October 14th, 2006The Chinese society has yet to accept homosexuality
I was out shopping (yes, again!)yesterday with Rosemary and Jean Noel. We were about to go back home when we saw a jewellery stall. I was having a look at the rings when I noticed two young people in the next shop,sitting near the door. I wouldn’t have noticed them, had it not been for the jewellery seller who kept glancing at the couple. The girl was sitting in the lap of the other person and they were kissing. Rosemary noticed that I was looking at the couple and she told me that both were girls. I couldn’t tell . I had assumed that the other person was a guy because of the clothes and hairstyle. Even the face looked like a guy’s (according to me anyway). The couple just kept on kissing and I continued looking at the rings and trying some on.
Seeing Chinese people kiss in public was a bit surprising when I first came to China. Because of my parents’ obvious disapproval of public displays of affection, I had thought that kissing in public (esp the long,passionate kisses) wasn’t acceptable in China. Since I came to China, I’ve seen quite a lot of young Chinese people kiss in public. The Chinese couples I’ve seen kissing in the streets look like they can’t get enough of each other. No big deal about that but when I see the disapproving or somewhat embarrassed looks on the passerbys’ faces, I feel quite amused.
Anyway, back to the kissing couple…
They left the shop after a few minutes and the salesgirl came out of the shop, shaking her head and talking about the couple in a loud voice. She said that the couple kept on kissing and that they were both girls. She said ‘mouth to mouth kisses’ a few times,almost like she could barely believe what she just saw. I guess she was also quite angry that the couple sat in her shop for so long without buying anything. The jewellery seller, seeing that my friends and I (she knew that we were all foreigners) had witnessed that scene, looked quite embarrassed. She told us:”她们是社会败类..损坏上海的形象…不男不女的 …” I looked at the couple walking away, then turned to the display of rings once more…
I don’t have anything against lesbians . It was the reaction of the two sales persons which amused me at that time and I did my best not to laugh in front of them.
When I think about all that now, I can’t help feeling sad for yesterday’s couple. It must not be easy for them. Homosexuality is still regarded as a taboo here. Still, China is slowly moving towards acceptance. There are some gay & lesbian bars now and even hotlines. However, there is still a long way to go.
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that’s for sure.
Ditto for Singapore.
Although we are starting to claim ourselves as an open society, there are still quite a lot of individuals who can’t accept homosexuality as part of society, due to their conservative values.
I would only say the couple you saw were very brave. I have seen homesexuals in my city but usually they don’t behave that bold in public.
I think that no society has fully accepted homosexuality. None whatsoever. However, I do believe that society has started to move in the right direction. It’s going to take a while, but hopefully one day, everyone will be treated and viewed equally, no matter their race, income, sex, or sexuality. I must warn you tho, I tend to take the “nut” point of view.
cities close to HK (Shenzhen, dongguan etc..) or wherever there’s a direct port to other the world tends to accept homosexuality easier.
I have a cousin who’s lesbian, my family accepts both of them and we still hangout a lot tho i’ve never seen any couples kissing in public, maybe we’r walking too fast and missed them or maybe there’s too many people passing by.
Ooh the ‘ling’ in your chinese name is the same as mine!
Anyway. Not all gays are flamboyant cross-dressers. I’m have tons of gay friends but I still can’t stand those overdone cross-dressing types.
I agree with Laynie. Even people who are ok with homosexuality can’t stand cross-dressers. For example, there was a popular singer in Hong Kong, Leslie Cheung. People accepted that he was gay but he still took a lot of heat because he wore a pair of red high-heels in his concert. Just one pair of shoes!
For the people in mainland China, they are more close-minded than people in Hong Kong. I just watched a documentary about a gay jazz singer in Shanghai. He got booed off stage just because he’s gay. No record label would give him a contract either. For those who are interested in the documentary:
http://www.chinaontv.com/ArtDetail.aspx?sm=45&ai=3
It is a pretty interesting documentary and I heard that they are planning on a follow up documentary about him later on.
I was in HK nad saw two girls kissing on the MTR and I almost flipped! Something I didn’t expect to see in public in that side of the sphere.