Safe on Blued? A Qualitative Exploration of Sex, Risk, and Stigma on a Gay Social Application in China

Abstract

Introduction

Mobile dating apps emerged with the development of technology, for example, Blued in China, becoming a new risk field for gay men in the AIDS era. Users use social apps to chat online and date offline to achieve the satisfaction of lust or sexual practice, but the risk of AID looms over the whole process of using apps.

Methods

Nineteen interviewees were invited to participate in this study, which included gay men who were using or had used Blued. The content of the semi-structured interviews focused on the relationship between gay social apps and HIV risk.

Results

The study finds Blued interweaved with sex, risk, and stigma. Blued is sexualized due to sexual intentions and practices. There is also a sexual stratification of risk with Blued and its users based on socioeconomic factors. Users experience a dilemma between pursuing sex while being concerned about latent risk within a context of stigmatization.

Conclusions

Blued is sexualized in terms of the process of stimulating sexual gratification and facilitating sexual practices. The experience of Blued is an example of sexual stratification, and a structure of desire based on app users and app uses. Furthermore, the social stigma against men who have sex with men is transferred to Blued, which bears the stigma of “AIDS-Blued” with a dual stigma—HIV-related and homosexual stigma. However, with the authorized approval of Blued in public health, Blued could play an essential role in HIV/AIDS prevention and control.

Introduction

The BlueCity, the world’s leading LGBTQ corporation, was officially listed on the US National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System (NASDAQ) on July 8, 2020, becoming the first stock in the global pink economy. As the world’s leading online LGBTQ platform, BlueCity is the parent company of queer social applications (apps) in the Chinese market, including Blued, Finka, and LESDO. In contrast to the booming pink economy, Blued has been condemned and stigmatized in China because of its close association with the rising rate of HIV infections among the gay community (Shang & Zhang, 2015). Remarkably, “Discoloured Blued” (变色的淡蓝) in Caixin Weekly pointed out on January 4, 2019^1,2 that Blued’s initiatives to protect sexual minors is null and void, and that it is closely related to the rise of unsafe sex and HIV infections among teenagers. Blued suspended registrations and continued content screening and remediation under the national regulatory policy as a result of the “AIDS-Blued” (艾滋蓝) stigma and Blued announced it would step up enforcement of measures to prevent minors from joining.

Historically, due to the strong connection with HIV/AIDS, the gay identity became a pathologized and stigmatized viral identity not long after it debuted in China’s public discourse in the 1980s and 1990s (Bao, 2018). Homosexuality was implicitly “decriminalized” in the process of the deletion of hooliganism from the law in 1997 and was removed from the list of mental illnesses in 2001, which “demedicalized” homosexuality (Kong, 2016). However, men who have sex with men (MSM), a behavioral categorization (Mustanski et al., 2011), have repeatedly been portrayed as a high-risk group (Wei, 2015) since the number of infections in gay men is increasing year by year in China, along with characteristics of multiple partners and anal barebacking. Men who have sex with men were also represented as promiscuous, and this promiscuity was perceived as, in effect, linking HIV/AIDS and homosexuality. As a result, HIV/AIDS was viewed as proof of the danger of homosexuality (Zheng, 2015). Thus, gay men in China suffer moral discrimination associated with HIV-related stigma in the healthcare system, employment market, and interpersonal relationship circle (Yang & Kleinman, 2008). In addition, based on Social Acceptance of LGBTI People in 175 Countries and Locations, 1981 to 2020², China appears to have had little change in acceptance up to the mid-2000s, after which there appears to be a marked decline in acceptance. In 2020, China remained less accepting than many other countries, such as Iceland and Canada. Understanding attitudes and attitude change may be the precursor to further inclusion of LGBTI people in many social, economic, and political areas.

