Hong Kong: Still fighting archaic, British rule, Hong Kong's lesbians and gays see a clouded future in the impending shift of governments
The appalling position of gays and lesbians in [Hong Kong] is the result of a unique combination of historical and political factors.
In China, there are no laws against homosexuality or homosexual acts. Only with the advent of British colonial rule in the nineteenth century was Hong Kong saddled with the existing baggage of English law under which homosexual acts were criminal. Although British law changed in 1967, decriminalizing homosexual acts in private between consenting adults, reform has not reached Hong Kong where sodomy is still punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. Homosexuals are also barred from working in the Hong Kong civil service.
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The recent student uprisings in China and the brutal response of the Chinese government have accentuated the uncertainties and heightened the fears for all Hong Kong residents. Reports from the People's Republic of China indicate that the current political repression has already filtered down to non-political, nonconformist behaviors, such as openly gay activity.
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With power vested in an appointed government, accompanied by a focus on escape, rather than on improving conditions locally, there is little motivation in Hong Kong for social or political activism. Moreover, the police keep secret files on homosexuals, raid gay bars, and have been acknowledged to engage in entrapment and bribery. Under such conditions, the risk of political activism is high and the surprise is not that there is so little, but that there is any at all.
[... The] Hong Kong police department [has] established a Special Investigation Unit (SIU), which deals exclusively with homosexuality. (One local lesbian refers to it as the "Peeping Tom Squad,") [...] Still, the issue moved ahead when the government asked its standing Law Reform Commission to look at possible changes in the law. In 1983, the Law Reform Commission recommended decriminalization of sexual acts between consenting adults in private. [But for] five years the government took no action at all on the recommendations of its own appointed commission. [...]
The only gay group making any political effort at all is the Hong Kong 10% Club which was founded in 1986 by Alan Li, 28, a native of Hong Kong who emigrated to Canada as a teenager. Now a resident of Toronto, and an activist there, Li returned to Hong Kong for a nine month visit, during which he was instrumental in the initial organization of the club and acted as its first chair.
Li was succeeded by Julian Chan, 26, a hair stylist[.] Chan, too, learned his liberated attitudes overseas, having lived for six months in London where he marched in a gay pride parade. Chan says that the 10% club has a mailing list of 40, about half of whom are active. [...]
Chan has made appearances on local television discussing the proposed law reform. He contrasts his approach with earlier efforts by activists he considers to be more confrontational. "We aim at a warm, healthy, positive image," he says, "a softer approach, more diplomatic. Maintaining face is very important to the Chinese, so it is cleverer not to make demands, but to tell them that we are Chinese, we are their brothers and sisters. It works. Chinese are more sentimental than Italians!"
Chan and Sam Sasha are the only two prominent gay leaders in Hong Kong willing to be named in the press. Sasha (a pen name) was the first to take up the cause there a decade ago. As with all the gay leadership in Hong Kong, he learned the spirit of liberation abroad. He studied at the University of Texas and was among those attending the historic meetings of gay and lesbian activists at the Carter White House.
Sasha returned to Hong Kong determined to advance the cause of lesbians and gays through education. He has written two books, one a history of homosexuality in China, the other providing basic information on homosexuality. He shares tidbits of Chinese history, such as the legend in which an ancient Chinese emperor shared a peach with a male lover. "Sharing a peach" is now a euphemism for a gay relationship.
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Despite newly won support from such institutions as the Catholic and Anglican churches in Hong Kong, none of these leaders is optimistic about the prospects for.·reform of the sodomy laws. The future under the People's Republic is clouded. While there is no law there on the subject, laws on "hooliganism" have been used against gays. One expert at the University of Hong Kong says that, in China, homosexuality is considered an "offense against socialist morality."
For gay and lesbian westerners accustomed to more liberated ways, Hong Kong, under the British now or under the Chinese in the future, is an anomaly, The situation there puts in perspective our own history of oppression and the freedoms we now take for granted. "Sharing the peach" in China happens only at great risk.
— Arthur Lazere, OutWeek Magazine No. 15, October 1, 1989, p. 34.