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This book is about and for the lala communities in China and Shanghai in particular . I am very grateful to all who have shared the most intimate details of their lives with me. I would like to thank Laoda for her trust and for introducing me to the local tongzhi communities, and all lala comrades in China for allowing me to stand with them to fight all those battles against social prejudices and for tolerating my presence as a cultural outsider. (I am grateful to them too for helping me improve my putonghua). A big thank-you goes to the Chinese Lala Alliance (CLA) (華人拉拉聯盟) for enriching my knowledge of the LBT communities across the country. My work experience with the CLA allowed me to understand the diversities in LGBTQ movements among different Chinese societies. This book was completed in the years when I underwent many life challenges . I thank my friends for supporting me through all those ups and downs. I am very grateful to the following friends (in alphabetical order of surname): Eunice Au, Anita Chan, Clarice Cheung, Eleanor Cheung, Chen Yi-chien, Joyce Chiu, Joseph Cho (Siu Cho), Joey Chung, Thomas Gamble, Nguyễn Tân Hoàng, Dredge Kang, Mary Ann King (Gum Gum), Ashley Ko, Franco Lai, Vice Selina Lam, Lily Lau, Karen Lee, Helen Leung, Joanne Leung, Pik Ki Leung, Yvonne Leung, Sophie Lin, Anson Mak, Fran Martin, Tan Ee Lyn, June Tang, Grace To, Day Wong, Cecily Yam, Audrey Yue, Ellen Yuen, and my dear lala friends in China. My sincere gratitude goes to my doctoral thesis supervisors, Eric Ma and Yip Hon-ming. They provided intellectual and emotional support throughout my graduate studies. I would also like to thank the Gender Studies Programme at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The programme funded my graduate studies and most part of this research. I especially thank Po-king Choi (Boyee) for her care, support and spiritual enlightenment. I was most fortunate to have a group of fabulous fellow classmates, who created a supportive and inspiring environment for me to conduct my study. Acknowledgements x Acknowledgements In developing my doctoral thesis into a book, I am grateful for the comments and encouragement of John Nguyet Erni, Anthony Fung, Gayatri Gopinath, Saori Kamano, Diana Khor, Travis Kong, Helen Leung, Fran Martin, Yau Ching, Audrey Yue, and the two anonymous reviewers of this book’s draft manuscript . I also thank the editors of the Queer Asia book series and Hong Kong University Press for publishing this book. Finally, I thank my family—Freda Cho, Jo Kam and Hillman Wong—for their love and for always being there for me. ...

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