Abstracts History

The long and winding road of homosexuality in China, from tolerance to acceptance and back

by Axelsdóttir 1995 Fríða

The story of homosexuality in China is a long and winding tale. It has gone through tolerance and acceptance to rejection and condemnation over various periods of time. Fairly extensive documentation is available of the role that the elite in Chinese society played in the lives of homosexuals through the ages but less is known of the fate of homosexuals in everyday China. This chapter in China’s rich and ever changing history has been influenced by outside forces such as western missionaries who adversely affected the level of acceptance that homosexuals had been awarded. With the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 began a period that in many ways was the Dark Age for Chinese homosexuals as homosexuality was presented as a western decadence. The new China did in many ways present a more cruel reality for homosexuals than westerners had called for previously. With the opening of China, the attitude has begun to change and modern day Chinese society is slowly moving forward. The emergence of social media has played an important role and China has again come under the influence of the West, but now in a more positive way for homosexuals. Leading the call for acceptance and a more open society is in the hands of the urban youth. Educated and with access to information they are unlikely to accept old views based on a rhetoric of a bygone era. The key as so many times in history is sustained effort and realistic expectations.