中國企業掘金粉紅經濟 From Emperor Ai to the pink renminbi

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.

在“中央王國”，同性之愛有着久遠而詩意的歷史。在公元元年前曾執掌中國多年的漢哀帝（據說）好男風，甚至曾爲了不驚擾身旁熟睡的男寵而割斷了被他壓在身下的龍袍之袖。

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.

自那以後，同志的境遇每況愈下。“斷袖之癖”（自漢哀帝之後男同性戀便得了這個雅號）先是被宣佈爲非法，而後被認定爲精神疾病。在漢哀帝“斷袖”2000年後的2001年，中國將同性戀移除出精神疾病名單——而這之後的15年裏，中國的父母、僱主和整個社會一直在緩慢地習慣這個概念。

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.

如今，中國人對同性戀已習以爲常，近年來中國企業已開始針對這個新的“粉紅經濟”市場進行廣告營銷——特別是在各大流行社交媒體平臺上。去年，阿里巴巴旗下與eBay類似的在線市場淘寶網(Taobao)做了一場情人節選拔，選送了7對同性伴侶前往美國加州結婚，因爲他們無法在中國結婚。7對伴侶加州之旅的費用由一家牀上用品製造商贊助。（上圖爲去年11月香港舉行的女同性戀、男同性戀、雙性戀及跨性別者羣體(LGBT)遊行）

Since there are more annual active buyers in Alibaba’s online Chinese marketplaces than there are people in the US, this was a landmark: a campaign that celebrated gayness in a very mainstream way. China’s gay millennials may trail behind their western counterparts in the range of pink products they can choose from. But they have more consumer freedom now than at any time since Emperor Ai woke up from his nap.

由於淘寶網的年度活躍買家數量超過美國人口數量，這一活動具有里程碑式的意義：這是一場以非常主流的方式慶祝同性愛情的活動。在同性類產品的選擇範圍方面，中國的千禧一代同性羣體或許落後於西方的千禧一代同性羣體。但是，眼下卻是自漢哀帝斷袖以來中國的同性羣體消費最自由的時候。

Companies are finally waking up, too, to the fact that pink buyers often have higher disposable income than the average consumer because their households usually have two wage earners and no children.

企業也終於覺醒，意識到了同性戀者的可支配收入往往高於普通消費者，因爲同性伴侶通常兩人都有收入而且沒有孩子。

Assuming — as most experts do, though many people don’t make their homosexuality public — that between 3 and 5 per cent of the population in China is gay, this could mean 40m to 70m people (about as many as the total UK population) willing to spend pink renminbi on dating, travel, marriages of convenience and even surrogate parenthood.

假設如大多數專家推測（儘管很多人並未公開自己的同性戀身份）的那樣，中國總人口中有3%-5%的人爲同性戀者，這可能意味着有4000萬至7000萬人（差不多相當於英國總人口）願意在同性交友、旅行、形婚、甚至代孕方面進行消費。

The biggest Chinese gay dating app, Blued, has 27m registered users, 7m of whom log in each day, according to its founder, former policeman Geng Le. He says more and more small entrepreneurs are developing pink products and services, mostly in the area of “micro-plastic surgery, male intimate wash and whitening skincare”.

Blued是中國最大的同志交友應用。據其曾經當過警察的創始人耿樂稱，Blued擁有2700萬註冊用戶，其中有700萬用戶每天都登陸。他稱，越來越多的創業者正在開發面向同性羣體的產品和服務，主要圍繞“微整形手術、男性私密部位洗液和美白護膚品”。

A survey of more than 18,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender respondents in China — conducted by WorkForLGBT, an activist coalition — found gay households’ average income was more than Rmb10,000 ($1,500) a month, at the upper end of incomes in big cities where most gay people live.

同志維權組織WorkForLGBT對中國逾18000名女同性戀、男同性戀、雙性戀及跨性別者羣體(LGBT)進行的調查發現，男同家庭平均月收入超過1萬元人民幣（合1500美元），這在大城市屬於中上等水平。多數同性戀者都生活在大城市。

“There’s been an explosion of LGBT advertising in the past two-to-three years,” says Steven Bielinski, founder of WorkForLGBT. He says the country’s companies, especially in the tech sector, are more active in branding their company as gay-friendly even than foreign ones.

WorkForLGBT的創始人史蒂文•比林斯基(Steven Bielinski)稱，“過去兩三年，針對LGBT羣體投放的廣告呈爆炸性增長。”他稱，中國的企業，特別是科技企業，在標榜自己的企業對同性羣體友好方面比外國企業還要積極。

“These days you won’t get arrested or fired for being gay,” says Mr Geng. “I have even been interviewed by state-owned media — that would have been unimaginable in the past.” But, within families, hurdles remain, he says. “It’s Chinese tradition to have a son to carry on the family name.”

“如今你不會再因爲同性戀身份而被逮捕或被解僱了，”耿樂稱，“我甚至接受過國有媒體的採訪——這在過去是無法想象的。”但是，他稱，在家庭內部，仍然存在牽絆。“傳宗接代是中國的傳統。”

Most parents are still far from thrilled if their only child declares they are gay. So one of the most active areas in the pink market is overseas surrogacy services, says Mr Bielinski. What many parents want most of all is a grandchild but surrogacy is illegal in China, prompting some gay people to use businesses that provide the service in the US. “There are hundreds of babies being gestated right now in the US for gay Chinese couples,” says Mr Bielinski.

如果唯一的孩子出櫃，多數中國父母仍然會心情沉重。比林斯基稱，因此“粉紅市場”最活躍的領域之一是海外代孕服務。很多中國父母最想要的是孫子或孫女，但是代孕在中國是不合法的，這促使部分同性戀者尋求在美國提供代孕服務的企業的幫助。“此時此刻，在美國有數百個孩子正在孕育中，它們是爲中國的同性伴侶孕育的，”比林斯基稱。

But many more gay people choose to satisfy their parents by conducting marriages of convenience with people of the opposite sex — and there are new pink businesses to help with that, too. The health of the Chinese economy may be giving the rest of the world sleepless nights — but, whatever gay people are doing with their money, there is no sign that they will stop spending soon.

但是，更多的同性戀者選擇與異性組成形式婚姻來讓父母滿意——也有很多服務同性戀羣體的新公司幫助他們實現這一點。中國經濟的健康狀況或許令世界其他地區夜不能寐——但是，不管同性戀者正在把錢花到何處，目前沒有跡象表明他們會很快停止花錢。