Forschung

@article{Chao2024,

title = {\textit{Wer} Viewership and Queer Imag(in)ing: Thai Soap Opera \textit{Shadow of Love} and Boys Love Media},

author = {Shi-Yan Chao and Palita Chunsaengchan and Thosaeng Chaochuti},

doi = {10.1017/trn.2024.7},

issn = {2051-3658},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-11-11},

journal = {TRaNS},

pages = {1--15},

publisher = {Cambridge University Press (CUP)},

abstract = {Abstract

	  This article brings film/media theory into Southeast Asian research through a revisionist queer approach. It contains two goals: addressing some recent developments about queer imag(in)ing in Thai media whilst reappraising the fundamental question of spectatorship via screen theory. Taking into account the more general issue of media specificity and the particular textual device of identity/gender-switch in several recent Thai television serials, we propose the notion of wer viewership: a mode of viewing practice that features viewer-text interaction through the perceptual-cognitive processes, and is characterised by wer/excessive aesthetics, multiple meanings, and diverse pleasures. Resonant with camp reading, wer viewership underlines how the viewer actively makes sense of the ambiguities about gender, particularly those along the extra-/diegetic interface. We use Thai soap opera Shadow of Love to illuminate the wer/excessive aesthetics rendered through its identity/gender play bordering on the extra-/diegetic divide, and the enhanced pleasures and meanings thus available to its extradiegetic active viewers. We stress, though, the expanded queer imag(in)ing in Shadow is not of total free interpretation, but is animated in relation to both the evolving discourses about gender/sexuality in Thailand, and the popularising homoerotic Boys Love (BL) media across Asia in recent years.},

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@article{Prasannam2024,

title = {Sissyphilia and Tropicopolitan Sensibilities: Queering the Star in Thai Boys Love Media},

author = {Natthanai Prasannam},

doi = {10.25120/etropic.23.2.2024.4041},

issn = {1448-2940},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-10-15},

journal = {eTropic},

volume = {23},

number = {2},

pages = {58--80},

publisher = {James Cook University},

abstract = {This article investigates the queered star image in Thai Boys Love/yaoi (BL)/Y media released after 2020 through the lens of sissyphilia, queer scholarship, and a newly proposed idea—tropicopolitan sensibilities. The study concentrates on PP Krit Amnuaydechkorn’s BL-star persona. PP Krit practices his sissyphilic persona both within and beyond the Thai live-action BL framework, incorporating elements such as costume, makeup, mannerism, coupling culture, and the spectacle of diverse cultures. Arguably, sissyphilia in Thai BL media of the 2020s is no longer a mere withdrawal from gay men’s sissyphobic masculinity. Instead, it should be approached as a testament to another “queer turn” in the Thai mediascape, where an increasing number of celebrities are disrupting and diversifying Thai LGBTQ stereotypes. The BL industry in Thailand employs critical-creative maneuvers to resonate with the socio-political atmosphere of the period and embrace new tropes of transnational queer media.},

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@article{Xi2024,

title = {Masculinities in Chinese boys’ love stories: female imaginations, market forces and state influence},

author = {Ran Xi},

doi = {10.1080/09589236.2024.2408403},

issn = {1465-3869},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-09-26},

urldate = {2024-09-26},

journal = {Journal of Gender Studies},

pages = {1--11},

publisher = {Informa UK Limited},

abstract = {This study investigates the imagined utopia of Chinese masculinity to uncover contemporary ideals of Chinese manhood and prototypes of gender relationships. To this end, the study involves in-depth interviews with 25 danmei creators and online questionnaires collected from danmei communities in mainland China. This study contributes to previous scholarly discussions by delineating danmei’s fandom and danmei’s literary formulae. The created masculinities in danmei reflect rising female creators’ subjectivities. Nevertheless, danmei’s political implications in China are limited and cannot be generalized as a move to overthrow the patriarchy or oversimplified as a step towards a feminist movement. Among the different archetypes of relationships, the pairing of two strong male characters enjoys the most popularity, which attests to women’s projection of independent subjectivity and rising neoliberal sensibilities in China. However, these emergent masculinities, initiated by female creators, persist in negotiations with the market and the state. The danmei industry in China, although subject to stringent surveillance, continues to flourish through underground avenues such as piracy and overseas purchasing agents.},

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@article{2024,

title = {Female Fandom in The Digital Era: ‘Alternative Universe’ for Promoting Thai Boys Love Drama},

author = {Monika Sri Yuliarti},

doi = {10.7454/jkmi.v13i2.1234},

issn = {2615-2894},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-08-25},

urldate = {2024-08-25},

journal = {Jurnal Komunikasi Indonesia},

volume = {13},

issue = {2},

publisher = {Universitas Indonesia},

abstract = {Digital era has changed human’s life, including in the practice of fandom. It results in a much broader dissemination of fans-related products produced by the fans, such as alternative universe (AU) as part of fan fiction. In addition, nowadays, Thailand popular culture is rising, especially with the boys’ love drama series (Thai BL drama) which caught foreign viewers’ interest, including Indonesians. This study explores how AU can be considered as a tool for promoting Thai BL drama which goes to fandom actively involvement in the promotion of a foreign country's cultural product with taboo value. It is a qualitative content analysis of online texts which focuses on three female AU author accounts on X with more than 5,000 followers. It is found that AU does not directly impact on the promotion of Thai BL drama, considering the massive modification on the character, setting, plot, and language due to the creativity of AU authors. It is a unique finding that makes it possible to promote Thai BL actors. Finally, it will promote Thai BL drama which the actors are part of, which can be understood from the replies and quotes of X users as AU readers.},

