Junius Ho needs to decolonise his own mind! RE: "On sexual diversity, Hong Kong must find a path grounded in traditional Chinese values"

2018: 50% of HKers were in favour of same-sex marriage
70% in favour of banning discrimination based on sexual orientation
But Junius Ho remans a raging homophobe and xenophobe

LETTER TO SCMP:

Junius Ho says "To celebrate sexual diversity, Hong Kong must find a path grounded in traditional Chinese values." (3 November). [ADDED: to be clear, Junius Ho’s letter is an anti-gay screed]

Very well, what are traditional Chinese values on this issue? Homosexuality in China has been tolerated since the Shang and celebrated since the Han. China had same-sex marriage centuries before it was legalised in the West, as noted by "disapproving westerners" travelling in China as early as the 16th Century. [Ref]

It was only in the early 20th century that China turned prudish on homosexuality and same-sex marriage. And it did so in response to Westernisation. 

In the excellent "Passions of the Cut Sleeve" (1992), by Bret Hinsch, we read: 

"… homosexuality acted as an integral part of society, complete with same-sex marriages for both men and women….

…  homosexuality was widely accepted and even respected, had its own formal history, and had a role in shaping Chinese political institutions, modifying social conventions, and spurring artistic creation. A sense of tradition lasted up until this century [20th], when it fell victim to a growing sexual conservatism and the Westernization of morality."

In other words Junius Ho's almost pathological anti-gay views reflect not those of "traditional China", but those of now outdated colonial British traditions. He is pushing, in short, a colonialist mindset. He, Ho, should set about decolonising his own views!

The West legalised same-sex marriage only in 2001 in the Netherlands. Other countries followed. There have been no outbreaks of "bestiality and incest", as Junius Ho has fearmongered. That same-sex marriage has been legal for such a short time in the West reflects that fact that it's not a "Western tradition", but a development of humanity's ideas of tolerance and fairness. The sort of tolerance that China has had for millennia, ditched only by imitating western prudery. 

"China's traditional values", Mr Ho, are gay-tolerant and pro same-sex marriage. 

Time to decolonise your mind, Junius!

 

And, by the way, time also for China to do so.

Peter Forsythe

Discovery Bay

Hong Kong

9308 0799