Words: James Soo

It’s not often you interview someone about gnosticism in Hong Kong. But Zee Li, creative director of Pleroma Theatre, is fascinated by the subject and has written a performance piece based on it, ‘The Gnostic Eden’, (presented 25-27 May at the Y-Theatre in Chai Wan Youth Square) that he hopes will get people thinking about the nature of their beliefs.

Gnosticism is an obscure area of Christianity that dates back to the very earliest days of the Church. And it’s obscure for a reason – the early Church tried very hard to suppress and extinguish all traces of Gnosticism, persecuting them as heretics. (Remember that the Christianity that we have today isn’t really God’s Own Word. It’s really just His Word according to the winners of 2000 years of religious war. After all, it was only in the fourth century that people finally decided which various religious writings to put into the anthology we now know as the Bible.)

To be honest, Gnosticism is a bit of a catch-all term. There’s no definitive Gnostic scripture, there’s no definitive Gnostic creed. And until recently we knew next to nothing about their beliefs. But in 1945 a remarkable discovery was made in the town of Nag Hammadi in Egypt. A local peasant discovered 52 Gnostic treatises that had been preserved in the desert for 1600 years, which sparked global interest in the development of early Christianity – as well as latterly spawning a number of themes in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code.

When scholars began translating the texts, they discovered a fascinatingly rich world of early Christianity whose adherents were versed not just in Judaism but also Neoplatonism, Zoroastrianism, and even Buddhism. Their Christianity was not dependent on the authority of a Church (hence the crackdown) but came from knowledge (gnosis is the Greek for knowledge) and individual enlightenment.

A sketch of the main ideas behind the various sects of Gnosticism might go as follows: God exists, from which emanate Aeons (aspects of God such as wisdom, understanding etc.) in successively distant stages from God. One Aeon, called Ialdabaoth, was so distant from God that he did not even realise God’s existence. He was the one who created the Material Universe and created Archons to preside over it. He created the world in folly, blindness and ignorance of God, and that is why there is evil in the world. However, there is a part of God in every human being through the intervention of Sophia, or Wisdom. As a result, every human being has the capacity to return to God through understanding (gnosis) which will awaken their inner divinity.

Where does this all fit in in the context of a dance performance? Well, Li has taken three of the central texts of the Nag Hammadi scrolls and has redacted from them alternative tellings of three fundamental Christian stories: the story of the Creation, the story of Adam & Eve and the story of Noah’s Flood. From the passage above, the Gnostic Creation and the Biblical Creation stories are wildly different. The other two stories contain elements of similarity, but different emphases. Eve is not vilified as bringing evil to the world by eating from the Tree of Knowledge and Noah’s Ark is not the vessel of salvation of mankind. By giving these alternative narratives, Li hopes to challenge the audience, and in particular to challenge the millennia-old misogyny that these stories have engendered.

A former evangelical Christian, Li now describes himself as a mystic, who grew disillusioned with the Church and the paucity of real answers it gave him. When he learned about Gnosticism, there was an immediate attraction. He taught himself Coptic to read them in the original, and has even translated the Nag Hammadi texts into Chinese. ‘The Gnostic Eden’ is just one of his many projects based on Gnosticism. Another is a setting to music of the beautiful and cryptic Gnostic poem ‘Thunder, Perfect Mind’.

However, ‘The Gnostic Eden’ is one of his most daring works to date involving 14 dancers, including the entrancing Zhang Xue Lang as Ialdabaoth and Yang Yun Tao as Adam. Li confesses that the dancers’ fans have already bought up a lot of the tickets, but despite the challenging nature of the material, he has confidence that Andy Wong’s superb choreography will delight the audience as well as make it easy for them to understand.

Gnosticism is by no means an easy subject for a book, much less a performance piece. But in undertaking this challenge, Li is to be applauded. It’s a commonplace to say that we live in a world of much information, but little understanding. By overturning some of the most commonly known Bible stories, and showing that even 1600 years ago people were questioning not just their veracity, but their very morality – morality that has become a cornerstone of Western culture – he teaches us that some things are too important to just blindly accept.

Words: James Soo

When I was a young teenager, I was asked in a half-whisper by a well-meaning acupuncturist, who was treating me for some stomach condition, whether or not I was interested in trying acupuncture to cure my homosexuality. Looking back, I think it was probably my mother who put her up to it. But at the time, shocked that a stranger seemed to have discovered my dirty, shameful secret (which I took to mean that ‘faggot’ was tattooed in capitals across my forehead), I agreed. I suppose it was the usual cabal of teenage insecurity, desire to fit in and cultural need to be what my parents wanted that pushed me to undergo therapy. Perhaps it was also the pseudo-scientific way in which the acupuncturist told me that homosexuality was really just some twisted chi that a couple of needles a week would sort out. Needless to say, three months later I was still pining after the boys in A-ha and Madonna excited me only because of her fabulous outfits. I stopped going. But years later, I would sometimes wonder whether if only I’d stayed the course (and paid more money), I’d be one of the boys by now.

Of course, mine was a fairly harmless exercise in what has become a relatively large phenomenon over the past 30 years – the idea that homosexuality is a curable illness. It was originally listed in America in 1952 as a mental disorder, but eventually the American Psychiatric Association (APA) declassified it as such in 1973 on the grounds that it ‘implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability, or general social or vocational abilities’. America was a pioneer though – the World Health Organization only delisted homosexuality as a mental illness in 1990 and China only in 2001.

However, the meme that homosexuality is ‘curable’ persisted, much like the idea that a stomach ulcer is directly caused by stress rather than by bacteria. Naturally enough, businesses sprung up to cash in, using the burgeoning fundamentalist Christian movement in America and general anti-gay sentiment to promote their quackery.

The most infamous of these organizations is Exodus International whose mission statement is ‘mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality’. Throughout the 90s and early 2000s, Exodus and its non-Christian counterpart the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) promoted a form of psychotherapy that was meant to turn gays straight. The main proponent of this therapy is Dr Joseph Nicolosi, founder of NARTH. Gabriel Arana, editor at The American Prospect, has written a heart-wrenching piece about his own experience of years of this therapy that almost led to his suicide. Essentially, the therapy consists of creating such guilt in the patient about their homosexuality that it is ultimately meant to be suppressed. However, this therapy has been widely denounced – in fact, all you seem to end up with is a broken self-hating person, unable to form any lasting attachments. There are support groups for survivors of this therapy. And of course, the treatment does nothing to remove same-sex attraction. In fact, in 2011, Exodus president Alan Chambers admitted that therapy has not ‘worked’ in 99.99% of cases.

The ex-gay movement itself is ridden with scandal. Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper, two of the original co-founders of Exodus, ended up divorcing their wives and got married to each other in 1982. John Paulk, a former Chairman of Exodus, was photographed flirting with other men in a gay bar during his chairmanship. And most recently, the group released an iPhone app which, after sustained campaigning by Change.org, was eventually removed by Apple on the grounds that ‘it violates [ ] developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people’.