Mobile dating apps emerged with the development of technology, becoming a new risk field for gay men in the AIDS era. Blued has become the most popular social app for gay men in China, and, with an estimated base of over 30 million users in China, it has become an integral part of gay men’s lives. Blued is also the world’s largest gay social app and switches in orientation from a hookup app to a social one (Miao & Chan, 2020), containing livestreaming and health consulting. The market for gay social apps in China is vast, coupled with the anonymity and convenience they make possible. Driven by the purpose of making friends and dating, users use social apps to chat online and date offline to achieve the satisfaction of lust or sexual practice, but the risk of AIDS, like a ghost, looms over the whole process of using apps. Moreover, burgeoning quantitative research focuses on online dating and the sexual risk of gay men, such as condomless sex and HIV testing (e.g., Holloway et al., 2014; Lehmiller & Ioerger, 2014). Built on the “AIDS-Blued” stigma in the gay community and existing scientific research, we need to reflect further on the following: How do gay men explore sexual desire and perceive latent HIV risk on Blued, and how is Blued shaped by the forces interweaved with sex, HIV risk, and stigma in the context of the digital era and the AIDS shadow?

This article examines Chinese gay men’s perception of using Blued and the related HIV risk and stigma. This article will add to the current literature on the lived experiences of gay social app users and their relevance to sexual health. Furthermore, based on in-depth interviews with 19 gay men in China, this article renegotiates sex, HIV risk, and stigma in the gay community, given that recent accounts by gay men of online hookups have primarily focused on measuring the safety of sexual interactions related to HIV and risky sexual practices (Albury & Byron, 2016; Hahn et al., 2018).

Gay Social Apps and HIV Risk

Through a review of quantitative research, we find that researchers use questionnaires to examine whether there is an association between the behavior of using gay men’s social apps and HIV infection risk. Gay social apps, Blued, Grindr, and so on, are considered highly sexualized (Jaspal, 2017); however, users do not only use them for sexual purposes, but also to meet friends, kill time, and connect with the gay community (Corriero & Tong, 2016; Gudelunas, 2012; Rice et al., 2012). Studies also find that gay men who use gay social apps have riskier behaviors, including drug use during sex and unprotected anal intercourse or condomless anal intercourse (Luo et al., 2019), and a corresponding increase in the incidence of sexually transmitted infections other than HIV (e.g., syphilis and condyloma lata) (Landovitz et al., 2013). The relatively young age of app users (Bien et al., 2015; Grosskopf et al., 2014; Phillips et al., 2014) and the presence of more sexual partners compared to non-users (Lehmiller & Ioerger, 2014) also influence their sexual practices. At the same time, app users were also found to be more likely to report multiple recent sex partners and HIV testing (Bien et al., 2015). Thus, the app may be an essential and promising platform for HIV prevention, and intervention efforts should consider online-based designs to promote safe sex (Sun et al., 2020).

There is also controversy about whether the use of gay social apps increases the risk of unsafe sex and HIV infections. On the one hand, it has been suggested that gay social media users are more likely to engage in unsafe sex, primarily condomless anal sex, which increases the likelihood of HIV infection (Holloway et al., 2014; Rendina et al., 2014; Winetrobe et al., 2014). On the other, it was found that there was no significant difference in unsafe sex between users and non-users (Bien et al., 2015; Grosskopf, 2014). For example, a cross-sectional online survey among 1,342 MSM in China examining associations between gay app use and sexual behaviors, including HIV and sexually transmitted disease testing, found no difference in condomless sex between the two groups. The context behind the data, along with differences between safe and unsafe sex, and how this possibility is defined (Ives, 2018), are contexts that deserve further reflection.

Social apps have also influenced the way gay men disclose their health conditions (Race, 2010, 2015). Gay men often join sexual negotiations (Byron et al., 2021; Carballo-Diéguez et al., 2006; Hammack et al., 2022; Kippax et al., 1993; Kippax & Race, 2003; Robinson, 2018) in online dating, discussing likes, dislikes, and other preferences in sexual interactions. This balances cultural norms regarding safer sex and sexual desires. It also offers a flexible heuristic that creates opportunities to engage in a greater number of sexual practices (e.g., negotiated safety), instead of engaging strictly with conventional prevention strategies (e.g., abstinence, being faithful, and consistent condom use) (Eisenberg et al., 2011). For example, Blued provides health-related notifications³ to raise users’ awareness when they engage in sensitive words and images, such as expressions of sexual organs. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) support for HIV prevention are available for gay men on Blued. In other words, by providing health services, Blued is trying to mitigate HIV-related negative impacts.

