Fridae

This weekend some of Beijing's thespians will be performing in celebration of their country's lesbians.

Bottom pic: Li Yinhe, China's first female sociologist on sex issues and was once listed as one of China's 50 Most Influential People by Asian Weekly.

China's capital is hosting its first ever Gay & Lesbian Culture Festival, running from this Friday until Sunday in On Off, a popular gay bar in the city center.

It is the first time an event like this has been held in China.

On Thursday police barred the organisers from holding the three-day event at an exhibition space in Beijing's Dashanzi art district.

"The Beijing police office said we didn't have permission so we couldn't hold it as planned," said one of the festival's organisers Yang Yang.

"We didn't ask for permission because if we asked we knew they wouldn't have let us (hold the festival)," said Yang Yang.

Organisers of two previous gay and lesbian film festivals in Beijing suffered harassment from authorities - the first film festival in 2001 was shut down after three days, while the second one, held earlier this year, had to relocate.

The free event includes cinema showings, theatre - drama, opera, and dance - paintings, photographs, discussion groups and an exhibition documenting the last 20 years of gay and lesbian society in China.

There are visiting artists as well as performers from mainland universities. Some of the more intriguing-sounding attractions are a Dai ethnic minority dance called "Here flies the peacock," and a forum entitled "From homosexual to queer."

Famous faces attending from the gay and lesbian world include sexologist Li Yinhe, Sun Zhongxin who teaches a course on homosexuality at Fudan University, artist Shitou, star of Beijing's first lesbian movie - Fish and Elephant - and Douglas Sanders, a retired Canadian law professor, who specialises in legal rights for gays.

Xian, one of the co-organisers said the three-day festival was timed at the end of this year to mark China's apparent move towards accepting gays and lesbians. She pointed to the softening stance of the local media in its treatment of homosexuals over the past 18 months.

"Some great things have happened this year so we decided to hold it now to celebrate," she said.

The theme for this landmark festival, she added, was "a coming out of the closet (for China's gays).

"It's the first time for gays and lesbians to go public... we are asking for recognition."

The festival's website said the event aims to, "change ignorance and discrimination against lesbians and gays in China, promote communication between homosexuals and the public, and enhance and encourage gay culture."

Xian said the highlight of the festival for her was an exhibition covering the past two decades of homosexuality in China, focusing mainly on the positive developments. Most of this will be in Chinese, but there will be some samples from English-language media, she added.

It's a record of "everything related to gays and lesbians (in China) - including publications and media," she said.

The idea for the festival was hatched after Beijing hosted its second International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in April. That event had to be moved from its original location in Beijing University to Dashanzi because the university authorities objected to the program.

Xian said she hopes it will become a regular event, perhaps held once every two years.

Researcher Elisabeth Lund Engebretsen, who is studying China's lesbian community in Beijing is upbeat about the festival.

"Just the fact that it is taking place is a great thing, hopefully without any government interruption," she said.

The message behind the festival is neatly summed up in an introduction by the event's co-organiser, film director Cui Zi'en, the darling of China queer cinema.

"In China, being gay might not be a reason for feeling proud, yet the roles of guilt and shame definitely belong to those who discriminate and repress," he wrote.

"Love is our beauty and sadness. Freedom is our glory and dream."

The first Beijing Gay & Lesbian Culture Festival is being held at On Off bar in Dongcheng district from Friday, 5pm December 16. It runs until Sunday December 18. All events are free. See http://eng.bglcf.org/ for more information (also available in Chinese).