The romance between Gu Hai (顧海) and Bai Luoyin (白洛因), two handsome gay senior high school students from the Web series Addiction (上癮), has caused a sensation in both China and Taiwan.
The program was seen by 10 million viewers on the day of its release in January, setting a new record for China’s television industry and was the most watched show on China’s leading video streaming sites. Netizens on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, it seemed, had become addicted to Addiction.
Then the Chinese government shut the series down.
Photo: Reuters
Early this month, Beijing issued new guidelines for television just a week after the popular gay-themed drama was pulled, banning them from including storylines involving homosexuality and other “vulgar, immoral and unhealthy” content that “exaggerates the dark side of society.”
The disappearance of the series late last month, which triggered an uproar on social media, displays “Chinese authorities’ distinct discomfort regarding homosexuality,” Time magazine reported. Such discomfort is also reflected in China’s handling of The Secret Emotional Life of Zhou Enlai (周恩來的秘密情感世界), a new book about the late Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (周恩來).
WAS ZHOU ENLAI GAY?
Photo courtesy of men’s uno Taiwan
When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) defeated the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in 1949, Zhou became the first premier of the People’s Republic of China, holding the post until his death in 1976. Charming, gentle and sophisticated in public, he presented a modern face as the country’s second most powerful man, serving as a role model for a “new China.”
But a new book, Secret, says that he may have been gay.
“Zhou Enlai was a tragic figure. He was very famous and always under the media spotlight,” the book’s author Tsoi Wing-mui (蔡詠梅) told BBC News. “But there were many aspects of his life that were like riddles and difficult to explain.”
Tsoi’s hypothesis is based on Zhou’s diary entries and personal letters, alleging that he harbored a lifelong love for a schoolmate, and that his sexual orientation would perfectly explain some “mysteries” about his life.
Tsoi said these mysteries include Zhou’s coldness toward his wife Deng Yingchao (鄧穎超), a former chairwoman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, in a “marriage of convenience” that benefited their political purposes.
It also helps to explain his absolute obedience to Mao Zedong (毛澤東), who may have threatened to reveal his secret. After all, Tsoi stressed, homosexuality was seen as a sin against socialism because the communists, somewhat oddly, labeled it “a capitalist way of life.”
Unsurprisingly, Tsoi’s book has been banned in China. Hong Kong entertainer Wong He (王喜) was even cut from a CCTV variety show after he shared on Facebook an article about the book.
The bans on the popular drama and new book make it clear that China has yet to accept homosexuality. Indeed, the Chinese government did not decriminalize gay sex until 1997, and homosexuality was classified until 2001 as a “psychiatric disorder.” The world’s largest country by population has no openly gay politician because that would be political suicide.
LGBT CENSORSHIP
Beijing likes to show its strength through authoritarian gestures, but censorship on homosexuality, like many other human rights issues, merely shows its fear and causes considerable anger among its population.
Shanghai Pride (上海驕傲節) spokesman Matthew Baren recently said that while it is “disappointing” that Addiction has disappeared, “it’s very encouraging to see shows about homosexuality being made in China, by Chinese talent and for Chinese audiences.”
Though it was reported last week that a gay-themed variety show has been rejected by several TV stations due to the sensitivity of the issues it would tackle, Taiwan is considered relatively friendly to the LGBT community and can play a progressive role. By offering greater protection of LGBT rights, it can distinguish itself by upholding the universal value of human rights and set a good example for less progressive societies.
This month the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) announced a new policy ostensibly aimed at influencing the upcoming presidential election. A top-notch Voice of America (VOA) report observed “China launched a series of influence campaigns against Taiwan last week, unveiling a plan to promote integrated development across the Taiwan Strait.” The plan, a “demonstration zone,” offers incentives for Taiwanese to live, work and invest in Fujian Province, across the Strait from Taiwan, along with supplies of water, electricity and gas. Using cooperative zones to poach technology and influence Taiwanese is an old plan that has appeared in various
While participating in outrigger canoe activities in Hawaii, Yvonne Jiann (江伊茉) often heard indigenous locals say that their ancestors came from Taiwan. “I didn’t really understand why,” the long-time US resident tells the Taipei Times. Growing up in Taipei, she knew little about indigenous culture. “Only when I returned to Taiwan did I learn about our shared Austronesian cultural background and saw the similarities.” Jiann visited Taiwan just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down international travel. Unable to leave and missing her canoe family across the Pacific Ocean, she started the Taiwan Outrigger Canoe Club (TOCC) and began researching how
SEPT. 25 to OCT. 1 Joyce McMillan was greatly moved by the pleas of the Taiwanese pastor and doctor who preached at her church in the summer of 1954. Hsieh Wei (謝緯) had just completed his medical residency in Buffalo, New York and stopped by Berkeley to raise funds and recruit staff for the tuberculosis treatment center the Presbyterian Church planned to open in his hometown of Puli, Nantou County. McMillan, who was a nursing aide, had the dream of being an overseas missionary since she was 7 years old. She also had a close friend die of tuberculosis. She expressed
Small things can mean a lot, and all revolutions start somewhere. So it is that the humble pocket, a repository for small things and once a minor consideration in clothes design, has become big news. A growing movement decrying the lack of proper pockets in women’s clothing has begun to find disciples in the world of high fashion, as well as among mainstream chains. A new study of the feminist question of pockets, published on Sept. 14, has already made a sizeable impact, despite the modest aims of the author, American academic Hannah Carlson. “I was very careful to make each chapter
RSS