GLQ:A Joumal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 470 GLO:A JOURNAL OF LESBIAN AND GAY STUDIES tray themselves that way.Due to the histories of colonialism as well as to current world hegemonies,these places have had scant ties to China and so have not sparked the imaginations of people in China who hope for a transnational gay future.During a private discussion with me,Allen,a thirty-four-year-old from the Philippines,presented himself as someone with a preference for straight men and for taking care of them,even if they were married.He explained that in the Philip- pines those who call themselves gay tend to find partners in married men, although these men always break their hearts.But most Chinese gay men who also knew Allen did not think that he represented a distinct cultural system,certainly not one that should be considered a model.On the contrary,they thought that he had an individual problem.Allen had gotten involved with a Chinese male lover, whom he agonized over but felt committed to.He wanted to take care of him.Ah Zhuang cautioned Allen repeatedly that getting involved with straight men was the wrong thing to do;he should get involved only with other gay men.But Allen told me that this type of orientation-gay men getting involved with other gay men- was new in the Philippines and that while the idea of it made him more proud to be gay,it was not easy for him to change his erotic desires. "Global gayness,"with its assumptions about the similitude of identity,the homogeneity of values,and a sliding scale of identity development,fails to capture the intricate complexity-what Donald Donham calls"the conjugated transitions" -of gay life in Beijing.24 The insistence on identities that do not break down and on categories that are self-contained ignores the discursive processes of exclusion and differentiation.While the visions of many Chinese gay men in China about what it means to be gay are certainly connected to the knowledge that gay people exist all over the world,these men do not simply imagine a global community of horizontal comradeship.If the models of what it means to be gay emanate from outside China,they nonetheless construct a transcultural space by opening up a process of working them out in China.What gay identity ends up looking like in any one place in the world today is not a foregone conclusion;certainly it is not a straightforward matter of joining the global gay human race.It involves unex- pected outcomes as people who bring different imaginations to a place contend with the way in which they will connect to one another. By looking beyond discourses of identity,we can consider how these cate- gories are necessarily incomplete,how they cannot mark their own limits and thus,paradoxically,create a measure of indeterminacy.Moving from the global to the transcultural means moving from identity to identification,which means mov- ing toward a politics of contingent alliances rather than toward simple essences or self-identical recognition.There are more fruitful ways to understand gay identifi- Published by Duke University Press470 GLQ: A JOURNAL OF LESBIAN AND GAY STUDIES tray themselves that way. Due to the histories of colonialism as well as to current world hegemonies, these places have had scant ties to China and so have not sparked the imaginations of people in China who hope for a transnational gay future. During a private discussion with me, Allen, a thirty-four-year-old from the Philippines, presented himself as someone with a preference for straight men and for taking care of them, even if they were married. He explained that in the Philip￾pines those who call themselves gay tend to find partners in married men, although these men always break their hearts. But most Chinese gay men who also knew Allen did not think that he represented a distinct cultural system, certainly not one that should be considered a model. On the contrary, they thought that he had an individual problem. Allen had gotten involved with a Chinese male lover, whom he agonized over but felt committed to. He wanted to take care of him. Ah Zhuang cautioned Allen repeatedly that getting involved with straight men was the wrong thing to do; he should get involved only with other gay men. But Allen told me that this type of orientation-gay men getting involved with other gay men￾was new in the Philippines and that while the idea of it made him more proud to be gay, it was not easy for him to change his erotic desires. “Global gayness,” with its assumptions about the similitude of identity, the homogeneity of values, and a sliding scale of identity development, fails to capture the intricate complexity -what Donald Donham calls “the conjugated transitions” -of gay life in Beijing.24 The insistence on identities that do not break down and on categories that are self-contained ignores the discursive processes of exclusion and differentiation. While the visions of many Chinese gay men in China about what it means to be gay are certainly connected to the knowledge that gay people exist all over the world, these men do not simply imagine a global community of horizontal comradeship. If the models of what it means to be gay emanate from outside China, they nonetheless construct a transcultural space by opening up a process of working them out in China. What gay identity ends up looking like in any one place in the world today is not a foregone conclusion; certainly it is not a straightforward matter of joining the global gay human race. It involves unex￾pected outcomes as people who bring different imaginations to a place contend with the way in which they will connect to one another. By looking beyond discourses of identity, we can consider how these cate￾gories are necessarily incomplete, how they cannot mark their own limits and thus, paradoxically, create a measure of indeterminacy. Moving from the global to the transcultural means moving from identity to identification, which means mov￾ing toward a politics of contingent alliances rather than toward simple essences or self-identical recognition. There are more fruitful ways to understand gay identifi￾GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies Published by Duke University Press