Portrait of Tzu Hou Hai

May’s Photo Studio, Portrait of Tzu Hou Hai, c. 1920s. Wylie Wong Collection of May’s Studio at Stanford Libraries.

Cantonese Opera actor Tzu Hou Hai was notorious in San Francisco's Chinatown as the first publicly-identified Chinese homosexual male, and caused several controversies in 1909 and 1910. The situation became so extreme, the Chinese Six Companies had to intercede to bring about peace and the actor returned to China. However, he later returned to San Francisco to perform in the early 1920s at the Great China Theater as well as visiting several other cities in the United States.

Text drawn from the catalog for "Painted Men: Chinese Opera Backstage" by Dr. William Hu and Sally Leung,
(2005: Performing Arts Library and Museum).