A pinker shade of Chinese red: on the eve of the Beijing Olympics, China is experiencing a full lavender revolution.

Right in the heart of Beijing, a stone's throw from the seat of government, is Manifesto, a gay underwear store aimed at "men with spunk." Yes, the times, they are a-changin' in the Middle Kingdom.

The People's Republic of blue Mao suits and bicycles is long gone, and in its place are modern metropolises with sky-toppling towers, highways teeming with private cars, and dining and clubbing scenes en route to rival any of the first world's capitals. And as Beijing attempts to portray a modern image to the world in time for the Olympics, the fact that gay men can now buy specialty kinky knickers in a store just five minutes from the Great Hall of the People shows that China is becoming much more 21st-century in its attitude toward homosexuals.

Beijing, Shanghai, and provincial capitals nationwide have growing queer scenes where you'll find gay clubs, gay saunas, and even gay yoga classes. Shanghai even has its own bear bar (Chinese bears are affectionately known as "pandas"). Singaporean Kenneth Tan, the out founder of Manifesto, is encouraged by how fast China is changing. "In the last five years ... I have seen a metamorphosis not just in Shanghai and Beijing but elsewhere as well," he says. "I definitely think that everything's moving in the right direction."

Sodomy was decriminalized in China in 1997, after many years of persecution, imprisonment, and occasional execution of gays, especially during the Cultural Revolutions of the 1960s. Even so, China is still not yet a haven for gay rights. Until 2001, China's psychiatric association still classified homosexuality as a mental illness. Confucian values, an integral part of life on the Chinese mainland, place great importance on marriage and having children to carry on the family name. There are no national gay organizations, and you will never see gay and lesbian characters on TV shows or in popular novels or movies. Many gays get married because of parental pressure and remain afraid to come out of the closet for fear of family rejection and workplace discrimination.

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But as a new generation comes of age, that is slowly changing. "After 2000 there was a clear sign that people were becoming more receptive to homosexuality, mainly because those born in the 1980s--here we call them 'baling hou' [meaning "post '80s"]--are now adults and they are more open-minded," says AJ Wang, co-owner of Go Pink China, a locally run tour agency aimed at a gay clientele.

It's now common for the state media to run stories sympathetic to the plight of gays. A January issue of the Chinese-language Southern People Weekly magazine interviewed the mother of a gay son in the southern city of Guangzhou who started a blog offering advice on the best way to come out to parents. Also in January, the English-language state-run China Daily published a close-up of two men kissing.

The debate has also entered politics and academia. Renowned sexologist Li Yinhe has tried several times, albeit unsuccessfully, to get parliament talking about legalizing same-sex marriage, while Shanghai's prestigious Fudan University runs courses on homosexuality. There has been a pink revolution on the Internet, with thousands of Chinese gay websites offering news, personals, and chat-show podcasts. There's a sprinkling of out celebrities, including independent filmmaker Cui Zi'en, lesbian pop singer Qiao Qiao, and novelist Tong Ge. Support groups have sprung up nationwide, and provided they keep out of politics, they are left alone.

It's a delicate balance, though. China's first gay student union, founded in 2006 at Sun Yat-Sen University in southern Guangdong province, lost the university's official approval the following year. Police have shut down queer film festivals and gay websites, and they sometimes break up big private gay parties and clubs on the grounds of checking for drug use; they have also been known to extract protection money (although this happens to straight clubs as well). While the government is markedly touchy in advance of the Olympics this August, that should not affect Beijing's gay subculture, providing it stays apolitical, says Wang. "I don't think anything will change for gay people around the Olympics."

What helps China's gays and lesbians--known as tongzhi, or comrades--is that there is little antigay religious sentiment; gay bashing is almost unheard of. Even China's home-fostered religions of Taoism and Buddhism are tolerant of same-sex love. "In Buddhism everything has two sides," says Zhi Yong, a monk at Beijing's Source of Law Temple. "How can one say [homosexuality] is right or wrong? There is no right or wrong in this world." Indeed, China has a long history of queer erotic art, poetry, literature, and historical records.

All this helps make China a gay-friendly destination. "You will not find anything like Bangkok, Palm Springs, Key West, or Mykonos in China," comments Douglas Thompson, managing director of Purple Dragon, a Thailand-based gay travel agency for Asia. "However, China is an easy place to visit for gay and lesbian tourists who want to do something really different and not spend their holiday in a closet."