The Interactions and Role-changings between the LGBTQIA+ Community and the Creative Industries in Guangzhou, China Focusing on Women’s Opinion in the LGBTQIA+ Community

Abstract: This thesis examines the interactions and role-changings between the LGBTQIA+ community and the creative industries in Guangzhou, China. Following Florida’s (2003) creative capital theory, and Badgett, Waaldijk, and Rodgers’s (2019) study on LGBT inclusion and economic development, involving semi-structured interviews with LGBTQIA+ individuals working or studying in the creative industries. This qualitative data reveals that Guangzhou as a creative city, facilitates the advancement of the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as the development of the creative industries. The main roles of the LGBTQIA+ community in creative industries can be concluded as producers, consumers, opinion leaders. And the roles the creative industries played for the advancement of the LGBTQIA+ community is that it can help de-stigmatizing the community, promote its culture, raise public awareness and acceptance, and provide a platform for differences.