153mm 10.6mm 153mm ORAL HISTORIES OF OLDER GAY MEN O R IN HONG KONG A ORAL HISTORIES OF L H I S Unspoken but Unforgotten T O OLDER GAY MEN R ‘This book makes an original contribution. Very few scholars, anywhere, have recorded the I E lives of older gay men. The stories of the men in this collection are intrinsically interesting, S often poignant, and make for a compelling read. These life narratives really need to be O IN HONG KONG preserved and made available to a wide audience—they are valuable historical documents.’ F O —Stevi Jackson, The University of York L D ‘Kong’s work demonstrates the potential and power of research to not only understand and E R describe phenomena, but to eff ect change—to make a diff erence. Clearly, this book has G made a diff erence—not only in the lives of the interviewees, but much more broadly as A through the book in its original language and the hopeful, inclusive message the group Y M epitomizes and shares.’ E Unspoken but Unforgotten —Brian de Vries, San Francisco State University N I N ‘This is very personal and private, but I’ve told you everything.’ Old Chan thus gives voice H to the attitude expressed in all thirteen stories told in this intimate oral history of life at the O N margins of Hong Kong society, stories punctuated by laughter, joy, happiness, and pride, as G 2 well as tears, anger, remorse, shame, and guilt. K 29 m O m Illustrated with photos, letters, and other images, Oral Histories of Older Gay Men in Hong N Kong: Unspoken but Unforgotten gives voice to the complexities of a ‘secretive’ past with G unique hardships as these men came to terms with their sexuality, adulthood, and a colonial society. The men talk with equal candour about how their sexuality remains a complication U n as they negotiate failing health, ageing, and their current role in society. s p o While fascinating as life histories, these stories also add insight to the theoretical debates k surrounding identity and masculinity, coming out, ageing and sexuality, and power and e n resistance. Confi ned within the heteronormative culture prescribed by government, family, b u and religion, these men have lived the whole of their lives struggling to fi nd their social role, t challenging the distinction between public and private, and longing for a stable homosexual U relationship and a liberating homosexual space in the face of deteriorating health and a n f o youth-obsessed gay community. r g o t Travis S. K. Kong is a leading sociologist of Chinese sexuality with a specialization in masculin- t e n ity, homosexuality, and male prostitution. He is an associate professor of sociology at the Univer- sity of Hong Kong, co-editor of Sexualities, and the author of Chinese Male Homosexualities: Memba, Tongzhi and Golden Boy. T Gender SStoucdiiaels W / Horokng Kong r a v Cover photo by Bobby Sham. i s S . K . K Travis S. K. Kong o n Printed and bound in Hong Kong, China g This content downloaded from 147.8.204.164 on Tue, 17 Nov 2020 06:24:12 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Oral Histories of Older Gay Men in Hong Kong This content downloaded from 147.8.204.164 on Tue, 17 Nov 2020 06:24:12 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Queer Asia The Queer Asia series opens a space for monographs and anthologies in all disciplines focusing on non-normative sexuality and gender cultures, identities and practices across all regions of Asia. Queer Studies, Queer Theory, and Transgender Studies originated in, and remain dominated by, North American and European academic circles. Yet, the separation between sexual orientation and gender identity, while relevant in the West, does not neatly apply to all Asian contexts, which are themselves complex and diverse. Growing numbers of scholars inside and beyond Asia are producing exciting and challenging work that studies Asian histories and cultures of trans and queer phenomena. The Queer Asia series—first of its kind in publishing—provides a valuable oppor- tunity for developing and sustaining these initiatives. Selected titles in the series: As Normal as Possible: Negotiating Sexuality and Gender in Mainland China and Hong Kong Edited by Yau Ching Boys’ Love, Cosplay, and Androgynous Idols: Queer Fan Cultures in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan Edited by Maud Lavin, Ling Yang, and Jing Jamie Zhao Conditional Spaces: Hong Kong Lesbian Desires and Everyday Life Denise Tse-Shang Tang Contact Moments: The Politics of Intercultural Desire in Japanese Male-Queer Cultures Katsuhiko Suganuma Falling into the Lesbi World: Desire and Difference in Indonesia Evelyn Blackwood First Queer Voices from Thailand: Uncle Go’s Advice Columns for Gays, Lesbians and Kathoeys Peter A. Jackson Gender on the Edge: Transgender, Gay, and Other Pacific Islanders Edited by Niko Besnier and Kalissa Alexeyeff Obsession: Male Same-Sex Relations in China, 1900–1950 Wenqing Kang Queer Bangkok: 21st Century Markets, Media, and Rights Edited by Peter A. Jackson Queer Politics and Sexual Modernity in Taiwan Hans Tao-Ming Huang Queer Singapore: Illiberal Citizenship and Mediated Cultures Edited by Audrey Yue and Jun Zubillaga-Pow Shanghai Lalas: Female Tongzhi Communities