Travis S.K. Kong

Men who have sex with men: stigma and discrimination

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne (Bundoora), VIC, Australia (D Altman MA); National Centre in HIV Social Research, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia (P Aggleton PhD); Michael Kirby Centre for Public Health and Human Rights, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia (M Williams LLB); University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong (T Kong PhD); Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa (V Reddy PhD); Grupo Dignidade, Curitiba, Brazil (D Harrad MA); Associacao Brasileira de Lesbicas, Gays, Bissexuais, Travestis e Transexuais, Curitiba, Brazil (T Reis PhD); and Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA (R Parker PhD)

The HIV related risks among men having sex with men in rural Yunnan, China: a qualitative study

Objectives: To explore the characteristics and issues specific to HIV related risk behaviours among men who have sex with men (MSM) in rural China. Method: Qualitative study using semistructured in-depth interviews in Dali prefecture, Yunnan. 24 informants recruited through a local MSM network, snowballing and by word of mouth. The main outcome measures were themes identified as increased exposures and risks to HIV. Results: Risk behaviour, social stigma, one child policy and concepts of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) had significant roles in the spread of HIV in rural China. Many MSM lead a life with double identities in China and condom use was found to be variable with attempts to “rationalise” the risky behaviour being its major determining factor. Health seeking behaviours of genitourinary problems were infrequent and illogical, which were further held back by the existing healthcare system and lack of sensitivity expressed by the health professionals. Conclusions: Clear education messages to the general public while raising awareness among health professionals of the health risks and needs in MSM are essential in the prevention of the current HIV epidemic.

Risk factors affecting condom use among male sex workers who serve men in China: a qualitative study

Objectives: To identify key factors affecting condom use among male sex workers (MSW) who serve men in China. Method: In-depth semi-structured face-to-face interviews in Beijing and Shanghai, China. Informants were recruited through referral from a non-governmental organisation with a strong men who have sex with men (MSM) network and the snowball technique. Results: Between 2004 and 2005, 30 MSW were interviewed (Beijing n  =  14; Shanghai n  =  16). The MSW in this study were mainly single, young, homosexual, rural migrants with secondary education. None practised safer sex in their home towns. Until they migrated to big cities and entered the sex industry, they did not develop safer sex practices. They reported high condom use at work, but more than half of them (n  =  17) had not been tested for HIV. Four factors, derived from the interviews and correlated to their rural background, sexual orientation and sex work identity, put MSW at risk of HIV/sexually transmitted infections (STI): incorrect AIDS knowledge; economic hardship; homosexual orientation and over-trusting in sexual relationships. Conclusion: MSW, a distinctive but often neglected group in both studies and sentinel surveillance among the MSM population in China, deserve special attention. There is not only potential for HIV/STI infection among the MSM population but also for infecting the general public. Education and prevention programmes should take their three major interlocking identities: rural migrant, sex worker and homosexual into consideration in social, cultural and economic contexts in China.

More Than a Sex Machine: Accomplishing Masculinity Among Chinese Male Sex Workers in the Hong Kong Sex Industry

Situated in the masculinity and deviance literature, this article examines a “deviant” masculinity, that of the male sex worker, and presents the ways men who engage in sex work cope with the job. Based on in-depth interviews of Chinese male sex workers (n = 18) in the Hong Kong sex industry, I argue that the stigma management techniques these men employ are simultaneously gender strategies they use to accomplish masculinity. It is through this process that they negotiate a masculine identity within the hierarchy of masculinities in order to become “respectable” and “responsible” Chinese men.

A fading Tongzhi heterotopia: Hong Kong older gay men’s use of spaces

Modern heteronormativity in Hong Kong has been produced via British colonialism, land developers, and the family, and maintained through post-colonial administration. Together, these factors have resulted in a heterosexual culture of intimacy with rigid public/private distinctions. Homonormativity has emerged with the rise of tongzhi (synonym for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered) space in Hong Kong since the 1990s, but has had the effect of marginalizing certain tongzhi along lines of class, age, and the body. Based on the narratives of 14 older (60+) gay men in Hong Kong, this article discusses how they have negotiated same-sex intimacy in everyday sites at two specific times – in their parents’ homes and public toilets in the 1940s–1950s, when homosexuality was a crime and homosexual identity had not yet developed; and in their own homes and within the present-day tongzhi world, which presents them with new opportunities and challenges. Using a post-structuralist conception of power/resistance that juxtaposes power and resistance in the same site, this article argues that the private home and public spaces are sites of governmentality/resistance while tongzhi spaces are sites of desire/domination, with class and age being important social identifiers of Hong Kong gay men. Through radical use of spaces, a tongzhi heterotopia can be created and practised in both hetero-/homo-sexual worlds. This article contributes to the sociology of sexuality by exploring how governmentality via British colonialism (and post-colonialism), land use, and the family shape tongzhi bodies and space, exposing the domination of hetero-/homo-normativities in tongzhi lives, and highlighting tongzhi resistance in Hong Kong.

