China One Child Policy: Galloping abortion and Homosexuality!

[Ray]

Homosexuality in China
同性恋在中国

In China, where tradition reigns, homosexuality is no longer taboo. What is the view from those living in the country?
在传统思想主导的中国，同性恋已不再成为一个禁忌的话题。现在生活在中国境内的同性恋人群对这一现象又有什么看法呢？

Beijing's 'happy couples' launch campaign for same-sex marriages

Hong Kong native Joe Lam knew he was different. As a 14-year-old, he began to wonder if he was gay, confused by his attraction to boys. But with no portrayals of gay people in the media, no discussion of gays and no Internet, he wasn't quite sure what he was. He only knew he was different.

When he was 21, Lam traveled outside of Hong Kong for the first time. In London, he witnessed gay men holding hands on the street, something he had never seen before. Having been exposed to a different world, he returned to Hong Kong and immersed himself in a new life.

He was soon living with his boyfriend and had come to terms with being gay. Yet he had still to confront one major obstacle – he hadn't come out to his family, worried how his traditional Chinese family would react. For New Year's dinner, he asked if he could bring his roommate. His mom said yes.

"Let's be honest, he's my partner," Lam told his mom.

"Of course I know, I'm your mother," his mom replied.

Today, 35-year-old Lam is the publisher of Dim Sum Magazine, Hong Kong's first gay magazine, as well as festival director of the Hong Kong Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Though his parents struggled with the idea of him being gay at first, Lam said they have come to accept it.

"My mom said to me, as long as you're happy, I'm fine," Lam said.

While Hong Kong has long been ahead of China, Lam's story is an example of China's changing attitudes towards homosexuality. In a country where homosexuality was once a taboo subject, increasing numbers of Chinese are becoming more tolerant of homosexuality

Shanghai - Dr. Wang's Story

Dr. Wang, a 45-year-old medical officer at a multinational company in Shanghai, has lived through the "don't ask, don't tell" mentality. Wang began having sex with men in college, but did not know the correct term for his lifestyle. He was also at an all-male medical military school where men weren't allowed to date. However, after graduating, with no gay bars existing yet, he began to frequent parks and public gardens to meet other gays and realized his sexuality at age 23.

But even more than two decades later, he has not come out to his friends or colleagues, despite an anti-discrimination policy at his workplace, believing it is his personal business. He hasn't told his family either, but suspects they can guess. They have stayed with Wang and his boyfriend on visits and Wang has taken his boyfriend to visit his family.

"We never talk about this because it's the best way to handle it," Wang says. "I don't want to give them too much pressure because many people in China still don't think gays are normal. Others might think your children are not normal. I think maybe they can guess, but they don't want to discuss it because of the pressure, because it's too embarrassing or because of the culture, but I know they love me."

Wang doesn't plan to tell his parents, saying it's the best way, but says if they ask, he would tell them.

Though Wang is 45 years old, his family hasn't given him pressure to marry. One reason may be he was married for half a year. He worked in an army hospital where he would only be given an apartment if he was married so he paid a woman to marry him in order to obtain an apartment. Though his friends knew it was a fake marriage, his parents did not and still have not pressured him to remarry, a sign they may know his sexuality as Confucianism emphasizes the importance of marriage in society while having children to continue the family line is considered a duty to one's parents. Some consider a childless son to have failed in his filial duty.

"Chinese people think it's the biggest duty for sons and daughters to get married and have children," says Robin, a gay student living in Shanghai. "Someone who can't have children, that's the biggest disrespect to their parents."

Despite being content with his current status quo, Wang has hopes for the future.

"I think some day if gays can get married in China, that will be perfect," Wang said. "I don't think it will include my lifetime, but that's just my hope."

Beijing - Xu Bin's Story

Xu, now 37 years old, began to explore her sexuality in college, confused by her relationships with other women, which she felt were too intense to be pure friendship.

With no public information available and no internet, she found books from her university library. However, most of them were psychology books that described homosexuality as a mental disease. Xu's parents discovered her sexuality when they found her reading books on the subject.

"They told me they hoped that I'm not gay, they hoped I wouldn't lead this lifestyle and they hoped I'm not involved with any activists and wouldn't become one," she says. "I failed all their hopes in this aspect."

Since then, she and her parents have become distant, her parents believing homosexuality is unnatural. Though they still talk, they avoid the issue of homosexuality.

"My parents were very worried, so to let them become less worried, I became silent," Xu says. "I had a very happy family and childhood, I had a close relationship with my parents, I was beloved. Before I came out, I could tell them everything. After telling them my sexuality, that was the first time I couldn't. I don't feel as close as before"¦it's like part of my life is missing, it has to be invisible. To continue the relationship, we have to avoid this."
Xu said when she previously introduced her partner to her parents, they reacted by asking her, "Why are you still gay?"
"When I came out, I was young at the time, I had a very close relationship with them and thought I should let my parents know everything about me...that was kind of a naïve idea at the time," she says.

