BEIJING — It’s the evening before filming starts, but director Lu Zhan and her main actor, Yang Zhenguo, can’t agree on what the script is really trying to say. Is “Summer” a gay movie? “It’s a love story that just happens to be between two young men,” Lu says, sitting on one of the beds in Yang’s hotel room. “Summer,” a short film project by … Continue reading Telling Ambiguous, Ambitious Gay Stories
From his first day at school, Sun Bin, now 21, was bullied for being feminine, a “sissy.” “I’m used to being called a faggot or a pervert,” said Sun, who is now a junior at a university in central China’s Henan province. There’s one instance from primary school that Sun will never forget. A dozen or so female classmates one day picked him up, carried … Continue reading China’s LGBT Youth Face Lots of Bullying, Little Acceptance
Zhang Guowei, a 76-year-old bisexual veteran, is relishing his twilight years. “I couldn’t be happier with my life post-retirement,” says Zhang, who was a doctor in the army until 1994. As a former military officer, Zhang’s monthly pension is 10,000 yuan ($1,440) — five times the average pension in Changde, the small city in central China’s Hunan province where he lives with his boyfriend. Zhang … Continue reading When You Are Old, Chinese, and Gay
Fear of discrimination is a major concern for LGBT people in China when they have to access health care, with 61 percent of respondents in a new study on the status of LGBT health in China reporting that they are afraid of being treated differently by doctors because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Released from Beijing on Monday, the report showed that 46 … Continue reading Half of Chinese LGBT Face Discrimination in Hospitals, Says NGO
For over 15 years, Tan Zhiliang’s parents refused to let his family spend the country’s most important holiday — Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year — with them. Old and conservative, Tan’s parents wouldn’t accept their son’s family. Since 2001, Tan, now 46, has been living with his partner, Chen Dezhou, 42, and Chen’s 18-year-old biological son, Jack. But this year, Tan’s parents finally … Continue reading Three Men Under One Roof
When East Meets West 