A Look at the Beijing Conference through Lesbian Eyes

Abstract

The author is an activist and observer of the ongoing young feminist movement. She interviewed the participants of the 1995 Beijing conference and activists in China's feminist and LGBT movements. This article tries to evaluate the impact of the Beijing 1995 conference from a lesbian perspective on what happened in 1995 regarding their issues, their relationship and connection to the women's movement and how the lesbian¹ community and movement has developed since then. This article discusses issues addressed by the Young Feminist Activism Group who took public action following 2012.

Abstract in Chinese

作者是中国当代的青年女权运动参与者和观察者, 她通过采访1995年世界妇女大会的参与者和中国女权、LGBT运动的运动家, 试图从女同性恋的角度回顾1995年世妇会情况、女同性恋社群1995年后的发展及其与妇女运动的关系, 同时评价世妇会对女同性恋社群的影响。本文同时也讨论自2012年以来青年一代的女权主义行动派在中国进行街头和公共行动的情况及其意义。

Keywords:

• Beijing+20
• feminist activism
• lesbian
• young feminist
• queer movement

Keywords:

• 北京+20
• 女权行动
• 女同性恋
• 青年女权主义者
• 酷儿运动

Acknowledgement

This article is the outcome of the Beijing+20 History/Her story program of Les+. The team members were Sam,Wei Tingting, and Shitou. The author and report writer is Wei Tingting.

Notes on contributor

Tingting WEI studied sociology and anthropology in college. As a young feminist activist in China, she has organised “The Vagina Monologues” in Wuhan, China in 2007 and 2009. She started to get involved with feminist and LGBT movement in 2010 and has worked in lesbian organizations like Chinese LALA Alliance and LES+. She is the co-founder of several groups, including R&B Chinese National Bisexual Network, Beijing Bitch. etc. She also write articles and studies about sexuality and gender related issues in her free time. Tingting was one of the feminist activists arrested by the Chinese authorities on 7 March 2015.

Notes

1. This paper is an extended and revised version of a paper originally published in the China Development Review 63, 58 (2014). In this article lesbian also refers to bisexual and transgender women.

2. Rachel E. Rosenbloom worked for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, where she documented human rights violations based on sexual orientation, gender identity and HIV status.

3. A license was required to attend the conference as it was an international conference with participants from many countries.

4. Tongzhi is a Chinese term means comrade in China but was used by LGBT community to refer to themselves as well.