Curious thoughts

A few days ago, as part of my position, I attended a Spring Festival event at the Chinese Consulate in Melbourne. Like similar high-profile events, it featured hundreds of community leaders and impressive entertainment, including a traditional costume show, song, martial arts, and the lion dance from the Chinese Masonic Society. There were many speeches by community leaders, several state and federal MPs, and the Mayor of Melbourne, and, I may note, the primarily Anglophone politicians are making much more use of Chinese-language introductions these days. There was, of course, a glorious and diverse dinner options as well. Of note, at least for me, was the review of the year that included recognition that the Chinese economy continues to achieve more than 5% growth, with a big part driven by renewable energy, electric vehicles, transportation, artificial intelligence (e.g., DeepSeek), and an ever-growing army of industrial robots,

Because I enjoy the juxtaposition of such events in my life, a couple of days later I attended the Victoria's Pride street party for the LGBTQI+ communities and allies in Collingwood and Fitzroy with Mel S. It too features singers and dancers and community organisations, commercial groups, arts and crafts, suppliers of cuisines, and many people in their own colourful and elaborate costumes (especially including Mel's fabulous outfit), albeit all of a different nature and pitch. Nevertheless, the similarities did not go unnoticed; when a community has reason to celebrate, certain activities seem universal. For LGBTQI+ communities, there is much to celebrate, not just for the sheer joy of doing so, but also for the political advancements towards legal equality and acceptance by Australian culture at large over the past 30 years.

A comparison between the two had led to thinking of China's own stance on LGBTQI+ communities. A comparison between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China in this regard certainly does come out in favour of the latter, which is considered the most comprehensive in Asia. Within the PRC, there is legalisation, recognition, but neither equality nor explicit protection against discrimination. It's a pretty basic fact of empirical sociology that acceptance of diversity (whether cultural, religious, or sexual orientation) is more common in developed urban communities than elsewhere, which provides at least some understanding of the dynamics. Essentially, the LGBTQI+ communities in the PRC are about thirty years behind the more liberal countries of the Western world. I suspect that gap will decrease province by province over time, but I will reiterate that the RoC is ahead of the PRC on this, and, to get very political, for a socialist system to succeed, it must ultimately offer more freedoms than its counterparts, not less.