In Unison and Harmony: Oral History of Older Lesbian Women in Hong Kong

In the 1990s, Hong Kong had already become a “world of glamour and excitement,” and it was also the period when my generation was just born and beginning to grow up.

That era was precisely when our mothers were in the bloom of their youth.

Even earlier, perhaps in the 1970s or as far back as the 1950s, the desires and memories of lesbian women were scattered across the city. Although their spaces were hidden, they were uniquely theirs: the Paris Theatre in San Po Kong, Disco Disco in Sheung Wan, women-only evening schools, and the bamboo theatres or playhouses where Yam Kim-fai and Pak Suet-sin operas were performed.

Those of us born after 1990 also have our own spaces: Victoria Park and surrounding streets in Causeway Bay, university campuses, the West Kowloon Cultural District, gender organisations in Kwun Tong industrial buildings and other areas of Kowloon. In our generation’s spaces, sexuality and desire flow freely; in the spaces of our generation, being queer does not require concealment—our era is a fluid and open carnival (even though it has faded into decline after 2020).

Our time is full of imagination and possibilities for diverse genders and sexualities. Yet this imagination is constantly awakened by the word “will” in this book (which appears thirteen times). Older lesbian women are inevitably closer to death and must endure the decline of their bodies while envisioning future spaces. As young lesbians, as time passes, love, coming out, and affirming one’s gender identity have become lived experiences. What will our future look like?

It is unknown, but one thing we share with older lesbians is that we will keep memories of embracing our lovers at home and every poem written for the ones we love. I wholeheartedly recommend In Unison and Harmony: Oral History of Older Lesbian Women in Hong Kong to “our” community and everyone else.

──Mx Erica/Erics, ONEBOOKHALF Gender Safe Space

Identifying as a lesbian is not a prerequisite for engaging in same-sex relationships. For these women who love women, their experiences are a matter of serendipity. Their lives resemble a film, unfolding like a cinematic narrative—smooth and seamless, with moments of brilliance that cannot truly be appreciated until the very end.

──Tong Ping-an, Board Member, Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association

Five love stories and three academic essays come together to weave the life stories of older lesbians in Hong Kong. Through this book, we learn about their long and winding searches for love, their struggles with sexual and gender identity, their complex relationships with family, and their reflections and preparations as they face the passage of time. In Unison and Harmony is a rare and invaluable book, filling a significant gap in the history of older lesbians in Hong Kong.

──Travis Kong, author of Oral Histories of Older Gay Men in Hong Kong: Unspoken but Unforgotten, Associate Professor of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong

In Unison and Harmony bears witness to the brilliance and challenges of an era, opening the eyes of younger LGBTQ+ individuals to the courage and extraordinary lives of older lesbians in Hong Kong. It broadens the perspective of the LGBTQ+ movement towards greater inclusivity.

──Gofyy, Founding Chairperson of the Taiwan Tongzhi (LGBTQ+) Hotline Association. author of Thirty Years of Taiwan’s LGBTQ+ Movement

Not for “gender equality,” nor for peeping the desire of those without “a penis,” this book captures the deeply erased footprints of half a century’s journey in Hong Kong, revealing what seems to be an endlessness of gender buried beneath biological sex. Through the intricacies of history, it challenges the deeply rooted structures of power inequality in a colonial society.

──—Yau Ching, Professor of English and American Language and Literature, National Central University, Taiwan

In Unison and Harmony reads like both a novel and an ethnography. These histories of love, loss, and coexistence spanning Hong Kong, Taipei, and Singapore not only enrich the collective portrait of lesbian women but also add depth and dimension to the generations we have lived through.

──Liu Wen, Assistant Research Professor, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica

This is a collection of interviews with older lesbian women. Denise told me that the interviews spanned several years, from initial introductions to deeper connections. I believe this process is the most moving part of writing or research.

The key interviewees in the book—Ah On, Ah Po, Theo, Yeung-Yeung, and Pearl—are vividly portrayed, speaking candidly and without pretense as they recount their pasts. At times sorrowful, at times passionate, sometimes masculine, sometimes feminine, their stories lead us through different eras. We journey from black-and-white films to colour cinema, from factory workers to office executives, from brick-like mobile phones to dating apps. Seasons change, decades pass—sixty or seventy years in the blink of an eye. The once-naïve young have become elders with white hair. Although they now carry walking sticks, their voices remain resonant, and their memories as vivid as ever.

The weight of time makes these extraordinary interviews transcend mere personal retrospection or circulation within the lesbian community. Instead, they belong to society as a whole.

──Mary Wong, Hong Kong writer and Associate Professor of Chinese, Lingnan University

Using rigorous fieldwork methods to explore the emotions and desires of queer women might sound detached, but Denise Tang and Ng Wing Yan handle the subject with just the right touch. They create an environment where interviewees feel comfortable enough to speak openly and honestly about everything, which is also a testament to the researchers’ approachability. Reading this book reminds me of Travis Kong’s Oral History of Older Gay Men in Hong Kong. That book was an eye-opener for me, but reading In Unison and Harmony evokes an inexplicable sense of care and concern—perhaps because I can’t help but think of myself or the friends around me.

──Lo Yu, author of Rong Rong and Grafting Methods