Methodology

There are many social apps for gay men at home and abroad, with gay men primarily using Grindr in the USA and France (Blackwell et al., 2015; Licoppe et al., 2016), Tinder, and other apps, whereas Blued and Finka are the leading apps used in China. The Chinese gay male social media empire Blued, launched in 2012, had 40 million registered users worldwide by February 2018, with overseas users accounting for about 30% of the total. According to various third-party data, Blued had a market share of over 90% of the target consumers. Blued also actively promotes mobile Internet and new social media to carry out AIDS prevention and initiative. Considering the local context and the convenience of the field, I chose Blued as a representative gay social app for the study.

This study was conducted under approval of the University Committee on Human Research Protection (UCHRP) of East China Normal University (Approval ID: HR 380-2020). This study has no commercial affiliation with the app that I focused on. The author signed up for a Blued account and stated the purpose of the interview in his user profile, hoping to invite other users to participate in the interview through their active chat. Nineteen interviewees in Beijing and Shanghai were invited to participate in this study, which included those who identified as gay men using or had used Blued. Table 1 reflects the interviewees’ characteristics, including their name⁴, age, city, app use experience, and HIV status. Any personal information unrelated to the study was kept strictly confidential, and pseudonyms are used throughout this article to protect the interviewees. The content of the semi-structured interviews focused on the relationship between gay social apps and HIV risk, such as the interviewees’ perceptions of HIV risk before and after “entering” gay apps and how they viewed the stigma of “AIDS-Blued”. Afterwards, I also communicated with the interviewees to understand their feelings after the interview to achieve a similar effect as a follow-up study.

Table 1.

List of interviewees.

Number	Name	Age	City	App use experience	HIV status
01	Zhou	23	Beijing	5 years	Negative
02	Wan	23	Shanghai	2 years	Negative
03	Xing	23	Shanghai	5 years	Negative
04	Liu	22	Shanghai	3 years	Negative
05	Jun	23	Shanghai	5 years	Negative
06	Cao	24	Beijing	4 years	Negative
07	Xiong	23	Beijing	4 years	Negative
08	Chen	28	Beijing	7 years	Positive
09	Lu	28	Beijing	10 years	Negative
10	Bai	23	Shanghai	4 years	Negative
11	Hao	19	Shanghai	3 years	Negative
12	Jie	24	Shanghai	4 years	Positive
13	Zhu	34	Shanghai	10 years	Negative
14	Fei	34	Shanghai	6 years	Positive
15	Anson	28	Shanghai	6 years	Negative
16	Felix	26	Shanghai	8 years	Positive
17	Nan	21	Shanghai	4 years	Negative
18	Leon	26	Shanghai	6 years	Negative
19	Xiao	25	Shanghai	4 years	Negative

In this study, I am a researcher committed to what happens in that context and to the population studied. As a researcher familiar with the gay community, I was able to recruit participants easily and build trust and understanding with them. It must be acknowledged that such a personal and professional experience influenced my critical view of the methods used to generate insights from data analysis.

AIDS and homosexuality have always suffered stigmatization in China, causing the public to avoid these topics. Therefore, in this study, I had to be cognizant of the consequences of discussing such a topic in public. It would alert other people and draw attention to the interviewees, affecting their confidence and willingness to express themselves. Thus, the interviews had to be conducted privately. At the same time, if the interviewees were afraid to bring up highly sensitive words, I decided to refer to formal terms by using everyday words, e.g., “little Blued” for “gay social apps” and “sickness” for “HIV infection”, to avoid creating embarrassment for the interviewees. During the interview process, the choice of interview location was respected, and the interviewees’ privacy was prioritized.

Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2021). I followed the guide of six phases of thematic analysis—familiarizing yourself with your data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and producing the report. First, I read all the transcripts and labeled similar content. For example, “Blued and Grindr are for sex, and then the ones that swipe (Finka, Tinder, and other apps) are for finding a date. So, I think it still has something to do with the nature of the application itself” was labeled as “distinction of app use”. Then I searched for themes and reviewed the themes once again. Finally, three dimensions of data analysis are presented: (a) sexualization of Blued; (b) risky users and apps; and (c) HIV-related stigma, which is most relevant to the topic—“AIDS-Blued” stigma. The first dimension is discussed below and is concerned with motives for using Blued, not limited to sexual gratification. The second section reveals users and apps in respect of sexual stratification on Blued and elaborates relevant HIV risk. The third section focuses on HIV-related stigma in the gay community.

Results

Sexual Intentions, Notifications of Safety, and Sexualization of Blued

The emergence of gay social apps changed the traditional way in which gay men dated (e.g., in parks and public bathrooms) and instant dating can now be realized based on the global positioning system (GPS). Since anonymized virtual apps can speed up sexual interaction, it is no surprise that the interviewees in this study noted that Blued is most frequently used for sex. For example, Zhu did not refute the idea of the use of Blued for sex: “Most of the physical relationships come from Blued, and it can be very clear, I would say 100%. Basically, just to put it mildly, if I am eager to gain sex gratification, I would definitely turn it on.” Although his physical relationships in recent years did not come from Blued and are infrequent, he admits that all his physical relationships that occurred between 2012 and 2016 did come from Blued, which he accepted as the purpose of the app and its use in this manner was part of his daily life. In his opinion, Blued is a sexual app. Regarding the app use, Jie, HIV-positive in 2014, admitted that he had not used Blued for more than a year. Blued can achieve immediate physiological pleasure, but for the deep-seated emotional needs, none of the interviewees acknowledged the realization of their emotional needs through the interviews. For people living with HIV, they choose to hide their HIV status to avoid possible discrimination on Blued.

Some gay men never look for sex on Blued due to the sexualization of the app. Liu shared this view: “I think my rationality is relatively stronger than my sexual needs. There would be periods that I am willing to hook up on Blued. But it is not what I want. Personally, I do not like that kind of short-term stimulation which brings that kind of long-term lonely feeling.” Liu rejects having sexual relations on Blued and values emotional satisfaction more. He emphasized that, for him, physical satisfaction is not as important as spiritual fulfillment, and it is more difficult to have sex with strangers. During the conversation, he clearly distinguished between physical and emotional needs in that he mentioned the risks of dating, one of which is the risk of HIV (physical) and the other is emotional investment.

Blued, as a service provider, is not, in the circumstances, able to control users’ behavior, so its responsibility is to alert the user to the existence of potential risks and hope that the user will pay attention. The latest notification of Blued is of “healthy dating, HIV prevention, keeping privacy, and avoiding property damage”, which are meant to remind users to “think twice before they act”. The interviewees did not, in general, change their selections, but all agreed that the notification would be helpful for novice users and teenagers who were new to using the app. Xing agreed: “I think it should be helpful to remind yourself not in high-risk sex.” Indeed, that Blued reminds users to enjoy a safe and healthy dating experience is an example of the sexualization of Blued.

The reason behind the “sexualization” of gay social apps is the invisibility of the gay community and the repression of same-sex desire, which leads to a potential demand for sex stimulated by the anonymity and instant nature of the app. When apps are “sexualized” (Rice et al., 2012; Stern & Handel, 2001) or “desire-oriented” (Wu & Ward, 2020) by an unrestricted expression of desire and the stimulation of pornographic words and images in other countries, those apps are called “hookup devices”; in China, we are used to calling them yuepao (约炮, which means hooking up) apps. Sexualization is also internalized in the process of gay men using the apps. They accept the setting of the dating apps and continue to accelerate the reproduction of sexual language and images, eventually forming the narrative as “Blued for sex”. Compared to traditional offline dating activities, the Internet provides a virtual “protected space” that allows gay men to be more sexually active and more likely to engage in riskier sexual activities (e.g., condomless sex) (Grosskopf et al., 2014).

