When I was doing my fieldwork in China
between 2007 and 2009, I attended many
queer public events, including gay Weddings,
and queer film festivals, and
queer film screenings, and LGBTQ Prides in
different Chinese cities etc. I was
really lucky in that I didn't realize
that this would soon change, actually, 
especially after the 2008  Olympics,
with  strengthened government control over NGO activities etc.,
but,  I would also like actually, to expand this timeframe
to a longer period time.
 I would say, starting from 2001 with China's
entry into the WTO, and with the
de-pathologization of homosexuality in the
Chinese mental classification,
the classification of mental disorders. 
Actually, I think, 2001 was an important time.
Although we know that, actually, a
pure idolization is always a problem, but
with China's prospect of
joining the WTO there was a
sense of optimism and openness in Chinese society.
Also with regard to
Chinese Government's attitudes. Nobody knows what's going to
happen, nobody knows what
joining the WTO might mean for sexual minorities.  People
know that the society would be more open,
probably that would include openness of
gender and sexual diversity, etc.
So, in 2001,  homosexuality was deleted
from the classification of mental disorders,
and in the same year  CCTV,
China's state television, actually,
had a special program interviewing
people such as Li Yinhe and Cui Zi'en and that was actually
the first media come out,  open public come out of gay celebrities, actually,  in Chinese media.
And after that, actually, there have been
a lot of LGBT individuals, events and
organizations mushrooming in Chinese cities,
and of course there is also an
important background. Since then
the Chinese government recognized, actually,  the
existence of HIV/Aids in China,
and it actually accepted donations or the
help of international foundations
with regard to HIV/Aids prevention, for
example, a lot of
important international foundations, such as the Global Fund, the
Ford Foundation,
Bill Gates and Melinda foundation etc. They invested huge sums of
money,actually, in China in the hope of
stopping or solving the HIV problem. 
In recognizing the HIV problem
the government also has to recognize,
actually, the gay community. In that
it is one of the major target groups, actually,
in China.
So, with the help of international foundations and with the
open recognition of the Chinese government
represented by CDC China Disease Control,
Center for Disease Control.
So, a lot of LGBT NGOs or organizations have
been set up, actually,  to help HIV/AIDS prevention.
However, the role of these
NGOs is not confined to HIV/Aids prevention,
Of course, actually, they also
commit themselves to gay rights,
community culture etc. And as a result,
actually, all over the country
hundreds of LGBT NGOs were set up. Almost every
city has at least one LGBT NGO that
facilitated LGBT activism greatly. But,
meanwhile, there are also downsides because
in official discourse you can
only talk about HIV/Aids, gay identity,
in relation to HIV/Aids. As a result, a
particular type of gay identity, which
is officially called, MSM, men who have
sex with men, was created.
And people, actually, in the public discourse, a lot
of people would equate gay identity with HIV/Aids.
That was a downside, and, 
furthermore,
different organizations in the community, actually,  there is a
differentiation of community interests.
Some NGOs become HIV/Aids dedicated NGOs,
and other NGOs actually
devote more attention to community culture and
rights advocacy, etc.
It was in this critical historical juncture that
different types of identities, such as
gay identity, lesbian identity,
transgender identity,  sex workers, etc.,
so, there has been a proliferation of sexual
identities or gender sexual identities
in China's gay community. And that was a
critical historical moment,
in that we not only see, actually, the construction of a
particular type of gay identity,
we also see a multiplicity of sexual and gender
identities, and, furthermore,
the formation of queer politics versus gay
identity politics in the Chinese context.
And in 2008, with Beijing
 successfully holding the Olympics,
it seems that China is successfully
showcasing its economic and cultural
power. However, as far as political
or a publicity or communication is concerned,
it was a disaster.
And the Chinese government realizes that there might have
been too much freedom of speech or
political rights, actually, for NGOs etc.
And this was also, actually,
intensified by the political struggles, actually,  in the
Chinese government, at the time.
So we see a strengthened, actually, control over
public speech, over mass mobilization,
and over LGBT NGOs. So, I would say the
optimistic period would roughly be
the first decade of the 21st century, and
after the Olympics we see a change,
although it was a gradual change towards
more control and less freedom in terms of expression.
I pretty much went into the field without too much training.
Without much training in ethnography  my impression of our
ethnography was that a stranger
goes into a strange community, in a remote
country or remote part of the world,
and he or she actually tries to maintain a
objective distance, actually,
towards the subject or the culture or community he
or she is studying.
And that was, in a way, actually, the traditional paradigm
of anthropology.  But,
things have been changing, actually, with more and more
nativist, if you like, informants, actually,
participating in the ethnographic process.
