A Chinese medical expert, Dr Zhou Zhengyou has claimed to cure up to 70 per cent of his gay patients, although he says it is a long and difficult process.
But Gay rights activists in China are preparing for what they say could be a legal milestone in their fight to stop homosexuality being treated as an illness.
Later this month, a Chinese court will hear the first case of its kind brought against a clinic that offers so-called “gay conversion therapy.
A long campaign in Europe and America has been successful in shifting the medical consensus against such treatment, and now campaigners want Chinese doctors to follow suit.
“China declassified homosexuality as a mental illness well over a decade ago, but clinics like Zhengyou’s are still easy to find,” a protesting activist said.
He said “Dr Zhengyou shows me some of the books he’s written on the subject over the course of his career.
“One of them is a guide for parents who suspect their son or daughter might be gay.
“The overriding message appears to be that it is their own parenting methods that are somehow to blame.
“And, his critics point out, at $120 (£70) a session - a lot of money on an average Chinese wage - long and difficult can mean lucrative.
“Dr Zhou tells me that today he uses counselling alone and does not treat his patients with so-called aversion-therapy offered elsewhere in China. But he is happy to describe how it works.
“One common method is electric shock. When the patient has a gay thought, we electrocute them or inject them with drugs that make them sick.”
A supporter of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community takes part in the Hong Kong gay pride parade on November 12, 2011
Gay pride parades have taken place in Chinese cities, including neighbouring Hong Kong
In a picture taken on 8 March, 2011 gay couples kiss during their ceremonial ‘wedding’ as they try to raise awareness of the issue of homosexual marriage, in Wuhan, in central China’s Hubei province.
China’s gay community has begun to fight back. They’ve organised a number of protests - small in number but nonetheless brave in China.
Chinese gay activists have begun taking bolder actions to gain support and acceptance
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