Portal:LGBTQ/Selected article/30

Young men sipping tea and having sex. Individual panel from a hand scroll on homosexual themes, paint on silk; China, Qing Dynasty (eighteenth to nineteenth centuries); Kinsey Institute, Bloomington, Indiana, United States

Homosexuality has been documented in China since ancient times. None of the major Chinese religions consider homosexual acts as sin as many Abrahamic religions do. Therefore, as long as a man did his duty and sired children, it was his private affair to have male lovers. Scholar Pan Guangdan (潘光旦) came to the conclusion that many emperors in the Han Dynasty had one or more male sex partners. Emperor Ai was particularly noted for his strong devotion to his companion Dong Xian. Lesbian relationships on the other hand were rare or at least were not mentioned much in Chinese literature of the time.

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