In light of the return of HKLGFF in its full glory, I recently spoke to Dr. Helen Hok-Sze Leung, a professor at the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women\u2019s Studies at Simon Fraser University in Canada, who has extensively researched<\/a>\u00a0queer cinema and Hong Kong culture. We talked about the history of queer cinema in Hong Kong before and after the 1997 handover, the close entanglement between queer expressions and popular culture, the impact of the National Security Law on the local film industry, and what it means to be \u201cqueer\u201d during a time of uncertainty.<\/p>\n This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.<\/p>\n Nathan Wei: Your first book, Undercurrents: Queer Culture and Postcolonial Hong Kong<\/em> (2008), studies<\/a> Hong Kong\u2019s queer culture in the 1990s, primarily via the lens of cinema.<\/strong><\/p>\n However, different from our common understanding of the category of \u201cLGBTQ movies,\u201d most of the films you analyze do not feature self-identified LGBTQ people or stories. Rather, they showcase more of what you describe as \u201cqueer undercurrents.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n For instance, in an analysis of Sister Thurston, the leader of a triad society branch in Portland Street Blue<\/em> (\u53e4\u60d1\u4ed4\u60c5\u7fa9\u7bc7\u4e4b\u6d2a\u8208\u5341\u4e09\u59b9 g\u01d4 hu\u00f2 z\u01d0 q\u00edngy\u00ec pi\u0101n zh\u012b h\u00f3ng x\u00ecng sh\u00eds\u0101n m\u00e8i) (1998), an installment in the Young and Dangerous<\/em>\u00a0movie series, you put forth the possibility of reading this butch \u201cwoman\u201d as a transgender masculine person who formed homoerotic ties with her triad \u201cbrothers,\u201d despite her gender or sexual identity never being made clear in the movie.<\/strong><\/p>\n Another thing that I find fascinating is that most of the movies are commercial ones produced by big studios. Can you talk a bit about the historical background of these queer undercurrents within mainstream popular culture, and how has it changed since then?<\/strong><\/p>\n Leung:<\/strong>\u00a0My book is essentially dealing with the period of Hong Kong prior to its sovereignty transfer to China in 1997, when the local film industry was very productive and Hong Kong popular culture was still at its zenith. What I find are these undercurrents of queer expression, eroticism, and genders in commercial films that mass audiences saw and loved. This existed in contrast to the very little progress made on LGBTQ legal rights \u2014 homosexuality was only decriminalized in 1991 and popular support was still quite low.<\/p>\n Similar to colleagues who study<\/a> other Asian societies, I was trying to point out that queer culture is not necessarily the same as having queer rights. This is not to say one way is better than the other, but to show things are more complicated.<\/p>\n What has changed? Interestingly, there has been much clearer identity-based LGBTQ politics since then, with more overt LGBTQ activism and queer celebrities<\/a> coming out in the mainstream culture, such as Anthony Wong Yiu-ming (\u9ec4\u8000\u660e Hu\u00e1ng Y\u00e0om\u00edng) and Denise Ho (\u4f55\u97f5\u8bd7 H\u00e9 Y\u00f9nsh\u012b).<\/p>\n Post-\u201997 has witnessed rapid politicization and rise of social movements, especially among young people. This was very different from the 1970s and 1980s, when I was growing up in Hong Kong. Back then, young people were indifferent to political matters under British colonial rule.<\/p>\n But after the sovereignty transfer, there was a real awakening of political consciousness and political identity, including LGBTQ identity. But while that\u2019s happening, we have seen much less queer expression in mainstream commercial films since the late 1990s, and LGBTQ figures and stories mostly can only be found in independent films, forming a demarcation between commercial and independent cinema.<\/p>\n Can you give us some examples of this change?<\/strong><\/p>\n Leung:<\/strong> For me, the representative figures would be two Canton-pop stars, Leslie Cheung<\/a> (\u5f20\u56fd\u8363 Zh\u0101ng Gu\u00f3r\u00f3ng) and Anthony Wong.