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Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Kindlers neues Literatur Lexikon, vol. 20: "Die Literatur der Australischen Aborigines"; with bibl. Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion: see "Initiation, Secret Societies and Masculine Sacrality" (these articles give the essential background). Bibliographies. Goodland, Bibliography of Sex Rites: see index. Simes, Bibliography of Homosexuality, 237–38. Other references. Baumann, Das doppelte Geschlecht: several references (see index). Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, 65–90 (the earliest bibliography of homosexuality in relation to the Australian Aborigines). Herdt, Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia, 3–6: lists cultures where ritualized homosexuality has been recorded (reference has been incorporated here). Murray, Oceanic Homosexualities, 3–9.

Azeri
Azeri, sometimes called Azerbaijani, is a *Turkic language with a large oral literature and an ancient written literature (under Russian control in the twentieth century, the Cyrillic alphabet was used as the alphabet of record). The language is spoken in Azerbaijan in central Asia. Material of relevance dates from ca. 1200—see *Dede Korut. *Dancing boy *songs exist. See also *Sufism, *Sayat Nova, *Vazekh.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Great Soviet Encyclopedia vol.1: see "Literature" under "Azerbaijan SSR". Criticism. Jünger, Literatures of the Soviet Peoples, 48–52.

Bengali
Bengali, an *Indo-European language spoken in northeastern India, is the second largest language spoken in India (after Hindi, the most widely spoken language). Material of relevance dates from 1450.
*Hinduism is the main religion of the state of Bengal in which Bengali is mainly spoken. Bengali is also the language of Muslim Bangladesh to the east of Bengal (this country was formerly part of India but partition took place in 1971, making it a separate country). The language belongs to the *Indic subgroup and is the easternmost Indo-European language. In India, the capital of west Bengal, Calcutta, was formerly the capital of the British colony before the capital was moved to the present capital *Delhi in 1912.

Bengali has an ancient history and rich literature and is one of the most vibrant contemporary literatures of India. The city has many film studios and films on the ancient epic *Ramayana have been made there. Calcutta houses the National Library of India and has been a publishing centre for three hundred years (editions limited to Indian distribution may be published in India simultaneously with overseas editions of the same work). The Calcutta Writer's Workshop published *Vikram Seth's first book of poems which included a gay poem.

The same word is used for "he" and "she" in Bengali which make love poems difficult to interpret as to whether homosexual or heterosexual in intent. *Allegorical gay interpretations of the early— apparently heterosexual—poet *Jayadeva are possible. The *Vaisnava movement relating to Indian *mysticism produced mystical homoerotic works from ca. 1450 (see *Caitanya, *Candidas). Homosexual references have been found in the work of the nineteenth century poet *Isvar Chandragupta. The work of the greatest poet of modern Bengali, as well as the first Asian writer to win the *Nobel Prize, *Rabindranath Tagore, warrants reading for homoeroticism. *Zia Haidar from Bangladesh has written a homoerotic poem about Tagore.

There have been many translations from other Indic languages into Bengali (e.g., The *Mahabharata, *Bhagavad Gita, *Ramayana, *Kabir and *Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra); interaction of Bengali with these languages has been close over a long period of time and the outstanding Bangladeshi poet *Nazrul Islam translated *Omar Khayyam. Since a significant number of people cannot read, there are rich oral traditions of reciting and storytelling: see *Hijras, *Baul songs. There is also much *pornography in Bengali which is a very sophisticated culture.


Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Shipley, Encyclopedia of Literature, 500–11. Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature vol. 1, 303–05: see "Bengali" (in "Indian literatures"). New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: see "Indian Poetry".