Xu started her lesbian and bisexual women's group Common Language or Tong Yu, hoping to raise awareness.

Her organization has conducted events such as arranging gay and lesbian wedding photo shoots on the street and running public advocacy campaigns. Xu says that the lesbian movement is further behind the gay movement, with lesbians having significantly less groups than gays.

Additionally, the increased HIV/AIDS awareness has brought gay groups government support, funding and increased media attention, things lesbian groups don't have. However, Xu says that the lack of government support can in some ways be beneficial.

"The gay movement is really dominated by HIV/AIDS, but the lesbian movement can focus on rights and social justice," she said. "Working with the government means the gay groups have to rely on them, so they can't talk much about human rights. But lesbian groups are much more independent."
Xu hopes her group can help the younger generation avoid the challenges she experienced.

"There's still a lot of work that needs to be done. It's just unfair and many people are still struggling," Xu said. "I wish to do something to change that because I went through those struggles. I hope the future generations don't have to go through the same thing."

Shenzhen - He Xiao's Story

He Xiao is a 25-year-old gay man working in hotel management in Shenzhen. He is comfortable and confident about his sexuality, even coming out to his colleagues on his first day of work.

Coming from a small town, however, he had a difficult time growing up with his lifestyle.

"My hometown is quite a small town, we didn't have any information about what homosexuali

ty is," He says. "I did know that I liked my head teacher very much, but I wasn't sure what I was. It was a very scary and confusing time. I didn't know what I might be. I thought I might be the only one like that, I thought I might be sick or there was something wrong with me."

At the time, with no computer and no knowledge of how to use the internet, he tried to avoid thinking about his problems.

In 2003, he went to Tianjin for university. The first classmate he met was a lesbian from Beijing who came out to him two months after school started. He confessed to her that he thought he might be gay as well. She introduced him to lesbian and gay resources. Within three months, He had come out to his classmates, friends and two brothers.

"For me, it was very easy to accept being gay," He says. "It was very fresh air for me, as I was really longing for that information."

While some of his friends viewed homosexuality as a curable psychology problem, on the whole, He says young people are more open to homosexuality.
"I came out to my brothers separately, but their reaction was very calm. Both asked me exactly the same question: 'Are you happy?' They said as long as I'm happy they're happy for me."

However, He is afraid of coming out to his parents, saying it is difficult since he comes from a small town, his parents don't even know what homosexuality is. Every time he visits his hometown, his relatives ask if he has a girlfriend and urge him to get married.

But He is optimistic that his parents would accept it, especially having seen positive coming-out stories among his friends. His lesbian classmate who he first met is now living with her girlfriend and her parents in her parents' house.

"I asked her parents once why they are so cool with her having a girlfriend and living together with them," He says. "Her mom answered very simply, saying 'She's my daughter, I love her, I want her to be happy.' They're from Beijing, so they have a much better understanding of what homosexuality is."

He hopes his parents will be as understanding. "I cannot imagine how my parents will react, but I'm sure they'll want me to get married and have kids because they're very traditional parents," he says. " But they're very kind and understanding people, so if I explain it to them correctly, tell them I'm happy and have a good life, they'll understand eventually since they love me."

Homosexual intercourse has been legal in Hong Kong since 1991. Prior to this, sodomy was illegal, instituted by British colonial rule. Until 2005, there was also an unequal age of consent in Hong Kong. While the age of consent for heterosexual sex was 16, it was set at 21 for sex between males. However, in 2005, it was found to violate the right to equality and was struck down.

As for mainland China, well into the 1990s, homosexuality was considered both a crime and a mental illness in the People's Republic. Gays were prosecuted under the "hooligan" law while the Chinese Psychiatric Association labeled it a mental disease.

In 1997, the Chinese government abolished the hooligan law, an act considered by most to be a decriminalization of homosexuality. In 2001, the Chinese Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list. The association's evidence included a 1999 study that followed the lives of 51 Chinese gays and lesbians over the course of a year. The group found that only six of the subjects had emotional disorders.

Since then, the Chinese gay community has rapidly expanded, with dozens of gay bars and hangout spots across the country, hundreds of Chinese gay websites, and many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) organizations. These groups help organize gay rights campaigns, HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, film festivals and pride parades.

Public attitudes are also changing, with many people growing more accepting of gays. The vast majority of educated, young people in urban areas have no problem with homosexuality.