No major mental health organization in the world proposes that therapy is able to change sexual orientation. In fact, most believe that this sort of therapy is more likely to engender profound mental issues in the patient. As a result of their failures in this field, Exodus has distanced itself from NARTH and psychotherapy and is now focusing in America on promoting chastity and celibacy as an alternative to homosexual behaviours.

Of course, that’s just in America. In 2009, Exodus were implicated in the shocking Bahati ‘kill the gays’ bill in Uganda. Their members began an anti-gay campaign (in conjunction with International Healing Ministries and Abiding Truth Ministries, two Christian anti-gay churches) which led ultimately to the instigation of a pogrom against homosexuality which spread from Uganda into the rest of Africa. Currently, they are targeting Jamaica where they hope their anti-gay rhetoric will help line their coffers.

Africa’s stance on homosexuality has a long history. In the 70s and 80s, South Africa’s apartheid army forced gay soldiers to undergo sexual reassignment operations, including chemical castration and electric shock therapy – essentially torturing gay people until they ‘turned straight’. Currently, ‘corrective’ rape of homosexuals is on the rise in Africa. In Zimbabwe, gay men have been forced to have sex with women and lesbians have been raped, sometimes by male relatives, to ‘correct’ their sexual orientation. Of course, this is in a country whose president, Robert Mugabe, has gone on record saying that homosexuals are ‘lower than pigs and dogs’. In 2009, the body of Eudy Simelane, the former star of South Africa’s national female football squad and one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in Kwa Thema in Johannesburg, was found in a creek. She had been gang-raped and beaten before being stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs.

Even in Hong Kong, the ex-gay movement has found a footing in the fertile evangelical Christian movement that seems to dominate LegCo. Last year, the government invited Dr Kong Kwai Wah, an advocate of gay therapy, to train the staff of the Social Welfare Department to deal with gay clients. He is the Chairman of the New Creation Association whose mission statement is ‘to propagate the belief that homosexuals can change’, and whose therapies include prayer, cold showers and abstinence.

We all know of course that while there are few documented cases of gay-to-straight conversion, there is a profusion of ‘straight’ politicians who find themselves caught out as gay. The most charming case though of straight-to-gay conversion must be that of Chris Birch, a former banker in Wales. After suffering a blow to the head in 2011 which led to a stroke, starving his brain of oxygen, the former 19-stone rugby player woke up to find himself suddenly gay. He underwent a lonely time trying to make sense of his new sexuality, complicated no doubt by the fact that he was at the time engaged to a woman. But a year later, Birch has quit his old life, become a hairdresser, and has got engaged again – but this time to a man. And he says he’s happier now than he’s ever been. With a testimonial like that, one wonders whether any of the rabid anti-gay crowd wouldn’t benefit from a blow to the head as well.

Words: James Soo

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte-Carlo have been a staple of the ballet world since their beginnings in 1974. An all-male troupe, playing both male and female roles, they have won audiences over time and again with their hilarious parodies of classical ballet and spectacular displays of virtuoso dancing. Davide Marongiu of the “Trocks”, whose diva alter ego is Giuseppina Zambellini, was kind enough to speak to DS in anticipation of their upcoming Hong Kong tour.

QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY DAVIDE MARONGIU.
Birthplace: Cagliari, Italy. Training: English National Ballet School, American Ballet Theater School. Joined Trockadero: May 2005

DS: Are all your pieces from the classical repertory? Do you have any contemporary pieces? Do you have any originally commissioned pieces?

Davide: All of our Classical pieces come from the great Classical Russian tradition. Other pieces like Go For Barocco by Peter Anastos, were choreographed especially for the company. In this case we have a piece that comments on Balanchine’s intricate and abstract neoclassical ballets. We also have many modern works including parodies of Merce Cunningham and Pina Bausch.

DS: The Trocks have a long and rich history – in fact, it’s by now one of the more established ballet troupes. Did you have any fears living up to the company’s famed high standards when you joined?

Davide: It is always a big effort to find a job with a major ballet company, I feel lucky to have been guided throughout the years since I joined to develop my highest potential as a dancer. It does not happen frequently in larger ballet companies.

DS: How hard do you train? How do you think your training compares to other companies?

Davide: We train very hard. Pointe work is not easy and for male dancers represents an extra challenge since we did not have formal training for it in ballet school. We have to be very aware of what we are doing when we rehearse, conservation is important, in terms of avoiding injuries and being able to perform at the highest standard. In this, we are the same as every other ballet company with a rich and demanding repertoire.

DS: Why do you think The Trocks have been so popular for so long?

Davide: The Trocks have what I like to call a magic recipe. It is the combination of fine parody and brilliant dancing, the audience never gets tired of it. It is a breath of fresh air in the world of dance.

DS: You have, like the rest of the company, a very firm grounding in classical ballet. But in the Trocks, you dance both male and female roles – which is more demanding? Which do you enjoy more?

Davide: Dancing female roles can be very demanding, the alignment of one’s body on pointe is way different from the one required dancing on half toe. You have to be much more precise, lighter but at the same time more grounded and secure. However, the leaps and virtuoso steps required by male dancing involve an insane amount of stamina and muscular power, therefore I wouldn’t say that dancing male parts is easier. It does require a fine “tuning” and a shift in perspective to be able to switch back and forth.

DS: What was it about the Trocks that inspired you to join them?

Davide: The fact that I could dance parts traditionally attributed to female dancing. I longed for those intricate steps on pointe throughout my training years. I was always a natural comedian, I guess it has to do with my perspective in life, so it was relieving to find a world that could put those two things together.

DS: You each have male and female alter egos – how much of your own inner diva gets to come out in those roles?

Davide: A lot! We are inspired by the great ballet divas of past times! I would also say that a spotlight on your persona does help to feel that sort of grandeur required to step right into character!!

DS: More than a classical ballet troupe, and more than just dancing in drag, the thing that sets the Trocks apart is the fact that you have to have perfect comic timing in addition to all the other skills of a ballet dancer. Did that come naturally to you or did you have to work at it?

Davide: Yes, as I said before the comic aspect is something that comes completely natural to me, in addition to the fact that it really is easy to make a comment on classical ballet with all its composure and self established grandeur.

DS: In Arlene Croce’s 1974 essay on the Trocks in the New Yorker, she points out that a female ballet role is not a woman so much as the symbol of a woman, and therefore does not need to actually be played by a woman. How do you think then, for instance, the Trocks’ take on Swan Lake differs or informs Matthew Bourne’s all male Swan Lake and vice versa?

Davide: I really like to answer to this because it really defines what we are about. See, any female dancer needs to put her work into becoming a swan queen, a sylph or a fairy tale princess. Those are all symbols that represent a certain type of qualities that already exist in life: the vulnerability, the mystery, the happy-ever-after cheerful aspect of life. To be able to portray those things as an artist you have to work hard, be it a man or a woman. The final result then varies largely depending on who actually is physically doing so. I am very aware of the comical outcome of my extremely hairy chest in a little white romantic tutu, but I do play the part, I get into it, that way yes I am hilarious but I am genuine!! Similarly, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake gets a different effect by putting all male swans: it is not the same as seeing girls but it is intense nonetheless.

DS: What’s your favorite piece to dance?