Burmese
Burmese is a *Sinitic language and is part of the Tibeto-Burmese sub family. Known material dates from ca. 1985 so far.
Burmese is spoken in Burma, now called officially Myanmar, where it is the majority language. It is written in an alphabet based on a south Indian script which in turn is related to devanagari, the script of Sanskrit. Some 161 languages were spoken in Burma in the last reliable census carried out in 1931 and most languages are spoken by tribal peoples, resulting in rich *oral traditions.
Perhaps due to the military regime at present ruling the country, which has instituted tight control over the country, little is known about homosexuality and less still of homosexuality in relation to poetry. The democratically elected government of 1990 of Aung San Suu Kyi has not been allowed to govern.
Burma is a *Buddhist country (see *Buddhist hymns and chants) but there are strong animist traditions especially amongst tribal peoples. *Transvestism with singing is believed to exist, as in neighboring Laos, Cambodia and Thailand (ca. 1985). *Court traditions saw the writing of homoerotic poems addressed to rulers. The *Ramayana has been translated into Burmese.
An excellent survey of Burmese culture is by Aung San Suu Kyi in her Freedom from Fear (1995). Homosexuality has been documented by western travellers in Burma from the seventeenth century.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality: see "Burma" (by *Paul Knobel). Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, 1384–94.

Catalan
Catalan, one of the *Romance group of languages which are a subgroup of the *Indo-European language family, is very close to Provençal (on which see *Overview—Provençal). It is an *Iberian language spoken in the province of Catalunya, in north east Spain, whose capital is *Barcelona. Material of relevance dates from 1175.
Catalan has a rich literary heritage and its speakers are highly literate. In Spain, the same number of books normally sell in Catalan as sell in Spanish, although there are many fewer speakers of Catalan (which is a minority language in Spain).

The poet *Guillem de Bergueda (active 1175) wrote the first known gay poem of note and the first major Catalan writer is the poet *Raymond Llull who wrote philosophical works on love which warrant gay perusal. Another early poet, *Ausias March, is linked with homosexuality in a single document. Major gay poets such as *Whitman and *Shakespeare have been translated. A number of contemporary poets appear in the anthology *Poemes Gaies (1978). On the side of criticism, *Ana M. Gil has made a survey of homosexuality and Catalan literature. Barcelona houses major libraries and is the publishing center. See Arthur Terry, Catalan Literature, 1972.


On Catalan see J. T. Shipley, Encyclopedia of Literature, 1946, "Catalan Literature", pp. 138–43 and Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume two, pp. 805–26,

Central American Indian (also called Central Amerindian) languages
Cental American Indian languages are spoken in Mexico, Guatemala and the countries of the central American isthmus. Important languages are Náhuatl and Mayan; several language families exist. Material of relevance dates from ca. 1500. Since the conquest of the Central American Indians by Spain from the fifteenth century, Spanish has been the main language of scholarship.
Náhuatl. This is the language of the Indians of Mexico; see *Songs—Náhuatl, *"Song for Meeting a Friend". *Nezahualcoyotl is alleged to have been a homosexual poet. Myths concerning Quetzalcoatal, the feathered *serpent god, may involve *effeminacy and poems addressed to him are relevant (see "Quetzalcoatl" in Encyclopedia of Mexico, ed. Michael S. Wagner, 1997). In Gay Roots: Twenty Years of Gay Sunshine, pp. 190–202, see Clark L. Taylor, "Mexican Gaylife in Historical Perspective", which is an overview of gay life in Mexico (reprinted from *Gay Sunshine no. 26/27, Winter 1975–76); in this article, see pp. 190–92 on homosexuality and the Aztecs.
On the oral literature of the Aztecs overall, see the entry "Náhuatl Literature" in Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature.
Mayan. Mayan is spoken in Guatamala and Mexico; there are over twenty different dialects. A rich oral literature existed of which little survives (mainly the *Books of Chilam Balam, which contains sexual *insults often connected with *anal sex, the *Popul Vuh (both works being in poetry) and the pre-Hispanic play the Rabinal Achí). The Mayan were the only pre-Hispanic people in America to have a written language (their writing system was partly phonetic, partly ideographic). The *Polul Vuh is the sacred book of the Maya. See also *Songs—Mayan re The Book of Chilam Balam.
On the literature overall see "Mayan Literature" in Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature. For a selection of anthropological material, see *Alberto Cardin, Guerreros, Chamanes y Travestis (Cowboys, *Shamans and Transvestites), 1984 (in Spanish). See also the note on homosexuality in Richard C. Trexler, Sex and Conquest, Cambridge, 1995, pp. 174–76.
For a discussion of ancient Mexican, Maya and Peruvian literature see Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, pp. 1495–1510.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: "American Indian Poetry"; see 44–45. Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion: see "Mesoamerican Religions". Encyclopedia of Homosexuality: "Latin America". Kindlers neues Literatur Lexikon, vol. 20: "Altamerikanischen Literaturen"; with bibl. Bibliographies. Goodland, Bibliography of Sex Rites: check under sodomy etc. Dynes, Homosexuality: A Research Guide, pp. 220–27. Criticism. Gay Books Bulletin no. 12 (Spring 1985), 17–19: "A Bibliography of Homosexuality Among Latin-American Indians" by *Stephen Wayne Foster—the major survey to date. Gay Sunshine no. 38–39 (Winter 1979), 37–39. Murray, Male Homosexuality in Central and South America, 4–23. Katzner, Languages of the World, 9: notes several language families exist. Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, 363–92. Baumann, Das doppelte Geschlecht.