and Politics in Urban China Lucetta Yip Lo Kam Undercurrents: Queer Culture and Postcolonial Hong Kong Helen Hok-Sze Leung Editorial Collective Chris Berry (King’s College London, UK), John Nguyet Erni (Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong), Peter Jackson (Australian National University, Australia), and Helen Hok-Sze Leung (Simon Fraser University, Canada) International Editorial Board Dennis Altman (La Trobe University, Australia) Evelyn Blackwood (Purdue University, USA) Tom Boellstorff (University of California, Irvine, USA Pimpawan Boonmongkon (Mahidol University, Thailand) Judith Butler (University of California, Berkeley, USA) Ding Naifei (National Central University, Taiwan) David Eng (University of Pennsylvania, USA) Neil Garcia (University of the Philippines, Diliman, The Philippines) David Halperin (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA) Josephine Chuen-juei Ho (National Central University, Taiwan) Annamarie Jagose (University of Sydney, Australia) Yinhe Li (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China) Song Hwee Lim (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong) Kam Louie (UNSW, Australia) Lenore Manderson (Monash University, Australia) Fran Martin (University of Melbourne, Australia) Mark McLelland (University of Wollongong, Australia) Meaghan Morris (University of Sydney, Australia) Dede Oetomo (University of Surabaya, Indonesia) Cindy Patton (Simon Fraser University, Canada) Ken Plummer (University of Essex, UK) Elspeth Probyn (University of Sydney, Australia) Lisa Rofel (University of California, Santa Cruz, USA) Megan Sinnott (Georgia State University, USA) John Treat (Yale University, USA) Carol Vance (Columbia University, USA) Audrey Yue (National University of Singapore, Singapore) This content downloaded from 147.8.204.164 on Tue, 17 Nov 2020 06:24:12 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Oral Histories of Older Gay Men in Hong Kong Unspoken but Unforgotten Travis S. K. Kong This content downloaded from 147.8.204.164 on Tue, 17 Nov 2020 06:24:12 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Hong Kong University Press The University of Hong Kong Pokfulam Road Hong Kong https://hkupress.hku.hk © 2019 Hong Kong University Press ISBN 978-988-8528-06-6 (Paperback) All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed and bound by Ocean Printing Co., Ltd. in Hong Kong, China This content downloaded from 147.8.204.164 on Tue, 17 Nov 2020 06:24:12 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms To All Older Male Tongzhi This content downloaded from 147.8.204.164 on Tue, 17 Nov 2020 06:24:12 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms This content downloaded from 147.8.204.164 on Tue, 17 Nov 2020 06:24:12 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Contents Preface and Acknowledgements viii Note on Romanization x Introduction 1 1. Old Chan: Brokeback below the Lion Rock (1924–2013) 21 2. Brother Ming: Who Says There Are No Communist Tongzhi? (1935–2010) 29 3. Shmily: A Butterfly with 1,500 Male Lovers (1949–) 40 4. David: A Charming Liar (1946–) 53 5. Robert: A Banished Expatriate Officer in the Royal Hong Kong Police (1947–) 65 6. Jonathan: A Gay Gambler Who Turned over a New Leaf (1948–) 76 Letters Provided by Interviewees 91 Photo Exhibition of An Oral History of Older Gay Men in Hong Kong (2014) 95 7. Uncle Lee: A Sunset Tongzhi (1940–2016) 101 8. May Wu: A Divine Woman’s Poisons of Ignorance, Attachment, and Aversion (1940–) 109 9. Brother Shing: Only Men Understand Me (1944–) 121 10. Uncle Leung: A Lifelong Libertine Who ‘Queered’ around Hong Kong, Macao, and Canton (1945–) 130 11. Tommy: A Bisexual Butterfly (1949–) 138 12. Tony: The Bear Chaser (1950–) 149 13. Nigel Collett: A History Boy, a Military Man, a Writer, and an Activist (1952–) 161 Conclusion: Transformation of an Academic Project into Participatory Action Research 171 Glossary 179 Maps 182 References 183 This content downloaded from 147.8.204.164 on Tue, 17 Nov 2020 06:24:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Introduction* To be gay . . . is not to identify with the psychological traits and the visible masks of the homosexual, but to try to define and develop a way of life. —Michel Foucault, ‘Friendship as a Way of Life’, 1996 There are many defining moments of tongzhi1 history in Hong Kong: the crimi- nalization of ‘buggery’ in 1842 when the British took over Hong Kong; the MacLennan incident in 1980, which triggered the subsequent ten years of public and legal debate over whether male homosexual conduct should be decrimi- nalized; the arrival of AIDS in 1984 and its alleged association with gay men; the decriminalization of male homosexual conduct in 1991; the mushrooming of tongzhi organizations and the emergence of a substantial tongzhi consump- tion infrastructure, including bars, clubs, saunas, massage parlours, cafes, and bookshops beginning in the 1990s; the equalization of the age of consent from 21 to 16 between homosexuals and heterosexuals in 2005; the International Day against Homophobia (IDAHO) marches since 2005; pride parades since 2008, the inclusion of same-sex partners in a domestic violence ordinance in 2009; the public ‘coming out’ of pop stars Anthony Wong Yiu-ming and Denise Ho * Some of the material in this introduction appeared in an earlier version in a different form as Kong (2012) and Kong, Lau, and Li (2015). 