SYNOPSIS

Queer China ,‘Comrade’ China 

Synopsis 

Since the dramatic social reforms of China started over twen years ago, gender and sexual orientations are getting increasing public attention. Male sexism and heterosexual hegemony are confronted with severe challenges from feminism and queerness. Progressess in sexual attitudes, behavior and media representations have been fumbling and stumbling its way among diehard conservatives in the 30 years of the China's new history.

We are in an age where images possess power to affect the world. We intend to review and summarize the development of homosexuality as an issue in the past 30 years with an archive of images. We aim to trace and document the homosexual equale rights movement in China and highlight the historical moments such as the decriminalization and depathologizing of homosexuality, along with a visual report of Chinese people’s conception shifts and positive media exposures. Our film will also present the achievements in legislation, academic research, literary creation in publication, artistic works on display and the joint efforts of combating HIV/AIDS by sexologists, medical professionals and community-based LGBT groups. 

In this feature length documentary, we interviewed 30 prominent figures in the LGBT community, who have experienced the sea changes of views and lifes lifestyles regarding homosexuality in the past 30 years. By documenting and preserving a significant part of our history, we aim to investigate the present and explore the future.

The following are the main focuses and themes of the documentary: Academic publication: from translation to sociological research and to grassroots scholarly works; Sexology: from the “asexual era” to “liberated sex” to “one-child era”; Laws and regulations: from illegal to unillegal to appeal to legalization; Gender politics: from "unnameble" to "invisible" to "come out" ; Economy: from unified supply to "Pink Economy"; Mental sanitation and health: from the "pervert" to depathologization; Culture and media: from absence of attention to becoming a hot topic; Literature and art: from the underground to the press and to the podcasts; Community life: from hidden from light to facing the public.
Background

1. From Pitch Black to Light Gray 

1997: Abolition of ‘hooliganism’ in the Criminal Law

2. From Parks to Grassroots 

1993: Men’s World Salon and Beijing Seahorse Club 

1997: Billy, Susuan and A Ping initiate the Beijing BP99575 LGBT Hotline

1998: 2nd Chinese LGBT Conference, Hong Kong

1998:Dajue Temple LGBT

    1998:‘Friends‘, edited by Zhang Beichuan. published in Qingdao

3. From Knowing to Knowledge

1946: Pan Guangdan, Homosexuality in Classical Chinese Texts 

1992: Li Yinhe and Wang Xiaobo, Their World: Perspectives on the Chinese Gay Community 4.From Printing to Broadcasting 

1997: LGBT fiction collection The Stories of Him and Him, Her and Her (edited by Lu Jianxiong, Hong Kong)

1998: ‘Getting to Know Gay People’ Parade organised by Hope magazine

    2000: Gays appear on Hunan Satellite TV 

    2001: Homosexuality dropped from Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders

    2002: Gay issue of Modern Culture Pictorial

5. In and Out of the Classroom 

    1995~2008: Gay Studies courses offered at Renmin University(Beijing) 

2003~2008 2005: 2 Gay Studies courses offered at Fudan University (Shanghai)

6. From Others to the Self 

  2005: Vice-Minister of Health Wang Longde meets LGBT HIV/AIDS prevention volunteers

  2005 ‘In the Name of Life’ broadcast on China Central Television 

2005  Beijing Gay & Lesbian Culture Festival stopped by police 

7. From Transvestism to Transsexuality

1995: Dancer Jin Xing changes sex 

8. From Shadow To Fruit

1995: East Palace, West Palace (directed by Zhang Yuan) 

2001：The 1st Chinese Gay and Lesbian Film Festival（Beijing University）

9. From Slow Motion to Fast Forward

2003: Li Yinhe proposes same-sex marriage legalization to the National People’s Congress

The interviewees in this documentary include writers, film directors, designers, sociologists, university teachers, freelance writers, TV hosts/ hostesses, radio producers, LGBT NGO co-ordinators, gay and lesbian community activists, gay bar bosses, actors, singers, print media professionals, LGBT website designers, university students, scholars in cultural studies, doctors, employees in international foundations, film festival organisers, painters, lawyers, legal experts and artists.