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@article{Michaels2024,

title = {Mainstreaming queerness in Thai boys’ love narratives: Impact on gay identity perceptions in Bangkok’s society},

author = {Ekathep Michaels and Eakachat Joneurairatana and Veerawat Sirivesmas},

doi = {10.1177/13634607241263194},

issn = {1461-7382},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-07-29},

journal = {Sexualities},

publisher = {SAGE Publications},

abstract = { The intricate interplay between media representation and experiences of minority groups in Southeast Asia necessitates a comprehensive analysis of popular culture’s impact on marginalized communities. This mixed-method study investigates the portrayal of homosexual male characters in contemporary Thai Boy’s Love (BL) series and its connection to the authentic experiences of gay men in Bangkok. Through interviews with the casting team and producers of a prominent BL series, the research aims to elucidate the creative process underpinning these portrayals. The study further examines the perceptions and identity development of gay men as depicted in BL narratives, and how heterosexual women viewers interpret this representation. A questionnaire involving 330 participants of diverse orientations indicates that 78.6% of gay men consider BL narratives to be misrepresentative, while 69% of heterosexual women perceive them as accurate, raising concerns about the influence of media representations on identity formation within the gay community. Moreover, the marked disparities in beliefs regarding whether gay individuals aspire to the appearance portrayed by BL characters (with 98.3% of heterosexuals, 60% of bisexuals, and 100% of lesbians concurring, in contrast to 71.8% of gay respondents dissenting) emphasize the significance of diverse and accurate representation in shaping identities and self-perception. },

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@article{685d26d14e554ad88307fd94354c02c9,

title = {Exploring debates over “Boys Love” media in the Philippines: from misogynistic backlash to queer emancipation},

author = {Kristine Michelle L. Santos and Thomas Baudinette},

doi = {10.1080/14680777.2024.2345198},

issn = {1468-0777},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-05-03},

urldate = {2024-05-03},

journal = {Feminist Media Studies},

publisher = {Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group},

abstract = {As a genre originally emerging from Japanese women’s popular culture and developing into a transnational phenomenon, debates over “Boys Love” (BL) media have increased in recent years. Within this article, we explore debates over BL through a case study of its reception in the Philippines, situating our analysis within the broader context of the Philippines’ heteropatriarchal culture. Drawing upon critical discourse analysis of traditional and new media discussions responding to the rise of BL fandom in the Philippines and qualitative interviews with 31 LGBTQ+ fans of BL, we reveal tensions between those who view BL positively and negatively. Through a feminist and reparative queer reading of our data, we contrast cisgender gay men’s dismissal of the genre as always already problematic due to its emergence from women’s culture with LGBTQ+ Philippine fans’ positioning of BL as an emancipatory media genre that combats homophobia. Ultimately, we argue that attempts by certain critics in the Philippines to downplay the queer emancipatory potentials of BL emerges from a misogynistic rejection of the contributions of women to Philippine queer culture. We conclude by calling for a more nuanced appreciation of BL’s queer interventions which recognises the genre’s deconstructive force.},

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@article{Aburime2024,

title = {The influence of transphobia, homonationalism and anti-Asian prejudice: Anti-BL attitudes in English-speaking fandoms},

author = {Samantha Aburime},

doi = {10.1386/eapc_00119_1},

issn = {2051-7092},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-02-15},

urldate = {2024-02-15},

journal = {East Asian Journal of Popular Culture},

publisher = {Intellect},

abstract = {In recent years, hostility towards Asian boys love (BL) media and fans in western English-speaking fandoms has been growing. This has manifested in anti-BL and anti-fujoshi anti-fans, many of whom express the general notion that queer western media is morally good and queer Asian media is morally bad. This division has encouraged a dehumanizing environment and some of these anti-fans consider their prejudiced behaviour morally justified and necessary. Their proposed aim is to maintain the moral sanctity of LGBTQ+ representation in their western English-speaking fan spaces. This article explores what drives this division and how BL and fujoshi specifically came to be so vilified in parts of LGBTQ+ western English-speaking fandom. The origins of this growing desire for LGBTQ+ moral sanctity in western English-speaking fandom are critiqued and how anti-trans gender critical beliefs in online communities came to affect western English-speaking fans’ perceptions of BL and fujoshi is revealed.},

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@article{Lizada2024,

title = {Boy Power: Soft Power and Political Power in the Circulation of Boys Love (BL) Narratives from South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines},

author = {Miguel Antonio N. Lizada},

doi = {10.22801/svn.2024.16.1.81},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-31},

journal = {SUVANNABHUMI},

volume = {16},

issue = {1},

pages = {81–101},

abstract = {This paper examines the complexities and creative opportunities brought about by the transnational circulation of texts specifically in the areas of transmission, consumption, and adaptation. The circulation of texts and along with it creative elements such as generic forms, tropes, and frameworks for consumption form an integral part in the production and advancement of any form of popular culture. In the process of such circulation, adaptation becomes a form of social and political process necessary for domestic palatability. In this paper, I examine how these complexities can be illustrated in the circulation of one emerging popular form in East and Southeast Asia: Boys Love (BL) television and web series. Using the transnational movement of the BL genre from South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines, I examine how the circulation and adaptations are inflected by considerations related to regional geopolitics and domestic issues concerned with the creative praxis of representing gender and sexuality.},