1. Tong (meaning ‘same’) and zhi (meaning ‘ideal’ or ‘aspiration’) exist in classical Chinese literature but the combination of the two words tongzhi was first used in 1911 to signify a revolutionary and political subjectivity “comrade” by Sun Yixian (or Sun Yat-sen), father of the modern Chinese nation, who encouraged Chinese people to fight against the Qing imperialist regime in the early twentieth century. His saying, ‘the revolution has not been successful; comrades should fight for it until the end’, became a famous slogan for the revolution in both the Republican and People’s Republic of China eras. After the First Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, held in 1989, was referred to as the Tongzhi Film Festival by local gay writer Edward Lam, tongzhi suddenly became an umbrella term for people with non-normative genders and sexualities and a synonym for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer). The queer appropriation of the term became very popular in both the LGBTQ and straight communities in Hong Kong and then in Taiwan, and finally in the LGBTQ community in China. Its popularity may be due to its erasure of sexual connota- tion, unlike the clinical term ‘homosexual’ or the Western term ‘gay’, and its affirmation of a ‘positive’ rather than ‘negative’ (e.g., ‘queer’) identity (Leung 2008, 1–6; Kong 2011, 14–15; Bao 2018, 65–91; Kong, Lau and Hui 2019). This content downloaded from 147.8.204.164 on Tue, 17 Nov 2020 06:25:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 2 Oral Histories of Older Gay Men in Hong Kong Wan-see, also known as HOCC, as well as legislative council member Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, in 2012; and Pink Dot Hong Kong since 2014, with the latest one in 2017 reported by the organizers to have attracted 11,000 people—straight and tongzhi—to celebrate inclusiveness, diversity, and the freedom to love. Parallel with this social-historical transformation of homosexuality is the study of homosexuality, which started in the late 1980s but has focused over- whelmingly on post-war (i.e., second Sino-Japanese War [1937–1945]) tongzhi generations in Hong Kong. These studies have documented how tongzhi realize their same-sex desires; struggle with their sexual identity and thus their coming out stories; seek same-sex encounters; form intimate relationships; live in the stratified tongzhi worlds; challenge heterosexist assumptions in virtually all social institutions; fight for equality; and advocate activism and tongzhi move- ments (e.g., Ho 1997; Chou 2000; Ho and Tsang 2000, 2004, 2007; Kong 2002, 2004, 2005, 2011; Wong 2004, 2007; Yau 2005, 2006, 2010; Leung 2008; Tang 2011). What is missing from this oversimplified history and the studies of homo- sexuality is the history of the early generations who were born before the 1950s and how they live their present lives. We know very little about the past of older tongzhi, from their problems of identity formation and issues with coming out to their struggles in creating a social and sexual space for community networking during the era when homosexuality was still a crime. We also know nothing about their present lives, and what problems they face in their private and social lives, both in the straight and the tongzhi worlds. International research also shows that there is an acute research gap in our understanding of older gay men and lesbians (as well as other sexual minori- ties). They are under-researched in academic scholarship, under-represented in mainstream and queer popular cultures, invisible in social policy and social services, and marginalized even within the LGBTQ community. In short, they are an ‘unseen minority’ (Berger 1982) or ‘a minority within a minority’ (Jones and Pugh 2005). While the issue of sexuality is under-researched in the sociology of ageing, the issues of age and generation have also been relatively neglected in the sociology of sexuality (Plummer 2010). Only recently has research recog- nized the intersections between the two, attempting to capture the complexity and diversity of how ageing is experienced and negotiated (e.g., Heaphy, Yip, and Thompson 2004; Heaphy 2007; Cronin and King 2010; Cruz 2011; Suen 2015). Older gay men and lesbians definitely constitute a missing piece of the puzzle of Chinese tongzhi history and also a marginalized area in ageing studies, sexu- ality studies, and social history studies in Hong Kong. As stated before, local (homo-)sexuality studies focus overwhelmingly on gay men (and lesbians) born in the 1950s or after. This is also the case in local tongzhi stories and novels (e.g., Chou, Mak, and Kong 1995; Chou 1996; Mak and King 2000; Kam 2001; Yip 2003, 2004). Moreover, local ageing studies assume their older participants to be heterosexual, failing to consider the specific experiences of older gay men This content downloaded from 147.8.204.164 on Tue, 17 Nov 2020 06:25:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms