Pride7 Steps into the Future

Shanghai, June 26, 2015—The seventh annual ShanghaiPRIDE festival wrapped up on June 21 following more than a week’s worth of social, cultural and educational events exploring the theme “Love Is Our Future” (爱予未来 ai yu weilai). Almost 6,000 attendees joined the ShanghaiPRIDE organizers in raising LGBTQ awareness and giving Shanghai a glimpse of a future in which tolerance and acceptance are the norm.

Several pre-Pride events set the stage for this year’s festival, including the brand-new Rainbow Bike Ride on June 5 (sponsored by LESDO and wtf* Bikes), which led 70 bikers starting at six points in the city with six different colors of lights to converge at Brownstone in rainbow formation. Other pre-festival events included a Hawaiian Summer Pub Crawl on May 23, which hit up local bars including Lollipop and Catalog; Pride’s Got Talent on May 30 (sponsored by GayShow), which entertained the audience with top queer talent in music, dance, poetry, and more; the first-ever Pride Zumba event on May 30 at Factory 54; a passionate performance of The Vagina Monologues on June 1 by Fudan University’s Zhihe Society (with a second performance on June 13); and an Open Mic Night on June 11 at Lucca Café & Lounge.

ShanghaiPRIDE 2015 officially kicked off on Friday, June 12, with the opening of the Art & Photo Exhibition at Polar Bear gallery (sponsored by Garden Restaurant), featuring six artists’ diverse explorations of queer identity, relationships, and community. The opening ceremony packed 150 attendees into the space, and approximately 450 visitors came to see the show over the course of the festival.

One of the most-anticipated events of Pride7, the annual Pride Run on Saturday, June 13, once again took 200 runners on a 6km route from The Langham, Shanghai, Xintiandi to the Bund and back in time for a community-building Pink BBQ at the hotel’s terrace bar, XTD elevated. Saturday culminated in an explosive Opening Party at the Pearl (sponsored by blued and everman), where 700 attendees enjoyed prize giveaways and hot tribal dance performances to kick off the journey to the “future” referenced in the theme of this year’s festival.

Pride-goers rallied from the previous late night for a morning panel discussion on Sunday, June 14, at Shanghai American Center, exploring the topic of LGBT & Family. Then it was back to The Pearl for the official opening of the ShanghaiPRIDE Film Festival (ShPFF), featuring a screening of the Best Film winner from the inaugural ShPFF short film competition, which received more than 30 entries showcasing LGBTQ Chinese stories. The winning short, A Straight Journey: Days and Nights in Their Kingdom, will represent Shanghai at this year’s Iris Prize Festival in the UK. The event also hosted the first public Chinese screening of Lilting, followed by a Q&A session led by renowned Chinese actress and star of the film Cheng Peipei.

Despite the rain that pounded the city during the first half of the following week, ShPFF events Monday through Wednesday garnered impressive attendance for screenings of films addressing trans topics, same-sex marriage rights, xinghun (contract marriages), and queer parenting, shown alongside short films submitted as part of the ShPFF competition. Wednesday, June 17, also saw the return of Trivia Night, with challengers going head-to-head to test their knowledge of LGBTQ history and culture and compete for a slew of prizes.

ShanghaiPRIDE Theatre Festival (ShPTF)—which runs June 1 through June 28—hosted East West Theatre’s production of Bite My Thumb (a “modern-day queer love tangle”) on Thursday, June 18, at Happiness 42. That same day, ShPFF hosted a screening of Out and Around (about queer organizing movements around the world) at Shanghai American Center, with cameo appearances from ShanghaiPRIDE’s very own organizers. Thursday was also a big night for the ladies, with the first-ever Women Up! Professional Women’s Networking Forum at The British Centre, co-organized by The L. One hundred queer female professionals showed up to meet likeminded peers and hear inspiring remarks from six successful professionals in the fields of law, HR, marketing, psychology, and entrepreneurship. Later that night, the annual ShanghaiPRIDE Ladies Party lit up The Apartment with fabulous dance, singing, and lip-sync performances; raffle prizes; and attendance from 300 of the city’s hottest queer women.

Friday, June 19, was a triumph for queer culture in the city. ShPTF brought to Jiadu Theatre the sold-out opening night of BENT, in which Urban Aphrodite cast members performed songs from iconic musical RENT interspersed with touching monologues from the LGBTQ community. Meanwhile, ShPFF invited partner event Taiwan International Queer Film Festival (TIQFF) to host screenings and a panel discussion on Queer Cinema & China at the Abteilung Kultur und Bildung am Generalkonsulat der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Shanghai.

Pride7 culminated in an action-packed weekend beginning Saturday, June 20, with three community events supported by the British Consulate at Andaz Xintiandi, Shanghai: the festival’s second panel discussion tackled the issue of HIV/AIDS & Our Future (co-organized with Shanghai Qing’ai Health Center, Marie Stopes International, SCMC and Aicao), LGBT Groups Open Day (co-organized with Tontou.com) showcased the efforts of 23 local LGBT organizations, and the annual PFLAG Conference (co-organized with PFLAG China and Helan Online) celebrated the support that LGBTQ individuals receive from their families. ShPFF held screenings and a filmmaking workshop hosted by LGBT webcast Queer Comrades at the Grand Kempinski Hotel Shanghai. Finally, 600 festival-goers let loose at the annual Closing Party (sponsored by Yuejunyou.com) at Eight Art Hotel’s rooftop bar, Le Chat Noir, featuring raffle prizes, DJ entertainment, and futuristic performances inspired by sci-fi films Men in Black and The Fifth Element.

The final day of the festival, Sunday, June 21, featured a second performance of BENT by Urban Aphrodite as well the closing of ShPFF at Bubbly Nation, with a screening of documentary In the Turn, about a young trans girl who finds her place within a community of queer roller derby girls (plus an appearance by Shanghai’s own women’s roller derby team, the Shang-Hai Rollers). ShPFF garnered combined attendance of around 700 people at events throughout the week, making for an extraordinary inaugural year.

ShPTF will run its last performance, Colours by FLYIMPROV, on Sunday, June 28.

With an unprecedented eight film events, two sports activities, three parties, an expanded art and photography exhibition, two panel discussions, and four theatre productions, this year’s ShanghaiPRIDE festival represented a spectacular mix of community, nightlife, and cultural happenings to celebrate the diversity and acceptance of its LGBTQ attendees and allies.

Pride7 also introduced the “Hold the Hands of the One You Love” photo campaign, created by communications sponsor Wunderman Shanghai to support equal love through a simple, innocent action that can trigger homophobic reactions against queer couples showing affection in public. The campaign called for supporters to post photos on social media channels depicting themselves holding hands with someone they love (a partner, friend, family member, etc.). Each photo tagged #shanghaipride contributed to keeping a virtual pair of hands on the ShanghaiPRIDE website clasped for another minute.

ShanghaiPRIDE is a non-profit event led entirely by volunteers and supported by the above sponsors, in addition to: American Apparel; the British, U.S., German, Swiss, and Canadian consulates; IBM; and queer dating apps Zank and Jack’d. Funds raised from this year’s festival will go to the Snow Lotus Lesbian Association, Shanghai Qing’ai Health Center, and Beijing LGBT Center.

For more information on Pride7, visit shpride.com or follow ShanghaiPRIDE’s social media channels, including WeChat (Shanghai-PRIDE), Weibo (weibo.com/shanghaipride), Facebook (facebook.com/ShanghaiPride), and Instagram (@Shanghaipride).

Contact
Email: shanghaipride@gmail.com
Website: shpride.com

~爱予未来 Love is Our Future~