WATCH: We Are Out! | Ep. 2 with Late Japanese Gay Porn Star Koh Masaki

A really fascinating look at the bi-national couple of the late Japanese gay porn star Koh Masaki and his boyfriend Tien Tien. Masaki, who died of peritonitis after an appendix rupture at age 29, was a prolific icon for Japanese LGBTQ. There is an intense sense of propriety that, according to Koh, keeps them from most public displays of affection. Also catch Koh’s thoughts on how/why he thinks Japanese society would understand his gayness.

We Are Out! is a series in which samurai photographer Keichii Nitta cracks open Japan’s taboo on open homosexuality, by delving into the intimate lives of gay and lesbian couples.

In Part 2, Nitta goes to the home of international Chinese/Japanese couple Tenten and Koh. Having left his friends and family in China, Tenten found love when we met Koh. Behind closed doors, their outward macho appearance is shed to reveal an intimate portrait of modern love.

To see the photos check out vice.com

Tien Tien and Koh Masaki days before the latter’s death.

USA Today reports:

Two political parties staged separate protests at the U.S. Consulate on Thursday, with the New Forum demonstrating against the alleged U.S. hacking in Hong Kong and China and the League of Social Democrats voicing support for Edward Snowden.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s government is demanding answers from President Obama based revelations that it was in fact the United States that was hacking into hundreds of targets within the territory, including the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

“Until Snowden divulged the secret program most in Hong Kong assumed that China was to blame for any hacking episodes,” the quotes Simon Shen, co-director of the International Affairs Research Center at Chinese University of Hong Kong.

[Photos: Kin Cheng / AP]

Tearful wife of jailed Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo shouts ‘I’m not free!’ as she is allowed out for brother’s trial

Nadav Kander - Yangtze: The Long River (2009-12)

“Finishing Yangtze: The Long River required three years and five trips to China, ‘a place that is moving and changing so fast that it can only be unnatural,’ [Kander] said.

In 2005, around the time Mr. Kander started thinking about the project, he was intrigued by China’s rapid growth and constant change. ‘It was a place that I wanted to stand in,’ he said.

The Yangtze, flowing nearly 4,000 miles from Qinghai Province to the East China Sea, seemed a natural yet challenging path to trace.

‘I love the metaphor of water,’ Mr. Kander said. ‘Like life, like humanness, it becomes a cloud. It’s an ever-changing cycle. I find it comforting.’

Because what he was seeing wasn’t so much about China — grand structures or tourist vistas — as it was about compassion. He saw a beauty in the moments he witnessed, as people lived out their daily lives and traditions in circumstances so much different from his own.

‘It’s much more about what you don’t show than what you do show,’ he said. ‘I think work that asks you to question what more there is is much more interesting.’”

[via:likeafieldmouse]

“Secret Love” | Östasiatiska Museet

Images from Stockholm’s Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Östasiatiska Museet)’s current “Secret Love” exhibition by Chinese artists who explore the taboo sexualities.

South China Morning Post reports that parents of over 100 Chinese gays and lesbians have written an open letter to the National People’s Congress demanding marriage equality for the nation’s gays and lesbians. 

Below is the letter (in Simplified Chinese):

百余位同性恋者的父母致信全国人大代表

      呼吁同性婚姻立法的公开信

尊敬的全国人大代表您好！

   

    我们来自五湖四海，我们的孩子是同性恋者，我们被称为“同志父母”，我们的孩子因为同性倾向原因，无法与相爱的人合法组成家庭，结为“夫夫或妇妇”，给生活和就医等诸多方面带来不便。

 

    按照社会学常识，同性恋者约占总人口的3-5%，照此推算，中国约有6000万同性恋者，他们因为现行的《婚姻法》规定只能一男一女结合，而被排斥在婚姻殿堂之外。我们的孩子有些跟同性伴侣已生活了近10年，他们相互照应，相亲相爱，却不能在另一伴生病需要手术时合法签字。身为同性恋者的家长，我们时常感到焦虑，因为不能合法结婚，我们孩子在领养下一代、生病手术签字、继承伴侣财产、甚至买房等各方面都受到不同程度的影响。

    匪夷所思的是，我们的同性恋孩子尽管不爱异性，却拥有合法与异性结婚的权利。众所周知，同性恋与异性结婚，造成“同妻”、“同夫”等严重的社会问题，也让更多的人生活不幸福。难道我们的法律是要鼓励同性恋与异性结婚吗？

 

    另外，同性恋并不违反任何现行的中国法律，同性恋者是具有各项权利的中华人民共和国公民，同性恋者的结婚权利不能长期被剥夺。

 

    我们恳请全国人大代表和政协委员们给予关注，倾听1.2亿“同志家长”的心声，体恤6000万同性恋者对平等和尊严的渴盼，呼吁尽早修改《婚姻法》，让中国6000万同性恋公民拥有平等的婚姻权。

 

    感谢您在百忙之中关注此事，并祝工作愉快，身体健康！

 

    此致

 

    敬礼！                          

                          同性恋亲友会家长群部分家长

                                   2013年2月25日

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-20103483

America’s cinematic products explored as an “soft power” cultural influence in China. How hypocritical Hollywood alters its products for the burgeoning middle-class Chinese consumer, while China’s censorship policies stifle film & media production, hampers cultural dissemination domestically, and harms potential cultural ambassadorship abroad.

Hong Kong’s poor living in cages

Small enclosures line the room, leaving just enough headroom to sit up within the confined walls. Money is as tight as the spaces hidden among multimillion dollar high-rise apartments.

In 2009, Australia-based photographer Brian Cassey flew to Hong Kong, where he had discovered people were living in nothing more than cages because of dire economic conditions.

But nailing down the location of these caged dwellings proved to be harder than Cassey expected.

“The cage people are very well-hidden in dense, packed high-rise buildings,” Cassey said. “All cage homes are well-hidden behind several bolted doors.”

This set-up doesn’t come as cheaply as one might expect, either. Cassey said it costs about $200 a month to rent the space.

“No one wants to live here, but we need to survive,” a resident of one of these facilities told CNN in July. Mak, 72, works as a janitor at the nearby Times Square and said his living conditions are “a step up from being on the streets.”

Cassey said he was looking for a project that “had the prospect of making a difference by bringing the situation to light.”

With only two hours to spend with his subjects, there wasn’t much time to get personally involved with them. Instead, the British photographer tried to hide in the shadows and “be as unobtrusive as possible,” he said, adding that it was very difficult task to accomplish in the cramped space.

“The atmosphere was one of resigned but controlled despair,” he said. “From those few I talked to, they are resigned to their fate,” deeming it preferable to being homeless.

He found the situation “extremely depressing” but said he was impressed by the attitudes of many of the people living there.

“The cage home residents I met acted, despite their dire circumstances, with amazing dignity and grace,” he said.

– Elizabeth I. Johnson, CNN

+ photos here

[via:CNN Photos]