Chinese
Chinese, the major written language of East Asia, is a *Sinitic language. It is as a written language that the term Chinese is used in this entry. (Oral material referred to here refers to the language Mandarin or Putongwa, the standard spoken dialect.) Poetry dates from 479 B.C.
Chinese has one of the richest and oldest homosexual poetry traditions in the world; however, due to the huge volume of poetry which survives, research on gay poetry is only in its infancy.
Many cultures and religions have mingled in China, which is a huge country, one of the largest in the world and is akin to Europe as a cultural concept (for instance there is a large *Islamic population in the western provinces and these have links to central Asia): for the cultural background see Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China (1954–). Chinese civilization has continually been renewed by external influences and China has been ruled by several foreign dynasties (for example the Mongolian speaking Mongols and the last dynasty to rule the country, the Manchu speaking Manchus).

There are seven main spoken languages in the Chinese group, including Mandarin—or Putonghua, "common everyday speech", as it has been called since 1949—in the north, Shangaiese, spoken in Shanghai, the second largest city of China, situated in the north east, and Cantonese in the south; these languages are, however, fairly close. Poetry that can be interpreted as being homosexual, dates from the *Shih Ching, the Classic of Poetry, from before 479 B.C., where *gender ambiguity is present. This was first recognized by the critic *Zhao Yi in the eighteenth century. *Ch'u Yuan (before 340 B.C.) is the first known poet to refer directly to homosexuality, in his poem Li sao (Remembering Sorrow), a poem which shows the influence of *shamanism.



Ancient Chinese. Poetry was the dominant literary genre from 479 B.C. to the *Republican period (which dates from 1911); all *scholars wrote it, though literacy rates were not high before 1949. The *shih and the *tz'u were the main genres and complex meanings intended by poets were attached to poems. In addition the Chinese writing system is of great complexity, allowing for several meanings to the one written character. This needs to be taken into account in reading the poetry.
Strong male *friendships, first noted in comments on Chinese poetry in a European language by the English translator *Arthur Waley and shown in the poetry from *T'ao Ch'ien (born 365) onwards, are an outstanding feature, especially among the *T'ang poets. The T'ang period, 618–907, was traditionally regarded as one of the great periods of Chinese poetry. Such friendships are integral to *Confucianism, a Chinese ethos for over two thousand years from 500 B.C., which emphasized close *male bonding (marriages in China were traditionally arranged).

*Buddhism—which came from India and which never condemned homosexuality—was a major religion in China and is at present undergoing a revival. *Zen Buddhism, which originated in China, is of particular interest as is the *Gozan literature of Japan written in Chinese. No anthologies of homosexual poems as such exist so far but the anthology *Yu-T'ai Hsin-Yung (ca. 545) contained homosexual poems; *Tuan-hsiu-pien (ca. 1650), compiled in the early *Ch'ing period, was the first collection of texts referring to homosexuality in Chinese history. In 1927 a quasi anthology of poems written about a gay *actor, *Hsu Tzu-yun, was published. Homosexuality was long associated with the *theater and poems were written about popular actors. *Singing boys are also very ancient.

