The Gay Space in Chinese Cyberspace: Self-Censorship, Commercialisation and Misrepresentation

Abstract

This paper seeks to investigate the gay space in Chinese cyberspace. It has two main goals. It explores how the internet is used as a system of state control and a sphere of theoretical freedom. It also delves into how some of the Chinese gay-oriented websites are increasingly self-censored and commercialised in Chinese cyberspace. In this paper, I argue that the growing commercialisation of the gay space in Chinese cyberspace marks a paradoxical development of the Chinese internet, where state control, a degree of freedom of expression, and self-censorship coexist. I use cyber anthropology as a research methodology to demonstrate how online material can offer untapped textual resources concerned with the construction of emerging gender and sexual identities in Chinese cyberspace. (Manuscript received February 12, 2007; accepted for publication July 15, 2007)