The Mainland’s largest and longest-running Pride festival returns for its seventh year. Things kick off on June 5 with the inaugural PRIDE Night Bike Ride before really starting officially from June 12-21. It's a varied program of parties, the first ShanghaiPRIDE Film Festival, several theater shows and plenty of panel discussions. We chat with co-founder Charlene Liu about how it all started, some of the highlights for this year and some of the challenges faced by the city's LGBT community.
How did ShanghaiPRIDE start?
There were five of us who did the first one. We were younger and crazier then. I came to Shanghai in 2005 and back then, there was no scene. To find each other, we had to go through Yahoo groups which is where I found Les-In Shanghai. You also went to all the ladies nights and I made a lot of friends from parties. After awhile we started Shanghai LGBT. In 2009, two of the founders were leaving and we said, why don’t we give ourselves a big party and why don’t we do PRIDE.
How was that first year?
We were ambitious and wanted to do the first parade in Shanghai. What were we thinking? Someone suggested we do a bunch of parties and a BBQ instead. Some filmmakers in Beijing gave us some movies for a screening. We had a panel discussion about HIV/AIDS awareness and on the last day we had a big BBQ, a conference and the closing party at the Glamor Bar. In total, we had over 2,000 people come out. We were expecting nobody.
Why did you decide to continue?
That first year had eight main organizers and five of them left. We decided anyway let’s do it again and moved it to October to time with the Expo and get more of an international crowd. We did the films better and the parties were good. Basically, we didn’t get into a lot of trouble.
How does this year’s PRIDE differ from last year’s?
The schedule is pretty similar to the past two years. We do have two new events. On June 5, we will have a night bike ride and have six different routes and six different clors. At the end it comes together to form a rainbow. We also have a Professional Women’s Networking Session on June 18, which is about empowering women. The Pink Picnic has become PinkBBQ because it’s sponsored by the Langham. We will have a big BBQ there after the run on June 13. (see full schedule below)
We’ve repackaged the ShanghaiPRIDE Film Festival to match the Taiwan and South Korean queer film festivals. We have ties now with the Iris Film Festival for their competion, which is more attractive. We had a lot of films to watch that were submitted to the competition. At the beginning, we weren’t sure that anybody wanted to make a film about the Chinese LGBT community, so that was huge. We will show about three a day and there’s five categories for the awards with the winners selected by a panel of judges from China and abroad.
What were the submissions like?
I could relate to the films because I’m ethnically Chinese and I understand why these things happen. For somebody from another country and hasn’t experienced the scene here, I think it will be different from them.
Was there always a strong emphasis on the arts in ShanghaiPRIDE?
We realized that for the locals that level of PRIDE partying seemed to be a foreign concept. They rather go to movies, art exhibitions, theater shows and talk about it. So we really wanted PRIDE to be inclusive. We’re in China, so therefore we should be for Chinese. But we also live there, so we want our fun part too.
What are some of the other arts programming this year?
Urban Aphrodite is doing Bent (ed note. - a take on a very famous New York play from the 1990s). Fudan University is doing Vagina Monologues. East West Theatre is cooking up a comedy, Bite My Thumb. STA is coming up with something called Identity and FLY Improv, who is quiet popular in the Chinese community, will be doing an event. We’ve always had many people show up for the theater productions in the past.
For the art exhibitions, we’ve invited six artists. Some live in Shanghai and some are from the city. It’s a mix and their works are based on their experiences living here.
What will this year’s panel discussions be about?
We will still have HIV/AIDS awareness because it’s still important - a lot of people don’t know about it or choose to ignore it. We have one called LGBT and family. In the past years, we’ve talked about coming out and marriage of convenience. This year, we’re taking a step forward and talking about what if you want to have a kid. It ties into our theme of “Love is our future.” We want to talk about what if a gay couple wants to have a kid. Will that make coming out to their parents easier? And if so, what are the options? Should they get married to someone they don’t love and have the kid? We want to get parents and couples talking about it, as well as medical consultants and professors. It’s not legal right now, but what if?
What is ShanghaiPRIDE’s relationship to the city’s LGBT community?
People do come up to me and say they look forward to it. It’s given them something to do and a lot of the volunteers want to help because it’s a good cause. It’s good for the LGBT community to be an out community.
How has the community changed since ShanghaiPRIDE started?
Things have really changed - there are more LGBT groups and more parents are coming out to support their children when they come out. That has changed throughout the years. As an LGBT community we need to support ourselves - we need to hear what the parents have to say about what their concerns are and to get both sides of the story. Last year, a lot of children took that opportunity to come out to their parents. There was a lot of crying.
Is it easier to come out today?
Each individual need to be able to accept themselves first. In order to be comfortable, you have to be comfortable with yourself and your parents. But the community today has more means and resources to come out. They can go to websites, join different activities and consult with different groups. They can come to PRIDE and make friends within the community and feel more comfortable with themselves. The reason why I keep doing this is because I feel that’s very important. Had I had all these resources 20 years ago, I wouldn’t have had such a hard time with myself and condemning my lifestyle.
Is ShanghaiPRIDE getting more recognized internationally?
Yes, we have an ourtreach manager who is now in Germany. He takes care of all the communicatins with Vietnam, Singpaore, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan and other parts of the world. If you go on gay travel websites, PRIDE is on the calendar. It’s good, because many people think China is so conservative that we couldn’t have this. But when they see it, theyre surprised which is good. It’s all about awareness. Last year, I also met people that came from Hangzhou and Wuxi. We’re happy that we have such a reach.
How do you cap off the end of ShanghaiPRIDE?
At the closing party, I always pull out my cigar and have that with champagne. It’s always a fun memory.
What’s the biggest challenges for PRIDE?
Retaining people because we are all volunteers. People come and go. The second one is getting venues to agree to it. So, I would say resources. We could use more sponsors for our raffle draw. All proceeds from that, the run and bike ride go to charity. We really want to make sure that we can cover our cost of operations but also really help other organizations.
Are there other PRIDE parties across China?
Beijing tried to do it once in 2010-2011 and I think Guangzhou or Shenzhen has a big party. Other cities have come to us asking for help or if we could do one in their cities. Unfortunately, we’re all volunteers so we can’t tour around.
How many people are you expecting?
Last year, we had a head count of 6,000, but we’re nervous. We want to say more than that but I don’t want to jinx it.
Any last words?
I really hope this festival will have more people accepting the community and rallying for it. Basically, I would really like to see community harmony.
// June 13-21. Various venues. See event listings.
2015 Pride7 Schedule
Taken from ShPride.com
Date |
Event |
Venue |
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Friday -- 2015.06.05 |
【Pre-Pride】Rainbow Bike Ride (After Party 21:30) (20:00 - 2:00 ) |
After Party @ Brownstone Tapas & Lounge
Building 4 Yongjia Surpass Court, 570 Yongjia Road (near Yueyang Road), Xuhui District |
Thursday -- 2015.06.11 |
【Pre-Pride】 Open Mic Night (20:00 - 22:00) |
Lucca Café & Lounge
390 Panyu Road (near Fahuazhen Road), Changning District |
Friday -- 2015.06.12 |
Opening of Art & Photo Exhibition (19:00 – 21:00) |
Polar Bear
4B-113, 50 Moganshan Road (near Ao'men Road), Zhabei District |
CINEMQ6 (20:30 - 2:00) |
Factory54
5/F, 195 Guangfu Road (near Wuzhen Road), Zhabei District |
Saturday -- 2015.06.13 |
Pride Run (09:00 – 11:00) |
Al Fresco Area @ Langham Shanghai, Xintiandi
Near South Huangpi Road & Xing'an Road Crossroad |
Pink BBQ (11:00 – 14:00) |
XTD elevated @ Langham Shanghai, Xintiandi
5th Floor, 99 Madang Road (near Xing'an Road), Huangpu District |
Art & Photo Exhibition (10:00 - 18:00) |
Polar Bear
4B-113, 50 Moganshan Road (near Ao'men Road), Zhabei District |
ShPFF (15:00 - 18:30) |
Alliance Française (Hongkou Center)
6/F, 297 Wusong Road (near Tanggu Road), Hongkou District |
Opening Party (21:00 – 02:00) |
The Pearl.
