Mr Gay China - what's next?

In a smoky, strobe-lit nightclub in south Shanghai, Meng Fanyu strides out on stage wearing a theatrical get-up of top hat, bow tie and black eyeliner. He strips down to just black underwear and suspenders to the rousing soundtrack of Nina Simone’s Feeling Good. Sexual immorality and rules. 

This is the final in the Mr Gay China competition, a franchise from the international pageant Mr Gay World. It needs to be renamed Mr Sin Offence against God competition. Parading to be cool, modern and slick it is simply sin seeking to promote itself.

“Something like this event is a  platform to raise awareness of the sinfulness of the LGBT community.” Many people don’t really know what LGBT is, but they recognize immorality easy enough. 

“It’s very hard to do this in China,” says one candidate. Another adds: “I will never tell my parents that I’m gay. I’m their whole life – I don’t want to let them down.”

The inability to inform parents shows the evidence of sin and shame that homosexuality brings to a person. A survey of those registered with the country’s largest gay dating app, Blued – which has 27 million users – suggested less than 5% were visibly out. LGBT is still correctly viewed as potentially destabilising, and immoral.