Tag: gay

26 November 2013

Radio Report on-line

Radio 5 NederlandIn the meantime, the folks over at Ikon have uploaded last Sunday’s radio show about homosexuality onto their website. It includes my contribution about the Chinese gay scene. The show is called De (Ver)Ander(d)e Wereld (“The chang(ing/ed) World”) and you can listen to it on-line. The report comes in at about 41 minutes.

I hope you enjoy it, and you can read the full article on my blog if you want to read more about being gay in China.

The background music used by the radio editors is 三十年 (“3 decades”) by Yunnan-born 山人乐队 (“Shanren (Mountain people) band”).

22 November 2013

Comrades in Love: a Peek into Kunming’s Gay Scene

Last week, I was asked by Dutch radio programme De Andere Wereld (“The Other World”) to do a short audio report on being gay in China. During my interviews with several people in the Kunming gay scene, I met so many interesting people and opinions that I realised the subject was worth more than 5 minutes of radio time. I’d like to share my findings with you here.

A man in a Roman toga walks up the catwalk at Nono bar
A man in a Roman toga strides up the catwalk at Nono bar

Legalised in 1997 and scrapped from the list of mental illnesses as late as 2001, homosexuality in China is still a fairly sensitive topic. Even though modern cities as Beijing and Shanghai have a thriving gay scene, many homosexuals remain in the closed, nailed shut by family expectations and a lack of information. This is no less the case in Kunming, the capital of chiefly rural Yunnan province.

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