Homosexual love has a long and poetic pedigree in the middle kingdom. Emperor Ai of the Han dynasty, who ruled for a few years just before the birth of Christ, adored his male lover so much (so the story goes) that he cut the sleeves off his imperial robes rather than disturb his napping companion when he fell asleep on top of them.
Things went downhill after that. The “passion of the cut sleeve”, as male homosexuality was elegantly known after Emperor Ai’s time, was declared first illegal and later a mental illness. Then, 2,000 years after Emperor Ai trimmed his robes, Beijing decided homosexuality was “normal” again — and in the 15 years since then, Chinese parents, employers and society at large have slowly been getting used to the idea.
These days they are getting so used to it that, in the past couple of years, Chinese companies have started targeting advertising — especially on the wildly hot social media platforms — at the new “pink yuan” market. Taobao, Alibaba’s eBay-like online marketplace, hosted a Valentine’s day contest last year that sent seven gay couples to California to get married since they can’t do that at home. Their trips were paid for by a bedding merchant.