"You've got 50 and 60-year-old men coming out, young teenagers coming out, everyone coming out," says Kenneth Tan, a native Singaporean who has been living in Shanghai for the past seven years. "There is a lot of energy in the scene right now because all these people are coming out for the first time in their life, in the life of the community and the history of modern China. There is a great sense of freshness to the scene."

Fudan University in Shanghai offered China's first undergraduate gay studies course in 2003. A China chapter of PFLAG, an organization for parents, family and friends of lesbians and gays, was established in 2007. Gay publications have sprouted up as well as other "gay" businesses, restaurants and shops frequented by mostly gay patrons.

Tong Yu, known as Common Language in English, is a Beijing support and rights group for lesbian and bisexual women founded in 2005. Its founder, Xu Bin, says that at the time there were no lesbian groups and only about thirty gay groups. Now she estimates there are several hundred gay and lesbian groups throughout China.

The Beijing LGBT Center, founded in 2008 by four LGBT groups including Common Language, even began issuing symbolic "marriage certificates" to gay couples.

Hong Kong hosted its first gay pride parade in December 2008, attracting approximately 1,000 people. The second parade was held in November 2009.

2009 also saw the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

Lam, the festival director, said last year the festival drew 6,000 visitors, including people from China who came to see films banned on the mainland. Over the years, Lam has witnessed changes in the gay population.

"We used to see quite a few people who would wear big jackets trying to disguise themselves as they go into the cinema, but we're seeing less and less," Lam says.

The change is indicative of the growing gay community and the growing numbers of gays coming out in China.

Tan, who serves as editor-at-large for the popular website Shanghaiist.com, has watched the Shanghai scene grow up.

"When I first came here, the bars were hidden and had to be very quiet, and now it's like we've got huge bars that cater to different segments of the population," he said. "If you're a middle-aged Chinese gentleman, you go here. If you like big burly men, go here. The scene has developed to the point that you see very measurable social stratification going on."

China had its first gay pride event in Shanghai in June 2009, consisting of plays, film screenings, discussions and parties scattered throughout one week. The event, called Shanghai Pride, attracted a few thousand people from all over China.

While police did monitor the events and plans for a parade were called off, the fact they were able to hold the event is a testament to the progress China has made. In 2004, a different group tried to hold a similar event in Beijing, but was shut down. Tan thinks the fact that Shanghai is away from the political center of Beijing enabled them to hold the event.

"People didn't think it was possible," says Tan, who served as one of the masterminds behind the event. "We had a small, humble start, but it was a good one. These individuals have been coming out for a while and this pride event gives them a reason to come out collectively as a community."

US-China Today: Homosexuality in China

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China is a real fascinating country.

They are very westernised.

Homosexuality is no longer a taboo, but is welcomed and they have same sex marriage campaigning!

Must be at the MacDonalds in miniskirts and jeans!

 

[Ray]

China's Growing Problem Of Too Many Single Men

n the Nov/Dec 2010 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, there is a fantastic article entitled "The Demographic Future" by Nicholas Eberstadt, where he introduces what the world of 2030 will look like from a demographic standpoint. As he explains:

"It is already possible to draw a reasonably reliable profile of the world's population in 2030. This is, of course, because the overwhelming majority of those who will inhabit the world 20 years from now are already alive. As a result, one can make some fairly confident estimates of important demographic trends, including manpower availability, the growth in the number of senior citizens, and the resulting support burden on workers."

Mr. Eberstadt spends a portion of his essay on China's future situation, and he paints an outlook most people familiar with China's demographic trends have known for some time: a doubling of the number of senior citizens, a shrinking of the younger working class, and rudimentary social welfare and pension systems incapable of coping with the massive imbalance.

This coming reality is shared by the U.S. and all developed nations, except China's is pushed to the extremes because of its much larger population, much poorer per capita income, much lower education levels and a more ill-equipped pension system.

Yet, for all these colossal national challenges, Eberstadt's essay adds one more demographic trend unique to China that will have significant social and cultural implications:

""¦China will face a growing number of young men who will never marry due to the country's one-child policy, which has resulted in a reported birth ratio of almost 120 boys for every 100 girls"¦By 2030, projections suggest that more than 25% of Chinese men in their late 30s will never have married. The coming marriage squeeze will likely be even more acute in the Chinese countryside, since the poor, uneducated and rural population will be more likely to lose out in the competition for brides."

Can you even begin to comprehend living in a society where 1 in every 4 adult men you meet will have never married, and not by choice? How could this change the social and cultural dynamics of China?