Davide: I love the role of Lucile Grahn in the ultimate romantic piece Le Grand Pas de Quatre as well as one of the two lead ballerinas in Go For Barocco.

DS: Any tips for all the aspiring professional dancers out there?

Davide: Focus on your performance. Today’s world of classical dance is sadly affected by an epidemic of “competitions”. Great souls who could express so much trough their passion get discouraged by not being able to do eight or ten turns. Don’t let it get to you, I’d like to quote what George Balanchine used to say : “Our job is to entertain”. Making the audience feel involved and happy giving them a few hours away from the routine of daily life, that is what we are there for. That part can only come from the heart.

Les Ballets Trockadero De Monte Carlo “The Trocks” showing at Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts from 15 – 20 May.

Words: Steve Lush DJ

Can we call Madonna a Diva? Well, with over 300 million records sold, a 30+ year track record and officially recognised by the (Guinness Book Of Records) as the world’s top selling female recording artist of all time, I think we can.

Thirty years after her first single “Everybody” was released back in 1982, Madonna is defiantly back and ready to give today’s pop princesses a run for the top slot.

We already know that Madonna is one of the greatest live performers of our day. At the Superbowl Final half-time show, she pulled out all the stops to put on a slick & elaborate spectacle, enlisting current chart favourites Nicki Minaj, M.I.A, Cee Lo Green & LMFAO, who jumped at the chance to perform with Madonna (but then again, who wouldn’t unless you were sourpusses Lady Gaga and Elton John). Generating hype and publicity have always been her greatest skills, and she managed to pull it off again to build up the excitement for the release of her latest album – and voted by Billboard magazine as the most anticipated album release of the year.

The punningly-entitled “MDNA” (oh, it’s an ’N’…) is her twelfth studio album and is due out on 26 March. But it’s also the first album to come from her new signup with Interscope Records – until now, Madge has been with Warner Bros. It’s a three album deal, and judging by the usual lapse between albums to date, she’s going to probably be a venerable 60 when she finishes the third album!

In keeping with her later albums, Madonna has surrounded herself with a killer team on all aspects of writing, arrangement and production. It includes Italian chart-topper Benny Bennassi (famed for 2002 club hit ‘Satisfaction’), William Orbit (who was responsible for her brilliant “Ray Of Light” album) as well as French DJ and producer Martin Solveig. To round it out, Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. guest vocal on a couple of the tracks.

All that’s well and good, but how does it sound? Well, to be honest, it isn’t half bad and it’s a damn sight better than anything she’s come out with since ‘Ray of Light’.

Track by track:

“GIRL GONE WILD” as it stands in its current format (before anyone is let rip on remixing it) is one of my favourite tracks on the album. It’s pure Madonna pop wanting to go wild and have fun. This track would have been an excellent one to release as the first single.

“GANG BANG” again is another strong track on the album. With pretty aggressive lyrics, it’s a very deep and dark track with an underground sound to it. It’s all about taking revenge on an ex – something we can all relate to – and we know Madge is no stranger to heartbreak.

“I’M ADDICTED” – this upbeat track makes you think what she is actually addicted to…listen to it carefully.

Both the arrangement & production on “TURN UP THE RADIO” were spot on. Did they have “ABBA” in mind when sitting down to arrange it? Who knows?

Nicki Minaj gives some credibility to the first single to be released, “GIVE ME ALL YOUR LOVIN”. Well, we don’t expect Madge to rap now do we? I mean, would you expect your mum to? The album has two mixes: the album version as well as the LMFAO Party Rock Mix which is one of the added Deluxe Bonus Tracks. To be honest, it does remind me of a cheerleader line-up but, honey, you don’t need to remind us we LOVE you Madonna. Out of all the tracks on the album I’m not sure if this is the one I would have chosen to have released as the first single.

Remember ‘Greta Garbo, and Monroe, Deitrich, and DiMaggio’? Well “SUPERSTAR” goes down this road again but with a different lineup. Yes it’s very commercial, very Madge, and it’s an upbeat track, but it’s not quite in the league of “Vogue”.

I could quite easily picture Rihanna or Beyonce belting out “I Don’t Give A”. That is, until you hear the lyrics, ‘there’s only one queen & that’s Madonna”… You know Madge is making her claim on he crown with the help of up and coming pop princess Nicki Minaj.

Don’t be surprised if “I’M A SINNER” is being belted out in the clubs, it’s one of the stronger tracks on the album and feels a bit like a track from “Ray Of Light”.

Sung and written by one pop queen but heavily criticised by another (Mr Furnish, step away from the handbag…) at this year’s Golden Globe awards “MASTERPIECE” is one of the slower tracks on the album. I felt the award rightly went to Madge. It does have soundtrack written all over it.

The second of the slower tracks to come from the album is “FALLING FREE”. This does have a more haunting sounding arrangement and feel to it and is my preferred track of the two.

Finally, “B-Day” is easily the most disappointing track on the album. I’m not sure where Madonna was going with this or what they had in mind when they arranged it. It just doesn’t work – it’s un-classy Cheese. And to wrap it up, both “SOME GIRLS” & “LOVE SPENT” on the album were a little non descript.

The special edition contains 5 bonus tracks to listen out for. There’s the upbeat “BEAUTIFUL KILLER ” as well as the LMFAO Party Rock Mix of “GIVE ME ALL YOUR LOVIN”. “I F**KED UP” is slower and although it contains the lyrics, ‘I made a mistake’, you certainly don’t get that impression from this beautifully produced track (with a great catchy bassline). The second slower bonus track is “BEST FRIEND” and its unusual sound threw me while on my journey.

The album cover artwork is true classic Madonna. It depicts a close-up of Madge in stunning red lipstick looking down coolly at you through what looks like a mirror in some futuristic club. It reminds me of the days when I didn’t mind seeing her strutting around the stage in a leotard, But that was back in 1986 & the album was True Blue.

Verdict: it’s not as ground-breaking or as edgy as Madonna’s earlier work or even what we have grown to expect when Madonna repackages herself. However, it’s the best album since ‘Ray Of Light’ despite the direction of some of the tracks. It’s got the thumbs up from me. We L.U.V Madonna just a little less leotard please.

Rate: 75/100

- Steve Lush DJ – Has only been in Hong Kong since October 2011 but has already become a rather popular DJ with the crowds at VOLUME BEAT, The HYDE CLUB in SOHO, Out In The Open & at the Official Closing Hong Kong Pride Party. Steve Lush Is best known for his legendary 14 years residency on a Friday & Saturday night at one of the UK’s premier Clubs REVENGE in Brighton (UK). Steve’s style and blend of Commercial Dance, Chart and choice of Remix’s made him a popular DJ on the Gay circuit.

For more info email Steve@stevelushdj.com follow him on Twitter @SteveLushDJ on Facebook Steve Lush DJ or www.stevelushdj.com

Words: James Soo
Zombies and gangsters, prostitutes and drag queens – not what you’d normally expect at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. But with gay cinema becoming increasingly mainstream, it isn’t surprising that so many films on the arts festival circuit now deal with queer themes. This year there aren’t as many offerings from Greater China, but there’s definitely an international flavour with films from the US, Europe, East Asia and SE Asia.

