Photos about transgender people on the exhibition Photos: Courtesy of Beijing LGBT Center

 

Photos about transgender people on the exhibition Photos: Courtesy of Beijing LGBT Center

Held every November 20, the International Transgender Day of Remembrance falls on Friday in 2020. To celebrate the day, the Beijing LGBT Center will kick off an eight-day transgender culture and art festival in Beijing on Friday. 

As part of the festival, an exhibition of photos, short films and performance art will also be held at the Langyuan Vintage Creative Art Zone, a busy area in the Chaoyang district, to improve the visibility of the transgender community.

One of the films on display at the exhibition is Normal Family, which tells the story of a couple who run a small wholesale business in a rural town while their transgender child works at a commonwealth organization in Beijing. The film delves into ordinary details about the characters such as the parents love for gardening and their child’s love for her kitten to convey the message that transgender people and their families are just like anyone else.

In the performance art section, interactive public art project A Piece of Red Cloth by Wu Peng will go on display. Inspired by the traditional Chinese art of blind fortune telling, Wu designed a piece of red cloth with designs to create a temporary space for people to hold conversations in public. 

The design and content on the cloth will change in response to the environment of the event to achieve the best result to engage the audience. The available topics of conversations include non-binary gender identity, gender performativity, Buddhism and contemporary queer identity. 

Another artwork Cyproterone acetate will also be at the exhibition. The name of the artwork, which looks like an accessory worn by women, is derived from a medicine often taken by transgender women.

According to the artist, transgender women usually take medicine to ease their gender anxiety, so in this case medicine plays a similar role as fashion accessories as both are used to improve one’s confidence.

The artist used various metals to make decorations that show how medicine changes the bodies of transgender people while representing the spiritual pursuits of the community.

In addition to the exhibition, a medical forum will be held during the festival. Medical workers who focus on transgender care will share the latest achievements in the field and discuss how to improve medical procedures and services for the community.

The event is supported by the only foundation on the transgender issue in China, which was built last month in the Opposite House Beijing.

This is the second year the festival has been held. In 2019, the center cooperated with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to hold the opening ceremony at the embassy.