New book says Communist China's first premier was probably gay
A
book to be published in Hong Kong in the new year says Zhou Enlai,
Communist China's much-respected first premier, was probably gay despite
his long marriage, and had once been in love with a male schoolmate two
years his junior.
It
is a contention certain to be controversial in China, where the
Communist Party likes to maintain its top leaders are more or less
morally irreproachable and where homosexuality is frowned upon, though
no longer officially repressed.
The
Hong Kong-based author, Tsoi Wing-mui, is a former editor at a liberal
political magazine there who has written about gay-themed subjects
before though this is her first book.
he
re-read already publicly available letters and diaries Zhou and his
wife, Deng Yingchao, wrote, including ones that detailed Zhou's fondness
for a schoolmate and emotional detachment from his wife, to conclude
that Zhou was probably gay.
Zhou
was premier from the revolution in October 1949 that brought the
Communist Party to power until his death from cancer in 1976, a few
months before the death of his revolutionary colleague Mao Zedong, the
founder of modern China.
Reuters
obtained excerpts of the Chinese-language book, called "The Secret
Emotional Life of Zhou Enlai". It is published by the same house that
put out the secret diaries of former Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang,
who was ousted after 1989's Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy
demonstrators.
Tsoi
re-read books published by the party in 1998 to mark the 100th
anniversary of Zhou's birth that contained public essays and speeches by
Zhou as well as his diary, letters, poems, novels and thesis from 1912
to 1924.
"Zhou Enlai was a gay politician who had the misfortune of being born 100 years early," Tsoi writes in her book.
She
told Reuters the real meaning of the diaries had been hidden in plain
sight, but no Chinese scholars had openly made the connection before as
the subject of homosexuality was unknown to them.
"When
mainland Chinese authors came into contact with this material, they
would not consider the possibility of homosexuality," she said.
It
is not illegal to be gay in China and these days many large Chinese
cities have thriving gay scenes, although there is still a lot of family
pressure to get married and have children, even for gay men and women.
There are a handful of openly gay celebrities in China but certainly no politicians say in public they are gay.
OFF LIMITS
While
Chinese literature and history are rich in their descriptions of
relatively liberal attitudes towards homosexuality during imperial
times, the revolution brought more prudish attitudes.
Tsoi
expects the book to be banned in China, where discussion of
controversial personal details of senior leaders, especially
historically significant ones like Zhou, are off limits.
Gao
Wenqian, a U.S.-based biographer of Zhou, said he was aware of
speculation about Zhou's sexuality, but it was hard to say for certain
if it was true.
"There's actually not that much information about it in the records," Gao told Reuters. "There's no way to be sure."
The
State Council Information Office, or cabinet spokesman's office, did
not respond to requests for comment. The Communist Party History
Research Office, reached by telephone, declined to comment.
The book says Zhou was most fond of Li Fujing, a schoolmate two years his junior.
Zhou
wrote in his diary that he could not live one day without Li, the
author says in the book, and being with Li can "turn sorrow into joy".
Zhou and Li shared a dormitory from 1917 and "even their shadows do not part", she wrote. Li died in 1960.
Zhou married Deng Yingchao in 1925. They had no children of their own.
There were "no romantic feelings" and it was a "marriage in name only ... He was never in love with his wife," Tsoi wrote.
Deng, who was chairwoman of a high profile but largely ceremonial advisory body to parliament from 1983-88, died in 1992.
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