Travis S. K. Kong, Sky H. L. Lau, and Eva C. Y. Li
Introduction
In this chapter, we take a close look at the tongzhi movement in Hong Kong. Tongzhi, which literally means ‘common will’, is an adaptation of the Chinese term ‘comrade’. The term has been widely used in the context of political parties in both the Republican period and the People’s Republic of China. It has been re-appropriated as a synonym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (or LGBT) in Hong Kong and has become very popular for LGBT self-identification in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China since the 1990s (Kong 2011: 14).
As a former British colony, Hong Kong’s tongzhi movement has its own distinctive path different from Taiwan or China due to its colonial governance, religious influences, and the adaptation of Chinese families in such an environment. To date, there are many defining moments of tongzhi history in Hong Kong that are worthy of note. These include the initial criminalisation of ‘buggery’ (a generic term that includes male sodomy) in 1842 when the British took over Hong Kong; the apparent suicide of police inspector John MacLennan in 1980 that triggered the subsequent 10 years of public and legal debate over whether male homosexual conduct should be decriminalised; the arrival of AIDS in 1984 along with its alleged association with gay men; the decriminalisation of male homosexual conduct in 1991; the mushrooming of tongzhi organisations and the emergence of a substantial tongzhi consumption infrastructure, including bars, clubs, saunas, massage parlours, cafes, and bookshops since the 1990s; the equalisation of age of consent (from the age of 21 to the age of 16, as for heterosexuals) in 2005; International Day against Homophobia (IDAHO) marches since 2005; pride parades since 2008, and the inclusion of same-sex partners in a domestic violence ordinance in 2009. How can we understand the tongzhi movement in Hong Kong? What kind of history are we making? Who is the ‘we’ in this history? How can we understand the dynamics of the tongzhi movement in the context of the wider social, political, economic, and cultural changes in Hong Kong society?
This chapter offers a brief account of the different waves of the tongzhi movement in Hong Kong, highlighting key factors such as the development of the notion of sexual citizenship, the sites of governance (especially the government, the family, and religion), and internal schisms in defining and shaping the contours of the movement. We categorise the Hong Kong tongzhi movement into different waves, each emerging anew while maintaining traces from the former waves.