LIFE / MISCELLANY
Beijing LGBT Center turns to short videos to tackle stereotypes
By Published: Jul 13, 2020 04:28 PM
The Beijing LGBT Center opened an account on short video platform Douyin, the Chinese region version of TikTok, on Sunday to tell stories and correct stereotypes about the LGBTQ+ community.
The center has uploaded several short videos on the platform covering stereotypes such as whether all gay men are good-looking or whether bisexual people are fickle when it comes to love.
"Through the platform, we hope to tell the life stories of the LGBTQ+ community, decrease or even eliminate discrimination and provide an interactive platform for the community to get information as well as support," Xin Ying, director of the center, told the Global Times in an interview on Sunday.
Xin explained that since the account was only recently established, they are mainly starting off by uploading simple videos in a Q&A-style format, but as they accumulate experience, they plan to tackle more controversial topics in their videos.
"We may also have more interesting content including mini-plays in the future, which will possibly attract more Douyin users," she added.
In one short video, Xin explains how the stereotype that all gay men are good-looking is discriminatory.
"Some heterosexual people looked forward to seeing many handsome or pretty faces when visiting our center, but they are often disappointed and ask why the gay men at our center are so ordinary looking," Xin said.
"Actually, this imaginary image of gays is the result of people being misled by the popular culture of the boys' love (BL) genre. Humans are different and so too are gays. The most important thing is that we should love ourselves and should believe that we deserve to be loved."
Popular BL genre works, including fictional stories and TV dramas, mostly portray romantic relations between two handsome men to draw in more readers or viewers, but Xin pointed out that this leads to misunderstandings about gay men.
"We should separate the real LGBTQ+ community from these artworks. Some BL works portray same-sex love between two men in an entertaining way rather than really understand this sexual minority," the center noted in an article posted to its WeChat account.
Xin explained that the center has established a team dedicated to running the short video account, adding that they shoot videos on Fridays and then volunteers edit them over the following weekend.
"The number of fans of the account just reached a few thousand and each short video only has hundreds of views. Our target is to have millions of fans, so we can introduce the community to more people," Xin said.
The center has uploaded several short videos on the platform covering stereotypes such as whether all gay men are good-looking or whether bisexual people are fickle when it comes to love.
"Through the platform, we hope to tell the life stories of the LGBTQ+ community, decrease or even eliminate discrimination and provide an interactive platform for the community to get information as well as support," Xin Ying, director of the center, told the Global Times in an interview on Sunday.
Xin explained that since the account was only recently established, they are mainly starting off by uploading simple videos in a Q&A-style format, but as they accumulate experience, they plan to tackle more controversial topics in their videos.
"We may also have more interesting content including mini-plays in the future, which will possibly attract more Douyin users," she added.
In one short video, Xin explains how the stereotype that all gay men are good-looking is discriminatory.
"Some heterosexual people looked forward to seeing many handsome or pretty faces when visiting our center, but they are often disappointed and ask why the gay men at our center are so ordinary looking," Xin said.
"Actually, this imaginary image of gays is the result of people being misled by the popular culture of the boys' love (BL) genre. Humans are different and so too are gays. The most important thing is that we should love ourselves and should believe that we deserve to be loved."
Popular BL genre works, including fictional stories and TV dramas, mostly portray romantic relations between two handsome men to draw in more readers or viewers, but Xin pointed out that this leads to misunderstandings about gay men.
"We should separate the real LGBTQ+ community from these artworks. Some BL works portray same-sex love between two men in an entertaining way rather than really understand this sexual minority," the center noted in an article posted to its WeChat account.
Xin explained that the center has established a team dedicated to running the short video account, adding that they shoot videos on Fridays and then volunteers edit them over the following weekend.
"The number of fans of the account just reached a few thousand and each short video only has hundreds of views. Our target is to have millions of fans, so we can introduce the community to more people," Xin said.
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