SYNOPSIS

Chinese cinema has a century-long history. Over the past hundred years, while ambiguous homosexual desire scenes occasionally appeared, films exploring gay themes truly began with the underground movie *The Palace of the East and the Palace of the West* in 1995, followed by *Men and Women* and *This Summer*. Independent films paved the way for gay-themed cinema. Fortunately, media transforms the world, and digital imaging products have completely rewritten the film industry's framework: it exists neither within nor outside the system, forming its own distinct entity. This has led to frequent international film festival appearances for works like *The Old Covenant*, *We Are Afraid*, *Peach Blossoms on the Face*, *Meimei*, and *Tang Tang*. Their influence now extends far beyond China.  For gay filmmakers, cinema should be free from political systems, regimes, capitals, bureaucracies, or public opinion. They and we share only collaborators, each with their own responsibilities, documenting the reality and history of Chinese homosexuality on film reels, DV tapes, and digital hard drives—unprecedented and unparalleled.  Yet even with these works, there remains the challenge of exhibition. In 2001, the Beijing Gay Film Festival organizing committee was officially established. In December, the first Beijing Gay Film Festival successfully opened at Peking University but was hastily closed amid government intervention. In 2005, the second festival began at Peking University but was soon driven out of campus by authorities, relocating elsewhere. By 2007, the third festival had to be held as a forum in a remote rural county.  In China, producing gay films is underground, screening them is underground, and hosting gay film festivals is illegal and subject to crackdowns. Yet we persist through political blockades. Despite wobbling forward, the festival has generated widespread influence. Over the past three years, universities and LGBTQ NGOs in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Nanjing have organized queer film screenings and discussions in various forms and scales.