NONNORMATIVE MASCULINITY IN DANMEI LITERATURE: ‘MAIDEN SEME’ AND SAJIAO

Aiqing Wang

doi:10.17572/mj2021.1.106123

Abstract

Masculinity in contemporary China can be embodied by myriads of works featuring male-male same-sex intimacy and eroticism, which fall into a genre dubbed as danmei ‘addicted to beauty; indulgence in beauty’, aka Boys Love (BL). As a marginalised yet increasingly visible subculture, danmei writing has attracted legions of female producers/consumers, who are (self-)referred to as ‘rotten girls’. The female-oriented fiction is overwhelmingly marked by a conspicuous dichotomy differentiating seme (top) from uke (bottom) roles, and a prodigious amount of narratives concern feminisation of uke characters, motivated by the prevailing ‘soft masculinity’. Nonetheless, readers also delight in a subcategory of danmei featured by shaonü gong ‘maiden/adolescent-girl seme’ manifesting epicene demeanour and conducting sajiao which denotes playing cute/winsome/petulant or performing pettishness/coquettish. The sajiao acts of semes indicate authorial personae and the ‘cuteness’ youth culture, especially the ‘paradoxical cuteness’ integrating masculinity and femininity as well as cross-dressing and cross-gender performance. Furthermore, seme characterisation entailing enfeebled virility enables female readers to challenge heteropatriarchal and heteronormative zeitgeist, and it mitigates women’s dread and anxiety concerning sexual violence, exploitation and oppression in real-world contexts.

Highlights

In contemporary Chinese literature, there is a genre called 耽美 danmei that literally means ‘addicted to beauty; indulgence in beauty’, in which ‘beauty’ exclusively denotes that of youthful males (Yang and Xu 2016, 2017a, 2017b, Wang 2019)
The most frequently attested pattern is strong seme × weak uke, which is often marked by the feminisation of uke characters, driven by the prevailing ‘soft masculinity’ in the contemporary Chinese society
Fiction adopting the ‘maiden seme’ characterisation receives popularity, in which semes are portrayed as exhibiting epicene traits and conducting sajiao deeds verbally and nonverbally

Summary

Introduction

In contemporary Chinese literature, there is a genre called 耽美 danmei that literally means ‘addicted to beauty; indulgence in beauty’, in which ‘beauty’ exclusively denotes that of youthful males (Yang and Xu 2016, 2017a, 2017b, Wang 2019). In Fanpai Ta Guofen Meili, the seme convinces his senior apprentice-brother to assume the receptive role and to complement his sexual competence (Example (3)); in Siwang Wanhuatong, the invincible seme often pretends to be vulnerable by going 嘤嘤嘤 yingyingying (an onomatopoeia mimicking girls’ feigned or whiny sobs), thereby obtaining attention and protection from the uke (Example (4)); he is given a nickname 嘤嘤怪 yingying guai ‘yingying monster’ by fangirl readers out of affection. As mentioned earlier, notwithstanding a vaguely flirtatious tone, their sajiao expressions are saliently marked by cuteness

Rationale behind shaonü gong

Conclusion