Travel
Tongzhi: The Queer Guide to Hong Kong
Tongzhi:
The Queer Guide to Hong Kong
by Laura Miller
China
is not most GLBT travelers’ obvious choice as a gay-friendly tourist
destination.
In fact, Hong Kong, more often than not, is viewed as little more than a stop-off point on the way to Bangkok. Nonetheless, Hong Kong boasts a formidable, if somewhat secretive, gay and lesbian scene that is well worth looking into.
The Tongzhi – a term encompassing all GLBT Chinese – have historically not enjoyed a great deal of tolerance within Chinese society. It was not until 1992 that the People’s Republic of China officially declared that homosexuality was not illegal. Even today, the Lonely Planet guide reports that “[t]he PRC’s official attitude to gays and lesbians in mainland China is ambiguous, with responses ranging from draconian penalties to tacit acceptance.”
Hong Kong, however, enjoys different legal and cultural status, due in large part to the fact that it was a British territory until 1997. The British-run government decriminalized sodomy in 1991. Since the PRC is obliged to preserve Hong Kong’s legal system for at least 50 years, the Tongzhi of Hong Kong cannot be criminally prosecuted for sodomy by the PRC, regardless of what rules apply to the rest of mainland China.
What the colonial government did not do for the Tongzhi was afford them any protection from employment discrimination. Thus a Tongzhi may be safe from police raids, but she can still be fired from her job solely on the basis of her sexual orientation, without any legal remedy whatsoever.
Moreover,
the legal consequences of “coming out” in Hong Kong are not
nearly as severe as the cultural and economic ones. In a society in which
personal connections are a basic necessity for survival, the consequences
of being disowned by one’s friends and family are too terrifying
for the average Tongzhi to even contemplate. In Hong Kong in particular,
where affordable housing can be as difficult to find as in trendier parts
of Manhattan, many young people live with their parents well into their
thirties. To be thrown out by one’s family is tantamount to becoming
homeless.
As a result, the gay scene in Hong Kong is not one in which you can expect to find rows of houses and stores bedecked with rainbow flags, nor are you likely to see same-sex couples holding hands in the streets.
What you will find is a friendly and tight-knit group of people with the sense of community all too quickly disappearing from the more mainstream GLBT communities in the United States. Moreover, the Tongzhi community is one of the few sectors of Chinese society in which Chinese and foreigners appear to truly come together as a family. Elsewhere, the British, Canadian, and American expatriates who live and work in Hong Kong are frequently heard to complain that the Cantonese (the ethnic majority in Hong Kong) are generally uninterested in anyone or anything not Cantonese.
Making connections
There are several ways to tap into the Tongzhi scene, one of which is simply to roam around the neighborhood called “Central” on Hong Kong Island. Within a few blocks of Club 97, a mixed (but mostly male) club, you will find most of the city’s gay bars.
However,
simply wandering is not generally a good strategy in Hong Kong. You will
not have rainbow flags or any other sort of markers guiding your way,
nor will you be able to simply pop into a bookstore and pick up a complementary
map and newspaper – Contacts Magazine, the only Tongzhi publication
in Hong Kong, has been defunct for several months. It’s not going
to help matters much if you are unable to speak or read Cantonese.
A mainstream English publication, HK Magazine, is available for free in a few malls around Hong Kong. HK Magazine occasionally publishes some information on the gay scene, as well as a “men seeking men” and “women seeking women” section in the personal ads.
A much better bet is to do some online research, whether before your arrival, through Internet access at most major public libraries in Hong Kong or at various branches of the Pacific Coffee Cafe. A good starting point for any Asia-bound GLBT traveler is Utopia Asia. This Web site contains guides for most Asian cities, as well as news updates, chat rooms, and message boards. HKGay offers a more expansive run-down of the local bars, organizations, and Tongzhi-friendly businesses, along with a list of upcoming events, personal ads, and instructions for joining an e-mail mailing list called “HKQueer.” Numerous other sites can be accessed through cross-links with Utopia-Asia.
Yet another option is to call the telephone counseling service at Horizons, a Tongzhi organization that plans various social events. However, the hotline is only available for a few hours on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings, and if you don’t speak Cantonese, you will find that some of the operators have great difficulty communicating over the telephone in English. They can also be somewhat suspicious of new callers: I was asked three times, “Where you get number?” before the operator, who apparently had never heard of the Lonely Planet guide, would give me any information. When he finally did decide I was trustworthy and had figured out what I was after – “Oho!” he exclaimed, “You want meet women!” – he gave me information that was difficult to understand and turned out to be somewhat inaccurate.
Nonetheless,
when I did finally locate one of the social events he had described to
me, a mixer at Club 97, it turned out to be well worth the effort. The
room was filled with a variety of Chinese and Western men and women, the
former of whom turned out to be some of the best English speakers I met
in Hong Kong. Even the announcements were made in English, for the benefit
of those Western expatriates who had not yet mastered the subtleties of
Cantonese.
A young goateed American (“Mike”) and his adorable Chinese boyfriend (“Eko”) soon befriended me. They invited me to dinner with their circle of friends, which included two Chinese lesbians and an American lesbian who had recently returned from the annual Tongzhi Conference, an event which draws an enormous number of ethnic Chinese from all over the globe.
Mike seemed to feel, based on his personal experience, that the biggest hang-up the Chinese have about homosexuality is “the not-having-children thing.” Since neither Buddhism nor any other major belief system in China has the sort of sexual morality that exists in Christianity, Mike is convinced that, as far as the Chinese are concerned, “you can be as gay as you want to be, as long as you get married and have children.” He adds, “You can only imagine what it’s like in mainland China, where parents are only allowed to have one child. You have exactly one chance to carry on the family name, and if your child turns out to be gay, you can’t exactly go ask the government for permission to have another one.”
Mike
has been living in Hong Kong for nine years, and his continued relationship
with Eko leaves him little choice but to stay. The United States Immigration
and Naturalization Service gives absolutely no recognition to same-sex
couples for immigration purposes; it would be extremely difficult for
Eko to acquire even a tourist visa, much less permanent residency in the
U.S. But Mike is generally happy with the city’s Tongzhi community,
especially since he is from a rather small midwestern town and did not
have access to a gay community growing up.
Mike’s tips for tourists who want to get up close and personal with the Hong Kong Tongzhi, include getting vaccinations for Hepatitis A and B – generally a good idea for any visitor to Asia. It would also be a good idea to learn more about Chinese customs and culture, particularly with regard to table etiquette, gift-giving, and bodily contact. The Hong Kong Chinese, and the Tongzhi in particular, are regularly exposed to Westerners, so they are unlikely to be shocked and appalled by such bizarre Western customs as shaking hands or hugging.
Still, it helps to be aware that cultural differences exist. This is often easy to forget in a gay community such as Hong Kong’s, which in almost every other way can make a GLBT visitor feel right at home.