Interview with Qiuyan Chen
Qiuyan Chen is a young Chinese activist based in London. Her work started in 2013, with a campaign suing the Chinese government for publishing textbooks promoting conversion therapy and describing homosexuality as an illness, and since then she has found Queer China UK, the network dedicated to promoting links between the Chinese and British LGBT communities. She has also been running a mutual support network during the pandemic for overseas Chinese students trapped in the UK, as well as numerous other projects.
Despite facing threats from her university and the Chinese government, Qiuyan has continued her activism and hopes to encourage and develop a new generation of international activists. I caught up with her over Zoom in February to talk about it.