ZONE:

Chinese Lovers? Day, celebrated on Saturday August 25th, was a pretty gay affair in Taipei. Channel V sponsored a Gay Paradise Party at New York New York nightclub with a drag-show and cabaret, and a men-only chill-out event was held at @live, complete with underwear party and go-go boys. But this weekend also heralded the second coming-out of a different side to gay life in Taiwan, with the Taipei City Gay & Lesbian Festival, organized by the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association in league with two other groups, the Taiwan Gay & Lesbian Rights Association and the Gender Sexuality Rights Association.

Lai Yu-lin, the general secretary of the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline, said that the festival events were scheduled to coincide with Chinese Lovers? Day in order to smash the stereotypes that associate the G&L community with sex rather than love, and to remind people of the love and affection that gays and lesbians share.

The festival is the only G&L event in Taiwan that is officially sponsored, and for the second year in a row Taipei City Government granted funds of NT$1 million (almost US$30,000) towards the event, despite vociferous opposition from Christian religious groups in Taiwan.

Eager to demonstrate their progressive stance on G&L rights at the press conference last week, Taipei City Government official, Lin Cheng-hsi, director of the Bureau of Civil Affairs, pointed out that G&L culture is something to be cherished as contributing to the overall diversity of Taipei city?s culture and mainstream culture should be more accommodating of G&L people. He also noted that both Paris and Berlin had recently elected openly gay mayors, indicating Europe?s increasing ease with homosexuals in politics.

"Homosexuals deserve their rights in society," said Lin, "and we hope that everyone can try to understand a bit more about them."

Taipei City?s own mayor Ma Ying-jeou did not attend any of the organized events, but over the weekend his official schedule included attending a migrant workers poetry writing contest and donning flamboyant traditional blue flowing robes at a Hakka Festival.

Lai Yu-lin said he hoped that the festival would act as a communication channel between the straight and G&L communities. "We want to dismiss the stereotype that gays and lesbians can only hide in dark corners," he said, adding that the city government?s involvement in the fight for homosexual civil rights would help sanction a more positive attitude from the general public.

The festival?s main events began on Friday night, the eve of Chinese Lovers? Day, with a screening of the documentary "Corners" at Taipei?s 228 Peace Park, notorious for cruising. Made by Zero and Hoho, the film explores G&L life in Taipei and expresses love from a lesbian angle.

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Corners was the name of a bar that was popular with gay men around a year ago and has since become a hangout for local lesbians. The bar has undergone a few changes of management and has been closed intermittently, waxing and waning in popularity as its initial opening period coincided with a crackdown on gay drinking venues by Taipei City police.

Anyone who has experienced one of these spot-checks where you are requested (at machine-gun point) to form lines along racial grounds will understand the effect it can have on business. But the documentary concentrated on the more positive aspects of Corners, as a meeting place for a wide range of people and a place where gays and lesbians could relax together.

Around 450 people attended the screening at the park amphitheater and many of the predominantly young, student crowd were forced to stand. With a main commentary in French, director Zero attempted to express what language couldn?t express through an unfamiliar tongue, leaving the viewer to construct his or her own interpretation through abstract imagery and snatches of real-life interviews in Chinese and a smattering of English.

In a city full of brightly-lit bridal wear shops, one of the most memorable images was two lesbians in full bridal gowns having their photos taken at a train station in a surreal parody of the local straight practice.

The screening was very well received, and only one mixed-gender couple (who I won?t automatically assume were straight) got up and walked away during a sequence of lesbian lovemaking. The film also cut in images of gay men cruising at night with shots of the graphic sexual graffiti in the park toilets, actually only yards away from the amphitheater where the film was showing. This was perhaps the most inspired touch.

On Chinese Lovers? Day itself, the sun was as usual shining on gays and lesbians at the actual festival, held in and around the old gymnasium of Tai Da University. Again a mainly student crowd enjoyed music and games in a relaxed fairground atmosphere, with exhibition booths, sports events and competitions in the afternoon.

Lesbian and gay literature, music and refreshments were available from a row of brightly-colored stalls, and there was even a Tunnel of Love, where couples could walk through, french kiss a little, and then declare their love for each other on the rainbow-bedecked stage at the end. Taipei County?s Sound of the Real Heart radio station broadcast live from the festival all day, and the whole crowd seemed to be enjoying the sun, fun and games.

"Everybody has to have somewhere to escape the pressure," said Benny Lu, spokesperson for the Taipei office of the Taiwan Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Association, "and while the most important thing is to discuss G&L civil rights, it?s also good to have some fun."

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A student at Taipei?s Fu Jen Catholic University, Lu has not been able to start a G&L group due to people?s concerns about coming out in the conservative religious atmosphere of the establishment. This is echoed throughout the country and not just at the Christian universities.

Although not at a certain high school in Kaohsiung it seems, where a recent survey suggested that 22 percent of female students were lesbian, according to a skeptical Catholic priest in his weekly column in this Sunday?s China Post, one of the local English-language newspapers.

"We?ve come up from Kaohsiung today to take part," said a 19-year-old calling herself Renda, "and it?s great to see so many other lesbians out having a good time."

In fact, festival-goers were predominantly young lesbians and there was a distinct lack of older gay men, but this may have had something to do with the heat and the 200 or so sweating shirtless youths taking part in the Taiwan Beer-sponsored basketball tournament across from the gymnasium.

Next month the 4th Chinese Tongzhi Conference will be held in Taipei, the first time it has taken place in Taiwan, and a lot of the promotion at the festival was centered around this. As the movement eschews Western-styled gay activism and seeks to disassociate Chinese gays from a purely sex-driven scene, we were hoping for something uniquely Taiwanese or at least different. But while the festival was of course another step forward for Taiwan?s G&L movement, the festival?s emphasis on the procurement of civil rights and its refusal to look for commercial sponsorship from the city?s many gay bars, clubs, saunas and coffeeshops could give an outsider the impression that there is nothing going on in Taipei for lesbians and gay people except hoopla at the local church bazaar.

Indeed, a couple of young gay men I spoke to did not even seem to be aware that there were any gay bars in Taipei. This is, unfortunately, the situation that the Taiwan Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Association seems to promote.

The Second Taipei City Gay & Lesbian Festival was as successful as it could have been, but let?s hope next year the organizers aren?t afraid to involve the commercial sector as this will ensure a greater turn-out of participants and increase and promote diversity. Isn?t this what it?s supposed to be about?

At least the beer-swilling, smoking, sexually predatory G&L community in Taiwan can find out where to do what they enjoy doing best by looking at fridae.com?s city guide to Taipei ? with Taichung and Kaohsiung coming soon!