Lala Camps Launch a Movement
| Bin Xu, Executive Director of Common Language, speaks about the Lala Camps |
In a country where formal organizations are a relatively new idea and public demonstrations are illegal, the Chinese lala (lesbian, bi, and trans) leadership trainings—the Lala Camps—are setting off a seismic shift. In 2007, the first Lala Camp moved lalas from isolation to connection. Then in October 2008 a series of five regional Lala Camps empowered 1,000 lalas from 35 cities with support, strategies, and vision. From Anshan, a rural area where organizers sell blood sausage to raise money for their activities, to metropolitan Beijing, home of the country’s only lesbian print magazine and largest lala group, the landscape of lala activism in China was fundamentally changed.
The Lala Camps were conceived at Astraea’s Giving and Activism Retreat in 2006, when seven Mandarin-speaking activists envisioned an empowered network of leaders across the region. Since police stormed the last large-scale lala gathering in Beijing just two years before, the 2007 Lala Camp astounded even the organizers by bringing together over a hundred activists from twenty cities in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the U.S. who traveled a combined total of over six hundred hours to attend.
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| “I am hugely obliged to the Lala Camps for the knowledge that I have been given, the personal relations that I have established and the help and support that were provided in the formation of our local lala group. We would not be able to develop to the extent we have without the support from Lala Camps and Astraea.” –Miss S, Guangxi Lesbian Coalition Photo by Ling |
Built on the success in 2007, the 2008 trainings invigorated participants in Chengdu, Kunming, Beijing, Anshan and Shanghai. They worked from early morning to late at night, delving into leadership trainings, heated discussions, and human rights strategy sessions. Organizers forged connections with ally organizations in each region and held public events showcasing lala history and culture. The momentum continued from city to city, finally culminating in the creation of the first national lala organizing body—the Chinese Lala Alliance.
Bin Xu, Executive Director of Common Language, (the Astraea grantee partner that led coordination of the camps) said, “The 2007 camp was a turning point for many people. After the camp, I think everyone from mainland China told me, it was like a dream…. After the camp, lesbian activism in China put on a new face.”
One new face is nineteen-year-old Miss S, who returned home and launched Guangxi Lesbian Coalition. With funding from Astraea, GLC grew in a year from a one-city core group of youth to a multi-city network of more than a hundred members. They are undeterred by a local government ban on LGBT topics and crackdowns on organizing. Through a hotline, an online magazine, a lesbian basketball tournament, and support meetings in urban and remote areas, GLC is actively building a meaningful and vibrant community for its members.
Today, thanks in large part to the Lala Camps, there are nearly 25 lala organizations across China—a fivefold increase in two years. Miss S’s organization is part of an emerging LBT movement that is gaining increasing momentum nationally.
Bin says of the growing swell of activism, “The change is so obvious. I’m very happy Astraea is a part of this change in China.”