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@article{Supawantanakul_2023,

title = {Wide Y World: Understanding Cultures and Perspectives of Young Thai Boys’ Love Fans in the Glocalized Context},

author = {Narut Supawantanakul},

url = {https://sc01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/tureview/article/view/240604},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-12-01},

urldate = {2023-12-01},

journal = {Thammasat Review},

volume = {26},

number = {2},

pages = {245–272},

abstract = {Boys' Love (BL) media, emerging from Japan, has spread across different countries, including Thailand. Globalization has catalyzed the widespread accessibility of BL, fostering an environment wherein fans can create culturally hybridized BL cultures. Drawing on the glocalization and queer hybridization frameworks, this research analyzes the narratives of 13 young Thai BL fans. The objectives of this study were: firstly, to understand how fans engage in recreating BL cultures blending elements from both foreign and local origins, and secondly, to understand their viewpoints concerning gender and sexuality. Unlike the Thai BL of the previous two decades, which predominantly drew on Japanese influences, contemporary Thai BL blends its Japanese foundation with the Thai context and additional foreign components, particularly Korean pop culture. Culturally hybridized BL has notably heightened the visibility of male-male romance within mainstream Thai media, offering an alternative representation of sexual minorities beyond the third sex (เพศที่สาม—phet thi sam) stereotype. However, certain aspects of BL, such as the perpetuation of fixed gender roles within male-male relationships, reinforce conventional gender norms in Thai society. BL, an example of ongoing interplays of gender and sexuality concepts across varying locations and periods, expresses a complex product of these multifaceted interactions.},

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}

@article{Torres2023,

title = {Shipping and Fanservice in the Boys Love (BL) Series Consumption Experience by the Brazilian Fandom},

author = {Igor Leonardo de Santana Torres},

doi = {10.21680/2238-6009.2023v1n62id33754},

issn = {2238-6009},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-11-07},

urldate = {2023-11-07},

journal = {VRA},

volume = {1},

number = {62},

publisher = {Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte - UFRN},

abstract = {Just as the idol shipping culture is important in the consumption and celebration of K-pop culture, shipping (practice of pairing fictional characters or media personalities, placing them into sexual or romantic relationships, or supporting already existing pairs) and fanservice (an entertainment practice for fans that consists of the performance of intimacy among celebrity couples created and supported by the fandom) are defining and distinctive elements of the Thai “boys love” (BL) industry and its transnational fandom. I will discuss these phenomena in the consumption experience of BL series by the Brazilian fandom and present their operation among the fans with whom I researched, paying attention to their forms of fanservice consumption and shipping practice. The results presented come from my master's research, in which, based on the digital ethnographic method, I observed and interacted with fans on Twitter and Telegram for nine months. I conclude, among other things, that the practice of shipping and the consumption of fanservice are heterogeneous in fandom and are embroiled in moral disputes.

Keywords: BL Series; Brazilian BL Fandom; Fanservice; Shipping.},

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}

@article{Ye2022,

title = {\textit{Word of Honor} and brand homonationalism with “Chinese characteristics”: the \textit{dangai} industry, queer masculinity and the “opacity” of the state},

author = {Shana Ye},

doi = {10.1080/14680777.2022.2037007},

issn = {1471-5902},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-05-19},

urldate = {2023-05-19},

journal = {Feminist Media Studies},

volume = {23},

number = {4},

pages = {1593--1609},

publisher = {Informa UK Limited},

abstract = {Examining the dangai phenomenon and the web series Word of Honor (WoH), this paper investigates the entanglement of neoliberal management of queer desires, authoritarian regulation of consumer-citizenship, and traffic in various forms of nationalism. Creating an ambient space for queer agency, danmei practices is often regarded as utilizing queer “opacity” as liberatory strategy to outfox the state and societal constraints on non-normative gender and sexuality. Yet the dangai industry in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) shows that the economization of queerness finds “opaque” ways to profit through managing risk and anxiety of “missing out” even when a state explicitly censors queer commodities. Situating WoH in the “she economy,” the paper demonstrates the ways in which queer potential dangai is cahooted with neoliberal and authoritarian state imperatives for fostering proper gendered consumer-subjects and heteronormative social harmony for national building through embracing the “beautiful, powerful” but “caring and loving” nuan nan (“warm men”). Drawing connections between the newly constructed soft masculinity and other cultural exports such as the “wolf warrior,” the paper argues that dangai allows the militant masculinity to be “homonationalized” in service of rebranding Chinese nationalism in a time when Chinese global expansion is fiercely criticized on the global stage.},

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@article{Shimauchi2023,

title = {Thai Boys Love drama fandom as a transnational and trans-subcultural contact zone in Japan},

author = {Sae Shimauchi},

doi = {10.1080/10304312.2023.2237709},

issn = {1469-3666},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-05-04},

urldate = {2023-05-04},

journal = {Continuum},

volume = {37},

number = {3},

pages = {381--394},

publisher = {Informa UK Limited},

abstract = {Focusing on the online fandom of a Thai Boys Love (BL) drama in Japan, called tai-numa, this exploratory study examines its background, fan practices and experiences, and negotiations between fandoms and the mass media and within the fandom. Through interviews with 19 fans active in the fandom, which was shaped by external and internal factors, such as mediascape, characteristics of consuming BL, and the global pandemic, this research argues that the fandom is a transnational, transcultural, and trans-subcultural contact zone, enabling fans to create, learn, reflect, negotiate, and update each other’s values. Fandom activity was facilitated because it was equal and non-hierarchical, allowing for the engagement of a heterogeneous mix of fans from different subcultural backgrounds, and it offered a sense of simultaneity. Through fan voice and discussion, this paper suggests the potential impact of fandom activities on real life and what is needed for such fandoms to be established and sustained.},

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@article{Wang2022,

title = {Fan Conflicts and State Power in China: Internalised Heteronormativity, Censorship Sensibilities, and Fandom Police},

author = {Erika Ningxin Wang and Liang Ge},

doi = {10.1080/10357823.2022.2112655},

issn = {1467-8403},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-04-03},

urldate = {2023-04-03},

journal = {Asian Studies Review},

volume = {47},

number = {2},

pages = {355--373},

publisher = {Informa UK Limited},

abstract = {Fans as consumers of cultural products have received a great deal of attention from sociologists and cultural studies academics in recent years, and research on the relationship between fans and state power is gradually gaining traction. Through a 12-month digital ethnography of a large-scale fan conflict surrounding The Untamed, a popular ‘Boys’ Love’-adapted drama in China, we uncover a complex picture of two-way exploitation between fans and state power. By doing so, the article challenges previous assumptions by Chinese and Western scholars that fan culture is resistant to or negotiates with mainstream culture. We show that by perpetuating heteronormativity and censorship, fans internalise ‘reporting’ as a norm of legitimacy in consumer culture. Some fans portray themselves as ‘fandom police’ and use censorship to report ‘illegal’ comments by their rivals in order to prevail in fan conflicts. However, the power gained by these fandom police is illusory. Their practices are exploited by the state as a tool for censoring media users’ speech and cultural production, with the ultimate consequence of perpetuating censorship and heteronormativity.},

