So, is Le gay, bi or straight? Le prefers not to commit himself to one place on the spectrum. But I want to be good to my fans and leave them with a good impression.” Maybe they don’t see me as a real person, because I’m on the internet.
The support and love shown by Le’s Chinese fans has convinced him he needs to learn Putonghua too. I get a lot of positive feedback from my fans there.” On his first visit to China, he says he was overwhelmed by the response he received: “I felt really welcome,” he says, “like I was a part of something bigger. “It’s my second largest following,” says Le. Confounding aggressive government restrictions on both making and viewing porn in China, the vast majority of Le’s fanbase is in China – especially in Hong Kong. While he would like to source models from China, multiple barriers – including language and social attitudes – make this a challenge, though he constantly receives applications from Chinese men, many of whom are fans.Īctually going to China allowed Le to discover a completely new gay culture in which his race is as much an asset as his looks. Despite his success and a string of adult industry awards, Le still struggles to find Asian models willing to be on camera.
There’s a plot, characters and cliffhanger set pieces. Le’s wish to change the image of Asian male sexuality led to his gay porn miniseries – The Asiancy – which follows a multi-ethnic group of implausibly attractive and relentlessly promiscuous entrepreneurs. Asian men are sexy – and I want us in the spotlight.” We’re showing that this happens and that there are options out there. “Talk about degrading! But PeterFever features five-foot-four Asian guys topping muscular, six-foot-one Caucasians. “Back in the 70s, when white gay men saw two Asian men having sex, they called it ‘lesbian sex’,” he says. It was only by carving out a niche, first as a solo adult performer and then as the owner of America’s leading Asian gay porn website, that he finally created his own battleground upon which to challenge these prejudices.
These stereotypes – that Asian men are feminised, passive and non-sexual – followed him wherever he went. So I wanted to break the Asian stereotypes – and there are a lot out there.” “I was told that I wouldn’t go far because I was Asian. “I always felt that Asian models had to push themselves harder,” says Le. Despite the shoot boosting his confidence, he didn’t feel embraced by the modelling industry. He speaks of a fairly typical home environment, where love and affection were communicated with restraint and modesty – possibly the reason why, in person, he is disarmingly genuine and low-key.Īfter abandoning a psychology degree to focus on his passion – personal training, a subject on which he has written several bestselling books – Le had his first brush with adult entertainment with an October 2001 spread in Playgirl, becoming one of the first Asian models to appear in its pages. His stated mission is much grander: to redefine the Asian male as a dominant sexual force and unleash him on the world.īorn in San Jose, California, to Vietnamese parents, Le admits that, growing up, he had never even considered modelling as a career. Despite having to push back against prejudice (his chosen career led to him being abruptly dropped from the cast of Asian-American Jersey Shore rip-off, K-Town), Le has gone on to become the biggest Asian gay porn star in history – and a cultural icon in China. Jack Smith grabs hold of Asian-American gay porn entrepreneur, fitness model and sex icon Peter Le – and has to be pried off him…Īfter exploding on to the scene in 2001, Peter Le has accumulated a display cabinet groaning with awards for bodybuilding, modelling, gay porn production and e-commerce.