54 China The EconomistSeptember 7th 2019
T
wo decadesago there were no gay men in China. That, at least,
was the claim of a senior Chinese official when asked what pro-
portion of his country’s hivcases involved homosexual transmis-
sion. His questioner, a government minister visiting from Britain
in 2000, offered her host a wager: £100 that there were, in fact, gay
Chinese. “I note that he didn’t take the bet,” the minister scoffed as
she related the exchange to a clutch of Beijing-based reporters later
that day. The British ambassador, teacup frozen in mid-air, hastily
declared the minister’s comments off-the-record.
Chaguan attended that long-ago embassy tea party during a
first posting to China. Back then Communist Party officials rou-
tinely called same-sex attraction a sickness carried by foreigners
and Chinese doctors classified it as a mental disorder. Criminal
penalties for homosexual acts were abolished only in 1997.
A generation later, that era of denial seems almost quaint. On
September 2nd Chaguan interviewed Peng Yanzi and Yang Yi, an
openly—indeed cheerfully—gay Chinese couple, about their plans
to register as one another’s legal guardian. Amid much joking and
finishing of each other’s sentences in a coffee shop in Guangzhou,
their southern home town, Mr Peng, 36, and Mr Yang, 31, explained
the documents they are drafting with the help of a local public no-
tary. The mutual agreement will allow each to take medical and
some financial decisions for the other, should they grow infirm,
undergo surgery or otherwise lose their faculties. They are among
a pioneering band of same-sex Chinese couples taking advantage
of a guardianship law initially drafted with the elderly in mind.
This was amended in 2017 to cover all adults. A few months later
creative lawyers and activists realised that registering as mutual
guardians could give same-sex couples some legal protections,
even if those fall well short of those provided by gay marriage.
The democratic island of Taiwan legalised same-sex marriage
in May, over the objections of conservatives steeped in Chinese
cultural and religious values. For now, same-sex unions remain
unthinkable on the Chinese mainland. Marriage between one man
and one woman “suits our country’s national condition and his-
torical and cultural traditions”, a spokesman for China’s parlia-
ment declared in August.
“We’re using what we can find in the current legal system toprotect ourselves,” says Mr Peng, who works for lgbtRights Advo-
cacy China, an ngo. He lives in an unusually laid-back metropolis.
But mutual guardianships between gay people have also been
signed in other cities, including Changsha, Nanjing and Shanghai.
Nationwide attention was sparked in August when a notary’s office
in Beijing, where every act is weighed for its political correctness,
approved the capital’s first known same-sex guardianship agree-
ment. Almost as significant, to activists, was the neutral, even sup-
portive coverage of the event in state-owned media. Posts about
mutual guardianship in Beijing have cumulatively earned over
100m views on Weibo, a microblogging platform.
Official tolerance is not unlimited. Several notarial offices have
used social media to announce same-sex guardianship agree-
ments, only to swiftly delete the posts. Censors have stepped up ef-
forts to shield Chinese audiences from depictions of gay life in
films, on television and online. In late 2018 a female author of gay
erotic fiction was jailed for ten years on pornography charges.
Mr Peng and Mr Yang face a dilemma that is familiar to all who
try to build a stronger civil society in China. They hope to see many
more couples take advantage of mutual guardianship. They were
shaken when a lesbian friend died, whereupon her parents took
possession of her home and car, leaving her long-standing partner
bereft. “We realised that in the eyes of the law, they were still
strangers even after living together for six or seven years,” says Mr
Peng about the lesbian couple. “Like roommates,” interjects Mr
Yang. Beyond the practical benefits of guardianship, increasing
the visibility of gay Chinese is a long-term goal. However, they
would prefer not to attract too much attention, in case the govern-
ment—which has yet to signal its view of same-sex guardianship
agreements—decides that it disapproves.Ready to hold up their bit of the sky
Gay groups in China take striking care to avoid terms liable to
alarm the party, such as human or civil rights. Instead they stress
how gay love is compatible with traditional family values. One of
China’s largest support groups, Parents and Friends of Lesbians
and Gays, gives pride of place to parents who profess their accep-
tance of their children’s homosexuality. One of the group’s recent
meetings in Beijing was conspicuously wholesome. Smartly
dressed mothers sat around the edge of the room, making small
talk about options for reaching the gathering by public transport,
and politely admiring smartphone pictures of each other’s off-
spring. Meanwhile, youngsters in campaign t-shirts put out fold-
ing chairs and rainbow flags. Once under way, the meeting fea-
tured testimonials from mothers and their lesbian daughters
about family heartbreak and forgiveness.
Ming, a 22-year old student at the meeting, is guardedly opti-
mistic. The party no longer seeks to control every aspect of peo-
ple’s personal lives as it did decades ago, she says. She sees govern-
ment caution about gay marriage as a bid to avoid affronting
majority public opinion. Attitudes to gay rights are generational,
she reports. She has not come out to her own parents, who think of
homosexuality as a disease. That is why her real name is not used
here. But once those born in or after the 1990s become China’s
mainstream, “I believe things will be different,” Ming says.
Until then, gay campaigners will stress small, pragmatic steps
like mutual guardianship. China’s rulers are obsessed with main-
taining social stability. Gay Chinese couples are ready to help, by
taking responsibility for their own welfare. At least the party now
admits they exist. 7Chaguan Not yet a coming-out party
Gay Chinese take a cautious first step towards civil unions