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pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Christopher2023,

title = {The eroticization of Tibetan monks in shōnen-ai and yaoi manga},

author = {Stephen Christopher and Gabrielle Laumonier},

doi = {10.1386/eapc_00090_1},

issn = {2051-7092},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-04-01},

urldate = {2023-04-01},

journal = {East Asian Journal of Popular Culture},

volume = {9},

number = {1},

pages = {83-102},

publisher = {Intellect},

abstract = {<jats:p>Men have historically dominated the artistic production of cultural exotifications. This article flips the script by analysing how two prominent female Japanese manga artists – Kuranishi and Shinsan Nameko – erotically illustrate Tibetan men, specifically Tibetan Buddhist monks. Through textual analysis and fieldwork conducted between 2019 and 2021, we show how their manga depictions of Tibetan young men, in particular monks, tend towards eroticization and sexual innuendo. This discursive and aesthetic trend in manga parallels ethnographic data on how Japanese women – facing unprecedented social precarity, seeking spiritual healing and self-transformation and desiring alternate masculinities – look elsewhere, outside of Japan and the perceived inadequacies of Japanese masculinities. We explore how liberative erotics, especially homoeroticism and love between boys, fuses with Buddhist and alternative spiritualities in yaoi and shōnen-ai genres and gestures towards a changing landscape of female desire.</jats:p>},

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tppubtype = {article}

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@article{3e4fd7cef08f4d0189ef7e4f90c9a433,

title = {Mobilizing idol celebrity in queer affective advertising: exploring the impacts of 'Boys Love' media and fandom in Thailand},

author = {Thomas Baudinette and Chavalin Svetanant},

doi = {10.1080/0967828X.2023.2253723},

issn = {0967-828X},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-01-01},

journal = {South East Asia Research},

volume = {31},

number = {4},

pages = {417–434},

publisher = {IP Publishing},

abstract = {Recent years have witnessed an explosion in Thailand of ‘Boys Love (BL)’ media that focus on romantic relationships between men. This article explores one site through which BL media is significantly impacting Thai consumer culture: the world of advertising. In this article, we theorize the rise of BL advertising in Thailand as an instance of queer affective media engagement. Through a case study of an advertising campaign for the confectionary MinMin starring an imaginary idol celebrity couple named KristSingto, we reveal how Thai BL commercials consciously produce a queer affect known as fin, which is central to BL fandom. By evoking nostalgia for BL series via specific semiotic codes, Thai advertisers tie affective responses to staged homoeroticism and consumer culture. The idol celebrities within Thai BL advertising thus do more than simply endorse products, they also bolster consumption among primarily female fans by satisfying desires for (staged) queer romance.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Chang2020,

title = {Girl power in boy love: Yaoi, online female counterculture, and digital feminism in China},

author = {Jiang Chang and Hao Tian},

doi = {10.1080/14680777.2020.1803942},

issn = {1471-5902},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-05-19},

urldate = {2021-05-19},

journal = {Feminist Media Studies},

volume = {21},

number = {4},

pages = {604--620},

publisher = {Informa UK Limited},

abstract = {This article employs in-depth interviews with 64 female authors of Yaoi fiction, a popular online narrative genre among young Chinese women, to examine the discursive strategies adopted in their creation of homoerotic stories, and theorize such strategies within contemporary Chinese political, cultural, and social contexts. Three discursive constructions are distilled and discussed through analysis of Yaoi fictionists’ cultural production practices: the idealization of intimate relationship, the deconstruction of the heteropatriarchal gender norm through female gaze, and the imagination of female power in negotiation with state discourse. The article then indicates the deliberate intention incorporated in the production of the Yaoi counterculture to subvert the state-backed gender hegemony. It proposes that a comprehensive understanding of contemporary Chinese feminism can only be achieved through intersectional analysis of its interactions with China’s authoritarian state discourse, and calls for closer attention to the feminist political potential brought about by digital technology.},

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@article{Ge2020,

title = {Problematizing heteronormativity: Performativity, resignification and A/B/O fiction in Chinese danmei literature},

author = {Liang Ge},

doi = {10.1386/eapc_00051_1},

issn = {2051-7092},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-10-01},

urldate = {2020-10-01},

journal = {East Asian Journal of Popular Culture},

volume = {7},

issue = {2},

pages = {241-254},

publisher = {Intellect},

abstract = {<jats:p>The literary form of danmei, in which male–male romance and/or erotica is portrayed, is a flourishing genre in China which has received significant attention from academia in recent years. This article focuses on a notorious subgenre of danmei, A/B/O fiction, which introduces three additional sexes, alpha, beta and omega, into mankind, alongside the male/female binary sex/gender system. By focusing on a popular but atypical example of this subgenre, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of how female danmei writers constantly question the hierarchical and heteronormative system in the A/B/O world and interrogate the fixed identities of gender, sexuality and class, by imagining love, sex and intimacy among male protagonists. Drawing on Judith Butler’s gender performative theory and resignification politics, this article suggests that the behaviour of the characters in these texts engenders reciprocal and equal relationships, reverses the various heteropatriarchal norms through the employment of technology, and questions the compulsory regulatory power embodied in the biological pheromone in A/B/O. Simultaneously, this study also identifies the notion of ‘love’ itself as a limiting factor of this genre of male–male romantic and/or erotic writing.</jats:p>},

