Former Chinese volleyball player Sun Wenjing has come out as gay amid a governmental crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community.
Last Thursday, the 27-year-old posted two photos in which she pictured alongside her girlfriend on Weibo, China’s largest social media platform. The style in which the couple is posing — with one photo capturing them in casual dress, the other in more formal attire — is reminiscent of wedding photos featured on marriage certificates, as the Chinese news outlet SupChina reports.
“She doesn’t have to do anything, but I will fall for her time and time again,” Sun wrote in a caption accompanying the images. “Year after year, she’s my everything.”
The photos were posted on September 9, a date that sounds like the word “forever” when written in Chinese Hanzi. The date is regarded as a symbol of eternity, according to SupChina, and is a popular day for Chinese couples to marry. The photos were reportedly well-received, garnering more than 60,000 likes and 4,000 comments.
One commenter commended Sun for her bravery. “I don’t know when I and my lover can act like you and your girlfriend in public,” the follower wrote, “by not hiding our sex orientation at all.”
Another user expressed hopes that Sun’s openness would pave the way for others. Only 5% of LGBTQ+ Chinese citizens are totally out of the closet, according to a 2016 study conducted by the United Nations Development Programme. Just 15% percent have told their families, as opposed to the 59% of American LGBTQ+ adults who reported being out to their relatives in a 2013 Pew Research study.
“The more people, especially public figures, come out of the closet,” the commenter said, “the less likely that Chinese society still sees LGBT+ issues as taboo topics.”
The wedding-themed photos will have to remain symbolic for now, as marriage equality is not yet legal in China. The government has begun increasingly cracking down on LGBTQ+ rights, releasing regulatory guidelines earlier this month that banned “sissy idols” in the name of defending a “correct beauty standard.” The new rules led Weibo to ban several fan groups for various K-pop artists, such as BLACKPINK, and BTS.
In July, Weibo reportedly mass deleted groups for LGBTQ+ college students without warning. Just two months prior, representatives with China’s Communist Party held meetings with LGBTQ+ students to interrogate them about whether they were receiving outside funding and whether they oppose the government.
Although it’s uncommon for Chinese public figures to come out, Sun isn’t the first athlete to do so. Li Ying, a soccer star on China’s national team, posted a picture with her girlfriend on Weibo during June Pride month to mark their one-year anniversary.
“You are the source and objective of all of my tenderness,” Li wrote, making her the first high-profile Chinese sports star to come out.
Li and her girlfriend only enjoyed the social media publicity temporarily, however, as she deleted the post shortly after it went viral. Some fans speculated that she faced pressure from the government or other powerful figures to keep quiet about her relationship. Others pointed out that Li had been absent from international games since she started sharing photos of her girlfriend more regularly.
Sun’s announcement, meanwhile, has received almost no Chinese media coverage. The news outlet IFeng was one of the few publications to report the news, but its coverage was censored on social media the following day, according to the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post.
Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for them.’s weekly newsletter here.