Here are some ideas to get you pondering:

Men Marrying Younger Women

If a man cannot find a woman to marry in his peer group, perhaps he will find greater opportunity to marry a girl of a younger generation. By then, perhaps this man will have saved a little more money and may be desirable enough for a younger woman (and that young woman's family) to consider. In fact, this is already a part of China's reality today. It is quite common to meet Chinese couples where the man is 10, 20 or 30 years older than his wife. Chinese men are already putting off marriage until they can properly afford to provide for a wife and family. Chinese pragmatism and a continued income-imbalance based on gender play roles here. Perhaps the demographics of 2030 will show this trend to strengthen and become even more commonplace in the population instead of shrinking.

Sexuality in Question

There is great support on both sides of the argument as to whether homosexuality is a genetic or social outcome. However, if you are persuaded that homosexuality is in part influenced by social factors, then it is worthwhile to explore what impact such a large population of unmarried men might have on the issue of sexual orientation. There is already a thriving LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community and subculture in China, but as 'coming out' continues to find acceptance and support in the younger generations, will this significant gender imbalance have any effect on the perspective of the LGBT community in the China's future mainstream consciousness?

Anger and Frustration

The prospect of never finding a life partner can be one of the greatest fears in a person's life. In a culture like China's, where the mainstream societal expectation continues to put heavy emphasis on progeny, family network strength and family unit establishment as a benefit to status-building, for these one in four adult Chinese males, being single adds extra dimensions of undesirability. Deep personal anger and frustrations must inevitably be a byproduct of these societal pressures.

If these single men will be found predominantly in a single demographic–namely rural, poor and uneducated men–what we might see is the emergence of a distinct subgroup of people, or a new class segregation. An entire class of potentially angry, frustrated, relatively poor and uneducated single men can mean serious threats to societal stability, if this group builds a class identity that feels antagonized by society as a whole. China's history is full of examples when a group lashes out in defiance and/or violence. This potential new class of single, frustrated men will number in the tens of millions in 2030.

Resilience of Chinese Endurance

There are also a number of examples in history of the Chinese (and other Asian cultures) enduring harsh, distressed, unfair circumstances for generations. It speaks to the resilience and strength of Chinese culture in helping the particular afflicted group align its interests with the general collective society, enabling them to live out their lives enduring the pains of their life situation.

Perhaps this group of single men will not affect anything socially or culturally, but instead stay silent and endure their circumstance as other groups of Chinese have done in the past. For this to happen though will depend on the state and strength of China's collective culture in the coming 20 years.

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The Chinese government has been aware of these demographic trends for some time now. They have known, likely before the rest of the world did, that China's fertility rate fell below the minimum population-replacement fertility rate (2.1 children per family) more than two decades ago. So why hasn't the government done anything if it can see the problems that may lie ahead?

The more immediate challenges China faces must be addressed first. Enacting and maintaining the one-child policy alleviated growing pressures on agriculture and natural resources to give China a chance to shift industries and redirect capital into transforming China into an industrial nation and then a privatized economy. Without first accomplishing the short-term goals, China will never be in a position with the right resources to solve any longer-term issues.

Second, having a unified, single-minded governing body and a mass society that generally trusts and believes in the decisions of its government does have its unique advantages. And one of those is the ability to enact sweeping and often extreme changes very quickly. The Chinese government thirty years ago asked a nation to limit child bearing to one per family. It is not inconceivable that the same government can ask this same nation thirty years later to double its children–for the betterment of society.

While the official government rhetoric up until now has shown no changes in the One Child Policy, we are starting to see experimentation in a few selected demographics, and the creation of small policy loopholes that are allowing more Chinese families to legally have more than one child. A good friend of mine, who is a former U.N. officer working on the issue of China's birth and fertility, concurs with the expectation that China will sooner rather than later reverse its stance on the one-child policy and devise some new form of incentive to drive birthrates up.

The question is whether the incentives will be enough. One of the biggest concerns facing Chinese families today is how to afford raising one child, let alone two. As a recent article from Reuters explains, some couples who have the opportunity to have a second child still choose only to have one as the costs of living and education are so substantial. In our own research work at China Youthology, we observe an increasing number of young post-80's and 90's kids who say they have no desire to have any children at all. They're simply not interested in a life with parenting responsibilities.

What this could all mean for the Chinese government is that something a bit stronger than incentives may be needed in order for fertility rates to rise again. But if there is any country that has the political audacity and ability to implement something so drastic, it is China.

However, for this coming generation of frustrated, single men, any policy changes now are too little too late. This emerging reality is almost here. The only thing we can do now is develop a richer and stronger Chinese culture so they can find some relief from any feelings of alienation or frustration. New initiatives that will help cohesion of family, community and collective social units will be integral in enabling those unable to find a life-partner to cope and have other life-meanings to pursue.

China's Growing Problem Of Too Many Single Men - Forbes