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pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Wong2020,

title = {Towards a queer affective economy of boys’ love in contemporary Chinese media},

author = {Alvin K. Wong},

doi = {10.1080/10304312.2020.1785078},

issn = {1469-3666},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-07-03},

urldate = {2020-07-03},

journal = {Continuum},

volume = {34},

number = {4},

pages = {500--513},

publisher = {Informa UK Limited},

abstract = {This article expands the existing research on the boys’ love (BL) cultural phenomenon by analysing two popular BL films, A Round Trip to Love and Uncontrolled Love, and one TV series, Addicted, all streamed online in 2016. Previous research has explored the various aspects of BL such as cultural globalization from below, the online publishing industry and censorship, and the theme of incest and queer sexuality. This article turns a greater attention to the dialectical relationship between affect, queer desire and neoliberalism by unpacking further the affective work that BL performs in contemporary China. BL is both structurally constrained by the economic infrastructure of heteronormative kinship norms in neoliberal China and residual forms of socialism, as well as offering alternative modality of affective tendency that exceeds these structural impediments. Conceptually, this research explicates three forms of affective work in BL in contemporary China, namely affective imprisonment, queer affective reparation and affective overcoming, in order to illuminate the relationship between affect, queer desire and neoliberalism in contemporary China.},

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pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Ng2020,

title = {A queer “socialist brotherhood”: the \textit{Guardian} web series, boys’ love fandom, and the Chinese state},

author = {Eve Ng and Xiaomeng Li},

doi = {10.1080/14680777.2020.1754627},

issn = {1471-5902},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-05-18},

urldate = {2020-05-18},

journal = {Feminist Media Studies},

volume = {20},

number = {4},

pages = {479--495},

publisher = {Informa UK Limited},

abstract = {Discussing the mainland Chinese web series Guardian, adapted from a homoerotic “boys’ love” novel, this paper examines the practices and discourses of producers, viewers, and the state with respect to queer representation and readings in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), where media is regulated not just for sexual content but also sociopolitical principles. Even as the series made the central relationship between the two male characters non-romantic, official paratextual content fed fan passion for queer readings. However, by and large, fans have had a collaborative relationship with producers, illustrating how queerbaiting discourses, almost absent in this case, are crucially dependent on larger contexts of media production and regulation. Fans were careful in how they discussed their enthusiasm for a romantic pairing and the two lead actors, but subsequent government censorship of Guardian a few weeks after its debut suggests that the queerness of both fan readings and the source material became an issue, as well as reflecting societal and state ambivalence concerning women’s sexual expression and the commodification of male bodies in consumer culture. Thus, the analysis here is contextualized within broader social and political conditions in the PRC with respect to sexuality, gender, and the moral-political dictates of the state.},

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@article{e9a0af784da049e0bf128ce330c32a35,

title = {Creative Misreadings of “Thai BL” by a Filipino Fan Community: Dislocating Knowledge Production in Transnational Queer Fandoms Through Aspirational Consumption},

author = {Thomas Baudinette},

doi = {10.5749/mech.13.1.0101},

issn = {1934-2489},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-01-01},

urldate = {2020-01-01},

journal = {Mechademia: Second Arc},

volume = {13},

issue = {1},

pages = {101–118},

publisher = {University of Minnesota Press},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Wang_2019,

title = {Officially Sanctioned Adaptation and Affective Fan Resistance: The Transmedia Convergence of the Online Drama Guardian in China},

author = {Cathy Yue Wang},

url = {https://series.unibo.it/article/view/9156},

doi = {10.6092/issn.2421-454X/9156},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

urldate = {2019-01-01},

journal = {Series - International Journal of TV Serial Narratives},

volume = {5},

number = {2},

pages = {45–58},

abstract = {This article examines how the adaptation process and fan engagement are constituted in the Mainland China media landscape by focusing on the phenomenally popular online drama Guardian (镇魂2018). Through an in-depth analysis of this series, the article explores the contestation and negotiation between the “top-down expurgation” from the drama’s production team during its adaptation process and the “bottom-up subversion” from the fans of this series during its reception and consumption. If the intentional expurgation signifies a strategy of survival confronting the restrictions imposed by censors, then the fans’ creative activities work as a kind of resistance to the (post)socialist ideology in China, where homosexuality has been considered a violation of traditional Confucian values, where supernatural narratives have been viewed as backward superstitions, and socially wronged lower-class members are seen as a threat to social stability. The adaptation of Guardian from novel to drama and its reception becomes a battlefield of strategic compliance and resistance, where economic demand and political power, modern liberal attitudes toward gender, sexuality, and equality and traditional values concerning harmony, conformity, and authority contest and negotiate.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{5cba4131cf374322ad30fc29387f3d46,

title = {Lovesick, The Series: adapting Japanese 'Boys Love' to Thailand and the creation of a new genre of queer media},

author = {Thomas Baudinette},

doi = {10.1080/0967828X.2019.1627762},

issn = {0967-828X},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

journal = {South East Asia Research},

volume = {27},

number = {2},

pages = {115–132},

publisher = {IP Publishing},

abstract = {This article explores the adaptation of Boys Love (BL), a Japanese genre of homoerotic media produced for heterosexual female audiences, to the Thai mediascape through an analysis of Lovesick, The Series (2014). This lakhon represented a watershed moment in representations of queer sexuality in Thai mainstream media, inaugurating a new genre of media known as series wai. Through an investigation of the narrative of the first series of Lovesick, this article shows how the narrative conventions of Japanese BL are ‘glocalized’ to conform to the heteronormative narrative focus of typical lakhon. The article argues that the series’ ‘wavering’ narrative focus between queer and heterosexual romance and its characterization of its male protagonists as stereotypical heterosexual men (phu chai) responds to the need for lakhon to privilege heteronormative romance. But the article also reveals that Lovesick sits within a broader social process whereby Japanese popular culture has come to influence Thai conceptualizations of sexuality. The article thus also shows how the lakhon educates its users into the affective reading practices of Japanese BL fans, introducing queer readings into the Thai mediascape. Overall, the article charts the historical development of a new, affirmative representational queer politics in the Thai mediascape.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{10.5392/JKCA.2018.18.09.510,