<\/p>\n Leslie Cheung showcased a very ambiguous queer identity, what can be called a \u201cglass closet\u201d \u2014 everybody knows, but he would never really say it. If you look closely at what is often seen as his \u201ccoming out\u201d moment, it was during a 1997 concert tour called \u201cRed\u201d where he dedicated a song to his same-sex partner, Mr. Tong, who he addressed as his \u201cmother\u2019s godson.\u201d He didn\u2019t actually come out as gay.<\/p>\n In contrast, Anthony Wong explicitly said<\/a> that \u201cI am gay,\u201d in a concert in 2012. And perhaps to avoid any misunderstanding that might be caused by the pre-existing undercurrents, he reiterated that \u201cI am a homosexual. I am a gay, G-A-Y, gei-lou<\/em> (Cantonese slang for gay man). I am attracted to men.\u201d<\/p>\n These two coming out moments sums up the generational difference.<\/p>\n This is a very interesting contrast. Before delving into the post-\u201997 situation, can you explain a bit more about why pre-\u201997 mainstream filmmakers liked including queer-like characters or stories in their films, and furthermore, why did the audience enjoy watching this content?<\/strong><\/p>\n Leung:<\/strong> My own argument is that this is already in the culture itself. One source of inspiration for filmmaking was Cantonese opera, which itself has a long tradition of cross-dressing. My grandmother loved it, especially this diva Yam Kim-fai<\/a> (\u4efb\u5251\u8f89 R\u00e8n Ji\u00e0nhu\u012b), a woman actor who played multiple male roles on stage. Similar to Leslie Cheung, Yam was also in a glass closet. People knew<\/a> she lived with her female acting partner for her whole life and would just assume they are a couple, but they would never call them lesbian.<\/p>\n The other type of genre that I wrote about is the girls’ school stories. There are many elite girls’ schools in Hong Kong, and I also went to one. Many of them were Christian schools, but based on my own experience and conversations with other people, a lot of homoeroticism happened in those schools. It\u2019s almost the opposite of bullying: the athlete students in high schools with short hair were especially popular among other girls, who would worship and have a crush on them. Ninety percent of the time these girls went on living a heteronormative life after graduation, but in school, nobody questioned this queer eroticism. When seeing films that draw on these stories, the average audience would find a sense of familiarity: \u201cThis is something I know of. It\u2019s in my culture, and it\u2019s interesting.\u201d I actually believe queerness is always in the culture, and people have a bigger capacity for accepting them.<\/p>\n This sounds very different from the stereotypical narrative that depicts Chinese culture as family-centric and thus conservative and homo\/transphobic.<\/strong><\/p>\n Leung:<\/strong> It is homo\/transphobic, but expressed in a different way. Being queer or trans is considered not so much as a sin against God, but more as something \u201cimproper\u201d or threatening to Confucian family values. Parental acceptance is possible as long as you don\u2019t name it. Leslie Cheung\u2019s address of his lover as his mother\u2019s godson is an illustrative example, a gesture to find him a place in the family. I also know other cases where one is included in their same-sex partner\u2019s family as an \u201cadopted child\u201d by the parents.<\/p>\n I also want to add that there are a handful of social issue films in the 1990s that do have explicit gay characters and talk about homophobia. One example is A Queer Story<\/em><\/a> (\u57fa\u4f6c40 j\u012b l\u01ceo), a 1997 film made by Shu Kei (\u8212\u742a Sh\u016b Q\u00ed). That period was not all about the undercurrents that I describe.<\/p>\n I want to turn to the post-\u201997 situation. Can you talk a bit more about what has happened to Hong Kong films since the late 1990s? Why did queer expressions gradually disappear from mainstream commercial films?