LGBTQ-friendly bar in Shanghai closed

In Shanghai, the “Roxie” has to close – and the city’s LGBTQ community is losing one of its last safe meeting places. The bar has apparently been under pressure for some time.

It’s Sunday evening. And although Monday is a normal working day, the “Roxie” bar in Shanghai is bursting at the seams. Many people are dancing and jumping to the beat of the music with large rainbow flags in their hands. Some have painted their faces with rainbow colors – a symbol of the LGBTQ community. The scenes are unusual in China, where public Pride events are hardly possible anymore.

It is the last dance with which the LGBTQ community in Shanghai says goodbye to a place that some even called home – it is the last evening before the bar closes. For nine years, the “Roxie” was the center of the Shanghai lesbian scene, every day, even during the week. There were film nights, pole dancing and parties.

“Another safe place has disappeared”

“There aren’t that many places where lesbians can meet. Now the last one is gone and I’m sad,” says a young woman who came back especially to say goodbye. To protect herself, she doesn’t give her name, nor the names of the other people she interviewed.

“I don’t know where else we can go. I really don’t know,” says another woman. She is even sadder that the bar is closing in June, “Pride Month,” when many events for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people take place around the world. “It means that another of our safe places has disappeared,” she says. She is actually worried about the future of the community. It wasn’t just a bar, it was a safe space for the LGBTQ scene.

Was the bar “too feminist”?

In an official announcement by the bar on the Chinese messaging app Wechat, it said it had to close due to “circumstances beyond its control.” People familiar with the closure told ARDthat the bar was considered “too feminist” by the Chinese authorities and that it had been under pressure for some time.

A few months ago, several bras were hanging above the bar counter as decoration. These had to be removed on orders from the authorities, according to people close to the bar.

Women felt particularly safe

Those responsible for the bar distance themselves from explicitly describing “Roxie” as a bar for lesbians – in principle, everyone was welcome. The place was what the community made of it. Women felt particularly safe here, even from men’s advances, say guests.

“I think this is a sign of what is happening in China right now,” says a woman from the foreign LGBTQ community in Shanghai. “It’s a sign – also that it’s happening in June. It’s ‘Pride Month’. I’m sad and frustrated.”

Since President and Party leader Xi Jinping came to power more than ten years ago, China has increasingly cracked down on both feminist and LGBTQ activism. In recent years, groups at universities have increasingly been closed and Pride events have been canceled.

Women without a desire for children are not welcome

The state and party leadership propagates the traditional family image of man and woman. The government wants women to have more children and promotes initiatives to increase the birth rate. Feminist, independent young women with no desire to marry and have children are not wanted by the government. This is precisely why the “Roxie” was a meeting place for many lesbian and feminist women – regardless of their origin.

“They can’t stop our lives, our way of loving and our way of being,” says the woman from the foreign community. “We are super strong. I am sad and happy at the same time to see so many Chinese people here, so many people on the street in front of the bar and in the bar, so many supporters. That is the community.”

The last nights on Saturday and Sunday at the “Roxie” were long. At the end, a few bras were hanging over the bar. Out of solidarity, out of protest, some women took off their bras and left them there.