title = {A Feminist Psychological Analysis on the Playful Embracement of Boys' Love Manga},

author = {Sungeun Yang},

doi = {10.5392/JKCA.2018.18.09.510},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-09-28},

journal = {The Journal of the Korea Contents Association},

volume = {18},

issue = {9},

pages = {510-520},

publisher = {한국콘텐츠학회},

abstract = {This study explored the phenomenon of heterosexual women embracing Boys' Love manga within the heteronormativity context from a feminist psychological perspective. Specifically, the issue of genre characteristics of Boys' Love manga, women's psychological mechanism of reading Boys' Love manga, and the functions and effects of embracing Boys' Love manga were discussed. As a theoretical framework of analysis, I started from the classical psychoanalysis and critically adopted the concepts of the various camps of feminism, queer theory, and Huizinga's Homo Rudens. The results show that Boys' Love manga can be classified as a sub-category of the romance genre, which fulfills heterosexual women's desires of eternal love and equal partnership. From these wish-fulfilling fantasies, heterosexual women attempt to be decontextualized from the heteropatriarchism, to enjoy distancing and voyeuristic separation from the characters in the texts, and to disturb the dichotomous gender system through gender reversal identification. These processes, which can be regarded as a women's play challenging sexual rigorism, ultimately bring about an awareness of the female sexual subjectivity.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Zsila2018,

title = {Loving the love of boys: Motives for consuming yaoi media},

author = {Ágnes Zsila and Dru Pagliassotti and Róbert Urbán and Gábor Orosz and Orsolya Király and Zsolt Demetrovics},

editor = {Francesca Chiesi},

doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0198895},

issn = {1932-6203},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-06-14},

urldate = {2018-06-14},

journal = {PLoS ONE},

volume = {13},

number = {6},

publisher = {Public Library of Science (PLoS)},

abstract = {In recent years, yaoi has been increasingly popular among youth interested in Japanese media such as anime and manga. Yaoi is defined as commercial and fan-created media that thematically focus on the romantic love between two men, often in a sexually explicit way. Despite the widespread popularity of this Japanese subgenre, there is a lack of empirical studies on the motives for consuming yaoi media that analyze the full range of motives using reliable research methods. The present study aimed to explore and operationalize the motives for yaoi media consumption based on previous qualitative research (Pagliassotti, 2008). Using an online survey, 724 yaoi consumers (58% male; Mage = 30.1 years, SD = 10.4) completed the Yaoi Consumption Motives Questionnaire (YCMQ). According to confirmatory factor analyses, the bi-factor model of nine motives yielded closer fit to the data than the theoretically proposed, first-order ten-factor model and a second-order nine-factor model. The nine-factor YCMQ demonstrated strong psychometric properties in terms of factor structure, internal consistency, and measurement invariance. These results indicate that the 31-item YCMQ is an appropriate instrument to assess individuals’ motives for consuming yaoi media.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Lilja2017,

title = {The Performative Force of Cultural Products: Subject Positions and Desires Emerging From Engagement with the Manga Boys’ Love and Yaoi},

author = {Mona Lilja and Cathrin Wasshede},

doi = {10.3384/cu.2000.1525.1683384},

issn = {2000-1525},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-02-07},

journal = {Cult. Unbound},

volume = {8},

number = {3},

pages = {284--305},

publisher = {Linkoping University Electronic Press},

abstract = {This article deals with questions about the performative power of cultural products that travel the world. The Japanese manga genre Boys’ Love and Yaoi has gained a broad readership outside of Japan during recent decades. This has cultivated an image of Japan as sexually radical and ‘as more than Japan’, something which has produced alternative subject positions and practises regarding gender and sexuality among Swedish Boys’ Love/Yaoi followers. With the help of the concept hyperreality and elaborations on materiality within feminist theories, this article discusses: Which images of Japan and Sweden are produced as manga Boys’ Love/Yaoi – as cultural products – travel from Japan to Sweden? Which subject positions and forms of desires emerge? In order to understand how cultural products create new subjectivities, images and desires, we also ask: What can a sharper focus on materiality and the agency of matter add to the understanding of the concept of hyperreality and the construction of new realities? We argue that embodied experiences of certain subject positions and desires challenge the idea of the hyperreal as a surface phenomenon. Further, the article shows how the image of “Japan” is often coloured by the desires that West cultivates about the ‘other’.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Zhang2016,

title = {Loving Boys Twice as Much: Chinese Women’s Paradoxical Fandom of “Boys’ Love” Fiction},

author = {Chunyu Zhang},

doi = {10.1080/07491409.2016.1190806},

issn = {2152-999X},

year  = {2016},

date = {2016-07-02},

urldate = {2016-07-02},

journal = {Women's Studies in Communication},

volume = {39},

number = {3},

pages = {249--267},

publisher = {Informa UK Limited},

abstract = {This study examines how young female Chinese fans negotiate gender, sexuality, and identity through their readings of Chinese boys’ love (BL) fiction. BL fiction, or danmei in Chinese, is a romantic fiction genre featuring same-sex relationships between two men. I argue that BL fandom facilitates a gendered politics of looking that empowers female readers to turn a voyeuristic gaze upon men. This subversive gaze allows fans to play with patriarchal gender constructions, provides escapism, and creates aesthetics that offer an alternative to clichéd heterosexual romantic storytelling. Because of their shared interests and practices, a distinctive BL online subculture has formed. Within this subculture, fans also demonstrate a diverse, fluid, and individualistic identification with BL. BL fandom also shapes these young women’s perceptions of same-sex love while disavowing their heterosexual privileges. Indeed, fans seem to appropriate the marginalized BL stories to express their own desires for idealized heterosexual relationships.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Xu2013,

