I’m going to the gay English corner,” I told my flatmate Rich. “WHAT?” he replied incredulously. “The gay English corner. I told you yesterday!” I said with a straight face, trying not to laugh. The idea of a gay English corner amuses me: what would people talk about? Gay things? I had to check it out.

Standing in front of the Shen Zhong Lou (51 Yunnan Zhong Lu), you’d never imagine this Shanghainese restaurant with its grand red and gold decor is a home for local gays to hang out and speak English. At a big round table sat Ma laoshi, the American organizer. Arrayed around him were his young Chinese gay disciples. Ma started by introducing Billy, a large man with a round belly wearing floral shorts.

“In the ‘70s, Billy had his first gay encounter on The Bund with a Swiss sailor.” Billy, now in his fifties, smiled with slight embarrassment and added, “He was a very handsome man.”

Next to him was Hongwei, a PhD student working on a dissertation in Sydney on homosexuality in films. He would not stop talking about gay films. Ma chimed in: “Gay films aren’t so available in China. What can we do to help spread them?” The question sounded almost ridiculous, as if gay films are some sort of virus that should be propagated.

During the corner, a Beijing-published gay magazine was passed around the table while English words like “potato queen,” “panda” and “King Kong Barbies” were discussed in depth. When the whole world is speaking English, gay English education seems inevitably necessary.

A beefy young guy with hairy arms came in just as Ma laoshi was asking why some men like effeminate guys while others like butch bodybuilders. The hairy guy sat down next to Ma laoshi and before he knew it, Ma laoshi was stroking his arm, saying “that’s so sexy”.

That evening, Shen Zhong Lou not only hosted the Gay English Corner (every Saturday, 4-6pm) but was also a dining space for some gay basketballers and a stage for the Super (gay) Boy Karaoke Competition. By the time I left the restaurant, more and more guys were coming in: young guys in different shapes and with different styles of fashion. I felt like I was lost in the woods, with so many fairies flipping their colorful wings and flying swiftly by.

Xing Zhao