Eight brave gay young men are in the running to be crowned Mr Gay China next Friday. The winner of the competition, which is held for the first time in China, will represent his country at the Mr Gay World Ambassador pageant to be held in Oslo, Norway in February.
The finals will see the contestants aged between 24 and 30 - in sportswear and swimsuit segments, and a Q&A session - put their best leg forward to convince a panel of judges and audience at the finals why he is the “quintessential young man that is representative of China.”
Although organisers declined to reveal the total number of applications received, Ryan Dutcher, co-founder & Communications Director of Gayographic, a website and events and public relations company, said they are pleased with the number of applicants despite the challenges of coming out as gay in a contest like this one.
Dutcher, an American based in Beijing, told Fridae that despite having spoken to “many qualified and competitive candidates” about taking part in the contest, many are reluctant to be in the spotlight.
“Though most lead relatively open lives... and may be very active in the gay community and dedicated to the cause, they still tend to hide their sexuality from employers, old classmates, even family. They are afraid if they enter this competition, with all of its media exposure, they will not be able to keep their sexuality hidden from those people.”
Despite the challenges, he says he’s happy that they were able to attract “many qualified candidates that are completely out to everyone and are not afraid to be the face of gay China.”
The 30-year-old PR consultant told Fridae that although the competition is open to all, only citizens of China have applied. Most of the eight contestants reside in Beijing and hail from as far away as Harbin, Chongqing and Xinjiang while three are Beijing natives.
The website says judges will be looking for ‘inner beauty’ in addition to physical attributes.
Top row (left to right): Steven, David, Xiao Dai, Emilio;
second row: Simon, Xuefei, Jay, Justin
Note: The results of this poll will not affect the outcome of the official contest.
“The Mr Gay China competition is much more than a beauty contest. While physical beauty will be part of the judges’ considerations, it is a young man’s character and personality that will make a difference in the selection."
The winner will be chosen by the audience at the event, whom they believe will be the best representative of gay China, among the final three candidates who are selected by the judges
Although homosexuality was officially considered a mental illness until as recently as 2001, gay events in China have been neutrally, if not positively, covered by local media in recent years.
Co-organiser and Managing Director Ben Zhang was recently quoted in media reports as saying that mainstream media will not be invited to the pageant as he is concerned that overexposure might result in “unnecessary difficulties.”
While he did not elaborate on what those difficulties might be, several events at the country’s first gay pride parade held in Shanghai in June this year were cancelled. Organisers of the festival however say the reasons for the cancellation of two film screenings and a play and were due to licensing issues rather than them being gay linked.
Dutcher explains that the organisers have been focusing most of their outreach to international media and local bloggers, and not to the local media given the “complicated situation” and the “possibility of increased scrutiny from the authorities.”
An estimated 15 million to 30 million of its 1.3 billion population (1.15 or 2.3 percent) is believed to be gay.
The Mr Gay China competition will be held on January 15 at LAN Club in Beijing.
Correction (Jan 12, 2009): In the article, Fridae reported that three of the contestants are Beijing natives based on information provided by organisers. Organisers on Monday however confirmed that while six of the contestants are based in Beijing, none of the eight contestants are from the capital city.
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ryan
And how do you assess that on a catwalk?
As daft as Miss World....
p.s. i am sooooo rooting for Mr 0011. Mr 0101 is not bad too XD
pfft..:^( inner beauty my ass.
I always wonder how the hell judges be able to see contestants' inner beauty in a short time?? Why can't we just accept that every beauty contest(including this) is a contest of good looks? Not that I'm saying the contestants' intelligence/inner beauty or whatever that opposite to physique aren't important but seriously.. this ain't a college scholarship contest and we all know it.
The organizers should change the title to "Judges will be looking for "PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES" in addition to the inner beauty. That makes much more sense(at least to me).
One thing I find perplexing though : If you want to best represent your country why use a foreign (nick) name ?
But since when? Certainly not throughout all of China's long history.
1011 gets my vote! So sexy!!
I care little for beauty contests but you seem, like so many on this site, to have a bit of a bugbear about the 'white' Mr Gay HK.
Well, I really hope that he beats your racially pure Mr China in Oslo. Or at the very least your Mr China loses. Unless of course Mr China happens to be a Tibetan or a Uighur or another non-Han minority.