We have some fascinating cinema from our neighbours to the south. From Thailand, we have the enigmatic arthouse tale P-047 from mainstream director, Kongdej Jaturanrasmee. Lek and Kong hatch a plan to break into other people’s apartments to borrow their lives, sifting through their belongings to fill gaps in their own empty lives. A chance encounter with the gay tenant of one of their break-ins leads to Lek waking up in hospital, but being called Kong… It’s a fragile exploration of identity and meaning with outstanding performances from the non-professional actors.

Skipping to the Philippines, we have the riotous Remington and the Curse of the Zombadings. Former teen heart-throb Martin Escudero stars as Remington, who is slowly becoming gay as a result of a curse he got as a child for insulting a gay man. While he’s sorting out his sexual preferences, torn in a love triangle between his best friend and the girl next door, there’s a serial killer on the loose, killing gay men. And even worse, the dead are coming back as gay zombies! Loads of fun, and subtly subversive as it mocks existing perceptions of homosexuality, Remington’s a winner.

Indonesia gives us the powerful Lovely Man, the story of a young Muslim girl, Cahaya, who comes to Jakarta to find her father. When she finds him, though, she discovers that the man she hasn’t seen in 15 years has become a transvestite streetwalker. Set over the course of a single night, the father and daughter initially reject one another but slowly open up as they explore their new relationship.

Japan comes up with their usual bizarre twist, this time on sex-change comedies in The End of Puberty. Sex-crazed teen girl Tsubara is obsessed with her nerdy biology teacher and spends her days fantasizing about sex with him. When she finally manages to grab his crotch, their genitals get magically swapped! Throw in a female classmate who’s in love with Tsubara and you have your usual madcap genital-swapping, teen lesbian rom-com.

Kim Kyung-Mook’s Stateless Things is his second feature and critics are excited at the potential of this young auteur. Joon is a North Korean refugee who works at a gas station, Hyun is a pretty-boy kept in a penthouse apartment by his businessman lover. Slowly their stories come together, as these two people who don’t fit in find each other. This is a lyrical and beautiful film by one of Korea’s hottest young directors.

Policeman is a thought-provoking film from Israel about right-wing machismo and the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the country. Yaron is part of an elite anti-terrorism unit and he delights in his physique, dancing naked in front of his pregnant wife, rough-housing with his squad and using his gun as very much an extension of his manhood. Natanel and Shira are his antithesis of sorts, Israeli terrorists who hold a billionaire’s family hostage to draw attention to the social inequality. When Yaron is forced to deal with them, he finds he cannot comprehend the idea of a Jewish terrorist and has to confront his own prejudices.

Celine Sciamma’s Tomboy is easily one of the best films of 2011. The French director’s second film stars an incredible Zoe Heran as 10-year old Laure. With her crop hair and grey top, Laure gets mistaken for a boy by her new neighbours, but instead of correcting the mistake, she decides to adopt a male alter-ego, Mikail. Finding new freedom and new friends as a boy, Laure begins to understand who she is. A tour de force of cinema and a stunning analysis of sexual identity, Tomboy will be high up on critics’ lists for years to come.

Across the water in the UK, My Brother the Devil confronts prejudice face on in the gritty gangland streets of London. Rashid is a handsome boxer and member of a local gang, but he wants a different life for his younger brother Mo, who idolizes him. To put Mo through school, Rashid starts to deal drugs, but after one bloody and tragic streetfight, Rashid tries to put that behind him and finds work with photographer Sayyid, with whom his friendship develops into something more over the course of a summer and which threatens to tear the brothers apart.

Two films from America round up our tour of the HKIFF: Wetlands from Canada and Keep the Lights On from the US. Wetlands is a softly beautiful depiction of a mother and son who struggle to keep their family farm going, after tragedy strikes them for the second time. Both are trapped in a cycle of blame, but the son is tormented by his own guilt as well as the realisation that he is gay. Keep the Lights On is another tortured film, but this time about that shame and misery of drug addiction. Erik, a film-maker, is going out with Paul, a closeted lawyer, and they begin to start building a life together until Paul’s crack addiction threatens to destroy what they have. It’s a timely, and sensitive, depiction of a very real part of New York gay life.

That’s what HKIFF has in store for us queers this year – for more information, check out their website www.hkiff.org.hk.

Words: James Soo, Photo: Robert Taylor
Alan Hollinghurst is one of the most intelligent novelists working today, and DS was honoured to be able to speak to him about his new book, ‘The Stranger’s Child’. His previous book, ‘The Line of Beauty’, won the Booker Prize and his other works have all won numerous awards. Although predominantly written from a gay perspective, his books transcend pigeon-holing, as they explore issues as complex as politics and social class, memory and biography, and are well-known for their lucid evocations of particular eras.

DS: What was the inspiration behind using a WWI theme to draw together the book?
Alan: We’re all a bit fascinated by WWI, it’s an emotive subject. I’ve long thought I wanted to write something that had the Great War in it. I did quite a lot of work on Lytton Strachey, Cambridge and the Apostles, this strange secret debating society. One thinks of England after the Wilde trials in the 1890s, that gay life had been completely sort of damped down but in fact it was flourishing in Cambridge and what became the Bloomsbury Group. So I thought it would be quite interesting to trace part of that story in the novel. To have a young man living rather fully and uninhibitedly who then gets snuffed out in the war, and the peculiar things that happened in that war to gifted charismatic young people about whom it was very difficult to tell the truth. They were turned immediately into icons, the lost generation. The obvious case was Rupert Brooke, who was very complicated as an individual and who was simplified into this icon of lost promise and lost beauty. And then there are the various forces that try to control the story. Brooke had a very dominant and terrifying mother, something I lifted directly for this book. She commissioned a memoir of him which she kept on sending back until she got it into a form which was completely unrecognizable to anyone who had ever met him. It was Geoffrey Keynes, who had been in love with him, who published his letters in the 1960s but they were heavily censored and full of ellipses. It wasn’t until the late 80s or early 90s that other correspondence of Brookes’ surfaced in which he describes quite violent sexual episodes he had had with other men, something we’d only ever had glimpses of before. So I was quite fascinated by what a long time it took, with people living a long time and clinging to their version of the past and keeping things bottled up and the slowly changing public ethos and attitudes to sexuality.

DS: One of the main themes in The Stranger’s Child is the opening up of gay life through the twentieth century. But you seem to write about shenanigans in the bushes with a certain sort of nostalgia. Why is that?
Alan: My general feeling is of course that I much prefer living in the more liberal present. But as a writer, I’m certainly drawn to periods when being gay was more difficult, and challenging. There’s a sort of friction or drama about it. I’m drawn back to these more difficult periods much as I was in the Line of Beauty too. I often seem to touch on the romance, on the idea that a young gay couple doesn’t have a place to be, so they’re always having sex in the bushes. Which may be a way of saying these are completely natural desires. Is this a nostalgia? Perhaps it is. I remember so well in the 70s and 80s all these older gay men who would say that gay lib’s all very well, but they had a very keen nostalgia for the time when everything had the thrill of illegality and the necessity of codes and being inducted into the secret procedures. I can understand the romance.

