Friday, April 20, 2007

Pu Bajia - Tibetan star in Shanghai



Pu Bajia is a Tibetan actor and a singer. He was one of the winners of Chinese Reality TV show called My Hero. The show's sponsored by LYCRA and was part of a China-wide integrated marketing campaign. The show itself featured Chinese nationals singing, dancing and performing in front of a studio audience and a judging panel.









Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Where is Gendun Choekyi Nyima?



Where is Gendun Choekyi Nyima, His Holiness the 11th Panchen Lama?
Click here to know more

The Masseur



Film Title: The Masseur (Phillipino title: Masahista)
Directed by Brillante Mendoza
Language: Tagalog, Country: Phillipines

Following the death of his father and a chance meeting with an abusive romance novelist, a masseur working in a gay massage parlor struggles to make sense of his unfulfilling relationships while simultaneously assisting his mother in preparing his father for burial. Twenty-year-old Iliac (Coco Martin) may not be the best masseur in the parlor, but when he catches the eye of a cold and calculated romance novelist looking for a cheap thrill, the icy indifference displayed by his paying lover does little more to warm the spirits than his sexually charged but emotionally distant girlfriend. Despite the resentment Iliac feels towards his late father for abandoning the family and embarking on a suicidal alcohol binge, the lovelorn youth nevertheless makes the journey home to be there for his grieving mother in her time of need. As he prepares his father for burial and his mind wanders back to the previous night's encounter at the massage parlor, Iliac's increasingly complex love life disturbingly begins to mirror his troubled family life. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Monday, April 9, 2007

A band called Rangzen

Rangzen means freedom in Tibetan. Here's a band called Rangzen based in Italy. Official website.

CSNY tribute by Rangzen

China's first gay TV show premieres online

At the risk of appearing as though we are once again fellating the "gay agenda", we thought we'd point out the interesting news announced Thursday that China aired its first program about gay and lesbian issues ... online. The show is called 同性相连 in Chinese and Gay Connections in English (although the Chinese press release calls the program Connecting Homosexual People) and it premiered its first episode of a 12-part weekly series on April 5 at 3 pm.

The producer of the show, Gang Gang (刚刚), claims it is the first Chinese first show of its kind to focus on gay issues and the first with an openly homosexual host. The program is hosted by AIDS activist Didier Zheng, of the Chi Heng foundation (pictured left, with Gang Gang on the right). It appears that the makers of the show, purposely chose to air the program online rather than face the possibility of being censored on broadcast TV.

The show debuted on Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television's website featuring an interview with Qiao Qiao (乔乔), the lesbian singer of the song "爱不分" or "Love Doesn't Discriminate". She is also the owner of Beijing's oldest lesbian bar, called "Pipe".
To the extent of Shanghaiist's knowledge, the program is not archived and can only be viewed at its designated timeslot of Thursdays at 3 pm. For more information, check out the homepage of Gay Connections (in Chinese).

Source: Shanghaiist

Friday, April 6, 2007

Gay in Lhasa

April 6, 2007
By Dinah Gardner

Fridae’s Beijing correspondent Dinah Gardner travels to Lhasa, Tibet and speaks to young gay and lesbian Tibetans about their lives in the city's small yet flourishing queer scene.

How gay friendly is the Dalai Lama? Well, the charismatic exiled leader of Tibet says he supports gay and lesbian rights. But only for non-Buddhists. Same-sex intercourse, he says, is simply wrong for believers of his faith. In that case, he might be a tad unhappy then, to learn that Lhasa, capital of his estranged Himalayan kingdom, now has a small yet flourishing queer scene.

Click here for the full report