When I entered the field,
actually, went to Beijing in 2007,
I realized that I cannot, actually,  be a
completely objective observer, in that
nobody actually treats me as an outsider
or foreigner, etc.
I am Chinese, I grew up in China, I speak perfect
Mandarin, and I've been living in Beijing for many years,
and I'm very familiar with Beijing's gay community at least.
And soon, actually, I got involved in a
lot of community organizations, such as organizing
queer film festivals, starting
from translating film subtitles to
writing articles for the film festival
catalogues,
later organized discussion panels for the film festivals, and
writing, actually, articles and comments, actually,
about the festival and about
the films that are seen. So, in this case, actually,
I have become an activist,  an
active participant in the form of
activism that I'm writing about. 
Later I
discovered that there are different politics, actually, in Chinese
queer communities.
For one thing there was a division between gay identity
politics and queer politics, and there was a
discussion, a very heated discussion,
actually, in 2013 and 2014,
about whether queer theory as a Western theory
would suit the Chinese context.
I participated actively, actually, in the
debate as a community member and as an academic.
At that time I realized that
probably, actually, being an academic is not
antithetic to being an activist, and
I can practice academic activism.  And it was a
critical historical juncture.  It
seems to everyone at that time, that
people are concerned with where
China's queer activism is going,
and how to understand LGBT activism in China
today. And it was a time for people who are
devoted to the idea to participate and
it was only natural.
Thinking about that,
it was a coincidence that I participated
in queer activism as an academic, and as
a member of the community.
However, now I see that as my most appropriate way
to engage with that community and engage with the topic,
in that I cannot possibly,
actually, keep an objective distance,
actually,  towards the community that I'm
already familiar with,  that I identify with.
I acknowledge that having critical
distance is important,
and I for myself as a critical scholar, actually, I engage
with the community, actually, in a
critical way and contribute, actually, to
the discussions with my academic expertise,
in terms of theory etc. But
this critical distance and this
insider perspective also helps me, actually, to
make a greater contribution
to the culture that I'm involved in.
This is an interesting question. It was not until recently that I have started to
think about the importance that
performance art and theatricality played,
actually, in feminist queer activism in China.
If you ask me, actually, what is a
so-called Chinese characteristics of
feminist and queer activism, etc., it is
really hard to give an answer,
but I can give you lots of examples, and those
examples, actually, may have something in common.
And one of them is the
incorporation of performance art.
For example, Fan Popo's 2009 film New
Beijing New Marriage,
and that is actually based on a documentation of
same-sex wedding photo shoots, actually,
in front of Tiananmen, in front of Qianmen Street.
And it was on  aValentine's Day, and a group of gay and
lesbian activists, actually,
rehearsed a wedding photo shooting
session in that place, in the public place,
surrounded by hundreds of people,
including the policeman.
And then they interviewed the audience about their impressions and their ideas about
homosexuality and same-sex marriage, and
people gave different and interesting
responses etc.,, and the video was made,
and it was circulated in community
centers and online etc., and created some impact.
What is interesting, is really
this form of activism, actually, it is not
the form of activism that we are familiar with
in the Western context. For example, Gay Pride,
coming out, etc.. It is not purely coming out because
all the actors and
actresses or the gay volunteers, actually,
they claim that they act as actors and actresses. They just perform on that day,
and on the other hand it's also important
because it is a coming out of the gay community
to the public, and in such an
important place, such as Qianmen,
in the heart of Beijing. So, that actually raises a question of
why did they take this form of activism as a form of engagement
with the public?
And, as I mentioned, that public protests, and demonstrations, and
pride parades are impossible,
so they had to think about some strategic and
interesting ways, actually, to make their voices heard
and one of them is to incorporate performance art in queer activism and feminist activism.
So, on the one hand that actually protected
the people, the activists, in that they can just claim that they are just performing
some kind of show and there's nothing genuine, there's nothing
real, there's nothing political about it. 
There has been a consensus about
the separation between art and politics,
so, using art to do queer politics and feminist politics is really a good way.
But, on the other hand, I think, Ai Xiaoming, a professor from Sun Yatsen University in Guangzhou,
also commented that this actually provided a safe space for gays and lesbians
to come out to the public. In real life it's very difficult for them
but with the disguise or in the disguise of doing a theater show,
such as performing different versions of Vagina Monologues
in Chinese stages, that gives Chinese women
and feminists a chance to voice their own opinions,
that do not sound overtly political and confrontational.
I think that this is significant because gays and lesbians and activists in China
are coming up with context-specific and culturally specific strategies, actually,
to voice our opinions, to publicize knowledge about homosexuality,
and to engage with the public without copying the Western model of coming out and Pride Parade.
