Pink Alliance 粉紅同盟

Mission:

The Tongzhi Literary Group (TLG) aims to foster local tongzhi writing by introducing writers to a wider public and by helping them with publishing issues and translation.

Background:

The Tongzhi Literary Group (TLG) was born in March 2008 following two sessions on LGBT literature held by the Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival at the Fringe Club. Moderated by Nigel Collett, these examined the issues involved in LGBT writing in Hong Kong and brought together a large panel of local writers: Xu Xi (novelist, essayist and anthologist) Ip Chi-wai (novelist), Henry Lam – Reporter A (novelist and Programme Director of Gayradio.hk), Stuart Koe (CEO of Fridae.com), Nicholas Wong (poet), Victor Chau (ex-Editor of G Magazine) and Peter Moss (autobiographer and novelist). This event encouraged the participants to set up a literary group to continue their association and to foster tongzhi literature in Hong Kong.

The TLG meets on a Wednesday/Thursday evening at 7.30 pm every three months and is currently based at Culture Club on Elgin Street. Meetings are open to the public, both writers and non-writers, and take the form of readings, mostly by their authors, of any tongzhi-related text in Chinese or English, and there are usually three readings each evening. Chinese works are usually read in Cantonese and translated or summarised into English. Books are often sold by the authors, and there is opportunity for writers and non-writers to mingle and meet. The TLG also aims to hear works by unpublished writers.

Coordinators:

The TLG has two coordinators – Nigel Collett and Reggie Ho.

Events:

Notices of meetings are sent by email and are advertised in The South China Morning Post, Dim Sum Magazine, Time Out, Facebook and Fridae.com.

Disclaimer – Not all those mentioned below are LGBT themselves. Their inclusion here only indicates that their work is of LGBT interest.

Following People have read at the TLG events:

• Xu Xi – extracts from her novels and essays in English.
• Peter Moss – from his autobiography No Babylon, in English.
• Henry Lam – from his novel The Shoes and Running Tracks, in Chinese.
• Ip Chi-wai – from his first novel, Suddenly Single, in Chinese.
• Chou Wah-shan – from his Tongzhi: Politics of Same-sex Eroticism in Chinese Societies, in English.
• Arthur Leong – from his poems, in English.
• Jam Ismael – from her poems, in English.
• Anthony Man Ho-fung – from his works, in Chinese.
• Connie, Wai Wai and Lik Lik of Women Coalition of HKSAR – from their collection of lesbian lives, in Chinese.
• Chi Heng Foundation – from their accounts of coming out in China, in Chinese.
• Nigel Collett – from his Life of Leslie Cheung, in English.
• Aileen Bridgewater – from her memoirs on the McLennan case, in English.
• Pak Li and his actors – from the play Rope of Love in Cantonese.
• Brian Leung – from his book Straightly Gay in Chinese.
• Geoffrey Emerson – from his history of the 2WW Stanley civilian internment camp in English.
• Rob McBride and his actors – from the play Katoey in English.
• Brian Yeung – two short stories, one in English, one in Chinese, on one theme.
• Anshuman Das – from his novel The Memory of a Face in English.
• Roddy Shaw – from the book Visible Truth in Chinese.
• Peter Moss – introducing Austin Coates from his book Distant Archipelagos in English.
• Nigel Collett – from Austin Coates’s book Myself a Mandarin in English.
• Reggie Ho – from his published articles on food and fashion in English.
• Edward Russell – from his published article on LGBT in China in English.
• Gregg Schroeder – from his upcoming novel in English.
• Lucetta Kam and Eleanor Cheung – from their book Lunar Desires: Her First Same-Sex Love in Her Own Words.
• David Price – from his new novel Chinese Walls in English.
• Marshall Moore – from his novel An Ideal for Living in English.
• Jason Ng – from his book Hong Kong State of Mind.
• John Nguyet Erni – from his work on the W case.
• James Gannaban – from his Hyperactive blog and his work in Dim Sum Magazine.
• Don Davis – from Andrew Hollinghurst’s new novel The Stranger’s Child.
• John Potter – from Sir Edmund Backhouse’s memoir Decadence Mandchoue.
• Tim Cribb – a review of The Role of the Editor.
• Sam Winter – from Queer Asia’s Queer Bangkok in English
• Jason Wordie – from F. D. Ommanney’s The River Bank in English
• Reggie Ho – from Samshasha’s 30 Questions about Homosexuality (1989) in Chinese