.<\/p>\n Mia often saw her around campus, walking with her drawing board clutched in her arms. One day, during a class presentation, Mia\u2019s crush stood on the podium and lowered her head to check the computer. Her long, silky hair fell, gilded by golden sunlight.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is the first time I felt an attraction toward someone of the same sex,\u201d said Mia, recalling the moment to The China Project.<\/p>\n Before developing a crush on this schoolmate, Mia had gotten out of an unpleasant relationship with a boy. After Mia\u2019s ex-boyfriend learned about her newly found attraction to a woman, he felt so humiliated that he started spreading lies in their friend circles about how Mia was \u201cinsatiable\u201d in bed.<\/p>\n \u201cHe called me a \u2018public toilet,\u2019 suggesting I\u2019d sleep with anyone,\u201d Mia said. \u201cI think that\u2019s just because me becoming a lesbian hurts his ego.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Mia, the decision to turn away from heterosexual relationships stemmed from a combination of factors. For her, it is partly due to the more tolerant environment for queer individuals at her school. But more importantly, it is something Mia called \u201cthe lesbian factor.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think if you have the lesbian factor, then you can become a lesbian when the time is ripe,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n While sexuality is known to be fluid, \u201cthe lesbian factor\u201d points to the moment when women break free from the pervasive cultural expectation that they should be attracted to men and be assertive about what they want in a relationship. As more and more educated young Chinese women embrace feminism, they have also become increasingly mindful and critical about toxic masculinity or \u201cstraight men cancer\u201d (\u76f4\u7537\u764c zh\u00edn\u00e1n\u00e1i).<\/p>\n In our interviews with Chinese young women in their early twenties, many shared the observation that some of their female friends seemed to have \u201cturned gay\u201d overnight. Many attributed this transformation to a general dissatisfaction with the status quo of China\u2019s gender dynamics.<\/p>\n Layla, who also used to date boys, recounted to The China Project how her \u201clast and final heterosexual relationship\u201d \u2014 with a guy who \u201clooked perfect on paper\u201d \u2014 fell apart.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had a good reputation among our schoolmates and a good personality. He also was muscular, which I thought was attractive,\u201d Layla said. But soon, she found out that she couldn\u2019t communicate with him at all. \u201cHe religiously sent me messages such as \u2018good morning\u2019 and \u2018good night.\u2019 But when I asked him for help one night, he simply ignored my question but continued to greet me the next morning. He was like a talking alarm.\u201d<\/p>\n The inconsistencies in communication provoked Layla\u2019s doubts about the relationship and prompted her to search for a spiritual connection, which she later found when dating her current partner, a girl who is two years younger than her. \u201cAlthough we live in different cities, we talk constantly,” Layla said. “We text during the day and get on the phone for two hours at night. She really is an important part of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Echoing Layla\u2019s feelings, Mia said it was hard to have her emotional needs fulfilled when dating the opposite sex. \u201cThe men I dated didn\u2019t know how to express themselves. They couldn\u2019t deal with emotional issues, so they chose to bury them. But they would bring them up again in a fight long afterward. It was exhausting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n By contrast, Mia can now communicate at ease with her current girlfriend, who goes to the same school as she does. Dating a girl also comes with \u201cextra perks,\u201d Mia said. \u201cGirls understand social appearance anxiety. When I was with my ex-boyfriend, I constantly worried if I would look bad with makeup. But now I can just be myself.\u201d<\/p>\n For this contingent of mostly young women, social media has provided them with a greater opportunity to be a part of supportive communities. On Douyin, the Chinese sibling of TikTok, Gladys, who once self-identified as straight before having her lesbian awakening, has racked up more than 30,000 followers by posting about her daily interactions with her current girlfriend.<\/p>\n According to her, although the Chinese government has become more intolerant and homophobic in recent years, her experiences on the app have been overwhelmingly positive. \u201cMy friends and followers are all very supportive. They are just curious about what it feels like to date a girl, which I don\u2019t mind sharing,\u201d she told The China Project. But Gladys is also aware that this is because she interacts exclusively with young people, whom she believes are more liberal. She does not think that her parents and relatives would understand the change in her sexuality, and does not plan on telling them.<\/p>\n Coming out as lesbian is not a positive process for everyone, though. For Hannah, her relationship with her parents deteriorated rapidly when they found out that she started dating girls. She also lost her job in part due to her sexuality. \u201cAfter my supervisor knew I was gay, she verbally and physically harassed me. I had to put up with her for the sake of my career. But then she started deducting my salary, telling me that me being a lesbian was \u2018not good for the image of the company,\u2019\u201d she told The China Project. The discrimination forced her to leave the company eventually, but she doesn\u2019t think it was entirely about her sexuality. \u201cWhen there is a conflict, people will do anything to pick on you. Sexuality was just an easy target in China.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the obstacles, these Chinese young women are striving to lead a life with the ones they love. Layla said that she had no plans of \u201cturning back to straight.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know that some see this as just a phase, after which you need to return to your \u2018normal life.\u2019 But for me this is a journey of self-discovery. I managed to shed the values that society forced upon me, and explore how I really feel,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n All of the people interviewed for the story requested not to use their full names out of concerns for privacy.<\/em><\/p>\n “Love Is Love” LGBTQ+ film festival.<\/strong> (Netherlands Embassy in China<\/a>)<\/p>\n Co-organized by 15 general consulates in Guangzhou, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Brazil, the Netherlands, and Mexico, the film festival took place from June 6 to June 30. As one of the very few queer events that was allowed to occur in China during this year\u2019s Pride Month, the festival offered screenings of a variety of international LGBTQ+ films and was free to the public.<\/p>\n China\u2019s LGBT community doesn\u2019t need Western “gay pride”<\/strong> (South China Morning Post<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u201cFor 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Activist detained in Hong Kong begins final appeal for recognition of his overseas same-sex marriage<\/strong> (AP<\/a>)<\/p>\n In a landmark case for the city\u2019s LGBTQ+ community, an activist detained in Hong Kong began his final appeal in late June seeking recognition for his same-sex marriage registered overseas.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/queer1-1-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOther LGBTQ stories:<\/h3>\n
\n\u201cMen are emotionally unavailable\u201d<\/h3>\n
\u201cLove knows no gender\u201d<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nOther LGBTQ stories:<\/h3>\n
\n