Yin Guo

Eng 212W
Dec 22nd 2014

Gay Rights On Campuses In Relatively Conservative Areas In China

Nowadays, gay rights has called for more and more attention from the
society all around the world. Growing up in China, I have noticed many severe
issues related to gay rights on colleges campus and especially in relatively
conservative areas. Due to a lack of knowledge, traditional belief, and implosive
location, people live in these conservative areas still feel difficult to accept gay
people and treat them in a normal way. "I was afraid, but I decided it was
important to remain here and continue writing," said a freshman in Kun Ming
University, as he sat in his dormitory room in front of a large poster that read
"Silence = Death." Students in conservative areas and open-minded areas are
living on the same ground, but are treated in different ways. My research is
focusing on the consequences of the conservativeness, which influence students'
choice of attending colleges and might cause mental health problem.
As a rising generation, college students are considered to have good
quality of education, broad horizons and numerous accessible resources of
media.

Due

to

the

development

of

technology

and

social

media

improvement, students can get more and more information of other countries
around the world easily, which make them open minded and knowledgeable.
Many college students realize that they like people of the same sex as them.
However, after self recognition, these gay students have been living under huge

pressure instead of receiving support. Can you imagine how homosexual

students feel when they read the news about the "Pride Week" held in a
university in Beijing? When they are checking the posts on social websites, they
often stop scrolling down and stare at the pictures posted by their friends from
colleges in Beijing. In those pictures, gay couples are holding hands walking
around campus and attending LGBT activities. These couples' smiles irritate
them. Why cannot they be treated the same as others but get isolated when they
say they are gay? What they can do, however, is write jealous comments under
the pictures and wish them happiness. Living in those relatively conservative
cities, they have to choose between burying the secret deep into their hearts or
coming out of the closet but receiving various kinds of discrimination. As a result,
a large number of students undergo mental health problem, quit school, have
conflict with family and friends and even try to commit suicide. To some extent,
people are better at reacting and responding to complicated issues that have
already happened, rather than preventing them from happening. Admittedly, the
issue of gay rights on campuses in relatively conservative areas is too
complicated to be fully eliminated, but both students and administration can use
certain strategies to alleviate the situation.
Homosexuality has a long history in China. Back to about 4000 years ago,
China has already had records of homosexuality of "Hung Di", who is considered
as the most important and the first ancestor of China. From then on, almost
every dynasty had various records of homosexuality, either openly or
metaphorically. Although the existence of "Huang Di" is still controversial, the
written records since "Shang Shu" have been proved authentic. The Story Of The
Stone, one of the four most famous Chinese classic book, also has a large amount

of descriptions of homosexuality. Even though Chinese history acknowledge

the existence of same sex attraction and consider this phenomenon as natural,
still, gay people are treated differently in many areas in China. Firstly, marriage
is regarded as a non-avoidable natural part of one's life. Unlike western
countries, people who do not marry after a certain age like 35 would be
considered as abnormal and all family members and friends would get worried
and actively introduce possible dating partners to them. Rarely would a person
say that he or she choose not to get married unless he or she has some
difficulties like disable to find a spouse. Beside marriage, self recognition is also
important. According to Chinese culture, one's sexuality is decided by one's
physical feature. There is few situation that one could have different sex
physically and mentally. Male are suppose to be strong and make money to
support the whole family, while female should be virtuous and take care of her
husband and children. Speaking of children, this is another significant part of
Chinese culture. Before the publish of one child policy, every family usually have
several children, especially in relatively conservative areas. Children are the
future of their family. They are expected to make money, take care of their
parents and increase the family's living quality. As a result, there are only few
couples do not have children. From above, even though homosexuality has a long
history in China, it is still not easy to be fully accepted due to various traditions.
According to the journal The Facts of College Homosexuality That You
Don't Know nearly ninety percent of college students in Hong Kong claim that
they accept gay people and would treat them no different than others. However,
only about twenty percent college students in mainland China think they would
not discriminate against gay people. These tow numbers is obvious enough to

