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I have been pleasantly surprised to see Shanghai Pride create such a high profile for itself. Shanghai is of course a pretty LGBT-friendly city, and I have no doubt that many, Chinese and foreign, feel freer here in Shanghai than in their home towns around the world. As Paul Midler says, around here no one really cares what you do or with who (umm, except for certain things). Everyone has their own things to do, thanks.
And its very good for the city and tourism, to maintain this openness. It is also interesting that Paul chose that graphic, as I already had this title ready to go.
In a city where young guys and girls often walk arm in arm or hand in hand with each other, one certainly gets an accepting vibe. And Shanghai’s history as a cultural and arts center lends itself to the reflective and thoughtful, rather than the judgemental and cruel. But it matters what the government does and how they do their job.
And then, unfortunately, we had that chilling effect. And in a country where you may as well always expect someone to be watching you, in a state where the shadow police are an unknown and presumably unregulated force, that effect is strong. Now which way it will push people, I cannot say. But it is amplified by the personal nature of it. Its you that is getting shut down.
However in this case, I do think the venues should not be all that surprised that publicly viewing a movie (or holding a play) without a license, again for such a high profile event, is going to get some government officials up and checking to make sure they have their own bases covered. That’s called CYA, and its the same in every culture.
It seems strange, perhaps, because projectors are (now) a common article of life, but showing a movie to the public, or holding a play for public consumption, are both activities that the authorities will always take note of very quickly. The play part seems even weirder I suppose, but back in the day a play could have very direct effects on society.
Under the circumstances, this looks very much like a normal government reaction in Shanghai, and largely according to (yes, I know, outmoded) law.
[Update] I am not trying to criticize anyone, just trying to say, hey, is this persecution or normal government hassles? So far it seems like the latter.