Taipei gay club

TAIPEI — Under a moonlit canopy of bare tree branches, two men in black leather jackets lean against a brick wall. Their exchange is wordless, with only sluggish movements forward: A lingering gaze, twice over the right shoulder. A hand, stretching over the tense distance between them. One’s fingertips meet the other’s thigh, gradually wrapping around as a claim over the other’s body for the night. But just as a breeze rustles the canopy above, the other clicks his tongue almost inaudibly. He pushes himself off the wall and away from the grips of this dark park corner, emerging into the streetlamp-lit expanse of Taipei’s streets.  

I think of this scene, from the Taiwanese film “Where is the Love?” by the lesbian director Chen Jo-fei, whenever I stroll through Peace Park, formerly known as New Park, in central Taipei. In the latter half of the 20th century, it was one of the city’s most well-known gay cruising districts, where men picked up other men through a social code of gazes and grazes.  

The news media painted the park as a den of iniquity. As early as , Unite