Gay social groups attend gatherings in Shanghai, which has witnessed an increasingly open gay subculture.Photo provided to China Daily

The irony is that it has become trendy for Shanghainese women to parade gay friends around as a trophy akin to their Galaxy Note 3 or Gucci wristwatch, while unique cultural algorithms keep them clueless of their own relatives' homosexual leanings.

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"I finally told my sister that I was gay last year. She was surprised at first but now she's OK. She said I shouldn't tell our parents because it would really hurt them," says Wang.

In a culture where counterfeits are part of the fabric of everyday life, pretend girlfriends ("shields") and "fake" marriages now coexist with imitation iPhone ear-buds and hoodies bearing the Abercrombie & Fitch label but not trademark.

Such unions mostly involve a gay man and straight woman, with the woman ignorant of her spouse's conflicted feelings. Other relationships are more like a gentleman's agreement between a gay man and a lesbian partner.

"There are at least four or five bath houses in this city crawling with married men at night looking for casual encounters," says 71-year-old Jamie Shale from Sydney. "The younger ones there tend to be 'money boys'".

He says he is involved in a "platonic, cerebral" relationship with Wang.

In local vernacular, Shale would be a "rice queen" (a Caucasian man who likes Asian men) and Wang, in reverse, a "potato queen". Other terms peculiar to the culture include "sticky rice" (an Asian man who likes other Asians), "otters" (skinny, hairless men) and "panda bears" (older, hairier men).

Some gay couples are even holding mock weddings as a serious proclamation of love, even though same-sex marriages are outlawed. China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997 but certain fears and phobias remain entrenched.

Due to its international mindset, massive wealth, decadent nightlife and annual Pride festival, Shanghai has become synonymous with China's LGBT movement. But Liu claims Sichuan's Chengdu is the country's gay capital. Sin City would be Dongguan in Guangdong province, an industrial swamp riddled with KTV bars that is almost as seedy as Thailand's Pattaya. It was recently the subject of a sweeping crackdown.