Diary of a Chinese Lesbian

August 17, 2008 6:08 PM
phoenix's comment on Chinese Lesbians Takeover the Web!: Can anyone help me? Since the reforms of 2001, what impact has there been on lesbian artists in the PRC and can anyone give me some names?

That's a very good question. I'm assuming that you're talking about China dropping homosexuality from the list of mental disorders. Although this was a huge step for the Chinese gay community, it'll still be many more steps until women in the media to feel comfortable coming out in public. The first and only (that I know of) out lesbian artist in China is Qiao Qiao. However, this reform has opened a whole new avenue for artistic expression. It's actually estimated that there are 30 million gays and lesbians living in China, so when it actually becomes ok to come out, then "we're taking over bitches!!!"

Since the 'reform', there has been several historical events for Chinese lesbians.

Fish and Elephant [Jin Nian Xia Tian]
Click here to watch the trailer. This is the first lesbian film (i.e., non-porno) from mainland China that portrays the realistic love story between two Chinese women. Even though the film quality is poor and the budget was literally nonexistent, director Li Yu still did such a phenomenal job with the details that it feels like you're the one having the love affair.

Gay Connections [Tongxing Xianglian]
China's first gay talk show! This is a 12 part weekly talk show broadcasted in 2007 on several online video pages including Phoenixtv.com, Sina.com, QQ.com and Mop.com. I actually haven't found the actual online videos yet , so please let me know when you do. Their first guest was Qiao Qiao and it's hosted by Didier Zheng, a "French-educated homosexual", what ever that's supposed to mean. I guess he could have a dying thirst for haute couture, a Chinese French accent, and a wine connoisseur who's obsessed with cheese parings.

I've also read that there has been a paper published by one of China's top universities on gay sex among men in China. Also, there are some 'government' sanctioned gay internet chatrooms in Beijing. Although, I've never used them myself, I've come across a few and it mostly caters to gay men.


Other lesbian films that have been making it in the mainstream are:

Saving face
This is my favourite lesbian film because it focuses on the serious issue of coming out to a Chinese family but it's also a romantic comedy with a hilarious twist. It's written and directed by first time film maker Alice Wu, who actually has a masters in computer science from Stanford, but she really started making it big after she ditched her parents' ambitions and pursued her own (hooray for telling your parents to fuck off!). Oh yah, and it stars Joan Chen (陈冲) a huge movie star in my parent's generation. I even got my mom to watch this movie before I came out to her 8p.

Butterfly
This is a film out of Hong Kong that follows the life of a married high school teacher who constantly reminisce about her teenage lesbian love affair with her female classmate. Her married life actually reminds me of my last straight relationship. O_O Seemingly carefree and harmonic, but filled with anxiety and longings for something different (i.e., a woman).

Spider Lilies
This movie was a slow to pick up and sometimes hard to follow, but all you need to know is that the two lead actresses are super hot. A must see!

Les Filles du Botaniste (Chinese Botanists Daughter)
The cinematography of this film is amazing, it's very artistic. And although it's filmed in Vietnam (Chinese authorities probably didn't want anything to do with the gays), they did a really good job making it look like China. The story is set in the 1980s-1990 and follows a tragic love affair between and female student and the 'Chinese Botanists Daughter'.