LETTER FROM SHANGHAI
There were bursts of laughter to cover the pain, quite a few drinks and hugs. The regulars told each other how much the place has meant to them. In two memorable evenings of celebration, Saturday June 15 and Sunday June 16, the Roxie said goodbye. The place wasn’t huge, just over 100 m2, but in nine years it had become an institution for Shanghai lesbians. The acoustics left the possibility of talking to each other despite the good music, the dim lights added to the atmosphere, the long bar facing the gray brick wall allowed you to lean on your elbows.
In the trendy Jing’an district, on Kangding Street which is home to other party venues, everyone here had to know that they were accepted. “Everyone was welcome, the place was certainly not intended to be a bar just for lesbians. The cocktails were good and inexpensive, and everyone was treated with respect”sums up a regular.
The news came suddenly, through an announcement on the Roxie account on the social network WeChat. This time, no classic Latino evenings, singles evenings, film screening evenings but a “goodbye evening” and another “last dance night”. The press release repeated a formula already read during the closure of other LGBT bars: “To our dear customers. For reasons beyond our control, too many reasons, tonight will be our last night. »
No need, nor possible, to say more, everyone in China understands what such a message means. Rumors also spread among old faithful: soundproofing suddenly deemed no longer up to standard by the firefighters, probable pressure from the police, owner of the walls suddenly judging it better to end the lease. The bar management did not respond to requests from Monde. Who could blame him?
“Cultivate masculinity”
On this Sunday evening at the end of an era, everyone recalled their memories, between two cocktails and two dance steps. “I felt like I could be there myself”, “I felt at home there, it was our bar. » “They are afraid of everything, here we are just talking about people having fun”lamented a regular.
China is not a very religious country, communism has largely erased this trait, and its population is rather tolerant and open in general, even if it is much less so in the family context. A study published in 2022 in the Journal of Family issues carried out among 11,000 Chinese lesbians and gays concluded that 54% had suffered either violence or negative treatment from their family because of their sexual orientation.
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