Inside the Circle: Sexuality, HIV/AIDS, and Civil Society in Post-Socialist Northwest China

This dissertation critically examines changing expressions of sexuality and civil society in post-socialist northwest China, in particular how recent social and economic reforms and the global HIV/AIDS crisis are enabling the formation of a local gay and lesbian community (referred to colloquially as "the circle"), as well as creating both opportunities and challenges for an emerging social movement made up of grassroots gay and lesbian NGOs. Data was collected over seventeen months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2007 and 2011, during which time I took on the role of a volunteer in a grassroots gay men's group. Based on extensive qualitative research, such as daily participant-observation carried out in a variety of locations including NGO offices, private homes, bars, bathhouses and cruising areas in public parks, as well as in-depth interviews with gay and lesbian NGO leaders and volunteers, local community members and government officials, this dissertation develops a vivid and personal account of everyday gay and lesbian life in urban northwest China. A rich and complex local gay and lesbian culture is taking shape as social and economic reforms give people greater leeway to begin expressing their sexualities more openly as well as to develop new forms of intimacy and kinship, even as they continue to struggle to find ways to cope with enduring social and familial norms and expectations such as marrying and having children. At the same time, in spite of continuing legal restrictions on voluntary associations in China, the threat of HIV/AIDS is compelling the state to tolerate and even cooperate with a growing number of unregistered grassroots gay NGOs in order to provide HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services to "men who have sex with men" who can be difficult for the state to reach on its own. However, even as grassroots gay NGOs play an increasingly important role in government HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment efforts, many local gay and lesbian groups are also pursuing a broader social and political agenda: increasing the awareness and acceptance of homosexuality in Chinese society.