Homosexuality in China has a complex history. Unlike homosexuality in the West where religious attitudes prevailed, homosexuality has long existed in Chinese history and culture and there have been art and literary works about it. Nonetheless, disdain and discrimination have often been the rule, understanding and compassion the exception. But it is fair to say that in the last few years, there is a definite improvement and openness in China, which seems to be occurring without great controversy, as if a natural process in increasing openness without heated public disputes. But is that really the case and what is the deeper public reaction towards homosexuality? Robert Lawrence Kuhn discussed the evolving situation with Professor Li Yinhe of the Institute of Sociology at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“I have conducted research on people’s attitudes toward homosexuality. In 2007, I did a telephone survey in large and mid-sized cities. The reason we didn’t include small cities is because of their less popularity of telephones. So we need solid statistics for inference. With such strict sampling, we found that the public was quite tolerant toward homosexuality. Our rates of people’s tolerance were higher than those in other countries. For example, when asked whether homosexuals should have equal access to employment, 91% people in the Chinese mainland said yes. The figure in HK was 86%, and also 86% in one of the American surveys. That is to say, tolerance among Chinese people was higher. However I found that with comparison of statistics in different countries, particularly with the US, the trend of Americans’ attitudes toward homosexuality is like an hourglass, with the two extremes accounting for a high percentage, and the middle, those more uncertain, accounting for only a small share. Say, 47% of the interviewees are for homosexuality and 43% against. The middle group who don’t really have an opinion accounts for 10%. However in China, the case is totally different. The Chinese pattern is shaped like an oval. That is to say, those who strongly go against homosexuality are about 20%, and those who go all out for homosexuality are about 10% to 20%. The rest majority doesn’t really know about their attitude or don’t really care. That is an interesting contrast between China and the US.”