DS: The book is very much about secrets, that there are all these mysteries of biography that are unknowable.
Alan: Yes, that’s very much the design of the book, with its very gappy structure. The reader would share with a lot of the characters the uncertainties, even about characters they were close to. I’m interested in the way memories fictionalize. The making of a meaningful narrative out of incoherent materials is something that we all do. So I wanted the peculiar structure of the book in some way to reflect that. I wanted to withhold some of those narrative satisfactions, things that you would expect from a novel.

DS: The sex in The Stranger’s Child is a lot less graphic than in your other books. Was there a decision behind that?
Alan: I don’t think there was, it just came out like that. Partly it’s an extension of what we were just saying. I wanted there to be a degree of uncertainty as to just what had happened between people. Did Cecil sleep with Daphne? We never quite know. I suppose there are one or two sexual secrets that we are more or less in on, but others I wanted to remain in that area of uncertainty. So it seemed to me quite thematically apt not to tell. I also didn’t want to repeat myself writing about sex. Sex tends to be quite repetitious. But it wasn’t a tactical decision, it just didn’t happen that way.

DS: How did you find making a television adaptation of The Line of Beauty?
Alan: I found it a fascinating experience. I went along to the filming quite a bit. Sadly the sex scenes were all in closed set, so I wasn’t able to give them any tips. It was a tremendously heterosexual production, the only gay person in the whole thing was the wardrobe master. I was pleased these young straight actors wanted to have a go. But a friend of mine wrote to me and asked why all the sex scenes were fully-clothed expressionist tableaux! I find it hard to deny that they had rather had been like that. It is a very peculiar experience seeing these characters and scenes you’ve written on the page being enacted. There’s something paradoxically prosaic watching actual people barging around the imaginary choreography of your head.

DS: I read in a number of places that you don’t enjoy being referred to as a ‘gay writer’.
Alan: I’m not sure I have said that actually. Does the gayness of something have to be the focus all the time? For me the interest of writing from a gay position was that it was a position, which like a straight one, is fundamental but from it one could consider absolutely anything one wanted, like Thatcherism. Obviously I don’t repudiate the label of being a gay writer, I was just aware of its ability as a term to limit you to being just a gay writer. Whereas it was always my contention from the start that the gay position was a perfectly valid position to write from and possibly more interesting.

DS: Which of your books is your favourite?
Alan: I have a great tenderness for The Spell, but partly that’s because it was the least successful critically or commercially. I don’t go back and read them if I can avoid it. There are bits of it I’ve looked at again, but I haven’t actually read it for twenty years. There’s a tendency for the latest to be the favourite, or I suppose my favourite is the next one.

DS: Do we have another 7 years to wait till the next book?
Alan: I really think this one will come a bit sooner. The Line of Beauty grew by a factor of 25% in the writing and The Stranger’s Child by 50%. After I finished the Line of Beauty I thought I can’t put myself through writing another 500 page book, it was such an effort. So the plan for The Stranger’s Child was to have it in 5 sections of 50 pages each. But after I finished the first section and it was 100 pages, I knew I was in trouble.

Words: James So

With all the adventures we’ve had racing about Hong Kong at night, it’s high time someone wrote about ‘the other city that never sleeps’. Set in & around the (gay) bars & clubs of Hong Kong, Come and Go is Hong Kong resident Hannelore Arbyn’s racy and hilarious debut novel.

DS: Congratulations on your first book, Come and Go, about the life and loves of Lee Harlem Robinson as she settles into her new life in Hong Kong. How much of you is there in Lee?
Lee: Thanks. Let me start by saying that I’m not Lee Harlem Robinson because I know it can be a bit confusing. The big difference between Lee and me is that she’s rather, let’s say, promiscuous and, well, I’m not. Of course there are similarities. Just like Lee, I moved to Hong Kong and I like to surround myself with a host of entertaining gay boys. But, luckily, my life is nowhere near as dramatic as Lee’s. Also, if I drank as much as she did, my liver would have exploded by now. Lee is much more impulsive than me and she does some things that I wouldn’t necessarily agree with, but that’s what makes her an interesting character, I hope.

DS: Tell us more about yourself?
Lee: I moved from Belgium to Hong Kong in October 2010 with my wife and as soon as I started to adapt, which, admittedly, took some time, I started writing. I’m a lesbian but also a natural born fag hag. I can’t help it. I just love the gays and I can’t get enough of them. It was like that in Belgium and it’s exactly the same in Hong Kong. I wanted to write a book since as long as I can remember, but you know how it goes, life always gets in the way. Moving to Hong Kong turned out to be the ideal catalyst. Also, I don’t think I’ll ever want to go back to Belgium again. I love it here.

DS: Lee of course is the heroine of your online blog serial, Trying to Throw My Arms Around the World. What made you decide to present her next series of adventures as a novel rather than online?
Lee: Basically, because a blog is just a blog. Writing the blog, for me, is like going to the playground, just letting loose and letting the drama flow out, then publishing with minimal editing. The story just goes on, from one drama to the next. The blog actually begins when Lee arrives in Hong Kong and she starts looking back and I found that when I wrote about her present day life in Hong Kong, it interrupted the flow of the story I was trying to tell, so I decided to write Lee’s Hong Kong story in a novel. Also, I think, for most writers, the ultimate goal is to write a book and in my case it was logical to focus mine on Lee.

DS: It’s an unusual, and very memorable name – did you have any particular inspiration for it?
Lee: Around the time when I was looking for names I came across someone named Lee Robinson while watching TV. If I remember correctly it was on ‘Stephen Fry in America’ and I think Lee Robinson was an old grey fisherman. Anyway, for some reason the name stuck with me and I always knew I would want to use a three-part name, even though it is a bit pretentious. I honestly don’t remember where Harlem came from but it somehow made sense and I think it sounds great, but it has no special meaning.

Your blog wittily casts actors in the roles of your protagonists – did you have anyone in mind playing Lee, Stella and Nikki as you were writing the novel?
Lee: Not for Lee, she’s a hard one to cast. There has been discussion on my Facebook page and a name that popped up and that I quite liked was Noomi Rapace, but a bit fleshier and without the Millennium trilogy piercings and tattoos. I do have two specific celebrities in mind for Stella and Nikki. I’m a bit reluctant to say because it takes away from the joy of imagining what the characters would look like, but, for Dim Sum readers only, I’ll make an exception. I quite fancy Jennifer Lopez for Stella and Maggie Q for Nikki. A girl can dream, right?

DS: The book is set in the lesbian dating scene in Hong Kong. What is your impression of the scene here, and how does it compare to other cities you’ve lived in?
Lee: I can’t really say the book is set in the lesbian dating scene because I believe there’s no such thing as ‘a scene’ in Hong Kong. I honestly haven’t met a lot of lesbians here, except for Betty and Abby, the lesbian godmothers of Hong Kong, of course. I’ve been to Les Peches, but that’s it. Then again, at least Hong Kong has a monthly lesbian party. Ghent, the city I used to live in, has nothing, apart from a few short-lived parties.