The sexual in Chinese sociology: homosexuality studies in contemporary China

Through a meta-literature review, this paper examines the changing contours of Chinese sociology of homosexuality in contemporary China. It unfolds the different theoretical orientations and methodologies that construct the modern male homosexual subject under major socio-economic and political changes. Chinese sociology of homosexuality started in the reform era and has been dominated by Western knowledge production and the political ideology of the communist party-state. Fused with the bio-medical model and the states modernization project in the 1980s–1990s, the sociological study adopted a functionalist and positivistic approach with survey-based methodology in the main which focused on the etiology of homosexuality. A new transnational knowledge production of sociology of homosexuality has formed since the 2000s which has shifted towards a constructivist/ post-structuralist approach and reflexive qualitative methodology. The new sociological study examines the rise of male (as well as female) homosexual identity in China, questions the hetero/homosexual binary and discusses how an individual makes sense of homosexual identity to form same-sex intimate relationships. By tracing the epistemology of homosexuality in contemporary China, this paper rethinks the dominance of the Western construction and the role of the state in shaping the knowledge of homosexuality and proposes alternative spaces for theorizing Chinese sexual identities, desires and practices.

To determine factors in an initiation of a same-sex relationship in rural China: Using ethnographic decision model

Abstract The sexual behaviour and HIV risks among Chinese MSM in rural areas are grossly under-researched. The aims of this study were to explore the process and formation as well as the factors in an initiation of sexual relationship or act in among MSM in this cultural setting. Twenty-four in-depth interviews and observation were conducted in Dali prefecture in two field visits in 2004 and the data were analysed using grounded theory and an ethnographic decision model. We found their sexual relationship can be understood as a negotiation process with self, family and society, some of which (e.g. emotional and physical needs; rationalization in choosing partners) are common in all MSM groups while others (e.g. sex hierarchy or role of family) are geographically and culturally more unique or prominent for rural China. By better understanding of these decision processes, more effective and target-orientated intervention programmes can be implemented fighting against HIV/AIDS in this sexually marginalized sub-group of the population.

Sex and work on the move: Money boys in post-socialist China

China’s reconfiguration of the state and the market in its reform era has created new spaces and opportunities that have attracted millions of rural migrants to urban centres in search of freedom, wealth and new identities. However, the new space and the self both remain constricted by post-socialist parameters and the market. Based on ethnographic research on the male sex industry in post-socialist China (2004–2014), this article studies one such group of the rural-to-urban migrant population, namely male sex workers, or ‘money boys’ in the local parlance. Building on existing migration and prostitution literatures in China and my previous work, this article examines the ways they become money boys and manage three stigmatised identities – rural-to-urban migrant, men who sell sex and men who have sex with men – in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. This article concludes that money boys represent a group of the new migrant generation with distinct needs and desires, which is simultaneously embedded in the neoliberal discourse of development and empowerment, and at risk of dislocation and isolation.

Gay and grey: participatory action research in Hong Kong

This article examines how a research project transformed into participatory action research (PAR) whose outcome was a self-help group for older (60+) gay men in Hong Kong. The overall process witnessed a change in the level of participation by both the researcher and researched, as well as the social transformation of the participants and production of knowledge on Chinese homosexuality. Most importantly, the morph into PAR can be seen as a process whereby the participants took control and felt empowered. By bridging the gap between queer studies and PAR, this research rethinks three power issues embedded in the research process: the power relation between researcher and researched, that between participants and the major form of oppression in queer lives, i.e. heteronormativity, and the knowledge–power relation in the formulation of Chinese homosexuality.

Welcome from Feona Attwood, Roisin Ryan-Flood and Travis SK Kong:

Over the past 15 years, Sexualities has become the leading journal in the field of critical sexualities studies. This is in no small part due to the efforts of its founder, Ken Plummer, whose own scholarship in the field of sexualities studies remains hugely influential. As the new editors – Feona Attwood (Middlesex University), Róisı́n RyanFlood (University of Essex) and Travis SK Kong (The University of Hong Kong) – we will continue to build on the strengths of the journal, as well as developing new areas for growth and expansion. We will retain Sexualities’ distinctive identity as an inter-disciplinary and qualitative journal that presents cutting-edge research and debate on the material dimensions of sexualities and the social history and theoretical/critical analyses of these. Looking back at the agenda that Ken originally set out for Sexualities in 1995, we believe that the list of topics identified then are still of central importance for critical sexualities studies today. We have retitled a few of these: ‘Hi-tech and the new technologies of sexualities’ becomes ‘the new technologies of sexualities’; ‘sexualized identities’ becomes ‘sexual identities and cultures’; ‘cross-generational sexualities’ becomes ‘cross-generational sexualities, life course and ageing’; ‘love and intimacy’ becomes ‘love, family and intimacy’; and ‘gender blending’ becomes ‘trans* and sexuality’. The journal retains a central concern with questions of equality, human rights and citizenship. The following topics are ones that we would like to expand.