Sexual Stratification of Risky Apps and Users

It is debatable whether there are real advantages and disadvantages when comparing the four main apps (i.e., Blued, Finka, Grindr, and Tinder). It is, however, undeniable that using Blued is evaluated as a poor experience among those four apps. The reason for this is Blued’s low threshold and the way you can use it simply by registering. As Xing commented: “Blued and Grindr are for sex, and then the ones that swipe (Finka, Tinder, and other apps) are for finding a date. So, I think it still has something to do with the nature of the application itself.” Xing started using gay social apps during his college years, including Blued, Grindr, Tinder, Tantan, and Finka. In his view, it is the consensus that gay men find sex on Blued. He clearly distinguished between the various apps. Blued and Grindr, for example, directly display the geographical distance between users, so that an appointment could be obtained instantly. Users of Finka, Tinder, and other apps need to swipe left (dislike) or swipe right (like) to enable them to indicate interest before they can start a conversation. Such time and energy costs are undoubtedly not conducive to sex, but more contributive to exchanging information and searching for a love partner. Anson even related apps with risks: “Blued does not need a matching mechanism. For those in a hurry to get a date, he has no way to get a quick date, but a quick date is a significant way to get HIV without protection, right? So, I think, logically, this should also make sense. That is, the nature of other apps decides that you cannot get a date quickly. Gay men who commonly use Blued can easily get HIV, so then people who have HIV will use Blued more.”

The users of these apps are themselves representative of risk, and their status reflects their risk factors. As previous research proved, the prevalence of HIV decreased with increasing years of education and increased with rising years of age (Dong et al., 2019). The word for “weird, middle-aged man” (大叔) was repeatedly mentioned in conversations. Zhou held that “I did not ask about the risk, but I judge whether he is safe or not from a crucial factor which is that I look at his occupation. If he is a student or works at a state enterprise and more trustworthy place, I will naturally feel that he is a little safer, even I now also think so. If he is a student, I would think he is safer and less likely to get infected. From a personal point of view, not from an academic one, if he is freelance, or does not have a job, or a job that’s not as reliable as I think it is, I would be at a higher risk of getting infected if I had sex with him.” As a postgraduate student, he believed that people with a decent status, such as corporate employees and students, and who had a legitimate career, were relatively less at risk of HIV infection. If the other person is a weird, middle-aged man, it can be challenging to communicate effectively because of the cultural gap. Moreover, it is difficult to identify people’s identity and health status and the risk factor is relatively high, which results in rejecting talking and having sex with these men.

Quality (素质) (Kong, 2011; Wu & Trottier, 2021) is underlined in the interactions of gay men, and profiles (Chan, 2018) are dominant on dating apps. In the context of “face value” dating (Wang, 2020a), users and technology have both shaped the sexual stratification, and appearance, age, and occupation have become the criteria for judging that stratification. In the sexual hierarchy referred to by Robin (2007), sex that is socially unacceptable, negative, and stigmatized is at the bottom and rejected by individuals. The interaction between sex, risk, and class on apps eventually forms a new risk stratification in a risk field. In the sexual stratification of app users, in respect of the pursuit of sex (dating), middle-aged and elderly users are at the low end, whereas youths with an outstanding appearance and good social status are at the top of the stratification. Corresponding to the rank of users, gay social apps also have a class division. In the pursuit of sex, an app’s lower-class users are gathered at the low end, whereas those with a high face value and a good body are accumulated at the high end. From the interviewees’ answers, it can be summarized that students and those with legitimate jobs are naturally viewed as low-risk gay men who have a sense of responsibility and will be responsible for themselves. In contrast, those without legitimate jobs or higher education and older gay men are naturally considered higher-risk groups.

