By Xing Zhao

Walking into the high-rise apartment complex, my friend Anna and I were asked by the security guard where we were heading. “To the bar under…” I pointed to the ground, thinking that sounded somehow dodgy. After traversing a winding pathway in the dark and a staircase that ran under a glass dome, we found the hidden cave of Shanghai’ s bears: Bobo’s Bar (B/F Bugao Yuan, 307 Long, Shanxi Nan Lu步高苑陕西南路307弄地下一层). A picture of a bear’s head was printed on the door, along with the warning: “Caution: BEARS!”

In the gay world, bears are big, fat, hairy men who represent working-class masculinity. They are often associated with tattoos, body piercing and leather. In a culture obsessed with youth and beauty, a lean, smooth, tanned and V-shaped body is hard to live up to. Bears, therefore, sometimes feel unwelcome in the stereotypical urban gay lifestyle and isolated from the mainstream gay culture. So bears get together to have some fun. Strictly speaking, the men at Bobo’s cannot be called “bears.” Asians, though chubby, are pretty hairless. While the bear subculture in other Asian countries such as Japan and Singapore still uses the term, these Chinese cubs adorably call themselves “pandas”.

Two chubby guys welcomed us into a dimly lit lounge with a karaoke stage. A rounded guy in his 20s was singing a Jay Chou song while a dozen other men were sitting around, playing dice games. All of these men looked similar: stocky, crew-cut, muscular and wearing knee-length sport shorts. Another thing they all had in common–they could all sing. A guy finished a tune and happily skipped down the stage towards the KTV machine to order the next song. “He looks so cute that you just want to give him a hug,” said Anna.

Bobo’s is run by two bears who are into other bears. One day they decided to open a bar to create a community space for other bears and “monkeys”–slim boys who are attracted to bears. While China’s nature experts are busy trying to get their pandas to have sex and make cubs, I bet they never thought pandas could also be gay.