<\/strong><\/p>\n Leung:<\/strong> It is related to the decline of the local film industry since the late 1990s and the early 2000s. With the film market in China being opened up, many Hong Kong filmmakers went up north. Instead of making films for local audiences, they turned to either co-produced films or Chinese films, to meet the larger demand of that vast market. While gaining more economic profit, however, they also run into Chinese censorship, which does not allow queer content on the silver screen, therefore leaving little space for queer undercurrents.<\/p>\n I remember when director Stanley Kwan (\u5173\u9526\u9e4f Gu\u0101n J\u01d0np\u00e9ng) was making Lan Yu<\/a><\/em> (\u84dd\u5b87 l\u00e1n y\u01d4), he had to shoot the film illegally<\/a> as he did not have a permit from the Chinese administrators. With the disappearance of queer undercurrents from mainstream films, LGBTQ expressions can only be found in the local independent films, as producers in that field don\u2019t care much about the market, thus also less affected by censorship.<\/p>\n Can you briefly introduce some of the representative independent queer films in this period?<\/strong><\/p>\n Leung:<\/strong> Some of the names I can think of include Danny Cheng Wan-Cheung (\u4e91\u7fd4 Y\u00fan Xi\u00e1ng), also known by his professional name Scud, a productive director whose movies showcase more the \u201cdecadent\u201d gay life, like drug use and queer people experimenting with polyamorous relationship, including City Without Baseball<\/em><\/a> (\u65e0\u91ce\u4e4b\u57ce w\u00fa y\u011b zh\u012b ch\u00e9ng) (2008), Amphetamine <\/em><\/a>(\u5b89\u975e\u4ed6\u547d \u0101n\u00a0f\u0113i t\u0101 m\u00ecng) (2010), Utopian <\/em><\/a>(\u540c\u6d41\u5408\u6c61 t\u00f3ng li\u00fa h\u00e9 w\u016b) (2016), etc.<\/p>\n And Simon Chung (\u94b1\u5fb7\u80dc Qi\u00e1n D\u00e9sh\u00e8ng), whose I Miss You When I See You<\/em><\/a> (\u770b\u89c1\u4f60\u4fbf\u60f3\u5ff5\u4f60 k\u00e0nji\u00e0n n\u01d0 bi\u00e0n xi\u01cengni\u00e0n n\u01d0) (2018) tells a story about high school homoeroticism, similar to the girls school films I mentioned, but amongst boys.<\/p>\n A more recent one is Twilight\u2019s Kiss<\/em><\/a> (\u53d4\u00b7\u53d4 sh\u016b\u00b7sh\u016b) (2019) by Ray Yeung (\u6768\u66dc\u607a Y\u00e1ng Y\u00e0ok\u01cei), a film based on<\/a> sociologist Travis Kong\u2019s oral history research on elder gay men. It was the first time I saw a clear linking up between queer cinema and academia.<\/p>\n One noticeable phenomenon is that most of these independent films were made by out gay \u2014 mostly men \u2014 filmmakers, whereas for directors of queer movies from the previous period, only Stanley Kwan<\/a> is openly gay. Others such as Ann Hui (\u8bb8\u978d\u534e X\u01d4 \u0100nhu\u00e1), who directed All About Love<\/em><\/a> (\u5f97\u9592\u7092\u98ef d\u00e9xi\u00e1n ch\u01ceof\u00e0n), and Wong Kar-wai (\u738b\u5bb6\u536b W\u00e1ng Ji\u0101w\u00e8i), who made Happy Together <\/em><\/a>(\u6625\u5149\u4e4d\u6cc4 ch\u016bngu\u0101ng zh\u00e0 xi\u00e8), are all straight people.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s move on to recent years, when we started to see more political protests, at least before COVID-19. Do you see these political events, such as the \u201cOccupy Central\u201d protests in 2014 and the anti-government demonstrations in 2019, as having any impact on local queer movies?<\/strong><\/p>\n Leung:<\/strong> The thriving local, independent, and experimental scene of queer cinema would not attract a mass audience. But more recently, they started to garner local audiences, due to the resurgence of localism and the rise of yellow wave<\/a> that prompted popular support of local films.<\/p>\n I therefore believe these movies will achieve more success. At the same time, there is a lot of nostalgia going on right now. Hong Kong Heritage Museum, a mainstream institution run by the government, organized an exhibition this year to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of Leslie Cheung. A key item being displayed in the exhibition<\/a> is the pair of red high heel shoes that Cheung wore in the above-mentioned \u201cRed\u201d concert tour. Of course, the museum doesn’t describe it as a queer symbol or introduce him as gay, but\u2026<\/p>\n But when you see a pair of red high heels being displayed to commemorate a male celebrity, that means something.