Take me to a gaydar

One of the most popular gay websites plans on launching a Chinese edition. Will it work?

Check out the latest headline stories on gay and lesbian web portal GaydarNation. Top of the billing is a feature about a new drugs counselling service called Drugfucked – "where gay men can get the lowdown on recreational drug use." Next in line is regular spot "Totty Watch" in which US actor Casey Affleck (brother of Ben) has his vital statistics examined. Then there’s a Sex and the City quiz which asks "What’s your favourite city to have sex in?"

It’s hot, it’s racy and it’s certainly cheeky. And it’s coming your way. GaydarNation says it’s planning to launch a Chinese-language site before the end of this year. But will its feisty formula work in Asia?

GaydarNation’s parent company QSoft says it’s expanding East after witnessing what it says is a growing openness towards homosexuality in China. "China’s attitude towards the gay and lesbian community is now one of tolerance," a spokesperson tells Time Out.

But that growing tolerance might not translate into an appetite for such racy content here. For starters, Internet restrictions in China mean that it’s not so easy to discuss sex, never mind gay sex, online. Queer Chinese celebrities tend to stay in the closet and straight ones are unlikely to take kindly to being profiled on an overtly out site like GaydarNation. Furthermore, many of the existing Chinese-language gay sites tend to be filled with romantic fiction rather than saucy features about whether wearing kinky slippers makes you a total fag.

"Sexy celebrities are cool, but it’s important to talk about ordinary people’s lives too," says Jerry Zhang, a 32-year-old Beijing-based translator from Chongqing.

QSoft aren’t giving much away but hinted that the content of the new Chinese site, which will be called Gaydar Nation China, might be a little different. Asked if it would tailor the portal, the spokesperson says: "Potentially yes but we can’t say anything more at this stage."

Website designers are still figuring out how to target their new audience of an estimated 50 million gay Chinese across Asia, including Singapore and Malaysia as well as the Mainland. "We are still very much in the development stages, but a range of community news and entertainment services are being considered together with some user generated content and information," it says.

It’s not too impressed with existing Chinese gay websites. "Most Chinese sites lack creativity and can be confusing and difficult to navigate," the spokesperson says. "But it is not just a matter of launching a site. It is what else we will do at a community level" that will set us apart.

The English-language GaydarNation has movie reviews, a lesbian agony aunt called Ms Honeypussy, travel features and columns on improving your sexual technique – "If it’s important to you to hump for hours, you might practice solo by masturbatorily edging yourself to your limits, backing off, and then getting excited again...and again" – as well as links to its wildly popular personals sites, Gaydarguys and Gaydargirls, and an online radio pumping house music. In fact, Gaydar is already pretty popular with Chinese gays in China.

"I use Gaydar to find hot men," says Zhang. "Mainly it’s educated Chinese who can speak good English that use it. Although there are more men on Chinese personals sites – the numbers there are enormous."

Both gay and lesbian Chinese heavily rely on the Internet to find friends and lovers. The Web is a huge resource, especially for those people living in small towns who have little or no gay and lesbian community where they live. That’s a demographic that GaydarNation says it will address.

We want to offer "a valuable, private space where like-minded gay, lesbian and gay-friendly people can communicate with each other freely and confidentially without fear of intolerance or reprisal. For people who feel isolated Gaydar is an essential lifeline."

But Zhang already has one gripe with Gaydar – it’s restrictions on those who don’t pay for its services. Registration is free but to get perks members have to pay an average 17 pounds sterling for three months.

Gaydar’s "good for finding hot men but with this eight message limit per day sometimes you can’t even get your hot man before you run out of messages. Maybe that’s why it’s not as popular as it could be," he muses.

Dinah Gardner