Thread by @cyril_ip

Many in 🇨🇳China’s gay community are strangers to Western #LGBT cultures, and Westerners are unfamiliar with their Chinese counterparts’ lifestyles

Using Western metrics like #pride month & #rainbowcapitalism 🏳️‍🌈 to weigh their joy is intellectually flawed
scmp.com/comment/opinio…

#Homosexuality existed throughout ancient China, but #gaypride is a modern American celebration → its irrelevance here is nothing to be appalled about

Demanding Asian policies to be more Westernised reinforces the harmful narrative that homosexuality is a Western “lifestyle” 👬

Gay venues and activities in China are unlike those in the West. E.g. In #Chengdu, teahouses are a popular LGBT integration space 🍵

Allies should NOT assume that they are oppressed based on a limiting framework that reduces the West to #liberalism and the East to #conservatism

Many Western critics accuse Beijing of justifying #crackdowns by linking LGBT culture to Western influence or interventionism 🤼‍♂️

BUT the West itself seeks to monopolise “#gayness” by using specific languages and suggesting that the East should aspire to embrace its approach 📢

China's LGBT community has faced curbs and #setbacks, such as #WeChat LGBT account removals and the shutdown of a leading advocacy group ⚠️

BUT [#nuance] informal “surveying” - mostly done by social media influencers - shows a highly tolerant public, esp. in large cities 🇨🇳