show the situation that there is a huge difference in different areas of China
towards the phenomenon homosexuality. Some universities in Beijing, Shanghai
have students make movies about gay students by themselves and have attracted
huge amount of attention, while some colleges in Yunnan, Gansu still promote
the immorality of same sex love. What is more, due to a lack of knowledge, some
college students are just curious about homosexuality so that they try to be gay,
which lead to severe consequences. According to my survey, 2178 out of 3100
responses (70.26%) show they have experience of treating gay students
differently. And nearly 97.21% of them feel that they know and think it is right
that homosexuality is natural and normal. Why are they acting differently as they
think? The question is thought-provoking.
What is more, based on the interview in The college students' real
attitude towards homosexuality, most of the homosexual students are
undergoing severe mental health problem. Even though, some of them have not
received any discrimination, they give huge pressure to themselves, which make
them extremely stressful. In my research survey, 86.25% of the students insists
that they would choose to attend a college in open-minded cities, rather than go
to the relatively famous and academic outstanding college in conservative areas.
More persuasively, 156 students who say that they are homosexual write in the
survey that they did consider the difference between conservative colleges and
open-minded ones when they were applying for college.
From above, the current situation is clear. The fact that some students
give up the opportunity to attend better colleges due to their sexual orientation
should not be ignored.
Again, 2178 out of 3100 responses (70.26%) show they have experience

of treating gay students differently. And nearly 97.21% of them feel that they
know and think it is right that homosexuality is natural and normal. One of the
surveyee wrote that: I feel afraid, not because I worried about my personal life,
about my future, but afraid of people care about me would feel shamed by me.
Similar to this response, I got other 217 students say that they choose to remain
silence just because they do not want their family and friends feel
uncomfortable. 315 responses show that they had take their sexual orientation
in to account when they applied college. Unfortunately, there are 105 students
write that they regret choosing to attend the college in conservative province.
They are undergoing discrimination and are not happy. If they have the
opportunity to choose, they would definitely apply colleges in open-minded
areas, regardless of the academic aspect. All of these students chose not to come
out of the closet. As we know, college can be considered a significant stage of
one's life. In China, transfer is not common. Once a student get into a college, he
has no other choices but stay.
According to News China, 12% of the homosexual people in Guangzhou
Province are college students. The student government in the Chinese University
Of Hong Kong made a survey on college students' view towards homosexuality in
2004 sponsored by Hong Kong LGBT organization. The survey shows that 70
percent of the surveyees have experience with homosexual people and more
than 90 percent students accept gay classmates and teachers. They draw the
conclusion that current college students show tolerance and understanding
towards homosexuality. However, Yanjun Liu, the author of Understanding and
Tolerance: an Analyze of Current Chinese College Students' Attitudes Towards
Homosexuality, points out that many people say and think that they are fine with

gay people and will treat them no different. But when they actually face
homosexual people, especially their friends and family members, most of them
would spontaneously feel shamed and isolate gay people. Weidiao Cao also
supports this idea from a different aspect that "the root of the misery" is
homosexual people themselves. After realizing their sex orientation, some gay
people treat themselves differently. They begin to suspect that if they are normal
or if they should hide their feeling and live a "normal life".
Some scholars like Xiang and Hequan Yang, claim that we should not only
promoting gay right in a way in which targeting heterosexual people, persuading
them to treat gay people equally, but also helping homosexual people properly
treat themselves and adjust mentally. Also Yang points out that gender education
is important for children. Teaching children the features of boys and girls will be
helpful for their self recognition. Jing Wen supports that about the issue of
homosexuality, just like eating, you can choose between sweet and sour. But if
you do not like sweet, there is no reason for you to say sweet is bad.
The result showed in my survey is similar to that in News China. Students
are more and more open-minded. However there is still difference of
environment between colleges in conservative areas and open-minded areas.
When applying colleges, sexual orientation is a key consideration for some
students. This phenomenon is non-iganorable. Everyone has the right to peruse
happiness.

There

is

no

restriction

of

love. Once

gay

students

in conservative colleges come out of the closet, the flood of taunt, scorn,
and estrangement would

come

to

"kill"

them.

Why

should

they

be

treated differently just because they are homosexual? It is just not right to regard
people as abnormal due to their sexual orientation.

My survey and interview were conducted in Mandarin Chinese, posted on

the BBS of Beijing University and Yunnan University. In a month, I received 5100
responses and I selected 3100 of them as my research data. The following are
the survey questions.
1?
Which university are you in?
2
What do you know about homosexuality? Please provide your attitude towards
homosexual people.
3

(optional) Do you think you are gay? (In Chinese, this question is not that direct.
The translation is straightforward) If you are, did you take your sexual orientation in
to consideration when you were applying for college?
4
Have you ever suspect your sexual orientation?
5

Imagine you are homosexual, would you take your sexual orientation in to
consideration when you apply for college? Regardless of your exam score, will you
choose to attend a college in open-minded city instead of choosing a academic
outstanding college in conservative city?
6
Do you know people who come out of the closet? If so, whats your attitude?
7
If your friend tells you that he is gay, what would you think and how would you
treat him?
8
Have you experienced in person that homosexual students are treated differently
or are discriminated against?