*Emperors and all *scholars wrote poetry and all gay emperors, such as the Jianwen Emperor (503–551), need to be considered as well as all gay Chinese males who could write. Calligraphy and *design of books reached great heights of aesthetic perfection in China. *Illustration, which was frequently done by the poet, since calligraphy and Chinese painting were intimately connected, is also relevant. *Allegorical interpretations of poems are common; in such a situation *critics and commentators assume new importance and Chinese has an ancient and brilliant exegetical tradition, one of the oldest in the world.

In the *Han period (206 B.C.–220) several Emperors were gay or *bisexual and in this period *esthetes first emerge. The absolute power of the emperor probably meant that no one would dare contradict him even as a child, thus allowing him free play in his sexuality. The *Orchid Terrace School of poets (ca. 502) was a group of aesthetes who seem gay as do a later group of the same name around *Na-lan Hsing-te (born 1655). The *Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (active ca. 250), included a pair of homosexual friends, *Ruan Ji and *Xi Kang; the literati friendships in this group set the pattern for all later poets. At this time *Zhang Hanbin (265–420) wrote a fine love poem inspired by an actor. *Hsieh Ling-yun (385–443) seems homosexual and *Fei Chang (active 550) wrote a gay love poem.

*Coded or indirect language is a common feature of Chinese poetry especially from the T'ang: *peach sharing, for instance, and *cut sleeves were common euphemisms for homosexuality; but a large repertoire of indirect references to the erotic existed. The *T'ang period, as already noted, has been long regarded as a major period of Chinese poetry by later writers (3,000 Tang poets are known). T'ang poets strongly influenced poets not only in China but also poets in Korea, Japan and Vietnam, as models of what a poet should be.
The T'ang period. The intense homoeroticism of the four major T'ang poets— *Li Po, *Tu Fu, *Wang Wei and *Meng Hao-jan—was remarked on by Robert Hans *van Gulik, who wrote the first modern survey of Chinese sexuality in a European language. The earliest *manuscript of a homosexual poem, a poem by *Po Hsing-chien, only rediscovered in the twentieth century at *Dunhuang in north-west China (in a huge Buddhist library not yet adequately assessed), dates from this period. The corpus of poems of the T'ang Buddhist monk poet *Han-Shan (pseud.) is also relevant.

In the Sung period (960–1279), also a major period of Chinese culture, there has been little close investigation of homosexuality in the huge corpus of surviving poetry though *Su Shih warrants perusal. Epicureanism was strong in China in all periods and outstanding later poets include the bisexual *epicurean *Yuan Mei (born 1716). *Songs date from the Shih Ching since Chinese poetry was commonly sung or written to song tunes from this work onwards; *singing boys abounded in *pleasure quarters in all major cities (such as *Beijing, the capital from 1644, Nanjing, Shanghai and Canton). Poems written by males from a female point of view (of which there are many, e.g., by *Wang Mo-jo, born 1887) need to be considered. There is also a long tradition of transvestism in boy singers.


*Laws referring to homosexuality date from the Sung period and are more rigid in the *Ch'ing but burning at the stake for male homosexuality, as occurred in Europe, never occurred in China, so the conditions for the writing of gay poetry were much more favorable.

From the Ming period onwards. The *Ming (1368–1644) and Ch'ing periods (1644–1911) saw the publication of erotic novels and literary works on a large scale, a trend which reached Japan; these works sometimes contained poems. The Republican period (from 1911) saw the translation of *Whitman into Chinese, the beginnings of western literary influence and the beginnings of the writing of *free verse (though China was in turmoil from 1912 until 1949 when the *Communist regime took over and the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan). *Achilles Fang, who lived abroad, hints at a homosexual interpretation of *Hu Shih (born 1891); the German scholar *Hans Frankel also drew attention to homosexuality in the interpretation of Chinese poetry.

China has huge *libraries especially the Peking Library (over 15 million volumes; though western holdings are only a small part) and the Shanghai Library, dating from 1849 and where the main library has over 8 million volumes. Many cities have libraries of more than 2 million volumes. These figures may be inflated since Chinese books consist of chuan—or fascicles—and one book may contain several fascicles which are counted individually as books. These libraries have not been thoroughly assessed for homosexuality, let alone gay poetry; manuscript collections are especially important.



