Not that there's anything wrong wth that

In what is likely a crushing blow to Sean, myself, and our large Chinese gay readership, we have some unfortunate news to report. The first annual Mr. Gay China pageant? The one we were all eagerly awaiting? It's shockingly been canceled. I know, I can't believe that a gay pageant wasn't allowed to be held in China either.

Now while the first impulse is to blame China's communist police state for it's bigotry and hostility towards anyone who is different or expresses a unique thought, that would be mistaken. It was just a wacky mix-up.

"They said the content, meaning homosexuality, there's nothing wrong with that, but you did not do things according to procedures," Zhang said.

He said police told him he needed official approval for events that included performances, in this case a stage show.

I didn't know they had translated the "Not that there's anything wrong with that" episode of Seinfeld into Mandarin. Good to know that it's not part of the Chinese government's long practice of shunning and intimidating gays, it's just a minor permit snafu. Like all the permit snafus that I bet public gay events run into. I'm sure they'll get this problem sorted out never and we'll be able to provide the sort of coverage of Mr. Gay China that we were going to provide as the world's #3 web destination for the Chinese gay community.

On the bright side, the irreverent comic stylings of classic American sitcoms are beginning to take hold across the Chinese mainland. They're up to Season 4 of Seinfeld now, soon we'll be able to crack Soup Nazi jokes together under total government surveillance. I can't wait until they start showing Curb Your Enthusiasm there.