Reality or Fantasy: Minority Male Readers in the BL Subculture

Abstract

The fiction media genre of Boys love(BL) and its subcultural products was originated in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. It has been more than thirty years since it entered mainland China in the early 1990s. This article, based on ethnographical research on BL readerly community and personal observation as an avid and experienced reader of BL, focuses on queer male participants in the BL culture in China. Though the number of them is relatively small, they are an important contributor to the burgeoning of BL culture in China and this group is largely overlooked in existing literature. Furthermore, the subject of study in this article belongs to Generation Z in contemporary China. Generation Z have their own ways of life that set them apart from earlier generations and this deserves scholarly scrutiny. Born in the era of globalization and neoliberalism, Generation Z observe the imprint of the current age in their ways of consuming popular culture and subculture. To many gen Z readers, especially queers, BL is not only a form of leisure, it constitutes a way for sexual minority male readers to navigate their sexual identity. Therefore, they tend to perceive that BL to a certain extent mirrors reality or projects their imagination for a better, and more inclusive world. This paper further compares different strategies in which queer male readers of BL culture negotiate their sexual identity in a largely homophobic society with practices ranging from mask, switch to openly coming out.