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| Rainbow flag. Image source. |
Here's something that happened in the queer community in Shanghai. I wrote this post a while ago and I'm just publishing it now.
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Event 1
So, I was part of a group of queer people that was planning an event. We were holding it at a gay bar in Shanghai, which I will call Kevin's Bar for the purposes of this story. The bar owner, Kevin, is great, he's done a lot to support the queer community in Shanghai, and some of my friends have held events at his bar before.
In the planning for our queer event, we were working on making images and writing a description to advertise for it. These would be posted on WeChat, the texting/ social media app that everyone in China uses. Here's what Kevin told us about our advertising: We shouldn't use keywords like LGBTQ, queer, rainbow, and so on. Because, the Chinese government can read everything you post on WeChat, and we don't really want to draw their attention.
So we put a lot of rainbow colors in our images, and we wrote that the event was about "celebrating our identities" or something like that. If you read it, you understand it's talking about being queer, but a computer looking for keywords is not going to catch it.
When we made announcements in person to advertise for our event, we said it was about being LGBTQ, but we didn't say that when we advertised on WeChat.
Also, the information we got from Kevin was that we can bring pride flags to the event, but not the rainbow flag specifically. I guess he was thinking about our audience members taking pictures and posting them on WeChat, and the rainbow flag makes it way too obvious what kind of event it is. He doesn't want that in the pictures.
So we did all these things like Kevin said. He's the bar owner and we don't want to put him at risk.
Anyway, at the event itself, the first thing we did was show off our flags and see if the audience could identify them. Fun! After that, I hung my asexual flag on something on the stage. I was really excited about having my ace flag there- I'm not really "out" so it feels good for me when I'm in a queer space where I can be "out."
Later, in the middle of the event, Kevin quietly came and took my ace flag and folded it up and put it away. I was kind of unhappy about that, but later I figured out it was because he didn't want the attention from the Powers That Be if they see photos on WeChat with any kind of pride flag.
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Event 2
Well the first event went well and the audience liked it, so we started planning a second event, also at Kevin's Bar. We brought our flags, just like the first time, but then while we were setting up, Kevin told one of our group members that he didn't want us to use the flags, so we didn't use them.
I have to say, I kind of wondered why Kevin wanted us to be so careful, when I often saw WeChat posts from Kevin's Bar, advertising other events, and those posts were very obviously gay. But, we have to do what Kevin says because he's the bar owner and he knows the situation better than us.
I've heard of gay bars in Shanghai getting fined or shut down because the police falsely claimed that people were using drugs there. I have no idea how true any of that is, but... yeah it's definitely true that there is risk, owning a queer bar in Shanghai.
It's like... the government doesn't *really* like the queer movement, but we're not doing anything that's actually illegal, so for the most part the government doesn't really care. Just keep doing queer things, but low-key, and the government won't care enough to do anything about it. Just don't be too obvious about it. And it's not at all clear what "too obvious" would mean- Kevin thought that posting photos with queer flags on WeChat would be too obvious. That's where he drew the line. But since there's no actual rule about it, and we aren't doing anything that's actually illegal, it's impossible to say what exactly we are or aren't allowed to do.
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Event 3
Then we thought, for our next event, let's do something really big during Pride Month! We did a lot of work planning a really cool event for Pride Month.
But then, about 1 week before the event, one of our members (let's call her Wanda) was visited by the police. (Wanda quickly deleted our group chat from her phone as soon as the police came.) The police officer had a whole bunch of questions about our group and what the event was about. Wanda kind of gave vague answers- don't lie to the police, but you can give vague answers- and said it was about people telling personal stories from their lives- but didn't mention it was about being queer.
Apparently she talked to Wanda for a long time. Apparently the police officer said nice things, like how it's nice that we're doing events to encourage people and build community. And she mentioned that June is Pride Month, and Wanda was like "oh huh yeah I guess it is." The police officer also said it's great that China no longer classifies homosexuality as a mental illness. Basically it's like the government wants to have this image like they accept queer people, but don't push it. (Please note that China does not have same-sex marriage.)