DS: What about the state of lesbian fiction? There was a spate a while back when lesbian fiction became quite mainstream (I’m thinking of Jeanette Winterson and Sarah Waters in particular) – where do you think acceptance of lesbian protagonists, and of lesbian fiction, is going?
Lee: I don’t think it’s necessarily a matter of acceptance, the two authors you mention just wrote really good books that resonated with a large audience. There is quite a lot of lesbian fiction out there but most of it is very genre specific. For some reason, lesbian authors really like to write amateur detective stories, that or classic romance.

DS: What led you to become a novelist?
Lee: On the one hand, my love for writing, the most exhilarating and at the same time excruciating activity there is. On the other hand, the fact that I’m such a sucker for dyke drama. Combine the two and you have ‘Come and Go’.

DS: How has the internet, and in particular running the popular blogs ‘Dykes and the City’ and ‘The Lesbian Question’, helped with your own writing ambitions?
Lee: Dykes and the City, which wasn’t that popular I have to say, was important in the sense that it gave me the opportunity to really discover my own voice, my own writing style. If The Lesbian Question taught me one thing, it’s that lesbians all over the world face the same problems, and that 90% of them fall for a straight girl sooner or later. The Lee Harlem Robinson blog has been most important to me though, because it’s been one long extended lesson in writing fiction. I literally cringe now when I read the posts of the first few months again, but it has been an excellent learning experience.

DS: What are you reading right now?
Lee: I just finished reading ‘Landing’ by Emma Donoghue again, possibly my favourite book with lesbian protagonists, along with ‘Pages For You’ by Sylvia Brownrigg. I can’t wait for Sophia Blackwell’s debut ‘After My Own Heart’ to come out in March.

DS: Will we be seeing any further adventures of Lee Harlem Robinson in Hong Kong?
Lee: Quite possibly. I’ve been writing about Lee for so long now, it’s kind of hard to let her go. In fact, I already came up with the first sentence for the sequel, but I would like to make it more of an ‘ensemble piece’ with more focus on the other characters. Those gay boys are just so entertaining, they deserve more attention.

Come and Go is available as e-book and paperback on Amazon and comeandgothenovel.com. I’ll be selling and signing at the launch party on 16 February at Volume H.E.A.T. and Fruits In Suits on 21 February at Veto.

Words: Richard James Smith

The toxicity of modern life can never be more obvious than in our very own Fragrant Harbour, Hong Kong. After all, there’s a hefty price to pay for its fun, fast paced, hedonistic and workaholic lifestyle. Thailand, renowned for its medical tourism, is the perfect place to get a break from Hong Kong’s poisons. DS sent our man on the ground, Richard Smith, to check out two ends of the detox spectrum: from DIY colonics at the Sanctuary to the pamperfest at the Kamalaya.

The Sanctuary

The Sanctuary is hidden away on Haad Thien beach, Koh Phangan. Bungalows are tucked away in the jungle overlooking the beach, and there is definitely a hippy vibe to the area – yoga, hula-hooping on the beach and tantric workshops seem to be perfectly everyday activities here. There is a range of accommodation from dorm rooms to villas, which cater to any budget.

The detoxes are run by the Wellness Centre, a pavilion set a little away from the rest of the area. Mr Moon, the manager, talks you through the various programs – which vary in length from three and a half to ten and a half days. Once you’ve gone through what the daily routine requires and have chosen a program, Mr Moon then kindly shows you how to self-administer your colonic. The routine involved something every hour and a half, whether it was drinking clay shakes, doing optional ‘faster’s yoga’, taking vitamins, administering colonics or having the ‘green soup’ – so you rarely had the time to feel hunger pangs or get bored.

One of the real benefits of the Wellness Centre being set apart is that you really get to bond with your fellow fasters. Since most of your daily activities revolve around the Wellness Centre, you end up spending the majority of your day here – well away from the temptations of the restaurant on the other side of the resort. On my first day, I recognized the guffaws of the larger-than-life Bill, a friend of mine from Hong Kong who also happened be to on a detox here. Much helped by his gregarious nature and the caring nature of Dee (the Wellness Centre’s ‘Fostering Faster Carer’), we fasters bonded quickly, sharing our experiences of and reasons for our detox and quickly developed a sense of camaraderie. That said, I tended to avoid talking about my poo – I may talk shit sometimes but I definitely don’t want to talk about it!

One fundamental part of the detox here is doing the colonics. So, I headed off to the colonic room where I found the colonic board and bucket of coffee enema waiting for me. Remembering Mr Moon’s instructions, I positioned myself on the board and gently slid down, inserting the tube, that had been helpfully lubed up with olive oil. Once in, I unclipped the tube and let the coffee enema start to flow. Essentially, you let it fill your bowels and intestines until you can’t hold it in any longer. I have to admit though, the first time I was a little scared to ‘let go’, which meant that it was pretty uncomfortable, but when I did, I was shocked by the amount that came out! The clay shakes you take absorb toxins from your intestines, and expand as a result. So when I inspected the sieve, again helpfully placed for you, I was half-expecting to see my liver and kidneys! After that first time, I decided not to don the rubber gloves and sift through my stools each time. I decided to take it as read that lots of bad stuff was coming out and leave the inspection for hardier folks.

Every evening we had our one meal – a green soup at 7pm – but to be honest I rarely felt hungry. Perhaps it was because I had programmed myself to get through it, perhaps because all the supplements and colonics and sitting around chatting with fellow fasters helped me pass the time and stop thinking about the fact that I was not eating. In any case, by the end of the program, I felt flushed, regenerated and energised. When Mr Moon weighed me I had lost an incredible 5kg in just seven and a half days! After that, I followed the recommended slow reintroduction of foods (at the delicious vegetarian restaurant) and felt healthier than I’ve ever felt. Of course, not every faster follows the rulebook. Bill finished his detox on a Friday morning and had a bacon sandwich for lunch. I next saw him at 8am after he’d been partying all night, with a joint and a cigarette in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other – I guess one good reason to detox is to enjoy the retox!

Kamalaya Koh Samui

Where the Sanctuary has a rustic simplicity, Kamalaya is one of Samui’s most luxurious resorts. Founders Karina and John Stewart (Karina is a doctor of Chinese medicine) wanted to create a place of spirituality where diverse healing traditions could come together to enable people to “explore and embrace life’s potential”. They were immediately drawn to the site of the future Kamalaya, as the area includes a cave that was once a Buddhist meditation retreat.

In contrast to the Sanctuary, the Kamalaya’s detox program is based more on nutrition, rather than fasting, and therapies, rather than colonics. Their detox plans are custom-made for you after an initial consultation with one of their highly trained specialists. A program of therapies and nutrition are then created for the desired length of your detox, taking into consideration not just any physical ailments but also your lifestyle and emotional well-being.

This two-pronged approach is certainly gentler than colonics and fasting. I was given daily herbal remedies and supplements to be taken at certain times during the day and the rest of the day was spent luxuriating in an Indian Head Massage, Detox Scrubs, Chi Nei Tsang (a type of Chinese Taoist abdominal massage) as well as any number of quite wonderful Thai, Oil and Lymphatic Drainage Massages. There are also optional fitness activities, such as yoga, that you are welcome to attend.

