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of engaging in “immoral” sexual acts. Ghosts are thus suspended between being harbingers of
death or destruction and agents of social transformation (Zeitlin 1997). In this sense, Lan Yu’s
spectral being symbolizes both the destructive and liberating consequences of embracing
homoerotic desire. His ghost problematizes the demise of “facing a homosexual identity” at a
time where same-sex relations were still criminalized and pathologized (32). However, it also
illuminates how Lan Yu was able to liberate himself from the mental frustrations that plague gay
people when they force themselves to conform to heterosexual ideals.
The novella ends with a luminous and almost holy vision of Lan Yu smiling and bathed
in “chrysanthemum-orange sunlight” as he walks towards Han Dong (32). This imagery of Lan
Yu as a sanctified presence coupled with Han Dong’s prayers to God to forgive him for “falling
in love with someone he shouldn’t” and having “an affair … considered preposterous, shameless,
and decadent on Earth” reveals feelings of optimism mixed with a hollow sense of inevitable loss
(32). Moreover, the fact that Han Dong becomes religious by converting to Christianity and the
story’s plain indication that “God [has] accepted [him], a homosexual, into His flock” to absolve
him of sin criticizes the pervasive political and religious discourse that punishes homosexuals
both in life and death (32). These descriptions affirm the legitimacy of same-sex relations as
“pure, innocent, and eternal,” contesting the public misconception of homosexuality perpetuated
by hegemonic patriarchal values and political discrimination (32). By presenting a revelation that
unfolds through a dream, Beijing Comrade’s novella shows that dreams have both a hermeneutic
and therapeutic function. When Han Dong is awakened both concretely and figuratively, his
spiritual acknowledgment of homosexual desire corresponds to a process of self-knowledge that
is liberating and redemptive, embodied by the enlightened dreamy figure of Lan Yu.
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