Since the reversion of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997 there has been a proliferation of research by Hong Kong scholars into female same-sex sexualities in Hong Kong. Chou Wah-Shan (1997) has been a prolific writer on Chinese homosexualities with his research influencing many activists and scholars alike, although his work has also attracted criticism for over-generalising from his case studies (Kam et al. 2000). Anson Mak (Kam et al. 2000), along with her co-editors, published Bisexuality as an investigation of bisexuality among Hong Kong women, but more importantly as a protest against the limitations of the word tungzi which was being used to only include gay men and lesbians. Lucetta Kam Yip Lo (2001) also edited a collection of twenty-six first-love stories titled Lunar Desires: Her First Same-Sex Love in Her Own Words to document same-sex relationships among Hong Kong lesbians and bisexual women. Feminist activist Cheung Choi-Wan (2004[2001]) published a short essay reflecting upon tensions within the mainstream women’s movement over the discussion of lesbian sexualities. Sociologist Day Wong (2007) has been conducting research into identity politics among tungzis and the division of labour within lesbian families. Anthropologists Amy Sim (2005) and Franco Yuen-Ki Lai (2004) have also conducted research into female same-sex intimacy among Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong.
By locating my theoretical apparatus in a larger framework which includes urban sociology, feminism, cultural studies and queer theory, I understand Hong Kong lesbian spaces as conditional spaces existing within a global city where lesbian desires are often articulated through everyday resistance. Past sociological research on marginalised sexualities in Hong Kong has addressed the development of sexual identities, female masculinities, sexual citizenship, consumption, gay spaces, human rights and legal issues in the LGBT community (Chou 1997; Ho and Tsang 2004 [2000]; Kam 2003; Kong 2010; Lai 2004; Shaw 2002; Wong 2007). I focus on the analysis of lesbian spaces in Hong Kong through the broader lens of the availability and accessibility of resources for women with same-sex desires living in the city. These resources can be understood from the microscopic level of an individual’s economic, social and cultural resources to the macroscopic level of the policy and governance of the city’s administration. The conditions and possibilities for the materialisation of lesbian desires and identities are closely related to wider socio-political forces operating within the urban environment. In making the connection between space and culture, I intend to examine individual life stories and to draw attention to the conditions necessary for participation in certain social spaces and for exclusion in others. These social spaces include online forums, lesbian cafes, family dwellings, school settings and community gatherings, where there are always social interactions within webs of relations inhabited by lesbian and bisexual women. An individual’s participation in or exclusion from these social spaces are often expressed in narratives of survival and coping strategies.