Results tagged “lgbt”

Earlier this year, Aritz Parra of the new video news network VJ Movement took his camera and followed Dylan Chen, one of the organisers of Shanghai Pride, mainland China's very first gay pride season. He followed the young man over the course of two months, chronicling the ups and downs Dylan and his team experienced in putting together the event. The result is this beautifully and sensitively edited video clip you see below. Check out the money shot of the plainclothes policeman videotaping one of the Shanghai Pride events.

Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei sits down for a chat with Yang Yang and celebrated gay film director Cui Zi'en (催子恩), masterminds of the Beijing Queer Film Festival (北京酷儿影展) which took place in June this year.

In typical Shanghai form, there are more Halloween parties this Saturday then you can count (including, of course, our bound-to-be fantabulous Rampage bash). But here's another option we'd love to endorse …Shanghai LGBT’s 4th Annual Halloween Pub Crawl.

                          

Deep down, somewhere in the heart of the orchid-like construct we all know as the Oriental Art Center, a creative meeting between masters recently took place. Scotland's leading choreographer and dance icon, Alan Greig, led a workshop with Jin Xing Dance Theatre, one of the most prominent dance companies in our city. Both performed at the recent Shanghai Dance Festival - the fourth one ever held.

       

Recently "Tale of 4 Cities" launched it's weekly dinner "theater" series, a Thursday cabaret evening with the vision to impart a bit of "Le Gai Paris" into Shanghai´s nightlife scene. The problem is, if you're looking for actual "theater," the show invariably will seem like it doesn't fit. It's a drag show, pure and simple - and a charming one full of social potential - so you might as well just call it by its proper name and put it in its proper genre.

Poppers, the "video head cleaner" that gay men use when they want to get their head cleaned, are now doing brisk business on Taobao, available in 10ml vials under various street names, like Rush, Jungle Juice, Locker Room and so on. These alkyl nitrites (including isobutyl nitrite, butyl nitrite, and amyl nitrite), when inhaled, have the effect of relaxing muscles throughout the body, in particular the sphincter muscles of the anus and the vagina, and have been popular among urban homosexual men and some women since the 70s as a recreational drug during sex and as a club drug.

U.S. President Obama has nominated the first openly gay person to become an ambassador and - would you look at that? - he's based in Shanghai! Shanghai Pride, for real. David Huebner heads the China Practice and International Disputes Practice of Los Angeles law firm Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton from its Shanghai office. While his position still needs to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he's been nominated to be ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. Source: Bloomberg

Hot off the press from Queer Comrades: this selection of ten of the most well-received Chinese language lesbian films. For those of you queer film aficionados that are interested, many of these films are actually available in your local DVD store.

Vienna Café once again enriches our existence with an LGBT-related movie! On Thursday 24 September the "dark Irish comedy" Breakfast on Pluto from 2005 will be featured. Director Neil Jordan is previously known for The Crying Game and Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles.

Update: Due to ownership quarrels, the film Buenos Aires Zero Degree will not be screened as planned on Thursday. Vienna Café is replacing it with Stephen Daldry´s The Hours. And while that´s an awesome movie, it´s still a sad exchange, since The Hours has probably already been seen by most of us and is very easy to access - while...heaven knows when we´ll get the chance to see that Wong Kar Wai Documentary again...

In one of the more bizarre police conflict stories of late, over a hundred gay men congregated at People's Park in Guangzhou this week to protest police efforts to keep homosexuals out of the park. The police have used reports of petty crimes such as robbery and stealing to keep homosexuals out of the park, which serves as a meeting place for gay people. Protesters verbally clashed with the police after park guards attempted to force the group to leave the premises, and several protesters and volunteers were detained and questioned before the protest began.

It's the last full week of August, the rains have subsided and things are finally settling down in the city. Maybe that's why this week is looking a bit empty, as everyone detoxes unwinds from a crazy summer.