The situation since 1949. Since 1949, with the coming to power of the *Communists, the situation overall in China has been repressive and not favorable for open gay writing, though this appears to be changing. *Male bonding in Communist poetry warrants perusal.
The Communist Party was rigidly controlled by *Mao Tse-tung, who is known to have had homosexual experiences and who also wrote poetry; *Chou en Lai may also be relevant. The works of *Lu Hsun, a poet favored by the Communists, include many poems on male bonding. Western homosexuals who lived in China this century include the literateurs *Harold Acton and *Edmund Backhouse. The United States homosexual poet *Witter Bynner was responsible for a major translation of the famous anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems which was subtitled The Jade Mountain (1929); in the United States he occupied a position akin to Arthur Waley in Great Britain.

Recent surveys of homosexuality include the *Hong Kong published two volume work published in 1964 by a committee of scholars who called themselves *Wei hsing shih kuan ch'i chu (pseud.) and a literary and historical survey by *Sam Shasha (pseud.) first published in 1984, both in Chinese. A brilliant literary survey published in 1990 by *Brett Hinsch exists in English, subsuming much of the Chinese material in a concise and readable form; *Louis Crompton is known to have worked on a history of homosexuality in China in English. *Karsch-Haack wrote the first survey of Chinese homosexuality in a western language in German in 1906. In China *Kuo Mo-jo has commented on homosexuality in *Du Fu and *Li Bai; recently, *Allen Ginsberg has been translated into Chinese. Beijing now has several gay bars. *Gay liberation is referred to in a recent Chinese edition of Encyclopædia Britannica.


There are two systems of transliteration of Chinese into western languages (though neither makes account of the tones): the *Wade Giles (created by western scholars in the late nineteenth century) and *Pinyin (originating from mainland China after 1949). Both systems have been used in this encyclopedia depending on the way an author's name has been transcribed in a written source; the system used is usually stated.
Granted the tradition of indirect reference, homosexuality is more likely to be expressed in a coded way in twentieth century works on both the mainland and Taiwan. This is changing.

Taiwan. Traditional Chinese culture has been nourished in Taiwan where homosexuality is not mentioned in the legal code. There is a vibrant gay scene much influenced by the United States, to which the country has close links. A history of homosexual literature has been written by *Mao-feng chu who has also published a study on the *aesthetics of homosexuality.
Hong Kong. *Hong Kong, which was under British control for a hundred and fifty years returned to Chinese control in 1997. Though homosexuality (now legalized) was illegal under British law, the two finest known surveys of homosexuality and China were published there in this period. In 1996 there was a gay conference in Hong Kong organized by the Tongzhi Culture Society, a gay group. Two Chinese language homosexual periodicals originate from Hong Kong.

Minority languages in China. Over fifty minority languages are spoken in China: see Brian Hook,The Cambridge Encyclopedia of China, 1982, 97–102. Languages spoken by one million people include Uighur, Korean, Manchu, Mongolian, Yi (Lolo) and Tibetan (Tibet has been incorporated into China since 1950). Tibetan is a *Sinitic language in the same language family as Chinese: see *Overview—Tibetan for material of relevance. For the others see *Overview—Korean, *Overview—Manchi, *Overview—Mongolian.
China has been the dominant country in East Asia for over 2,000 years and Chinese was read as a literary language in Korea, Japan and Vietnam: see the entry *Influence—Chinese. A large volume of *Chinese literature written in Japan, Korea and Vietnam exists. There has also been extensive commentary on Chinese poetry in these countries.
As all Korean poems were written in Chinese until 1643, all Korean poetry until this date is relevant. Vietnamese poetry was written in Chinese characters until 1800 so entries in Vietnamese up to 1800 are relevant to consider. In Japan, Chinese occupied the place amongst scholars—all who could write—that Latin did in western Europe until recently and most Japanese scholars read and wrote Chinese until the contemporary period. The Japanese script is based on Chinese. For a history of China see John H. Fairbank and Edwin O. Reischauer, China: Tradition and Transformation, revised edition, Boston, 1989.
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