0010
1011
1010
Based on face alone, my first choice is 0011 (Jay).
0101 (Xiao Dai) and 1000 (Xuefei) could pass too.
好想要你。
Justin (0111), go do your thing. You are and will be the best Ambassador for all China at the Mr. Gay Ambassador pageant in Oslo.
it takes a brave person to stand up and come out in such a sensitive enviroment.
as to iggy pop and all the other bitchy sour grape morons shut the *^~# up dick heads
First, to attract more participants in the future, this contest must not just be about looks. As the organiser rightly explained, "a young man’s character and personality that will make a difference in the selection." So, I'd appreciate that more information regarding each contestant's inner qualities be mentioned on their respective profiles. To be successful, this contest must stand for something positive, both in the eyes of the gay community and that of the general public. Character, in particular, is a critical attribute. Does a contestant project a positive image of the gay community or does he hurt the community's image?
Second, the organiser should seek endorsement from outside the gay community in various forms. For example, a few of the judges could be straight men and women, clergymen, politicians or senior executives (such as HR directors or CEO) of MNCs. This will both raise the status of this contest and assure the gay community that we are not loners in the fight for more equality.
Third, the parents, teachers or spiritual adviser of the winner should be sponsored to attend the prize-awarding ceremony. This send an important message to the gay community worldwide: that successful gays could manage their important relationships well and be affirmed by the society, and we should have the confidence of achieving such success. These affirming groups include employers, government, religious groups, and straight families.
Lastly, the organiser could work with gay media worldwide to indirectly sponsor this contest. The commercial sponsors of this event would enjoy free online advertisements for a year worldwide. The economic advantage of being gay-friendly should be emphasised and celebrated so as to encourage even more companies to become gay-friendly, including by banning gay discrimination in their hiring policy and sponsoring gay-affirming causes.
After all his comment abt "brave persons", he still not dare to put his own pic...what a shame.
Is it very typical where he is come from?
Unless, of course, if Fridae has a policy to require all members to display their pics or it is in Fridae's position to subject those who choose not to display a pic at some point to shame. But you don't represent Fridae nor do you have the right to criticize those thousands of members who choose not to display their pics. Many who had displayed their pics (including myself) may choose to remove their pics during some periods. It may be because they are attached and no longer wish to attract unwanted invitations, or it may be for other reasons. I don't think anyone should feel shameful for having removed his pics.
You have the right to feel 'disappointed' about anyone who chooses not to let you see their pics, as much as others have the right to feel disappointed at your distasteful pic and ridiculous remarks. But you have no basis to subject anyone to shame except yourself.
best of luck to all...especially, of course, to candidate 0101.
VOTE FOR 0101!!!
:)
but good lucks to all others !
1011 / 0010
Nice party in DJ station
Why does Dan Glory get a free pass on the issue of race? I merely point out the obvious hypocrisy and predictably a couple of guys call me 'racist'. Boo hoo. Why on earth did so many guys on this site get away with their despicable comments regarding race and Mr Gay HK previously then?
Is racism a one-way street? Did Fridae seriously look at some of those comments?
Now, at least Fourby just called me a dickhead and whiny. That's fair enough - that is his opinion and I take it with a grain of salt. However, I will not "shut the fuck up". I actually have nothing against the winner of the Mr Gay China contest and I concede he is showing a great deal of courage in fact just by competing. It doesn't mean I have to agree with the idea of beauty contests.
During the Mr Gay HK contest, several of the posters made their opposition clear to the winner mainly due to race. Whether or not the inaugaral Mr Gay HK should have been Chinese or not is beside the question, what was disturbing was the reaction to it. I actually could not believe how vile some of the posts were.
My earlier comment above was made in response to one poster's obvious approval for the candidate based on RACE. The inference I take from this is that Mr Gay HK should not have have been selected on the same grounds - RACE. I find this notion backwards and utterly vile. You may not agree with me, but it is my opinion and I have a RIGHT to express my opinion. It is not my fault if several of you are
And I think I rather put my finger quite correctly on the button when it came to Dan Glory's comments. They are totally xenophobic. You would think people would start to wake up about some of the more unsavoury aspects of Chinese nationalism have been on display to the world for the past few years, but I find that this often goes completely critically unexamined.
