Course:CSIS200/2025/Priced Coins on Second-Hand Platforms: Queer Signaling under Chinese Heteronormativity

Definition

Terms	Definition in this page
China	Unless otherwise specified, “China” in this page refers exclusively to mainland China.
Heterosexuality	Sexual and romantic partnerships between women and men

Introduction: Why are these coins so expensive?

Chinese coins: From 1 Yuan to 0.02 Yuan

This image depicts Chinese modern coins; the denominations are from 1 Yuan to 0.02 Yuan. In recent years, people have found some gay men “selling” these coins at extremely high prices on a Chinese second-hand platform, as a metaphor for seeking sexual partners. The year on the bottom of the coin usually indicates the seller’s age, and the denomination or the side can represent their sexual preferences.

It is important to understand why Chinese gay men used these metaphors on a second-hand app. These coins that appeared on an unexpected platform reflect the heteronormativity in China, which suppresses queer expression. Heteronormativity is a social method for arranging sexual status unequally. A form of power that uplifts heterosexuality by marginalizing sexualities outside its mold, describing heterosexuality as normal, and policing conformity to heterosexual norms. As a country where homosexuality was considered a crime 21 years ago, China still has strict censorship of the LGBTQIA+ communities, believing they are a potential threat to authority.

Therefore, this page will contextualize and analyze the contributing factors behind this artifact and how it represents the influence of Chinese heteronormativity in queer communities and highlights their resistance. This page aims to provide a contextual perspective on how heteronormativity works in contemporary China and shapes gay men’s expression and behavior, reducing negative stereotypes. Furthermore, it also seeks to highlight their creativity under the oppressive systems and the potential for challenging these systems.

Background: How did heteronormativity in contemporary Chinese policies trigger these coins to occur?

Note: For this page, the discussion refers only to the portion of the video from 20:39–30:29. Although the video is in Mandarin Chinese, I chose it because it presents first-hand community perspectives on censorship and policies in mainland China, which are essential to contextualizing this artifact. English subtitles are available through YouTube.

In this video, two Chinese queer activists discuss the current censorship and policies in China. After 2012, many policies and the environment have become stricter and more conservative in China, including the attitude toward queer movements and communities. Moreover, the Human Rights Watch reports that as of 2021, the Chinese government pushed for more conservative values, shrinking space for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and women’s issues.

Three-child policy

Propaganda for Chinese three child policy

As one activist mentioned in the video, one of the reasons may be the dramatic drop in birth rates in recent years. To improve this situation, the Chinese government has used various approaches, like propaganda that encourages having children and the three-child policy, which started in 2021 and allows couples to have up to three children. This image shows a street propaganda slogan in China that reads, “It is so great to have three children, you won’t need the state to support you in old age”. In the meantime, the authority implemented more restrictive censorship towards queer communities, both online and offline.

LGBT rights in China

However, these approaches did not seem to be so effective. What’s more, they also reveal the heteronormativity in Chinese policies. According to Dean and Fischer, conventional heterosexual families comprising two married parents and their children are still the culturally sanctioned ideal family. These policies demonstrated the beliefs the Chinese authorities have that only heterosexual partners are interested in having children or can do so. According to the activist in the video, many queer couples actually want to have children, but cannot do so because there is no law to protect their rights. As this image demonstrates, gay marriage and adoption are illegal in China.

National security

Another reason the video mentioned is the worsening relationship between China and the United States. As the United States practiced more queer inclusive policies while using this topic to criticize China several years ago, Chinese authorities started to enhance the censorship towards queer communities. As the activist mentioned, all the queer activists around the country would be monitored and questioned, such as whether to benefit or communicate with overseas people. This shows the government’s ignorance of queer communities and topics while believing only heterosexual people are normal, and in contrast, queer people were power from other countries that would be harmful to the country.

Therefore, more restrictive censorship was applied, and many queer people in China have to use signaling to communicate with other members of the community. For example, to avoid censorship on social media, many influencers would use “Rainbow” to replace “2SLGBTQIA+” or “Queer”. The priced coins on second-hand platforms emerged from this same need, serving as coded communication that avoids censorship while allowing queer individuals to connect with one another.

Consequences: What do these coins represent?

