upstanding pupil; also a reference to the usage of peaches as symbolism for homosexuality in Chinese culture), a name that he would be known as by others in their circles.

[4][8] Li ended up translating for Hirschfeld in a meeting with the Kuomintang Minister of Health about "prostitution, birth control, and homosexuality."

Soon after, Li quit medical school at the age of 24 in order to pursue a career with Hirschfeld, which he hoped would end with him being able to study at a European university.

The original plan was to return to Berlin so Li could finish medical school and work at the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, but this was derailed by the rising influence of the Nazi Party in Germany.

They spent some years apart when Li attended the University of Vienna to study medicine, while Hirschfeld lived in neutral Switzerland.

During this exile, Li submitted a paper with both his and Hirschfeld's name on it to the Congress of the World League for Sexual Reform in Brno, Czechoslovakia.

This paper was one of the first to cover intersex people extensively as well as the idea that homosexuality was not a disease, but rather a natural human variation influenced by disposition and environment.

According to Giese, "Tao is rather panicky... Apart from the personal loss, the responsibilities that Papa has sort of imposed [quasi auferlegt] on him are a bit oppressive in light of his youth ...

Li ended up accepting the task at 28 with no medical degree, no papers in his name alone, and no backing from the now destroyed Institute of Sexual Science.

[10] However, he was unable to fulfill the task, and he entered a "drifting" period after Hirschfeld's death, where he used family money to travel across Europe and North America and study at numerous universities, including Harvard, without actually completing a degree program or taking any examinations.

A neighbor recovered "an old German passport from the 1930s, black-and-white photographs, papers, a little journal filled with a scrawling hand, a few letters, many copies of a French magazine called Voilà [fr], and... Hirschfeld's death mask.