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This paper examines the discursive production of “there are more 0s (bottoms) than 1s (tops)” in a mediated environment, and its implications on gay communities. It explores why many Chinese gay men perceive it as a “sexual truth.” Based on ethnographic research from 2017 to 2021, I argue that this popular discourse is produced by the higher threshold to qualify as a 1 than a 0. The unequal threshold prevents many men from self-identifying, and, more importantly, being recognized as a 1. In addition, the wide circulation of this discourse has intensified effeminophobia, and led to unequal sexual opportunities for gay men based on their embodied masculinities.

Through examining queer men’s labeling practices, this paper illuminates the competing system of constructing and communicating queer identities in China. My research demonstrates that, in addition to relying on the term tongzhi, Chinese queer men have deployed three labeling tactics to make sense of distinct male homosexualities, using a wide range of slang terms. I argue that these tactics reveal the internal division and hierarchization on the basis of generation, class, self‐acceptance, and affective presentation, among other distinctions. Queer men deploy certain labels to draw symbolic boundaries of separation from other queer men and to construct ideal or superior sexual selfhood. Examining the labeling practices of queer men helps us better understand how queer communities both resist external categorization and create internal marginalization.

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