<\/strong><\/p>\n Leung:<\/strong> Right? They wouldn\u2019t shy away from his queerness either. During the 1970s and 1980s, there were three Canton-pop male superstars, including Leslie Cheung, who were gay but not out. The other two were Roman Tam (\u8c2d\u767e\u5148 T\u00e1n B\u01ceixi\u0101n) and Danny Chan (\u9648\u767e\u5f3a Ch\u00e9n B\u01ceiqi\u00e1ng). Tam was famous<\/a> for his extremely queer aesthetics on stage. He has a song called \u201cPersian Cat,\u201d where he dresses up like a cat. It\u2019s so camp and everybody knows it.<\/p>\n Now they are all dead, and I see them being revered retrospectively, showing a nostalgia for the \u201cgolden era\u201d of Hong Kong popular culture when its global influence reached a peak. With the rising localist and nostalgic sentiment, those queer undercurrents are being remembered and re-displayed.<\/p>\n This is an inspiring reminder of how queer culture is always a significant component of Hong Kong\u2019s popular culture. My last question is about the influence of the National Security Law, which was passed in 2020 and has since then prompted wide public discussions<\/a> over the tightened control brought out by the law. If the lack of censorship in Hong Kong over LGBTQ content is an important factor that enables queer cinema to thrive in the city, will this be changed by the law?<\/strong><\/p>\n Leung:<\/strong> Most of the discussions I have heard are concerned with the ambiguity of the law, its blurred definition over what is allowed and what is not. Similar worries also pervade the film industry, as film censorship regulation needs to be revised to comply with the law. The media platform Intium did an interview<\/a> with several young filmmakers that captures their ambivalent feelings: What can I say? What can’t I say?<\/p>\n But I also believe that constraints can lead to creativity. Another phenomenon that I find interesting is that, while all the independent filmmakers we have talked about are gay men, queer women are exploring other forms of creativity. The artistic works by Anson Mak (\u9ea6\u6d77\u73ca M\u00e0i H\u01ceish\u0101n) exemplify this shift. A very out queer artist in the 1990s and 2000s, Mak was one of the first people to talk about bisexuality in Hong Kong, and her early films were mostly related to the issue of sexual identity. But her latest project<\/a> turns to the emotion of fear amid political protests and the time of uncertainty. While queer artists like Mak are not making \u201cqueer films\u201d in a narrow, identitarian sense, their engagements with other political issues are still queer, if we see queerness as going against normativity.<\/p>\n Hong Kong: Court orders legal framework for same-sex unions<\/strong> (BBC<\/a>)<\/p>\n In response to a legal challenge launched by activist Jimmy Sham, Hong Kong\u2019s Court of Final Appeal refused to recognize same-sex marriage, but judged that the city had failed to provide alternative options for same-sex unions. The court requires the government to form an official framework within two years.<\/p>\n China\u2019s LGBTQ tourists flock to Thailand to be themselves<\/strong> (SCMP<\/a>)<\/p>\n While Chinese LGBTQ people feel ostracized and scorned in their home country, they find a sense of inclusion and empowerment via tourist trips in Thailand, a country that brands itself as friendly to LGBTQ tourists.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/NextChina-Article-Promo-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Queer-Cinema-in-Hong-Kong-2.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Queer-Cinema-in-Hong-Kong-3.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Queer-Cinema-in-Hong-Kong-4.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Queer-Cinema-in-Hong-Kong-5.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Queer-Cinema-in-Hong-Kong-6.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Queer-Cinema-in-Hong-Kong-7.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Queer-Cinema-in-Hong-Kong-8.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/queer1-1-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOther LGBTQ stories:<\/h3>\n
\n