title = {Forbidden love: incest, generational conflict, and the erotics of power in Chinese BL fiction},

author = {Yanrui Xu and Ling Yang},

doi = {10.1080/21504857.2013.771378},

issn = {2150-4865},

year  = {2013},

date = {2013-06-00},

urldate = {2013-06-00},

journal = {Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics},

volume = {4},

number = {1},

pages = {30--43},

publisher = {Informa UK Limited},

abstract = {This article focuses on father–son incest stories, a distinct subgenre of Chinese Boys' Love (BL) fiction, to examine the cultural and political implications of BL in China. We start with an overview of the development of BL fiction in China, followed by a discussion of some representative texts. Situating our textual analysis within the context of traditional Confucian ethics and contemporary Chinese society, we argue that father–son stories showcase a feminine attempt to re-order the power structure in the family by means of eros. Since the family is conflated with the state in Chinese social organization, the restructuring at the family level will have significant political consequences. We conclude that BL is not only ‘better than romance’ but also more than romance. It is, first of all, an inclusive and powerful mental tool that enables Chinese youth, both male and female, to think out of the box.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Wood2013,

title = {Boys' Love anime and queer desires in convergence culture: transnational fandom, censorship and resistance},

author = {Andrea Wood},

doi = {10.1080/21504857.2013.784201},

issn = {2150-4865},

year  = {2013},

date = {2013-06-00},

urldate = {2013-06-00},

journal = {Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics},

volume = {4},

number = {1},

pages = {44--63},

publisher = {Informa UK Limited},

abstract = {Despite its ever-growing international popularity, Japanese anime and the industries that support it are in the middle of a crisis. In an era of media convergence, popularity has not translated into consistent profits as anime producers continue to lose money at home and overseas to rampant file sharing and ubiquitous streaming video sites illegally hosting copyrighted content that can be viewed for free. As a result, convergence is simultaneously fuelling the current anime industry crisis while also opening up new opportunities to make participatory culture work for both fans and producers – especially for niche markets like Boys' Love. This article explores how Boys' Love fans in Japan and other countries often operate in contradictory tension with and against anime industries and socio-cultural values as they access, consume and create around a form of homoerotic media that they do not want to be assimilated into mainstream culture and its norms. As more transnational publishers and distributors are licensing and selling Boys' Love manga and anime, the boundaries between margin and centre have begun to blur, producing intersecting and divergent desires among fans and producers around the commodification and adaptation of queer texts. The first part of this article focuses on how convergence is shaping the dynamic between anime producers and fan consumers, where niche markets have begun to figure into this situation, and what is politically at stake in the consumption and circulation of Boys' Love texts. The second part of the article examines several examples of Boys' Love television anime and Original Video Animation (OVA), with particular attention to Youka Nitta's Embracing Love and Shungiku Nakamura's Junjo Romantica, to assess how deliberate censorship in anime adaptations can sometimes efface important queer meaning in a text while in other instances it can open up new fantasies and ways of reading for viewers that are in keeping with the queerness the author ascribes to the genre.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Meyer2013,

title = {Drawing from the body – the self, the gaze and the other in Boys’ Love manga},

author = {Uli Meyer},

doi = {10.1080/21504857.2013.784200},

issn = {2150-4865},

year  = {2013},

date = {2013-06-00},

urldate = {2013-06-00},

journal = {Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics},

volume = {4},

number = {1},

pages = {64--81},

publisher = {Informa UK Limited},

abstract = {The body and the gaze are of high importance in all erotic visual media, including Boys’ Love (BL) manga. But in contrast to many other visual media, comics and cartoons do not just show the human body as it appears, but as it is experienced or fantasized. Scott McCloud formulated a basic theory of the gaze in comics when he stated that, while gazing at another person, one sustains a constant awareness of one's own face, but that this mind picture is only a sketchy arrangement. Comics reflect that twofold pattern of the gaze by employing different drawing styles for the interior mind picture of the self and the exterior view of the other. This paper addresses how McCloud's model of the gaze plays out on a strictly visual level when it is applied to erotic situations in different types of comics and manga. Within that context, I ask about the form and location of the gaze in BL manga, an erotic medium that is by definition (mostly) drawn by female artists for a (mostly) female audience, but with an almost exclusively male cast, making it a textbook example of the ‘female gaze’ at male erotic objects.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Chao2013,

title = {Features of hybridization in \textit{In These Words}},

author = {Tien-yi Chao},

doi = {10.1080/21504857.2012.757247},

issn = {2150-4865},

year  = {2013},

date = {2013-06-00},

urldate = {2013-06-00},

journal = {Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics},

volume = {4},

number = {1},

pages = {9--29},

publisher = {Informa UK Limited},

abstract = {In These Words (ITW; in Chinese) is a comic created through a collaboration between writer Kichiku Neko and illustrator TogaQ, issued by Guilt | Pleasure since 2010. The comic presents a Japanese psychiatrist and a Japanese serial killer grappling with their tangled relationship. I argue that ITW significantly exemplifies Boys' Love (BL) comics through its hybridization of cultures, national identities, artistic styles and genres. Using textual analyses and interviews, I study ITW as a case of ‘gloBLization’ (in Dru Pagliassotti's words) and hybridization, by exploring issues such as cross-cultural and transnational representations in the work's characterization, plot, visual representation and use of language, as well as its hybridity between BL and gay comics. The findings indicate that ITW achieves a breakthrough in the conventions of gender and genre. ITW's hybridization and ‘in-between-ness’ makes it a rare and significant work in the global BL market.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Suzuki2013,

