Jay Lim ｜林俊豪
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Chao Ah Gua (臭阿倌) 2024

Digital C Type Prints, Installation, Hydrochromic Ink.
48 pages, 经折装 (Chinese Accordion-Style) Binding, Thermochromic Ink, Postcards.

Powered by contemporary movements from the West, gay culture has become shaped to fit Western ideals. Its emphasis on individuality clashes with the collective values upheld in many Asian countries resulting in a dominant perception – that gay experiences are homogenous and serve as another form of cultural dominance from the Western world. Expectations of homogeneity has long fed into local societal rejection and political erasure of gay narratives in Asian communities, even when there is evidence to show their assimilation within these societies historically.
Erasure of local gay content has also resulted in Asian gay men turning toward Western gay narratives as a framework to navigate their sexuality, with many choosing to abandon their other personal identities or lead double lives, reinforcing hegemonic queer narratives that continue to influence the next generation of Asian gay men living in collective societies.

What does that then mean for the gay men living in these spaces? Are they supposed to choose one-half of themselves over the other? Is it an impossibility for Asian gay men to co-exist with their heterosexual and Occidental counterparts? We must start to find different ways of championing equality locally, to look for new ways of intertwining our traditional upbringing and sexual identities so that future generations of Asian gay people can have nuanced examples that they can look up to and follow – something that our predecessors sorely lacked. Chao Ah Gua serves as a beacon of hope to Asian gay men who are unable to see a future for themselves within their Asian communities.
 




 

Chao Ah Gua (2024) as part of the Maybe Someday, One Day group exhibition.