By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: is homosexuality a western idea?
some locals claim homosexuality is western idea. (not the acceptance, but actually homosexuality) reading the article about the lesbian couple was the 3rd time i heard that nonsensical idea.
are chinese really taught this?
Some are taught that aids are our fault, so this wouldnt surprise me one bit.
No. It was invented by the Chinese!
Seriously though, it occurs in nature, across many higher order species. How many times have you seen a male dog mount another male dog? Having grown up in a farming community, I have seen it amongst other animals as well.
So I think it is just a natural part of the order of things, that is suppressed by most human animals, due to societal expectations. In China, for example, it is more prevalent because of the shortage of women, and other social factors.
However, it is suppressed by the Chinese government. Up until 2007, the Chinese government officially declared it a mental illness. Considering the extent of homosexuality in the country, this caused a lot of fear, suppressed guilt feelings, self doubt and denial.
I don't think it is an idea. It is a natural phenomenon. How nice it would be if all males were gay except for me. Wow. Franck3
Scandinavian:
that's not very likely to happen, I mean it's pretty gay to finish off every post by wiring your name: Scandinavian
mattsm84:
Come now, the gays are very stylish. Signing a post on a message board is so much more "old man" than anything else. I bet Franck3 hunt and pecks his way through most of his posts.
Traveler:
Interesting that he wants to be completely surrounded by gay men, but won't admit to being gay himself.
willstevenson:
what a retarded bunch of comments, except franck's, which was at least kinda funny.
I think they are. Every term I get this from my students and from some of my friends, that "gay people did not exist until foreigners brought them".
bill8899:
That is hilarious! I must broach the subject in my classes! They teach many funny ideas in schools here.
Hulk:
My people did not know what alcohol was until the white man came with his firewater.
As some others have said, homosexuality is not even a solely human idea!
perhaps the chinese are not taught about , the greeks, romans and gay culture from these areas that they sold silk and swapped weapons with on the silk road 2000 years ago. last time i checked this was not considered west, but why ruin a good story.
crimochina:
i think you are missing the point. i'm pretty sure there were gay cavemen . i'm pretty sure there were gays in year 1 of china's 5000 year history
ambivalentmace:
i was making the point that it could have never come from the west, in fact we now know the float theory of continents did not bring the americas the indians from africa or europe, the indians have dna traits that trace back to the chinese. so if it started anywhere , for the sake of the arguement , it started in china. the chinese would never tell citizens that 9 to 12 percent of all people have genetic markers for being homosexual just like they dont teach that 9 percent of the population is left handed.
It depends on what we are talking about. Do they mean the physical act, or acts, of homosexual love, that which we used to call sodomy? No. We have no idea who first came up with that any more than we have any idea who invented heterosexual intercourse. Do they mean a preference to partner with people of ones own gender over a member of the opposite sex? Scientific research, the lion's share of which does come out of the west, suggests that these preferences are innate. Or do they mean, to quote Michel Foucualt " a kind of interior androgyny, a hermaphroditism of the soul" as existing as a signifier for homosexuality. Then the answer is yes, this is very much a western social construction. And, for me at least, its understandable that foreign cultures would be freaked out by it. For those of us that are teachers, try paying extra close attention to the guys in your classes. A few of them do act androgynously, yet their peers do not regard them as being especially abnormal--which is significant given the value that the Chinese place upon conformity. Even among adults, describing a man as soft, cute, delicate or gentle is understood as being complimentary.
Put another way, we know that most Chinese consider homosexuality to be wrong as it demonstrates a break in filial piety, as it robs the family of off spring, which is one of the duties of a son or daughter. This is why something like 90% of gays in China end up getting married. Yet there is no stigma attached to acting in a way that we westerners would consider to be gay. To them, that we've taken a set of acceptable, or even desirable behaviors and seemingly have placed them off limits is probably very confusing, and weirdly foreign.
This reminded me of an episode of The Simpsons when Bart makes a call to Moe's Tavern.
Moe: Hello, Moe's Tavern.
Bart: Hi, is Homer there?
Moe: Homer who?
Bart: Homer.........Sexual
Moe: Hey everyone, I'm looking for a Homer Sexual. Is there a Homer Sexual here?
Anyway to answer the question, no it is not a western idea.
mattsm84:
Why you little! When I find you I'm gunna staple a flag to your butt and mail you to Iran.
I agree with Traveler, it's a Chinese invention. Why else would the society look down upon women and offsetting the gender distribution by selecting not to have as many girls in the society.
there is a relevant news story on the topic here.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/03/chinese-women-gay-men-marriage_n_1253091.html
Did you know, each ancient Chinese emperor used to have 3000 wives? What do you think those 3000 wives sexual life would be like?
As a native Chinese guy, I don't remember we were ever taught that homosexuality is a western IDEA. But we were indeed taught that the sex liberation(性自由、性解放) in western countries during the 1960s and 1970s (if I remember correctly) has bad consequences. And HIV/AIDS infection rates are higher among homosexual people, usually because of unsafe sex and unstable partners.
I guess the reason why some people take it as a "western" thing is pretty much that before China opened up in 1978, homosexuality was never mentioned and maybe oppressed in red China. It never appealed so much attention like it does today. Probably some people are encouraged by the trend of legalization of homosexuality in western countries lately.
Thanks.
mattsm84:
A few small quibbles. We call it the sexual revolution. Although we tie it to women's liberation, the two are mostly separate entities despite some overlap. I wonder if the people that are writing the curriculum are conflating the two.
Second, what do you suppose they are encouraged to do? Are they encouraged to be attracted to people with whom they share a gender? If so, how? Or are they encouraged to be openly gay? If so, then how is that a bad thing, especially when we consider the alternative is having people trapped in loveless marriages?
Third, I'd be interested in hearing what China feels the negative consequences of the sexual revolution and woman's liberation were. In the United States, we tend to think of these things as uniformly positive, and typically group them with civil rights and the mainstreaming of American counter-culture when we talk about important steps forward that occurred between 1965 and 1975. In fact, the only things from that span of time that we ever discuss in less than glowing terms would be the Vietnam War and Watergate.
I've no idea but it seems that if sexual honesty and the right of one man to roger another man, or of a woman to eat of the bearded-clam were encouraged, it would surely help the goal of China's 'one child' policy no end.
