Zhou Dan is a practicing lawyer based in Shanghai. As one of few people to have come out as gay to Chinese local, national, and international media, he is a pioneering advocate for full and equal recognition of rights related to sexual orientation and gender identity in China. Over the past decade, he has been working towards these goals through consulting services, public education, public policy, and legal advocacy, as well as training sessions and conferences.
In addition, in 2009 he published Pleasure and Discipline: Jurisprudential Imagination of Same-Sex Desire in Chinese Modernity, a ground-breaking monograph on the dynamics of same-sex desire, law, and modernity in China. He speaks on LGBT rights issues at workshops, seminars, and symposia in China, the United States, Germany, and other countries.