Hence, Blued has suffered a certain degree of “discrimination” because users’ face attractiveness and sexual identity are not as good as on other apps. Thus, app users are divided into different groups based on the interviewees’ risk perceptions. Zhou stated, “Personally, Blued is for online dating, with some gay users not high-quality, such as Dashu or lower-class users. There are many students, and numerous highly educated office workers, on Finka, while plentiful foreign users and local graduates from top schools or with overseas experience on Tinder.” Compared to Finka’s face value and the Western image of Grindr and Tinder (including appearance, foreign language, and economic status), middle-aged men and low-class Blued users are even forced to represent the app’s image, resulting in the discourse of Blued as “low-end” (Wu & Trottier, 2021). However, compared to Finka and other apps that rely on face value, body shape, educational experience, and economic level, as a consequence of the low threshold of Blued, middle-aged and older gay men are actively or forcibly looking for erotic venting in cyberspace in an era in which parks and public bathrooms are gradually disappearing. It is undeniable that registration with no conditions and the ability to chat at any time and anywhere on Blued have reduced the cost of socializing for gay men, providing a closeted online space with sex (dating), especially for those gay men with a relatively low educational and economic level who are afraid to come out.

The resulting label of a “sunny, middle-class, and good gay” is an imagining and domestication of gay men (Miao & Chan, 2021), which also caters to heterosexual lifestyles and the esthetics of heteronormativity. In the imagination of the Western “other”, neoliberalism portrays gay men as young, middle-class, and masculine. The comparison and integration of the West and China form the self-imagining of Eastern gay men as well-educated, strong, and successful in their careers. Blued also accelerates the reproduction of this standard as an alternative gay space (Wang, 2020b, 2020c). To some extent, the popular “cultural hegemony” excludes other users by age, figure, economic status, and gender, shaping a tendency to be a “young, middle-class, masculine, and good-looking” gay. The “sunny, middle-class, and good gay” is also a reflection of risk in which they exclude the inferior in appearance, age, and income in the choice of chatting and dating, deepening the self-regulation of “cleanliness”. It is not only the ecological influence of the gay community, but also their own choice of risk, which occurs in the consciousness or unconsciousness of the users.

Ambivalence with the “AIDS-Blued” Stigma

As a platform for the coexistence of desire and risk, apps provide a convenient way to make friends and a channel for hooking up, but with potential risk. As Beichuan Zhang stated, Blued built a fast channel for dating among gay men, as well as a “hidden role” that dating apps cannot ignore⁵. The reality is that a lack of a regular release of repressed desires, sex education, and risk perceptions led to an increase in the number of HIV-infected men using gay social apps. At the same time, the stigma of AIDS and the sensitivity of sexual minorities intersect in gay social apps such as Blued, which suffered from the “AIDS-Blued” stigma.

As Anson put it, “It is very true, taking me for example, it, AIDS-Blued, has just done the job, no problem, 100%.” Then he added: “I really think the percentage of the population that uses Blued for AIDS is going to be a whole lot higher than other apps, and I am serious about that.” We met in circumstances in which Anson, who had been physically and psychologically stressed by his dating experience with an HIV-positive man, turned to the HIV prevention organization where I worked for counseling advice. The other person described in the conversation was the first gay whom Anson had used Blued to date, and they only had oral sex. However, Anson wanted to continue a sexual relationship with him as a basis for mutual trust, so they met to get tested together and the other person tested positive for HIV. Although Anson promptly used post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), the experience formed a certain stereotype that made him believe firmly in “AIDS-Blued”. In his daily communication and interviews, Anson kept mentioning “HIV-Blued”, so he must have fully assumed that the role of Blued is to act as an intermediary for HIV risk transmission.

Liu, however, classified the association between Blued and HIV risk as that between gay men and HIV risk, which, to some extent, is the direct perception of some heterosexuals and even “outsiders.” As the most widely used channel, the app has changed the traditional way of dating and provided a “Pandora’s Box” for quick access to sex. At the same time, gay men lack regular sexual partners due to social or personal factors, and the risk of HIV is naturally highlighted in the process of rapid dating and sexual intercourse. I tried to understand Liu’s logic; that is, the objective existence of gay men’s sexual needs means that the app gathers a large number of gay men, coupled with the lack of fixed sexual partners. In the light of all these factors, the risk of HIV infection from gay men using social apps as an intermediary to stimulate “sexual outbreak” for dating is natural.