Wanda told us about all this, and as a group we decided we needed to cancel the event. (Later we found out that Kevin had also been visited by the police.) Because, what if we do the event anyway, and the police are watching us, and they take issue with something that we say there? Who even knows what kind of thing they might take issue with? And we don't want to get Kevin in trouble, and also all of our group members (planning the event) are immigrants in China... the government has the right to not renew our visas. We don't want to get in trouble.
We were all really discouraged when this happened. Asking "why do we even bother trying to do queer events like this in China?" We posted on WeChat to tell everyone the event was cancelled (we wanted to be very obvious about cancelling it, so the police would lose interest in us).
Some of the audience members from the previous events messaged me on WeChat to ask why it was cancelled. I said it was because of "the situation" and "I can't talk about it on WeChat" and they basically got the point.
This didn't just happen to us; this happened in the context of a wave of increased scrutiny from the Chinese government, towards all events like this. (Not just related to queerness- I know of other events that got cancelled around this time too, for fear that the government might not like them.) That year I didn't see any Pride events advertised on WeChat at all.
Basically, this is the way it goes: normally in China, the government doesn't really care, and you can hold queer events and whatever. Maybe the government doesn't like it, but if you keep a low profile then they won't care enough to actually do anything about it. But every once in a while, they suddenly "crack down." And for a few months, you don't do anything because "it's sensitive" and you don't want to take the risk. But slowly the situation goes back to normal, slowly you can start doing public queer events again.
The thing that really makes me sad is this: I'm fine because I have a good group of queer friends here. Even without a public event, I'm still connected to the queer community. But what about other queer people, who are alone and wish they could meet queer friends? If there aren't public queer events, how will they ever find us?
Because there were no Pride events in Shanghai that year, one of my friends (let's call her Tasha) decided to put together a performance of a play with queer characters and themes. I wasn't involved in the planning for it, but a bunch of my friends were. It was very secretive. They told their friends about it in person- "we're working on doing this queer play"- and then when they had figured out the time and place and wanted to officially invite people, they sent out messages on WeChat that said it was a "party," trusting that the invitees would understand what it actually was, even though we can't talk about it on WeChat.
I went to the play. At the beginning, Tasha made an announcement to tell the audience "this is a queer play, don't post about it on WeChat" etc. There was even a backup plan- if the police come, we are going to pretend we are all watching a movie together. I enjoyed the play; they did a good job even though it was very hastily thrown together. At the end someone said happily "we didn't get raided!" So, success!
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What persecution is
I wanted to blog about this to show how persecution actually works, and how it's so much different than what American evangelical Christians think. Christians in the US have all sorts of ideas about how the "evil" Chinese government persecutes Christians. When I first moved to China, I worried about whether it was safe to tell people I'm a Christian. Like, the minute I say it, will police pop up out of nowhere?
No, it's not like that at all.
Here's what I've seen, about how the queer community is persecuted in China. And I believe it's similar for Christianity in China (because my first trip to China was a mission trip, and the pastors and missionaries we met on the trip basically told us similar things). The government doesn't really care that much, as long as you don't make it too public and visible. There are churches in China- very easy to find a church- there are gay bars in China, and it gives the impression that the government has no issue with it at all. The average Chinese person would be totally unaware of any persecution. But the leaders of the churches/ queer groups know there are invisible restrictions. You don't know exactly where the lines are, but you know there's a risk that if you do too much, too publicly, the government will come and ask you questions. So you're held back by your own fear and uncertainty, rather than any explicit action from the government.
When conservative Christians in the US think they're being persecuted, they make a big deal about it, posting on social media "I'm being persecuted!" That's not how persecution actually works. Instead, it's keeping a low profile by not posting rainbow flags in your event ads on WeChat. It's being careful, being unable to say or do what you want to say or do, even though you're not doing anything illegal- because you don't know at what point the police will be unhappy with it and find a way to accuse you of something. It's the fear of being fined or deported- being powerless to fight back if that happens, and so you just don't take the risk. It's finding each other through word-of-mouth, because it's too risky to have public events.
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