Renowned sexologist and sociologist Li Yinhe (李银河) writes in a recent blogpost on China's laws against gay blood donors. A group of lesbians in Beijing are now fighting for the right to donate blood:

You need only to visit Zuloo productions homepage to realize how busy this theater group is. A long list of ongoing and future productions, weekly events, workshops and courses piles up before you, and makes you wonder - is this something bigger than just a makeshift theater thing; an artistic platform, a springboard to creativity perhaps? After meeting the team behind the magic, the four core members of Zuloo productions, the answer is obvious.

Renowned sexologist and sociologist Li Yinhe (李银河) in a recent blogpost on the lives of tongqi (同妻), heterosexual women who find themselves married to gay Chinese men (translation adapted from Yawning Bread):

One of the banned events during last week´s Pride festival, was the theatrical production "The Laramie Project". But don't worry about missing it, you´ll get a new chance to watch it this weekend! The organizers have found a new venue, and the play can finally be showed at River South Art Center, on Friday and Saturday.

                    

Shanghaiist intern Kirsti Jönson, who covered Shanghai Pride (a China first!) last week, gives us her account of the event and what it might mean for all the LGBTa living in China.

       

Public parks, bath houses, news stands—these were some of the venues for gay people to meet in the old days of Shanghai. The second day of Shanghai Pride featured a panel discussion on gay spaces throughout Shanghai history, along with a brief primer on the creation and reception of China´s first university course on homosexuality at Shanghai's Fudan University. Around 150 people gathered at Kathleen's 5 to listen and learn.

Chinese director Lou Ye has defied the authorities to produce controversial movie after controversial movie. But risking arrest in China may be worth it, since his newest, "Spring Fever" has now won the best screenplay award at Cannes.

What’s every gay woman and man talking about in China these days? Shanghai Pride, of course.

Take up the IDAHO Challenge from Gays.com on Vimeo.

Yesterday morning, two young male to female transsexuals took to the streets of Changsha City, Hunan Province. They carried banners saying: "I want to have a sex change and live my life as a woman" and "Even if I die from it, I want a sex change, one day as a woman would be worth it".

Since Shanghai was named one of the five most improved places for gay tolerance it seems that nights around town have become bolder about nailing their rainbow colours to the mast.

Even as the dust settles over last week's Academy Awards, anti-censorship advocates and gay activists across Asia continue to lambast their local television stations for the censorship of two 'Milk' acceptance speeches — one made by Sean Penn, winner of the Best Actor award, and the other by Dustin Lance Black, who picked up the award for Best Original Screenplay. Both speeches were heavily censored in 53 countries all over Asia from India to Singapore and Hong Kong.

This was taken by Ben Shipley in a rest stop on the way to the Nine Dragons Hill Resort in Zhejiang.. Help us come up with a good caption!

While we were getting gussied up for the Shanghaiist Valentine's Day party, homosexuals in Beijing were taking to the streets in a remarkably open advocation of gay marriage.

                            

Beautiful Thing, Shanghai's first gay play directed by Michael Darragh, received two standing ovations at the Zhijiang Dream Factory last weekend. The play was followed by a pink tie party organised by Shanghai LGBT in which they crowned their Drag King and Queen of the year.

Eriksson) would rather watch rainbows and musicals than be at school and is infatuated with his athletic classmate and neighbour Ste (Derek Kwan) who has to deal with a drug-dealing brother and abusive, alcoholic father at home. Their sassy neighbour Leah (Sophie Lloyd — formerly fashion editor of SH Mag) has been kicked out of every school in the area, has a drug problem and can't stop listening to her mom's Cass Elliott records. Meanwhile, Jamie's feisty mother Sandra (Christy Shapiro) juggles her job as a barmaid and her ever-changing string of lovers, the latest of whom is Tony (JP Lopez) who is younger than her and a neo-hippie.

In September, Shanghaiist reported that Wai Tan had gone really upscale and added a gay nightclub. We’re happy to say Club D2, by the same owners of the infamous Club Deep, is still going strong.

This new episode of Queer As Folk Beijing, China's first independent gay video podcast, discusses long distance relationships. Has technology, cheap phone calls and the possibility of phone- or cam-sex made it easier for people in long distance relationships? Interesting questions that are relevant to both gay and straight couples.