The centrepiece of the detox though was through nutrition. Aside from the limitless supply of teas and juices, the restaurant at the Kamalaya is famed for its delicious but healthy food. Karina’s knowledge of functional medicine and cellular detoxification and executive chef Kai Mueller’s culinary know-how combined to create an original menu strictly designed to use ingredients and cooking methods that give the greatest benefit both nutritionally and medicinally. I was blown away by the food. I’d always assumed healthy food would be boring, tasteless and unadventurous. But these ingenious recipes that involved ingredients I’d never heard of in my 14 years in the hospitality industry totally reversed that opinion, and in fact inspired me to realise that healthy food can actually taste better than junk.

So there you have it – A Tale of Two Detoxes, which would you chose?

One thing I would emphasise to a wannabe ‘detoxer’ is try to take some of the knowledge home with you and include some of the healthier traits in your daily routine when you’re back to reality… don’t all do a ‘Bill’!

Words: James Soo

It-boy and all-round party animal (some of his best friends are Pixie Geldof & Agyness Deyn), Henry Holland has exploded onto the London fashion scene with his irreverent slogan t-shirts (“I’ll tell you who’s boss, Kate Moss”). He chats to Dim Sum about fashion, X-Factor and the best use of tartan.

DS: Have you been to Hong Kong before?
Henry: No. I really love it although I can only come here in the winter because this is my hairstyle window. My quiff wouldn’t survive the humidity. The highlight has been the shopping. I only managed half a day in Causeway Bay though.

DS: What do you think of the fashion here?
Henry: It’s really good. I am astonished at the amount of stuff. I was looking at some of the magazines here and there’s so much product. It’s the perfect place for consumers and I just love stuff. I just want stuff all the time (laughs). I really like the crop trousers boys have here. In the UK we do 7/8th but here they do 6/8th, you know they just go that extra inch.

DS: What do you think the Asian market is going to say to your collection?
Henry: Our aesthetic is quite bold and bright, it seems to fit the Asian market quite well. The Asian market isn’t so afraid of colour and bold statements in fashion.

DS: You use a lot of traditional fabrics in your designs – why is that?
Henry: Thank you for noticing! Yes, I really like heritage fabrics. One of my friends owns a Savile Row Tailors and he really drives the point home. And it really started with our tartan from A/W 08.

DS: For which you won an award for Best Use of Tartan at the Scottish Fashion Awards, correct?
Henry: Haha, I don’t think that award existed before they gave it to me, and then I won that award again this year for tweed and they changed the award name to Best Use of a Scottish Fabric!

DS: What’s your bestseller?
Henry: We have a dress shape, with a fitted waist and full skirt, that’s evolved quite a bit. Our tights sell really well, and our underwear, which we’ve only just launched, are doing really well. I’m going to call my autobiography “From T-Shirts to Tights – Living the Dream” (laughs).

DS: You started as a fashion journalist, didn’t you?
Henry: Yes well I was working in magazines and I loved what I did. It wasn’t high fashion, it was teenage magazines, and it was a really fun, enjoyable side of fashion. I used to buy a lot of slogan t-shirts from America, you know ones about Nicole Ritchie and Paris Hilton, and I was like “I could do that”. Anyway, we were drunk one night and started rhyming things about designers. Then we did the first t-shirts which happened while I was still in magazines. And then it just took off. I got asked to do a London Fashion Week show, and I thought I can’t do that and do a full-time job. So I quit my job. I’m very competitive and enjoy challenging myself.

DS: So, you never studied fashion?
Henry: No, but I think I’m very creative and I can come up with good designs and ideas. And I think it’s about building up a team to help you execute those ideas and bring them to life. That’s pretty much how every designer in the world works, it’s just that I missed out that step where I made it all in my bedroom on my mother’s sewing machine.

DS: What tips would you give someone who wanted to start their own label?
Henry: You learn so much on the job. Even if you’ve been at university for three years, learning how to cut a pattern, if you then want to go off and start your own label, there is then a whole world that you didn’t know you need. You don’t think you’re setting a company, you don’t think about cashflow, Companies House, accountants. All these awful boring things are really 50% of the job, especially at the start, because to start a label, unless you have a big pot of cash, you can only send out what you can afford to make. It’s a real balancing act. So my advice would be get as much industry experience as possible in all areas. I think it really helped me to come from a journalist’s background, because I can really see how the press works. So many designers don’t want to talk to the press, but I can see how it works.

DS: You aren’t just a designer, you’re also a TV presenter.
Henry: I didn’t know anybody here knew about that. But basically it was a day off where I got paid to talk to a black box. I really enjoyed doing it, but I don’t go out trying to find it. My main focus is growing my business.

DS: How was running the marathon?
Henry: Oh my God, it was the worst thing I’ve ever done. I’ve wanted to do the marathon for so long. Then Rankin the photographer, his wife contacted me to see if I wanted to do it as part of this team she was putting together of fashion people called ‘Oxglam’. So, that was in September. I signed up with a personal trainer in November. I stopped drinking after New Year’s Eve till April. The amount of personal commitment was staggering. Excuse me for boasting but I did a really good time – 3 hours 28 minutes – but I won’t do it again ‘cos if I do it again next year what if I don’t beat that time?

DS: Walk us through your collection?
Henry: Well this print was inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead. I was meant to be travelling to Mexico on holiday, but couldn’t because of work, so this is my holiday really. My mum is a very spiritual person and didn’t like the skulls, so I got around her by making sure all the skulls had a smiley face! SS12 is Pastel Punks, and I got that inspiration from Gavin Watson’s street photography of late 70s punks. These beautiful girls with shaved heads and hard masculine clothes. So I kept the hard, masculine shapes but with a super-girly feminine pastel palette to juxtapose and balance it.

DS: What about the menswear?
Henry: It’s on its way – just give me a minute, yeah? (laughs) We used to extend the womenswear to do a couple of men’s shapes with the same patterns and prints. But because we showed on the womenswear schedule, we missed a lot of the press and sales coverage for the menswear. So we’ve stopped doing that and we’ll start doing it again once we’ve got the womenswear all hunky dory and can do it separately. But the eyewear and underwear are unisex. The tights… And next year we’re doing footwear with Superga which will also be unisex.

DS: I read somewhere that you design for a “London girl aesthetic”. Is that going to be the case for the menswear as well?
Henry: I will probably be a bit more selfish, design stuff that I want. It would have to have a bold sense of colour and a cheeky irreverence to it. I’d really like to work with heritage fabrics, creating something quintessentially British but with an edge. I think I’d like to start menswear with an Autumn/Winter collection so maybe in about a year. Next January. I just decided that. And that’s the power of being a director.

DS: Finally, we know you’re a huge fan of X-Factor, what would you sing on the show?
Henry: Bryan Adams and Mel C’s “Baby When You’re Gone” – me and Pixie do a really good rendition. Did I answer that a bit too quickly?