471 Zhapu Road (near Wujin Road), Hongkou District
|
Sunday -- 2015.06.14 |
Panel Discussion I (10:00 – 12:00) |
The American Center
Suite 540, Shanghai Center East Office Tower, 1376 West Nanjing Road (near Xikang Road), Jing'an District |
Art & Photo Exhibition (10:00 - 18:00) |
Polar Bear
4B-113, 50 Moganshan Road (near Ao'men Road), Zhabei District |
Opening of ShPFF (16:00 – 23:00) |
The Pearl (Supported by the British Consulate-General Shanghai)
471 Zhapu Road (near Wujin Road), Hongkou District |
Monday -- 2015.06.15 |
Art & Photo Exhibition (10:00 - 18:00) |
Polar Bear
4B-113, 50 Moganshan Road (near Ao'men Road), Zhabei District |
ShPFF (18:30 - 22:00) |
Consulate General of Canada in Shanghai
8F, 1788 Eco City, West Nanjing Road (near Huashan Road), Jing'an District |
Tuesday -- 2015.06.16 |
Art & Photo Exhibition (10:00 - 18:00) |
Polar Bear
4B-113, 50 Moganshan Road (near Ao'men Road), Zhabei District |
ShPFF (18:30 - 22:00) |
Supported by Consulate General of Switzerland in Shanghai
2/F, Building F Red Town, 570 West Huaihai Road (near Hongqiao Road), Changning District |
Wednesday -- 2015.06.17 |
Art & Photo Exhibition (10:00 - 18:00) |
Polar Bear
4B-113, 50 Moganshan Road (near Ao'men Road), Zhabei District |
ShPFF (18:30 - 22:00) |
Leiter der Abteilung Kultur und Bildung
Suite 101, Ascendas Cross Tower, 318 Fuzhou Road (near Middle Shandong Road), Huangpu District |
Trivia Night (20:00 – 23:00) |
Lucca Café & Lounge
390 Panyu Road (near Fahuazhen Road), Changning District |
Thursday -- 2015.06.18 |
Art & Photo Exhibition (10:00 - 18:00) |
Polar Bear
4B-113, 50 Moganshan Road (near Ao'men Road), Zhabei District |
ShPFF (18:30 - 22:00) |
The American Center
Suite 540, Shanghai Center East Office Tower, 1376 West Nanjing Road (near Xikang Road), Jing'an District |
Professional Women’s Networking Forum (19:00 - 21:00) |
The British Centre
17/F Garden Square, 968 West Beijing Road (near Taixing Road), Jing'an District |
ShPTF I by East West Theatre (20:00 - 22:00) |
Happiness42
42 Xingfu Road (near Fahuazhen Road), Xuhui District |
Ladies Party (22:00 – 02:00) |
The Apartment
3/F, 47 Yongfu Road (near West Fuxing Road), Xuhui District |
Friday -- 2015.06.19 |
Art & Photo Exhibition (10:00 - 18:00) |
Polar Bear
4B-113, 50 Moganshan Road (near Ao'men Road), Zhabei District |
ShPFF (18:30 - 22:30) |
Leiter der Abteilung Kultur und Bildung
Suite 101 Ascendas Cross Tower, 318 Fuzhou Road (near Shandong Middle Road), Huangpu District |
ShPTF II by Urban Aphrodite (20:00 - 22:00) |
Jiadu Theatre
4/F, Jiadu Tower, 719 West Yan'an Road (near Caojiayan Road), Xuhui District |
Saturday -- 2015.06.20 |
Art & Photo Exhibition (10:00 - 18:00) |
Polar Bear
4B-113, 50 Moganshan Road (near Ao'men Road), Zhabei District |
Panel Discussion II (10:00 – 12:00) |
Andaz Xintiandi, Shanghai
3/F 88 Songshan Road (near Huaihai Middle Road), Huangpu District |
LGBT Groups Open Day (10:30 - 12:30) |
Andaz Xintiandi, Shanghai
3/F 88 Songshan Road (near Huaihai Middle Road), Huangpu District |
PFLAG Conference (13:00 - 17:00) |
Andaz Xintiandi, Shanghai
3/F 88 Songshan Road (near Huaihai Middle Road), Huangpu District |
ShPFF + Filmmaking Workshop (15:00 - 18:30) |
Huangpu Auditorium, Grand Kempinski Hotel Shanghai
1288 Lujiazui Ring Road (near Oriental Pearl TV Tower), Pudong New District |
Closing Party (21:00 – 02:00) |
|
Sunday -- 2015.06.21 |
Art & Photo Exhibition (10:00 - 18:00) |
Polar Bear
4B-113, 50 Moganshan Road (near Ao'men Road), Zhabei District |
Closing of ShPFF (17:30 – 23:00 ) |
Buddly Nation
537 Haifang Road (near Xikang Road), Jing'an District |
ShPTF II by Urban Aphrodite (20:00 – 22:00 ) |
Jiadu Theatre
4/F, Jiadu Tower, 719 West Yan'an Road (near Caojiayan Road), Xuhui District |
Sunday -- 2015.06.28 |
【Pride Month Special】ShPTF III by FLYIMPROV (19:30 – 21:30 ) |
The Pearl
471 Zhapu Road (near Wujin Road), Hongkou District |
For more information on pride, visit their website or contact them at shanghaipride@gmai.com.
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