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homosexual acts and respond to increasing exposure to more liberal Western beliefs. They
address two main issues: 1) the political and legal status of gay rights in China, and 2) the
evolving cultural and societal attitudes towards the tongzhi movement.
The dominant paradigm for research on government policies towards homosexuality in
China is from the bio-medical field, where studies focus on determining appropriate parameters
for legal regulation of same-sex conduct to address HIV/AIDS (e.g.: Nielands et al. 2007; Lu and
Essex 2004; Qiu 1997). More generally, Chinese scholars such as Tan Dazheng (1998) and Ma
Ping (2010) have reviewed legal cases and highlighted government attempts to repress
homosexuality through ad hoc enforcement (e.g.: where officials used indirect sanctions to
detain homosexuals). In general, however, studies addressing gay rights in China make no
reference to such evidence (Gao 2003; Wan 2008).
Another emphasis in social science research examines Chinese homosexual identity
formation and queer politics associated with the nascent tongzhi culture (Jackson and Sullivan
2001). These studies employ interviews, participant observations, ethnography, and life
narratives as qualitative methods of inquiry (Chou 2000). Ethnographic research on
homosexuality in China typically stresses the hidden nature of gay Chinese relationships due to
heteronormative social pressures (Fang 1995; Sullivan 2006). Academics have also questioned
what it means to be queer in an increasingly global environment, where Westernization has
affected Chinese cultural attitudes, social responses, and government policies towards the
tongzhi community (Engebretsen 2008; Pan 2006). In the late 1980s, psychology discourse
began to frame queer identity within China’s rapidly changing socioeconomic environment and
political framework (Simon 2001). Their World (1992), by Li Yinhe and Wang Xiaobo, stands
out as the pioneering work addressing social conditions of the Chinese homosexual population.
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