I have really neglected my blogging duties as of late. Most egregiously in my mind I stopped bothering to write about new developments in gay rights here in the People’s Republic of China, even though so much has already happened in this new year. Like how about the fact that the Beijing authorities shut down China’s first “Mr. Gay Pageant” and a guy (from Xinjiang of all places!) went to the international “Mr. Gay Pagaent” in Oslo anyway. Even my old Beijing roomate, a devout heterosexual, managed to write about this “Mr. Gay Pageant” debacle. And how could I ignore the first gay wedding in China or the great pictures that came from it? Having forgotten to mention the marriage it was no doubt expected that I would neglect to talk about the backlash that comes from being the first “married” gay couple in China, but that doesn’t make my inaction okay. Even the Shanghaiist blog’s Top 5 gay China moments of 2009 warranted a mention, though apparently not by me. I was too busy ignoring my duties to bother to say much about any of this and I apologize for this lapse of judgment. Maybe it’s because I’m single.
Besides my laziness, lack of a boyfriend and a graduate school application that had to be finished I was also traveling most of February, sans laptop. Shanghai in the winter can be a bit of a downer so it was an easy decision to dip into my savings and head south to Thailand and Malaysia for a couple weeks with some American friends of mine. It was a very pleasurable way to celebrate the Chinese New Year and I came back with quite a hefty collection of photographs, some of which I’m hoping to exhibit on this blog in the style of Primitive Culture and Itinerant Bordeaux (two very awesome blogs about travel and food written by two very attractive men). For now you can check out my Flickr page for all the photos or just soak in the relaxed vibes from this photograph.
Life on the island of Ko Lanta, Thailand.
Thanks for the update Jonny. And thank you for the update on gay rights in China — I sometimes forget to look past my own local gay struggle and see that there is even more struggle for equality elsewhere. And there’s also just a lack of media coverage of international gay rights news (imagine that!)
Sounds like you’re having a great adventure…wish I could be there!
Blush-blush and thanks. Your updates on gay rights in China are always inspiring and sometimes it helps push me about researching the whole situation in SA a bit more. despite the fact that we now have very equal rights there it seems a nasty conservative backlash is waiting for its chance to take it all away. On the topic of gay rights, Alexander suggested gay rights groups should start a campaign of being ‘pro-marriage’ and then I suggested rather ‘pro-family’ as a way of using a positive connotation to the struggle for gay marriage rights in the US. Spread the word. Oh, also looking forward to some posts about your trip!