The Power of Qing: The Guardian Web Series and Queer Worldmaking in Chinese Danmei

Abstract

This article examines the web series Guardian (dir. Zhou Yuanzhou, 2018) as exemplary cultural texts of Chinese danmei, which portrays homoeroticism and male queerness in postsocialist China within the contexts of increasing institutional and political homophobia. The textual evidence shows that Guardian constructs queer subtexts and brings out the queer potentialities of the seemingly nonhomosexual media production via the following strategic negotiations: first, by creating a bricolage of science fiction, fantasy, and superhero genres to contest the homophobic social reality; second, by portraying qing, a powerful emotional bonding in queer relationships, and magnifying same sex intimacy as normal, natural, and moral; and last but not least, by interrogating queer stereotypes through deconstructing essentialized gender boundaries and further transcending stereotypical gong-shou aesthetics in danmei. Its commercial values notwithstanding, Guardian exemplifies a critical representational terrain that envisions alternative, imaginative ways to reconfigure gender and sexual identities, rearticulate queer desires, and disrupt insidious gender politics and homophobic discourse. Importantly, Guardian signifies the danmei genre’s disruptive potential to offer abundant space for queer worldmaking, thereby challenging censored representations of homosexuality.