In reality, most new infections still occur among heterosexual men. The same sexual needs are divided into superior and inferior groups because of the differences in the population, and gay men’s sexuality is blamed and denigrated since gay men’s sexuality is more evident and severely risky than that of heterosexual men. “AIDS-Blued” is interweaved with the stigma of homosexuality and HIV/AIDS on Blued, a sexual risk field in the shadow of a preexisting stigma.

Among the four people living with HIV interviewed, except for Felix, who was diagnosed for a short time, the other three did not worry about HIV transmission during sex, and they all believed that the probability of transmitting the virus was extremely low if they had undetectable viral load and took suitable safety measures during sex. Generally, after six months on the drug, the virus is undetectable (Undetectable = Untransmittable). There is a very low probability of transmitting the virus to each other even if they have sex with safer protection. Because of the ambivalence of app use, Chen uninstalled Blued in 2019 as losing interest in online hooking up not long after his HIV infection. Jie still sought sex online one year after HIV infection but gave up using in 2018.

When it comes to the responsibility of Blued, Jun proposed that when new users apply for accounts of Blued, everyone is required to pass an examination including basic health information. Similarly, Chen also suggested that reducing advertising promotion and adding scientific knowledge propagation may be conducive to users, which is a key population cautious of risk on Blued. As a vital platform for national HIV prevention, setting up corresponding measures at each step of gay men’s use of Blued to fulfill Blued’s regulatory responsibilities, such as real names or tests when applying for an account, a large number of health services that Blued needs to promote (including HIV testing, anti-discrimination, and anti-stigma, etc.) matters.

Discussion

Importantly, the structure of sex, risk, and stigma is embedded in the Chinese exclusive story and context. This study will contribute to gay dating app studies from a non-Western perspective and provide valuable insights into the issues of gay sexual health in a digital age. Although anti-discrimination and anti-stigma slogans have been preached for years, AIDS remains as a specific disease in China and is full of metaphors that infected people need to hide their infection status to avoid public discrimination and rejection, and non-infected people avoid discussions of AIDS (Shi & Chen, 2014; Yang & Kleinman, 2008; Zhou, 2007). Gay men are not visible as a sexual minority because of homophobia. Based on disease and morality, social stereotypes of gay men and the rising number of HIV infections have, in reality, created a dual “stigma”—both a HIV-related stigma and a homosexuality stigma—in the Chinese gay community. Moreover, the digital sexual culture of Chinese gay men varies from that of Western sexual culture when considering characteristic gay sociality and community. The government officially objects to pornography and obscenity on websites and apps (Song, 2021; Wang, 2020b). By unpacking Chinese gay men’s complex experiences of online dating, it is argued that Blued, a tool for yuepao, living within a system of censorship, is always in the shadow of sensitization and problematization in referring to homosexuality.

In reality, “AIDS Blued” suggests that users still regard it as a hookup platform for unsafe sex encounters. The “AIDS-Blued” label is not only the result of “sex” on dating apps (including Momo and Tantan), but also that of sex, risk, and stigma interweaved in the gay community. It is undeniable that Blued offers an easy way to obtain sex, but stigma and stereotyping of the unique gay male community is the result of long-standing sexual prejudice. Material technologies, objects, and the environment facilitate erotic encounters shaped by sexual relations and practices (Race, 2015). Likewise, the erotic and risky forms of (dis)entanglement afforded by devices and the practices of gay online dating shed further light on the stigma of hookup apps constructed by knowledge, power, and technology. Gay apps in China undergo a hybridization of intimacy whereby the sexual minority is so invisible and little tolerated that homosexual desire and risks suffer from moral condemnation and punishment. As for Blued, from online dating to sexual interactions, the gay app serves as a “black box”, intertwined with affordance, perception, and initiative in how gay men perform. For users, to be contemporary gay men means to be disease-free, self-respected, and in line with core socialist values in China, which is a way of being a sexually responsible gay subject (Numer et al., 2019).