Words: James Soo
Another year rolls by and what do I have to show for it? Just increasingly expensive facial products on my bathroom shelf as I hunker down in my trench war against that most vicious of enemies: age. However, while all I’ve been obsessing about for the past year is the size of my pores, thankfully some rather wonderful men and women have been actually doing stuff. In this final issue for the year, Dim Sum wants to thank all the wonderful people who have made this world a slightly better, or at least more amusing, place. So, in no particular order, the Dim Sum team have chosen those men and women, films and tv shows, and, of course, hot messes who’ve entertained us, made our lives a bit brighter and, most important of all, made us forget about our crow’s feet for a couple of seconds.
Men of the Year

Ben Cohen
Former England rugby union star and all-round heartthrob, Ben Cohen retired in May this year from professional rugby to devote himself to the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation he created to fight homophobia and bullying. Although he’s a happily married father of two, Ben leads the drive to eradicate homophobia from professional sports, and seems to enjoy all the publicity he’s generated. Of course, the publicity he generates tends to involve naked photo shoots of the hairy hunk, so we’re certainly not complaining. Ben – you are a gorgeous, compassionate hunk of a man, and we just wish there were more professional sportsmen with your attitude.

Adele
If you ever find yourself walking up the Peak, you may be forgiven for thinking that the husky-voiced songstress Adele Adkins is gracing Hong Kong with her buxom presence. But no. It is in fact your humble Dim Sum editor destroying the anthemic “Set Fire to the Rain” as he power-walks his dogs. Adele is the soundtrack to every break-up. Inspiration for “Chasing Pavements” came when she found out her boyfriend had cheated on her, so she went down to the club he was in and punched him in the face before getting thrown out. Attagirl. Still, even though this was the year of Adele, with a Vogue cover to boot, the 23 year old has had a hard time with her larynx. Post-surgery she’s going to have to relearn how to sing. Let’s just hope nothing changes because I’m going to have a hard time getting over my future break-ups without her.

Transsexual of the Year
Lea T.
People may dismiss the fashion industry, but we have to applaud transsexual supermodel Lea T.’s success this past year. Of course, she’s a stunning woman, but she’s also shown that she’s no one-hit wonder. With Vogue, Givenchy, LOVE and Oprah all courting her, it’s no surprise she’s now the face of one of Brazil’s biggest swimwear brands, Blue Man. We may spend a lot of time criticizing the fashion industry for putting unrealistic standards of beauty out there (especially as we reach for that tea break biscuit), but with Lea T. and Andrej Pejic we have to admit that the industry also isn’t afraid to look outside the box.

Movies of the Year
Weekend
Easily 2011’s best film full stop, Weekend is a punch in the face to those who say that a film with gay themes only appeals to the gay community. Russell and Glen meet at a club, and have a one-night stand that last all weekend. Kind of like a Before Sunset where we get the sex out of the way first, it’s probably one of the most honest depictions of the bizarre complexities of modern relationships. There’s no airbrushed idealism – this is love, warts and all. People sometimes say that you go to the movies to escape. But perhaps we’ve all been escaping a bit too much, and sometimes the movies need to show us what we’re actually like, in all our naked glory, so that we realise airbrushing is bad for us in the end.

Beginners
Based on writer/director Mike Mills’ own father, Beginners is just a lovely film about the importance of living life to the full. After his mother’s death, Oliver Fields (Ewan McGregor) sees his father (Christopher Plummer) transform as the seventy-five year old finally comes out of the closet and begins a relationship with a much younger man. What could be patronising ends up being a charming story of how it’s never too late to live your life and discover how to love.

You Are The Apple Of My Eye
Asia’s biggest film this year – setting box office records in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore – You Are The Apple Of My Eye is just such a sweet film. Giddens Ko wrote the autobiographical story it’s based on, then wrote the screenplay and then directed the film – going on to win the Audience Award at the Taipei Film Festival. Not bad for a directorial debut. Even though it’s more a love-gone-wrong story, it’s also a warm look back on childhood loves and friendships and how destiny works in funny ways.

Hot Mess of the Year
(It’s weird that Lindsay Lohan wasn’t even in the top ten this year. Maybe there’s something to this 2012 shit.)

Kim Kardashian
Honestly, what the hell was she thinking? The moolah, most probably. 車When most people are paying off their wedding days for years to come, Kim Kardashian not only didn’t spend a cent of her own money on her wedding but managed to make a staggering profit from it. With everything sponsored at her wedding from her $2 million ring to the $15,000 wedding cake, La Kardashian barely spent a penny on her big day. Instead, adverts during the four-hour televised wedding special brought in an estimated $18 million! And rumour has it the prenup that best chump Kris Humphries signed means that he isn’t entitled to any of it. The sad thing is of course that Kim Kardashian is allowed to shit all over the Sacred Institution of Marriage™ because she has/is a c%nt, but same-sex couples aren’t. Well done, Kim – you are Dim Sum’s gold-digging hot mess of the year!

Amy Winehouse RIP
WINEHOUSE. We will miss you. It’s not just the voice, and the beehive, and the moaning about Blaaaaaaaake. I mean, of course I miss all that. But you were a phenomenon, and utterly utterly yourself. My favourite story about La Winehouse takes place when she was on St Lucia, recording or drying out or something. And her manager had forbidden the hotel from serving her alcohol. So, she’d crawl around the hotel bar on all fours during happy hour and slyly try to steal people’s drinks from their tables. As if her beehive didn’t give the game away a mile off. Amy Winehouse RIP.

Charlie Sheen
There was a moment earlier this year, I think when most of the Middle East was in revolt, there were five earthquakes devastating half of Asia and all the world stock markets had collapsed, but despite the world ending, all anyone talked about on every channel was the Madness of Charlie Sheen. In his own words – and my God there were a lot of them – “I am on a drug. It’s called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available because if you try it you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.” God bless Charlie Sheen – and sign me up for a gram, cos that sounds like good shit.

TV of the Year

Game of Thrones
Based on George R.R. Martin’s epically unforgiving series of sword & sorcery fantasy novels, no-one expected Game of Thrones to be the colossal success it has been. Well, that is anyone who didn’t think people would watch a gripping plot full of unpleasant villains and tons of sex and flesh. And what’s more they’ve got a sexy evil gay couple who like to think up fiendish intrigue while manscaping each other. Just like in real life. Perfection.

True Blood
OK, so this season wasn’t amazing. Fairies etc. Urgh. But you’ve got Alexander Skaaaaaaarsgaaaaaard and Joe Manganiello naked all the time, so who really cares about plot? And once again, it’s nice to see totally omnisexual characters camping it up for my benefit. And Lafayette.

Glee
Yes, the whole thing is gayer than a camp television series filled with showtunes. Oh hang on… And again, the episodes can be a bit hit and miss. But Kurt & Blaine (& Sebastian!) and Santana & Brittany must be in some ways the sweetest gay couples on television. Of course, the weird thing is that like in the world at large girls are allowed to have sex with other girls, but boys with boys – well, there’s got to be a big ol’ debate about it.

2011 has been quite a year in the world of gay. We hope you’ve had as much fun as we have (our tip – go to Taipei Pride next year, it’s a riot). Anyway, if you haven’t all been swept away by a deluge or eaten by a giant Mayan squid or whatever the astrologers predict for 2012, then we hope you’ll join us at Dim Sum for another gay old year!