Shanghai Pride

Figured I might as well post again since I am bored and trying to stay awake. I've been away from this blog for a bit. Some fun stuff has happened since I last posted for real. One of the most exciting was Shanghai Pride.

This was the first Pride event in mainland China (or at least that's what I heard), so it was kind of cool to be a part of history. I was a volunteer during the week and went to three of the events.

The first one I went to was the opening night at Vargas grill. They showed a documentary about queer history in China which was very interesting. There was also a very tasty dinner. On thursday I was a volunteer at the wine tasting. Thursday I was still pretty sick so I didn't drink but rather stayed at the table all night greeting guests, selling raffle tickets and t-shirts.

I was thinking of going to see the performance of the Laramie Project that was planned for Friday, but the authorities intervened and it ended up being canceled.

Saturday was the huge all day event at Cotton's. I got there around 11am and helped with setup. Mostly moving tables and chairs around and stuffing gift bags for the guests. When the festival officially started at 2pm I was at the greeting table getting the gift bags ready and selling t-shirts. After a bit I also did some face painting. Mostly rainbows.
There were rainbow banners completely covering up the courtyard the party was in. It was funny to see people walking by peeking in to see what all the fuss was about. Apparently some plain clothes cops showed up, but I completely missed that. Dunno how. Glad that the party got to continue though.

There were lots of fun activities during the day like drag performances and raffle drawings. There was also a gay marriage ceremony at the end of the event. It was cool.

There are two things that I remember most about Pride. One was that it was HOT. I felt like I was swimming in humidity and sweat all day. Blech. The other was that it was CROWDED. I was surprised that the organizers got such a small venue for the event, but I was really glad to see that it got completely packed.

There was an after party at Glamour Bar but I was exhausted (also still sick...and now drugged up after being to the clinic) so I went back to my apartment and went to bed.

Here's hoping that this is one of many future steps forward for China on the front of sexual equality.

-Stephanie