For transgender people in rural China, derision, scorn and rejection are a daily reality
The story of Liu Peilin, who shot to fame when a video of her escaping a burning building went viral, has cast a spotlight on the struggles of the country’s LGBT community
It was a gloomy January day in 2012. A local television crew in Qingdao, Shandong province, was on location to cover news of a burning building on Weixian Road, a ghetto that had been awaiting demolition for decades. The cameras rolled as flames lapped the walls, smoke billowing out. As firefighters trained their hosepipes on the blaze a figure emerged, stumbling out of the narrow entrance passage and into frame.
The individual wore a pink jacket and an ankle-length black skirt, face covered in white powder, black eyeshadow and bright-pink lipstick, and with two thick ponytails festooned with pink flowers.
A man rushed forward to help, inquiring whether the resident had been home when the fire started. As it turned out, the fire had spread from this tenant’s flat on the first floor, lit to keep warm during difficult times.
The tenant was understandably panicked, voice hoarse, but unexpectedly deep: “I wasn’t home, I put out the fire before I left.”
The footage went viral, with hundreds of thousands of people asking who this man dolled up as a woman was. Netizens soon discovered the video’s subject was a transgender refuse collector named Liu Peilin and nicknamed her Brother Daxi – “Big Happiness”.
Having been driven from her Weixian Road flat by the fire, Liu, 63, has since been forced out of another apartment by a landlord. But she has also received messages of support and donations of food, supplies and money from those who watched the video and learned of her story.