All tagged China

Roman Tam

Harper-Hugo Darling

Within the queer community, the connections between generations have always been strained. Outside of the queer community, there are many forces that are actively trying to inhibit the ability of queer people to connect, which are a large part if not all of this strain. The queer people that have been able to bridge these gaps, whether directly or indirectly, are massively important to the development of the queer community as a whole. There are costs that come with being able to defy the cultural norms and make those connections though, and those costs are clear when looking at the story of Roman Tam.

Homosexuality in Qing Chinese Fiction

Melody Britton
Guest Author

Literature is often an excellent way to gain insight into a culture, as well as the overall accepted and perpetuated views of a certain subject held by said culture. Even more so are the genres of fiction and fantasy something that can be looked to for this kind of insight, as the settings allow for a full exploration of characters and their interactions, without the limitations of the rules of reality. For those reasons, the subgenre of homoerotic fictional literature is a great resource for the discussion of the topic of male-male homosexuality in Imperial China. With few contemporary sources written on homosexual relationships during this period, fiction is the main way in which historians are able to understand the popular, general public view of homosexuality. Generally speaking, it can be argued through an examination of these sources that representations of homosexuality in fiction written in Qing China set a precedent for how such relationships were viewed by the general public, as opposed to the reality of these relationships.

The Golden Orchid Society

The Golden Orchid Society

Harper-Hugo Darling
Happy Endings

After a long stretch of Grace stepping up and saving the day by writing the articles, Laura is back and excited to talk about Golden Orchid Society. The Golden Orchid Society was a collection of organizations in South China that began during the Qing dynasty and existed from approximately 1644 to 1949 when they were banned because they were associated with an attempt to overthrow the Manchu Emperor. Over the course of 300 years, however, they created an order of women who stood in solidarity with other women against heterosexual marriages that were oppressive at best and far too often abusive. While some of the women may have been heterosexual and avoiding marriage for reasons unrelated to their sexuality, it was common for members of the association to be lesbians or bisexual. They found the safety and family in the Golden Orchid Society that their biological relatives had never provided them.

The Bitten Peach and the Cut Sleeve

The Bitten Peach and the Cut Sleeve

Harper-Hugo Darling

We move now from Germany to ancient China, to two of the most famous gay couples in Chinese history and the sources of some of the most recognizable queer symbols in China: the bitten peach and the torn sleeve. While these are not common symbols in most Western media, it is used in China as code phrases for relationships between two men. Though the stories may have been slightly distorted throughout the years, both are still very important parts of queer history.