Navigating Masculinity Fluidity: Heterosexual Men’s Experiences in Chinese Urban Gay Bars

We investigate how heterosexual men in urban China experience masculinity fluidity within gay bars—non-heteronormative leisure spaces traditionally associated with LGBTQ+ communities. Employing a constructivist grounded theory approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 heterosexual men across five major Chinese cities. The findings reveal a five-stage process through which gay bars, via their spatial designs and affective atmospheres, foster temporary emotional suspension, facilitate encounters with alternative masculinities, and enable participants to renegotiate traditional masculine performances. These spaces serve as affective infrastructures that enable emotional openness and reduce the social pressures associated with hegemonic masculinity. As a result, participants reevaluated their gender identities and, in some cases, carried more fluid expressions of masculinity into their everyday lives. Our study extends theories of gender performance, queer leisure studies, and processual identity transformation, offering new insights into how space and affect shape masculine subjectivities in non-Western contexts.