In November 2025, on the orders of the Chinese authorities responsible for cyberspace, Blued and Finka disappeared from the App Store. These are the main dating apps for gay people, a favored means of developing one’s romantic, social and sex life.
A step backward in a country where homosexuality is no longer considered an illness and is legal. The regime’s discourse, a subtle one, does not openly oppose the rights of the LGBTQ community. So, in an opaque and oppressive China, tracked by its millions of cameras, and where family traditions weigh with all their might, Yan, Taro, Toddy, Sam and the others do what they can.
The new generation is emerging, in search of freedom. In the background: the night, its shady bars and its darkness, conducive to camouflage, confidences and forgetting. One dares to believe in it, one strives to believe in it, one would like to “live.” Anonymity is the rule, one dives in, the vise seems to loosen. One gets drunk, one gives oneself, one lets go. Then one takes a step back. A gate, real or imaginary, has suddenly come down, caught up by reality. Some escape to Taiwan, for gay pride, where one can even get married. The most daring will put on a persona, at their own risk. They will try to own who they are, while still dreaming of elsewhere. Few have any illusions. Shanghai Pride was banned in 2020, the Beijing LGBTQ center closed its doors in 2023 for “force majeure,” bars have been forced to shut down: censorship continues to operate. So one keeps quiet, one complies. Or one goes into exile.
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