ABSTRACT
Fast forward to a hot Saturday evening, June 14, 2012. I am sitting in an apartment in Sihuiqiao, east-central Beijing, surrounded by more than forty Chinese and foreign lesbians. The occasion is the International Lala Meeting, its purpose defi ned in the English-language e-fl ier I received earlier that week as “Local and foreign lalas meet to exchange culture, share news & views.” The event is co-organized by the Lala Salon, the Les+ zine, Tongyu, and BGLAD (Beijing Gay, Lesbian, and Allies Discussion), a social group run by mainly American and European queers resident in Beijing. The room is becoming hot, despite the admirable eff orts of an air conditioner, and some of the women are struggling to set up a PowerPoint projector as their presentations are due to begin. But most of the women are happily chatting away among themselves and do not seem bothered by the wait. Few of the faces are familiar to me, and I spend the time looking around the venue, taking in the new space. The two-bedroom apartment on the twenty-eighth fl oor is home to the newly established Beijing Lesbian Center (Beijing Nütongzhi Zhongxin). The Center hosts the weekly Salons, alongside other activities for lalas held on weekdays and evenings. It also functions as a safe space and resource center. Anke is still the manager, but has a lower profi le now. An energetic group of younger volunteers, most of whom are university students, do most of the day-to-day management. Their enthusiasm and confi dence are striking, in marked contrast to the atmosphere eight years ago, when the Salon started. For example, Maizi, one of the central volunteers at the Center at this time, proclaimed in a recent Les+ article, “I want to change the world!”2 The times are indeed changing, and fast.
