Secret Love: Sexual Diversity in China
I've been to see Secret Love, a very interesting contemporary art exhibition at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam (on show until 8 May 2016). Through 45 works by 10 renowned Chinese artists such as Ma Liuming, Gao Brothers, Li Xiaofeng and Chi Peng, the exhibition explores subjects such as sexuality, desire and taboo, emphasising in particular the artists’ commitment to creating change. The focus of the exhibition is especially about taboos surrounding lesbian, homosexual, bisexual and transgender (LGBTs) identities in China.
Chi Peng “Sprinting-Forward”. Photo via Tropenmuseum
Originally curated by the National Museums of World Culture in Sweden, Secret Love asks "How do positive changes towards sexual diversity in China affect LGBTs?"
“We have done extensive research in preparation for this exhibition. This is something that nobody has done before. You could say that this exhibition is a new chapter in Chinese artistic history.”
Exhibition poster. Photo by Yang Guowei.
The introduction to the exhibition explains that Chinese society has been experiencing rapid changes, resulting in shifting views on sexuality and identity. This change has been particularly evident when it comes to LGBTQ people. Homosexuality was decriminalised in 1997 and is since 2001 no longer regarded as a mental illness. But (as in many other societies, including in the Western world, I have to add) many taboos remain. The internet and a more open society have brought greater awareness of individual rights.
Photography by Chi Peng
The stories of the artists presented in Secret Love are very moving and offer a deep perspective on the many emotional levels and complexities of LGBTQ people in China.
Left: video by Cheng Juanzi & Song Jianing. Right: video by Fan Popo
I have particularly been moved by Xiyadie's paper cuttings, an artist from a small village in the northern Shaanxi province, living and working in Bejing. Xiyadie learnt cutting from his mother. During his years in the village, he felt great mental pressure and had no one to unburden his heart to; for him, paper cutting became a way of expressing his pain and his joy.
“I knew I liked men from an early age, but in the country, it’s completely unthinkable to come out as gay, it’s even seen as criminal.”
Like so many other gay Chinese of his age (Xiyadie was born in 1963), he is married. He has two children in their 20s. His oldest son has been disabled since birth and cannot manage on his own. According to sociological studies, some 90% of all gay men in China are married. In Confucian tradition, there are three types of lack of filial respect, and the worst is not to provide for the family line's continuation. It is a strong social pressure.
Xiyadie's paper cuttings
“A divorce is out of the question; my wife and children live in the village and a divorce would hit them hard. Tradition is harsher than the winds in Siberia. But I’ve heard that there is a type of butterfly there that can survive in the cold. I wish I had the wings of a Siberian butterfly so that I could fly away from all the difficulty. I like cutting out butterflies very much; I long for freedom.”
Xiyadie is a pseudonym, meaning "Siberian butterfly". He uses it to protect his identity. He recently came out to his wife, who became very tearful but now seems to have come to terms with the situation. The two children still do not know.
Xiyadie never dared show these cuttings to anyone. One day two film directors, a married couple, arrived in the village to make a documentary about the paper cutting tradition. They had heard of his skill and wanted to talk to him. As they saw some of these cuttings, they started asking him prudently about them. Xiyadie finally told them his story, which resulted in the couple helping him to get to Beijing where he works as a doorman, cook and cleaner and sends the greater part of his earnings to his family back in Shanxii every month.
Xiyadie's paper cuttings (on the left: Prison 2)
His pieces have deeply touched me, because I love paper and paper cutting, but also because of their colours (black, red but also colourful pieces including pink, white and yellow) and their somehow innocent yet painful, romantic yet erotic depictions of homosexuality.
In Prison 2 (pictured above), Xiyadie wants to take control of his urges, so in this piece, he sews his penis together using a needle and thread, but his eyes can't let go of the picture of his boyfriend (in the left corner), so he sits uncomfortably, as if on the edge of a sword. To live as if in a cage, wishing to fly away but unable to do so. This piece has a strong violence within it and yet bears so much love.
Visa to the USA by Ma Liuming
“...we judge a person by their clothes and other cultural markers, and not by who that person is. The attitude with which one encounters outward appearance often dictates how one encounters the inner personality.”
Artist Ma Liuming (1969)'s work Visa to the USA is also fascinating and explores well how gender is judged according to visual experience. In the image above you see three enlarged copies of his USA visa: one describing his sex as F, the second one with F stamped "cancelled without prejudice" and the third one with M. In 1998, Ma Liuming applied for a visa to the USA to travel to New York for his exhibition PS1. When he received the visa, he discovered that he had been registered as "female" rather than "male".
“They just looked at my photo and didn’t feel they needed to check what it said in my application.”
He went back to the US embassy in Beijing to get his visa was stamped with an "M".
Fen Ma Liuming Series No. 1 (1993)
The other exhibited artists' works are also very interesting and the whole exhibition, although small, is very well curated. An afterword also acknowledges that the exhibition does not cover the many feature films with gay, lesbian and transsexual themes or roles produced in China since 1996, and explains apologetically that it has been difficult to identify more female artists for the exhibition (only three out of the twelve on show in Amsterdam). This acknowledgement is much appreciated, especially in view of the theme. I usually am very sensitive about gender balance in public events but here, I must say, I didn't even think about it. Maybe it is because the themes around gender and sexuality are already central to the exhibition, and that I have delved deeply into these questions through the art. Nevertheless, these are powerful images I saw today and the exploration of themes around gender and sexuality through art is necessary across nations and cultures. I hope to see more of such stories and deep creative expressions.
For more details about the artists and their work, visit the exhibition's webpage.
Writer, Literary Translator, Artist based in Amsterdam.
Canan (she/they) publishes a newsletter and podcast titled The Attention Span, taking the time to reflect, to analyse and to imagine our societies through writing, art and culture.