Friday, May 25, 2018

End of the rainbow

Two books I have a very peripheral connection to have appeared recently. Shanghai Sacred is an ethnographic study of Shanghai religions with gorgeous photographs; I provided some comments of some early drafts during my year there. Benoît, the main author, was effectively my host at Fudan, and Liz, the main photographer, became a friend too. They took me on a few of their expeditions (including Jinze), and I also provided them one connection - to the Rainbow Witness Fellowship, a gay Christian group I'd become involved with. Liz' discreet photo from a Rainbow event, taken after I'd left Fudan, is characteristically lovely:
Rainbow is also where I met Eros, the editor of May your lips kiss mine, an anthology of writing by and about LGBT Catholics in China and the broader Chinese diaspora. I think I planted one of many seeds for it when I told Eros I thought there'd be interest in the sorts of stories shared at Rainbow meetings well beyond China. He pulled it together in record time, and has apparently already found many grateful readers - including Catholic priests, who have received no guidance for ministering to the tongzhi in their congregations. I'm helping smooth out the translations for an English version, moved by each chapter I read.