Invisibility as structural violence

These coins could be seen as a representation of Chinese long-term censorship of queer communities, which made them invisible to society. According to Noel , “structural oppression is when oppression becomes ingrained in a society and is part of the culture”. The strategies China’s authorities used to queer communities have often been described as “not supporting, not opposing, and not promoting”. However, this should not be mistaken for neutrality or cultural tolerance towards homosexuality, because this not only silences them but also erases them entirely from sight. Queer representation is systematically suppressed in China through the media, education. For instance, when the movie Together was screened in China, the plots of gay marriage were replaced with a heterosexual couple by artifact intelligence. Under the violent erasure, many queer people choose to reduce their visibility in society and conceal their identities.

Research suggests that marginalization is positively associated with concealment of sexual orientation and stigma preoccupation. Concealment can contribute to social loneliness by increasing real and perceived distance from others and curtailing one’s social network. The enforced invisibility of queer communities further reinforces public negative stereotypes and increases shame among queer individuals. Chinese gay men have been observed to show a higher level of fear toward HIV/AIDS issues and shame toward themselves compared with gay men in other countries. Therefore, I argue that these coins represent the forced queer invisibility in Chinese society, which is structural violence in its systems.

Health harm and risk

Transmission routes of newly reported HIV/AIDS cases from 1985 to 2022

These coins also represent how heteronormativity oppresses gay men, especially health harm, in China. Many of them are involved in unsafe sexual behaviors through this approach. The lack of safe spaces or comprehensive sexual education regarding homosexuality may contribute to the risks of having HIV/AIDS. This image clearly demonstrates the sharp increase in HIV/AIDS cases associated with homosexual transmission in recent years.

According to Yang, nearly 3,000 new HIV/AIDS cases were reported among young students aged 15–24, with male-to-male sexual transmission accounting for 81.7% and heterosexual transmission for 16.9%. Considering the overall proportion of gay men in this age group, it is evident that the social environment contributes to a higher risk of HIV/AIDS among gay men.

Resistance

As mentioned above, queer invisibility is a violence and oppression itself. According to De Lauretis, “gay and lesbian sexualities should be understood and imagined as forms of resistance to cultural homogenization, counteracting dominant discourses”. So, these coins, as queer signaling, could be seen as resistance since they increase queer visibility in the media, despite also promoting some kind of negative stereotypes in the meantime.

Furthermore, they also help queer individuals connect with one another or communities. According to the research, LGBTQ community involvement is negatively associated with internalized homonegativity, concealment, stigma preoccupation, and both forms of loneliness. For this reason, these coins can be seen as a form of resistance and response to the censorship, while connecting with others.

Conclusion: the possibility of a brighter future

This image is a banner from the recent protest that reads, "Totalitarianism won’t end without the death of patriarchy”. In the middle is an LGBTQIA+ pride flag that resembles a candle.

By offering an introduction to the expensive coins as queer signaling, this page provides a contextual perspective to understand how heteronormativity works and influences gay men’s expression and behavior in contemporary China. I argue that the heteronormativity in Chinese policies suppressed queer expression, triggering queer signaling to occur, such as these coins. Moreover, these signals also demonstrated the oppression queer communities faced, especially how queer invisibility is structural violence, while highlighting their resistance.

As Fetner analyzed in her book, a nostalgia for traditional norms tendency has recently occurred in Canada and the United States. Similarly, China also implemented more conservative movements. For instance, the two most active online gay social applications, Blued and Finka, were banned in China in November 2025, demonstrating stricter censorship towards queer communities.

However, just like Fetner, I do believe we would not ever return to a singular set of sexual norms. In recent protests, we do see the potential of queer people challenging the systems, especially collaboration across different communities, such as queer people with feminists and ethnic minorities. For instance, this banner in recent protests showed hyper-consciously interweaving the democratic agenda with the urgent need for them to be seen and heard. In the middle is an LGBTQIA+ pride flag that resembles a candle, symbolizing hope and a bright future.

About the author

Zoe is a first-year student in the Faculty of Arts at the University of British Columbia. She grew up in China and came to Turtle Island to study in 2025. Identified as part of the Chinese feminist and queer communities, she is always interested in social justice topics, especially gender equality, and thinking about what she can do. After coming here, she is also wondering about her relationship with this unceded land. In the future, she is excited to learn more deeply about these topics and put them into daily life practice. Outside school, she loves dogs, books, movies, and all kinds of comedy, such as sitcoms and stand-ups!