What happens is that when you raise any point on this you are attacked as a) racist, b) a closet imperialist, or c) trying to impose your values on someone else. And usually its "politically correct" white people who lead the charge. Depressing. These are the type of people who consider themselves to be right-on liberals or lefties, but instead make themselves hostage to fascist agendas.
Read posts #28 and #29 again and tell me why it would be totally inconceivable that I might take Dan Glory's point of view the wrong way?
My comments are NOT racist - they are an explicit critique of Dan Glory's comments as xenophobic nationalist rubbish.
And my support for the winner of Mr Gay HK is not based on the colour of his skin, but rather for the fact that he himself received a lot of racial abuse simply for winning the contest. I thought that people on this site would have been more mature than that. Even if they disagreed with him winning.
y'en a assez du politiquement correct..
sur plus d'1 milliard 400 millions de Chinois, près de 92% sont han, donc où est le mal que Mr gay China soit chinois han ?!
Y'en a beaucoup des Mr gay France ou des Mr gay Angleterre qui sont asiatiques peut-être ?! non.. donc laissons au moins à Mr gay China le soin d'être "pur" chinois.
Il y a près de 95% de chinois à Hong-Kong, donc oui voir un américain blanc Mr Gay HK ça choque... parce que ça n'est pas représentatif de la beauté locale. Comment un blanc est sensé représenter la beauté de 95% des gens d'un pays qui ne sont pas blancs ?! Autant espérer voir un chinois être Mr Gay Danemark....
Il faut pas confondre une élection nationale avec une élection internationale. Sinon où est la différence avec "Mister Gay Universe" ?!...
so, chinese han rock the contest
à part ça.. vote 1011 ;)
But that is nice the eight guys stepped foward. Hmmmmm not sure I myself would volunteer for such a contest.
BUT, what strikes me in the article is the UNDERESTIMATE of the gay population in China. At least 15% over all. And in the major cities, hmmmm just look around guys, 20% 25% especially in younger age groups. Oh I forgot! 35% of most Chinese married men are gay too.
Are we at 100 million gay men in China yet? plus what? 40 million Gay women? Maybe we can form our own autonomous Gay Chinese Province, such as the Gay Peoples Autonomous Region or form Autonomous Gay Counties as are done for other minorities in China?
Why not? Use the system.....
Tell me how married men (35% of which are supposed gay) could be proportionally more important than the total gay population (15%).
It's impossible. It's a gay phantasm to believe that everybody is gay lol
Moreover, i don't think that a logic of ghetto is a good thing... We're all living together. No distinction, no Apartheid.
Wake up call - reliable scientific research carried out worldwide (see Oliver James' 'They F**k You Up) has established that roughly 1-2% of men are exclusively gay, as in, attracted only to the same sex. There's an additional 4-8% added on for bisexuality (which often becomes exclusive one way or another as we age), maybe 2% asexuality, and then up to 50% or more of people have had sexual experiences with someone of the same gender. Gay people love to bandy around figures lifted straight from Kinsey which in their original context actually agree that exclusive homosexuality is comparatively rare.
Chinese men may have more experiences with the same gender, but that's only because there aren't enough women to go around - 119 boys to every 100 girls, at the last count.
Sexuality is a spectrum on which we all fall somewhere.
All I can guarantee is that 100% of the Mr. Gay China contestants are brave to stand up and stand out - though the contest itself is just another beauty pageant.
0101....support u
I agree with you in principle, if 92% people in China are Han Chinese, it makes sense that most of us will expect most entrants and probably the winner to be from that group; however the qualification for entering should obviously be nationality, not race, if you are going to represent a particular country.
For your information non-whites do get to represent European countries in beauty contests, for example Miss Denmark 2008 was black.
I am not being horrid by the way, just that with China Chinese people, they're not exactly accepting are they?!
According to the BBC, the contest was shut down by the police in China, 1 hour before it was due to start.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8461643.stm
Gay pageant 'cancelled by police' in China.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8461643.stm
Is 私生子 the right word to use?
2 years ago the china male model contest, the second running up is Uighur ethnic. how could he win if Han chinese are racist???
OSLO needs to award its Mr. GAY WORLD to Mr. GAY CHINA in absentia to draw the world spotlight on BEIJING!!
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