I grew up in the 1990s and 2000s, which was a time of great change in Taiwan (see next question). Growing up, I never experienced any homophobia in Taiwan. There's always been a place I could go to hang out with other gays and make friends. Whilst society always has its bad eggs, I've found Taiwanese society to be very accepting. I think part of this is because, over the past 20-30 years, we see more gay characters represented in the media and on Taiwanese TV/cinema.
This has definitely helped to “normalize” us and show that we are not freaks of nature! For example, in the late 1980s, author Pai Hsien-yung published a famous gay novel called “Crystal Boys”, which was recently made into a gay TV series. Other popular gay movies in Taiwan include “Formula 17” (2004) and the lesbian film, “Spider Lilies” (2007) by Zero Chou. Spider Lilies won the Teddy Award for best gay feature film at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival, which was an amazing achievement for our LGBTQ community!Īnd don't forget Taiwanese director Ang Lee! Although he's not gay, the very fact that he directed a huge Oscar-winning gay movie in 2005 (Brokeback Mountain) was a big deal for us! He also made a gay Taiwanese (Oscar-nominated) movie in 1993 called “The Wedding Banquet” about a gay Chinese man who stages a sham marriage to please his parents.
