The increased focus on non-Western queer literature has highlighted a growing divergence in the portrayal of homosexuality between Western and Chinese narratives. Existing sociological and philosophical research has correlated the relative Chinese conservatism to Confucianism but failed to connect how Confucianism is internalised and articulated as homophobia directly. This comparative literary analysis investigates how homophobia is depicted in Chinese and Western literature, tracing its ideological origins. Initially, it establishes an analytical framework by examining academic literature on Confucianism and individualism, noting that their main difference lies in Confucian emphasis and Western dismissal of communal, familial, and national obligations. Then, it argues that prevailing homophobic narratives, portraying homosexuality as conflicting with certain duties, lead to a unique ‘queer guilt’ among Chinese gays due to the Confucian focus on these obligations. Subsequently, the essay examines the representation of these duties in Chinese and Western queer literature, discovering that Chinese texts portray an aversion to expressions of homosexuality before the community, a sense of culpability for familial suffering, and a feeling of responsibility for national strife, while queer works from the West are free of these anxieties. The research finds that while Confucianism is not inherently homophobic, it intensifies existing homophobic narratives, creating a unique form of pressure for gays in Chinese societies.