Talking To Adam 13 - Part 1

Cruising In Hong Kong In 1985

An Oral Gay History Of Hong Kong 

Written in 2016 For The First Time

A GWM in his mid-60s remembers:

NOTE:  We do not encourage any form of public indecency or illegal behaviour.  We are simply reporting one person's recollections from 1985.

1.  Hong Kong in 1985

2.  Aero's Gym, Wilson House, Wyndham Street, Central

3.  The Hong Kong Police's "Pink List" And The Gay Grapevine

4.  1985: Gay Guys Cruising In Hong Kong...Where..?
5.  Hong Kong 1985:  The Cruisy Gay Bars 
6.  Hong Kong 1985:  Cruising The Streets Of Central
7.  Hong Kong 1985:  Cruising Harbour City And Tsim Sha Tsui

1.   Hong Kong In 1985

1.   Let's pick 1985.  For some reason, I loved that year. I was about 34 and in great health.  I thought I was HAWT...!!  I was lean, kinda muscular in that 1980s way......tight little shorts, tank top, gym shoes, my metallic blue Sony Walkman with the cassettes of Tina Turner's comeback album, "Private Dancer", or ZZ Top's "Afterburner" or Prince and the Revolution, my Rayban aviator sunglasses.....woohoo...!!  The music from the 80s was just amazing and it's held up really well 30 years later.

2.   And 'coz "Miami Vice" was on TV, I'd dress like those dudes too....you know, pastel coloured pleated pants rolled up at the ankle, jacket with the sleeves turned up, T-shirt, loafers with no socks.  It was such a great time to be alive in Hong Kong...!!  The city was really taking off, money was being made, Exchange Square One and Two in Central had recently opened and everybody was going gaga over them, Discovery Bay on Lantau was new and hip, so lots of expats were moving there.  The MTR's Island Line (the Blue line) had just started.


2.   Aero's Gym, Wilson House, Wyndham Street, Central

3.   Oh yeah....and the aerobics and fitness craze was just starting to hit Hong Kong too.  I was going to a gym called Aero's in Wilson House on Wyndham Street.  Now that was a hot place!!  All those muscular white guys working in Central would show up there.....there was lots of eye contact.

4.   It also helped that the gym attracted celebrity clients like the Chippendale male strippers from the US who would work out there before putting on a show at California Restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong.  Jeez..!! Those guys were amazing to look at.  One time the actor Jean-Claude van Damme showed up to work out.  He had an incredible body and would work out topless. He was just getting famous. All the guys in the gym were horny. He knew the gay guys drooled over him and he was completely OK with that.  He'd smile and wink at us in between his sets.

5.   The locker room and showers were in the basement down a long flight of stairs. There was lots of JO, sucking and fucking action going on in the showers and the sauna.  The showers in particular were notorious for action because they had thick shower curtains and the showers were in 2 rows facing each other. Guys would hop from one shower cubicle to another for action, sometimes group action.  The management was fully aware of it and sorta encouraged it.  They knew it was a safe space, completely hidden in the basement and word about Aero's " gay reputation" spread through word of mouth.  It was a good fun crowd of expat and local guys.  Far less attitude than one sees in the gyms or saunas today.

6.   Then suddenly Aero's shut down in 1987.  Lots of gym customers lost their membership fee.  Fortunately, 2 gyms came to the rescue.  One was in Connaught Road Central in Crocodile House, can't remember the name but I went there a few times. It wasn't that great, mostly a local Chinese crowd. And the other was the gym in the Hong Kong Hotel Shopping Arcade in Canton Road, on the 3rd Floor.  That's the one I went too most of the time.

7.   Unfortunately neither of the gyms had the vibe of Aero's.  The gay gym crowd scattered.  Remember, California Fitness hadn't opened then.


3.  The Hong Kong Police's "Pink List" And The Gay Grapevine

8.   Everybody knew that gay guys were all over town and showing up at the gym.  But in 1985, gay sex was illegal in Hong Kong - even between consenting adults in private.  The Police were really aggressive.  They used their Special Investigations Unit to crack down on gay guys and arrest them.  They would send some of their best looking cops to the gym so that gay guys would cruise them.  The cop would play along, invite the guy to his "hotel room" and then he'd be arrested.  It was blatant entrapment, but people were too frightened to say anything publicly.

9.  The Police would also show up undercover at the public toilets and bars or worse, just raid them claiming to be looking for drugs.  But everyone knew their game. Since gay sex was illegal, there were no official  gay bars in town, but every gay guy knew there were 3 of them:  2 were in Lan Kwai Fong and 1 was in Tsim Sha Tsui.  It was no coincidence that these 3 bars were raided, sometimes more than once.

10.  Also, there were no gay saunas anywhere in town.  The first one didn't open till sometime in 1991.

11.  But that didn't stop the Police from putting people under surveillance and suspicion, putting their names on the infamous "Pink List" as it was called.  Many of the gay white professionals were a tightly-knit group, terrified of what the Police were up to or could do.  They were so scared of being exposed, or arrested or blackmailed, that some would flee to Bangkok on weekends and public holidays and hit the saunas and bars there.

12.  Since there was an underground gay grapevine, especially with the white professionals, it was common to meet for "dinner parties" at somebody's flat usually in a higher class area like the larger Mid-Levels flats, or the Peak, or Repulse Bay - which might turn into a drug-fuelled orgy - or charter a luxury boat and sail out of Hong Kong's territorial waters for a weekend of group sex. Some were arrested when they sailed back, either because they had drugs and underage boys on board, or because the Police had received a  tip off.

13.  In the 1980s, AIDS was sweeping the gay cities of the US and it was only a matter of time before it hit Hong Kong.  It was a very tough and paranoid time to be a gay professional white guy in Hong Kong.  Ironically, the local Chinese gay guys over 21 might have had an easier time, since it was well known that the Police were targeting white professionals and those hanging around with them.  And some of those hanging around them were skinny Chinese twinks about 17 years old.

COMING UP IN PART 2:   

4.  1985: Gay Guys Cruising In Hong Kong..Where..?

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