Li Yinhe was born in Beijing. Her name was changed from Li Sanfan to Li Yinhe at the age of seven. Her father, Chen Erdong was the director of the department of theories at People's Daily, and her mother was an editor. Li has two elder sisters and one elder brother. Li and her brother adopted matrilineal surname as a realization of her parents' gender equality idea. From 1974 to 1977, Li attended Shanxi University, where she studied history. From 1982 to 1998, she lived in the United States of America and obtained a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh.
Career
After graduating from Shanxi University, Li worked as an editor at Guangming Daily. One year later, in 1978, Li was assigned a research position at the State Council Research Office, where she gained national fame by publishing the article "To substantially promote democracy, to substantially promote the rule of law" with Lin Chunhe. In 1979, Li joined the newly-founded Institute of Marxism–Leninism at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, where she researched on marriage and the family. After obtaining the doctorate degree from the University of Pittsburgh and returning to China, Li worked as a post-doctoral fellow under the acclaimed sociologist Fei Xiaotong, then an instructor at Peking University. In 1992 she joined the Institute of Sociology at CASS as a researcher, and later the director of the Research Office of Family and Sexuality. She worked at CASS until retired in 2012. In the 1990s, as part of her research on homosexuality, began to translate many important texts focused on queer theory beginning in the year 2000. The included the works of Judith Butler, Steven Epstein, Gayle Rubin, Steven Seidman, and among many others.
Activism
Li has been active in calling for greater tolerance for nonconventional sexual activities in China. She thinks the country is undergoing a de factosexual revolution, and encourages people to re-examine traditional attitudes towards sexual promiscuity and homosexuality. She proposes decriminalization of orgies and prostitution. She also believes that monogamy is a personal decision made between a couple, and should not be enforced by law or social pressure. She was a keynote speaker at the 2006 International Conference on LGBT Human Rights in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Li also publicly speaks about other issues of social justice, such as the growing urban-rural divide in China.
Abolishing outdated criminal laws in China
In 2010 and 2011, Li pointed out on blog that three criminal laws are outdated - the laws have not adapted to the drastically change of public opinion. Li argued that the force of these laws is waning as there are fewer and fewer people being punished for these offenses and the punishments are becoming less severe. Li called on the legislators to legalize pornography, to abolish the group licentiousness law and to decriminalize prostitution.
Same-sex marriage legislation
In 2000, Li proposed adding gay marriage to the law when the National People's Congress prepared to revise the marriage law and sought suggestions from sociologists and legal experts. Li's argument was dismissed and a law expert said 'China doesn't need to take the lead in this matter.' In 2001, Li have asked a deputy to National People's Congress to submit her proposal. But in the end the deputy wasn't able to submit the proposal in that a proposal concerning amendment to laws needs signatures from 30 other deputies to be accepted and she couldn't find that many people who would put their names to the document. Starting from 2002, Li kept asking members of National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference to submit her proposal.
Personal life
Li was married to Wang Xiaobo, a well-known Chinese novelist, until his death in 1997. Li went to the US alone in 1982, but Wang join her in 1984 on a scholarship in East Asia Studies. Li announced in December 2014 that she had been in a long-term relationship with a transgender man, Zhang Hongxia, for 15 years.
Selected works and publications
《中国人的性爱与婚姻》, Henan People's Press, 1991.
《他们的世界——中国男同性恋群落透视》, co-authored, Cosmos Press, Hong Kong,1992; Shanxi People's Press, 1993.
