Denise Tse-Shang Tang
Introduction
In order to understand lesbian spaces in Hong Kong, one needs to examine the meanings and cultural aspects of lesbian desires in an urban environment. Chinese lesbian sexualities vary in different historical, social and cultural contexts. One can imagine the differences between the everyday life experiences of Chinese lesbians living in Hong Kong, Taipei, Beijing, Singapore or in diasporic Chinese communities in Vancouver or San Francisco. What does it mean for a global city such as Hong Kong to have lesbian spaces? Conversely, how do lesbian spaces contribute to our common understanding of the city’s cosmopolitan nature?
In this chapter, I locate lesbian culture in Hong Kong within a theoretical framework of spaces. In reporting on my ethnography of Hong Kong women with same-sex desires, I first begin to map out the different spaces inhabited by Hong Kong women in order to understand their everyday lives. These spaces include living spaces, sites of consumption, regulatory spaces such as schools, workplaces and churches, and political and cultural spaces. Thirty respondents discussed their experiences of inhabiting, crossing and using these spaces in their daily lives as they live, work, play and engage in different kinds of social relationships that might have been affected by their lesbian sexualities. The interview subjects came from different class backgrounds with an age range of fifteen to fifty-one years old. Interview subjects include women from all walks oflife, including students, corporate executives, the unemployed and community activists. I came to know them through personal contacts and referrals from community leaders, as well as by attending social events, political demonstrations, talks, workshops and hanging out at lesbian spaces. My involvement with the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, first as the Festival Director in 2004 and 2005, then continuing as a curatorial committee member has allowed me to remain part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
In this chapter, I define lesbian desires as erotic and romantic relations that exist among women who may or may not take up sexual identities based on those desires (identities implied in the terms ‘lesbian’ or ‘bisexual’). I use the term lesbian or the local Cantonese term, neoitungzi, to refer to women who have same-sex erotic desires regardless of their sexual identification. Tungzi is a term that can be used to refer to a variety of persons who experience same-sex desires. Tungzi is the local Hong Kong Cantonese pronunciation of the Mandarin term tongzhi (transliterated according to the Hanyu pinyin system). Tongzhi means ‘comrade’ and was first deployed to refer to members of sexual minority groups by Hong Kong cultural icon, film critic and playwright Edward Lam. He first used the term in reference to a gay and lesbian film program he curated for the 1992 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (Kong 2010: 14).
Hong Kong women with lesbian desires often use culturally specific taxonomies to identify themselves and to express their gender identities. TB or tomboy commonly refers to an androgynous or masculine woman. TBG or tomboy’s girl refers to a woman who is attracted to a TB. However, it is worth noting that not all TBs end up in relationships with TBGs; rather there are multiple forms of relationships that have become more prevalent as gay and lesbian visibility increases. The term pure refers to a woman who prefers to adopt a gender identity that is neither TB nor TBG so as to locate herself outside the TB and TBG coupled relationships. Les and bi are also used to express a woman’s sexual desires as a lesbian or a bisexual.
Despite the availability of a range of terms for describing lesbian identities, during my earlier ethnographic fieldwork from 2003 to 2008, it was apparent that many same-sex desiring women in Hong Kong did not readily take up these sexual identities for fear of stigmatisation and discrimination (Tang 2011). The fear of labeling has propelled some women to distance themselves from political movements which advocate sexual rights and human rights for sexual minorities. However, upon returning to Hong Kong in 2011, it appears that the tide has turned as we now see increasing numbers of participants in Pride Parades, anti-homophobia marches and pro-democracy protests. Participants in these marches also include non-Chinese lesbians including Filipino and Indonesian lesbians who are migrant workers in the city. Recent years have seen lesbian and trans activists bridging divides across race and ethnicities to mobilise for issues concerning workers’ rights, human rights, social justice, sex discrimination and sexual rights.
Hong Kong is a former British colony which became a Special Administrative Region of Mainland China in 1997. The decriminalisation of homosexuality in Hong Kong in 1991 can be regarded as a final departure from British colonial legislation on homosexuality. Yet as fears of a possible crackdown on freedom of speech by the Beijing government and concerns over the lack of universal suffrage in Hong Kong have increased, LGBT communities have begun to fight for issues beyond sexual rights so as to demonstrate solidarity with other activist groups on a wide range of political issues affecting Hong Kong society (see Kong et al. in this volume). For a city that has been known for its status as an international finance centre and a democratic voice in Chinese territory, LGBT individuals have inherited a historical legacy of being able to voice their discontent despite the lack of formal legal protection, while at the same time exercising their rights as consumer-citizens by going to gay bars, lesbian cafes and attending the annual queer film festival (Kong 2010; Tang 2011).