Beijing’s annual “Love Queer Film Week”, one of the nation’s oldest film festivals and mainland China’s only independent LGBTQ+ film and culture forum, was cancelled following repeated harassment and pressure from police. The festival was founded in 2001 by Peking University students. Its cancellation is indicative of the Chinese government’s increasing restrictions on feminist and LGBTQ+ expression, as well as its broader efforts to control independent organizations and filmmakers, particularly ones that engage with Western ideas and/or critiques of communism.
Last year, even a Chinese film festival that was meant to take place outside of China (New York) was cancelled following friction like what the “Love Queer Film Week” organizers endured. These developments are not great signs for the future of rights and freedoms for queer Chinese citizens and residents, to say the least.
