Gay relations between boys and between men and boys seem to be a recurring theme (although almost always in a negative light). There's also lots of talk about the feminity of the main character, Pao Yu. I've always thought of imperial China as intensely conservative on LGBT issues. Is this an unusual feature of the work, or was it fairly common to discuss gay relationships, or queerness more broadly, amoung Qing aristocrats?
Some quotes (an old translation by Florence and Isabel McHugh, from the German by Dr. Franz Kuhn)
"The twenty year old was by nature averse to women, and preffered the companionship of men." (Ch. 5)
"When he heard for the first time of the existence of this school, in which there was such a choice selection of young boys, this news at once awakened base desires in him." (Ch. 7)
"His extraordinary close relationship with Chia Yung, the prince's son, had caused suspicious whispering and comments amoung the servants...in order to save the house from disrepute, the prince had recently decided to have his foster son live outside the Ningkuo house." (Ch. 7)
Sorry for the Wade-Giles transliterations and for any typos- I'm on mobile. Thank you!!
Why would you say "although almost always in a negative light"? That is not the case at all, particularly if you read the comments by "Red Inkstone" (a close relative of the author who annotated the novel multiple times, which was a common feature of Chinese fiction in that era). The view of 'homoerotic' or 'homophilic' activities (the concept of "homosexuality" did not exist in that socio-historical context) was generally somewhere between very positive and somewhat ambivalent. All of Bao-yu's homoerotic/homophilic "relationships" involved "love", although they may not all have been physical. Only the incident in Chapter 15 between Bao-yu and Qin Zhong, his best friend, was very obviously a physical sexual encounter. The others in relation to Bao-yu (besides the aforementioned Qin Zhong) would be Jiang Yu-han (also called "Bijou" in the English translation), Liu Xiang-lian, the Prince of Bei-jing, and a guy that is mentioned only once (during the funeral for Qin Ke-qing), Wei Ruo-lan, but the "Red Inkstone" commentary indicates that he would have a special "sentimental" relationship with Bao-yu in the original ending of the book (which is no longer extant). Lastly, it's also very, very likely that Bao-yu probably "fooled around" a bit with his page, Tealeaf.
The "conservative" anti-homosexual movement didn't arrive in China until the Christian missionaries began arriving in mass, mostly towards the very end of the last dynasty (Qing Dynasty) and the Republican period (1911-1949). It can certainly be said, though, that prior to that time, homoeroticism was very popular, particularly among the elites, and it was written about frequently, in all types of literature. It really reached its peak during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, particularly in the theatre world, where many of the boy actors (who played the part of girl characters) were also prostitutes.
There has been a lot of research on this topic over the past 20 years or so and the topic of homoeroticism in 'Dream' has been discussed among academics/scholars of the novel, and there are many relevant academic articles and books if you want to track them down (academic works tend to be very expensive, though).
Anyway, this is kind of my specialty when it comes to the history of Chinese literature so I could go on all day about it (as well as 'Dream of the Red Chamber' itself), but I shan't bore anyone anymore!