Chinese cultural environment remains relatively conservative about disclosing one’s serostatus. Self-stigma is encouraged by societal stigma and prevents people from testing for HIV, talking about risky behaviors, disclosing their HIV status, and responding appropriately when they have HIV/STI symptoms (Cao & Smith, 2023; Yeo & Chu, 2017). Anonymity matters during gay app use due to the twofold stigma contrary to the Western context. The findings demonstrated that due to the greater shame associated with homosexuality in China, Chinese MSM was less likely to display their faces on Jack’d than American MSM (Chan, 2016). Participants reported low trust in Blued users, as they were likelier to use fake profile pictures (Chen & Ding, 2020), which may influence HIV-risk-taking behavior among gay (Sietins et al., 2020). In this context, dating apps serve as convenient platforms with lower chances of public exposure or embarrassment (Miller, 2015). Compared with Grindr and Scruff, Blued’s lack of a safer-sex platform design reveals scarce disclosure about HIV-related identities and medical preferences (Huang, 2022). It offers a setting that might encourage sexual risk-taking behavior. In other words, it is possible that the cultural environment of dating has transformed from a primarily in-person, traditional engagement to an online platform as a result of the enormous number of gay app users.

Gay men now have access to Blued’s free HIV testing program, predominantly offered in Beijing and possibly other top-tier cities. Given that Blued has already won the approval of government authorities for its work in this area, we continue to expect that it could play a significant role in HIV/AIDS prevention and control, indicating channels where general health communication campaigns to reach subpopulations of MSM (Badal et al., 2018; Choi et al., 2021; Hong et al., 2018). In addition, biomedical HIV prevention methods, such as PrEP and PEP, are effective strategies for reducing HIV transmission in developed countries. However, in China, PrEP and PEP are not covered by medical insurance and are expensive for my informants. Most of my informants had heard of PrEP and PEP but had rarely used them due to their high prices in China: approximately CNY 3,000 (USD 470), almost 30% of the average total monthly income. Considering the living cost in a metropolis, my informants cannot cover the cost of PrEP and PEP, which means underutilized biomedical HIV prevention intervention among MSM in China (Han et al., 2019; Hou et al., 2020). In a word, gay men rely on traditional safer sex prevention rather than new biomedical methods.

Limitations

There are several limitations to this study. First, due to my personal experience and living environment, the sources of interviewees were mainly recommendations from friends and personal searches. The snowball-like sources made them homogeneous: living in urban Beijing and Shanghai, young, well-educated, and with good self-identity. These potential factors made them highly aware of HIV risk and less representative than interviewees gathered from public recruitment. Second, the research in this article is limited to a statement of the connection between sex, risk, and stigma, which is relatively negative. Some topics consulted that were not addressed in the problematization, such as those related to psychological motivation and social influences upon using gay apps, will explore in future studies. Third, the availability of PrEP and PEP use is highly effective at preventing HIV transmission. Most of my informants had heard of PrEP and PEP in my fieldwork but had rarely used them due to their high prices in China. These limitations mean that the article has a narrow scope and fails to analyze the connection from a more macro-perspective and a broader picture (e.g., knowledge, power, and system). At the same time, due to the limitation on the length of the article and the small number of interviewees, class distinctions, such as age and economic status, were not highlighted, and the imagining of sex/love and the diversity of sex are not presented.

Conclusion

In summary, Blued is sexualized in terms of the process of stimulating sexual gratification and facilitating sexual practices. The experience of Blued is an example of sexual stratification, and a structure of desire based on app users and app uses. The sexualization of Blued is also primarily mediated through inadvertent acceptance and endorsement of instant sexual interaction. Users of Blued lived under the shadow of latent HIV risk when hooking up. Furthermore, the social stigma against men who have sex with men is transferred to Blued, which bears the stigma of “AIDS-Blued” with a dual stigma—HIV-related and homosexual stigma. However, with the authorized approval of Blued in public health, Blued could play an essential role in HIV/AIDS prevention and control.

Funding Statement

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.