title = {Possibilities of research on "fujoshi" in Japan},

author = {Midori Suzuki},

doi = {10.3983/twc.2013.0462},

issn = {1941-2258},

year  = {2013},

date = {2013-03-15},

urldate = {2013-03-15},

journal = {TWC},

volume = {12},

publisher = {Transformative Works and Cultures},

abstract = {Today, people who are referred to as fujoshi exist in every part of the world. Especially in Japan, many women admit to liking genres such as yaoi and boys' love (BL). In the new millennium, the word fujoshi has traveled beyond fannish circles and has come into general use in Japanese popular media, reflecting the fact that fujoshi are no longer necessarily an underground phenomenon. Here, I trace the origins of the word fujoshi, consider whether reading of male-male romance was established before the word appeared, examine research on fujoshi in Japan, and finally look at why fujoshi have become an object of study.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Kamm2013,

title = {Rotten use patterns: What entertainment theories can do for the study of boys' love},

author = {Björn-Ole Kamm},

doi = {10.3983/twc.2013.0427},

issn = {1941-2258},

year  = {2013},

date = {2013-03-15},

journal = {TWC},

volume = {12},

publisher = {Transformative Works and Cultures},

abstract = {Focusing on the often neglected individual modes of consumption and ascriptions of meaning, I propose a theoretical and conceptual framework for the analysis of the diversity of the use and appropriation of the boys' love (BL) genre. Within the framework of theories of media gratification, I bring together key elements of BL fandom, such as playing with masculinities, and central concepts of entertainment research. To assess these concepts' appropriateness and to do justice to the transnational phenomenon that BL has become, I also consider qualitative interviews conducted in Japan and Germany. The gratifications sought and gained by BL fans (fujoshi and fudanshi, rotten girls and boys) vary, including the physiological (arousal), the social (exchange, belonging), the cognitive (parasocial interaction), and the aesthetic (immersion). My empirical findings highlight the diversity of BL use, while my conceptual framework additionally works as a reference for a comparison of these use patterns and other media preferences as well as global trends of media consumption. (ORCID: 0000-0002-8585-9177)},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Martin2012,

title = {Girls who love boys' love: Japanese homoerotic manga as trans-national Taiwan culture},

author = {Fran Martin},

doi = {10.1080/14649373.2012.689707},

issn = {1469-8447},

year  = {2012},

date = {2012-09-00},

urldate = {2012-09-00},

journal = {Inter-Asia Cultural Studies},

volume = {13},

number = {3},

pages = {365--383},

publisher = {Informa UK Limited},

abstract = {Based on interviews with 30 female readers of BL (‘boys’ love') manga conducted in Taipei in 2005, this paper analyses the BL scene in Taiwan from the perspective of its social utility as a discursive arena enabling women collectively to think through transforming social ideologies around gender and sexuality. This form of participatory pop culture is most interesting, I argue, not because of any unilateral subversiveness vis-à-vis culturally dominant understandings of (feminine) gender or (homo)sexuality—although it does often contest such dominant understandings. Rather, it is important in providing a space for the collective articulation of young women's in-process thinking on these questions. The paper also engages with the Japaneseness of the genre as consumed in Taiwan in order to consider the imaginative function that its perceived cultural ‘otherness’ performs.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{McHarry2011,

title = {(Un)gendering the homoerotic body: Imagining subjects in boys' love and yaoi},

author = {Mark McHarry},

doi = {10.3983/twc.2011.0257},

issn = {1941-2258},

year  = {2011},

date = {2011-11-15},

journal = {TWC},

volume = {8},

publisher = {Transformative Works and Cultures},

abstract = {Language is a condition for a subject's formation, and identity is a factor in a subject's understanding of self. The Japanese-derived literary forms boys' love and yaoi portray male subjects as valorizing and acting on same-sex erotic desire, yet with little or no sense of possessing a same-sex desiring identity. Following Elizabeth Grosz, Julia Kristeva, and Michel Foucault, a reading is performed of a Western yaoi fan fic to explore how subjects in yaoi and boys' love enter into language, and hence subjectivity.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Welker2011,

title = {Flower Tribes and Female Desire: Complicating Early Female Consumption of Male Homosexuality in Shōjo Manga},

author = {James Welker},

doi = {10.1353/mec.2011.0007},

issn = {2152-6648},

year  = {2011},

date = {2011-00-00},

journal = {Mechademia},

volume = {6},

number = {1},

pages = {211--228},

publisher = {Project MUSE},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Chou2010ExploringTM,

title = {Exploring the Meaning of Yaoi in Taiwan for Female Readers: From the Perspective of Gender},

author = {Dienfang Chou},

url = {https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:146189423},

year  = {2010},

date = {2010-01-01},

urldate = {2010-01-01},

abstract = {The purpose of this study is to explore the meaning of Yaoi in Taiwan. Yaoi is a Japanese phrase that describes a group of females who enjoy creating and reading the male homosexual comic books or novels. This study uses an intensive interview method to examine the meanings behind the females’ enjoyment of reading Yaoi texts. Based on the literature, this study uses the perspective of genders to examine the interview data by six concepts: reciprocity, substitution, and social taboos in love relationships as well as conversion, initiative, and wantonness in sexual discourse. The result of this study shows that the primary meanings to Yaoi readers are: to practice the doubts from the established gender conventions; to enjoy the freedom from breaking free of gender constraints through those stories without any gender differences; to gain joy and satisfaction by crossing the standard gender norms through fictional homosexual love stories. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed as well.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Welker2006,

title = {Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: “Boys’ Love” as Girls’ Love in \textit{Shôjo Manga}},

author = {James Welker},

doi = {10.1086/498987},

issn = {1545-6943},

year  = {2006},

date = {2006-03-00},

urldate = {2006-03-00},

journal = {Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society},

volume = {31},

number = {3},

pages = {841--870},

publisher = {University of Chicago Press},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}