Inside the Chinese Closet

Instead of being proud of his son, the father of a successful Chinese architect named Andy is worried. Andy, who lives in Shanghai, has come out of the closet, and his father is overcome with shame. Cherry’s mother is struggling with a similar issue because her daughter is attracted to women. Cherry’s family comes from rural China where homosexuality is widely regarded as unacceptable. So the parents of both protagonists start looking for some way of covering it up, and both conclude that their suffering would be eased by a marriage of convenience – followed by children. The film follows Andy and Cherry in their frantic efforts to find “acceptable” partners. They can be themselves when they’re out with friends, but then we see them at a “fake marriage fair” where gay men and women attempt to make matrimonial deals with one another. It leads to some rather awkward dates for Andy and his candidate spouses, followed by the unavoidable phone calls to update his increasingly impatient father. Andy and Cherry are courageous and extraordinarily candid in their presentation of a thorny issue in China, and one that is usually hidden from view. Their stories shed light on a nation in transition. China is modernizing rapidly, but older generations are still clinging to old-fashioned values.