Spring Festival remains the most widely celebrated holiday in China and, statistically speaking, the world. Marking the Lunar New Year, an estimated 2.3 billion trips will transpire over a 40-day period ending on March 2. Easily the largest human migration in the history of the world, people return home en masse to see family and friends. The monumental number of travelers also reflects one the most glaring socioeconomic disparities in China: the floating population.

China’s fiscal boom, often dubiously labeled a “miracle,” remains concentrated in special economic zones along the coast that draws hundreds of millions of people from the impecunious interior of the country. With no job prospects at home, menial workers float into cities and manufacturing sectors looking to support themselves and their extended families. For most, the only time to return home occurs during the Spring Festival – a small respite from an arduous existence.

The sudden abandonment of work sites by migrant workers across the country thus stages the insanity of the Spring Festival transportation rush. On January 20 alone, 52.48 million Chinese took bus trips throughout the country. To make matters worse, southern and central China is currently experiencing the worst snowstorms in over fifty years. In Guangzhou alone, over 200,000 travelers, mostly factory workers, are stranded in a train station waiting to return to their homes.

Despite the stress of holiday travel, passengers at the Beijing West Railway Station appeared more cheerful than anxious. Unaffected by the crippling weather systems to the south, people are scrambling onto trains and making their way home at a steady pace. Even though many of the migrant workers have much to complain about concerning low wages and rising living costs, the prospect of being reunited with their families takes the edge of their struggle.

Homosexuality in China doesn’t elicit the same cross-burning fanaticism that it does in the United States. In all my time spent here I never heard of a hate crime aimed at a homosexual. Chances are that such occurrences might not get reported or covered in the media, and discrimination certainly exists in various guises, but I have yet to encounter people who label homosexuality as “evil” and support its whole scale eradication. Instead, sexual deviance tends to inspire curiosity and awkwardness amongst typical Chinese urban dwellers. It remains a latent oddity within the social milieu.

It still came as a bit of a surprise when Dinah Gardner, the longtime Gay & Lesbian columnist for TimeOut Beijing, told me we were going to the White Cloud Temple and the Source of Law Temple to ask monks about their respective views on homosexuality. Even though I consider myself well versed within the Daoist and Buddhist canon, it never really crossed my mind to ask such a question before and I was interested in how the monks would frame their responses. As the photographer, I could also sit back and watch the fireworks fly.

Lou Jiayong, a Daoist monk at the White Cloud Temple, was the first to get entrapped by Dinah. She started the interview with some elementary questions concerning Daoism and then popped him the big one: “In the West, Islam and Christianity often persecute homosexuals. How does Daoism feel about homosexuality amongst practitioners?” Lou handled the question surprisingly well. According to Daoist principle, homosexuality represents a metaphysical problem. The union of two Yang forces (male on male) creates disharmony within the Dao and must eventually be resolved. “If there is only Yin or Yang it is imbalance or disharmony,” stressed Lou. Homosexual relationships do not perpetuate natural life. At some point, Yin must mix with Yang to produce more babies. Lou did emphasize that Daoism would never discriminate against homosexuals but remained adamant that Daoist ideology could never condone what he considered lewd sexual acts and anomalies in the natural course of existence.

Zhi Yong, a Buddhist monk at the Source of Law Temple, remained unperturbed throughout his interview. Buddhist practitioners of any orientation are encouraged to stem their sexual desires in order to achieve inner peace. At the heart, there is no absolute right or wrong with regards to homosexuality. Zhi continued, “[Homosexuality] is abnormal to me, but of course from the point of view of a gay person, it is quite normal… In Buddhism everything has two sides. How can you say, ‘this is right,’ or, ‘this is wrong?’ There is no right or wrong in this world. For some people they are right, for others they are wrong.” While I might not support such moral ambiguity in other situations, being gay and Buddhist doesn’t represent a problem for lay people. Still, if you want to join a monastery you must leave any prurient thoughts at the door.