China’s LGBT Communities: Exploring The Chinese “Gay City”

According to Chinese sociologist Wei Wei, Chengdu’s healthy LGBT community is credited to its successful change of “place to space”. Indeed, China’s rapid economic development creates a hotbed for the spread of consumerism, which is especially salient in Chengdu, the beneficiary of the Great Western Development Strategy, which made Chengdu the regional economic development center. One of the many results of consumerism is the emergence of entertainment establishments. However, for people who are oppressed for their identity and would like to meet like-minded people, these establishments are entitled with a different meaning —these places are haven-like spaces in which they can fully express themselves without other people’s judgment and where they can still have fulfilling social lives. 

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How the International Community Has Failed the Uighur Minority

According to Hu Lianhe, a Communist Party official, this ‘re-education’ campaign only targets petty criminals that are assigned to “vocational education facilities for rehabilitation and reintegration” . Yet, testimonies from individuals who have worked or been detained in the camps as well as leaked information report cases of human rights violations.

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