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In this book, Loretta Wing Wah Ho examines what she calls "a fresh form of Chinese same-sex identity" that has arisen under the influence of national and global forces since China's opening up. She argues that the confluence of a heightened sense of nationalism and the dominant, yet often fragmentary, notions of Western gayness has led to a paradoxical articulation of the Chinese same-sex identity in urban China, that is, "open and decentered, but at the same time, national and conforming to state control" (p. 1). More specifically, Ho contends that Chinese gays and lesbians self-consciously appropriate Western experiences of modernity without abandoning what they consider to be an "authentic" Chinese same-sex identity (p. 1).
This book is based on a combination of empirical fieldwork, secondary research, and cyber research. Ho conducted fieldwork in Beijing where she observed the same-sex community, talked to people about homosexuality, and interviewed 41 people, including cross-dressing performers and money boys (prostitutes). She also maintained post-fieldwork phone and email contacts with informants. This book also draws on secondary research materials and internet research on the Chinese "gay scene" (p. 5).
Ho observes that urban gay-friendly spaces such as gay bars emerged along with the spread of Westernization and Western gay and lesbian practices, the urgent appeal for HIV/AIDS education in China, and the international...