Same Sex Love in Classical Chinese Literature
Venue: Expose Date: 2 August 2005 Time: 1930 hours

Doctor Tan Chong Kee’s talk in Mandarin on Same Sex Love in Classical Chinese Literature, the second event on the IndigNation calendar, drew an estimated crowd of 80, packed in a relatively small venue.

Even though the event started later than as stated, the crowd were attentive and broke up into laughter whenever Dr Tan amused them with some humorous anecdotes.

His talk comprises of well-respected Chinese text including sources from novels, biographies, excerpts from poems, and official books to validate his point.

Presenting his talk chronologically by era and dynasty, he shows us how widespread same sex love in China stretches back to its earliest civilizations; and its prevalence among emperors, intellectuals and commoners alike, was never considered criminal nor taboo.

His talk also touches on the start of homophobia in China that can be traced back as early as the Song dynasty when revered scholars introduced “sexual morality” and reinterpreted Confucianism. This was further aggravated and reintroduced by the invasion of the imperialists at the end of the Qing dynasty.

The talk is followed by a question and answer session in which participants followed on with questions such as the strength of the text, the prevalence of male prostitution; social structures at that time which allowed same sex love to flourish.

At the end of the talk, Dr Tan clarified that the aims of the workshop is to dispel the fallacy that traditional Chinese values forbid same sex love. We should learn to reinterpret these values and readjust them to the modern context.