Queer China, 'Comrade' China (2009)

Universal story

Can I say I was a bit disappointed in this film? I expected more or different, and I found things I've already seen elsewhere!

Let me explain myself!
The documentary tells the story of homosexuality in modern China (from 1949) through interviews with activists, professors, journalists and artists. And it tells a very familiar story, reminiscent of what the west went through. Homosexuality had been banned, outlawed, punished, people have been ostracized, beaten, pushed into hiding. Slowly the laws changed, society's perceptions changed, decriminalizing sodomy and eventually homosexuality at the end of 20th century. At the same time HIV/AIDS epidemic struck China with its full force and the government had to do something in order to slow it down: prevention, condoms etc. This made the LGBT people more visible. The economic growth opened China, the people were given a taste of liberty and they used it to put forward the idea that gay people (or tongzhi) are just humans like everyone else. Gays and lesbians organized themselves into clubs and then they opened bars and gained more and more tolerance. These clubs were also used to promote protection and prevention from AIDS. There were classes at the universities in social studies about homosexuality, film festivals were organized, art exhibitions as well. The backlash from authorities seems to have been minimal. The movie ends on a high note. By 2008, the acceptance of LGBT community in China was high and they were even fighting for equal marriage (even though the majority of people interviewed here were against it saying why should they mimic heterosexuals?!?!?).

I do not know much about China but I expected this to show us a different story. It didn't! Should it be a comfort to know that we in the west went through the same motions as they did? Maybe! This is just to show that no matter which country, they were all at one time intolerant of different sexuality.

This film is divided in 8 parts, each covering a subject connected with the LGBT history with poetic titles like "From Pitch Black To Light Grey", "From Parks to Grassroots" etc. explaining the evolution of chinese society's views on homosexuality. There are some interesting interviewees: a 70yr old gay man talking about his recent promiscuity or the youngish blogger spending time proudly outing people who do not want to be outed who were the extremes (just to show us they do exist) while the majority were university professors, lawyers and activist.

What happened next? I wager that the story is different today! I would love to see a documentary about the last 15 years in China!

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