Transmedia Adaptation, Sonic Affect, and Multisensory Participation in Contemporary Chinese <i>Danmei</i> Radio Drama

Abstract

Danmei, a genre also known as boys’ love, first developed in China in the 1990s under the influence of Japanese subculture in the 1990s, but it has diverged from its Japanese antecedents in the last decade. Recent Chinese cultural products of danmei, no longer confined to a subcultural group, have attracted mainstream attention and been widely adapted into a variety of popular media forms. In this paper, with the case study of radio drama Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (2016), I examine how queerness is explored and experienced through the affective expressivity inherent in voice as well as the interactive interface of danmaku, with which listeners can experience and articulate queer fantasy in a relatively unobstructed way. As the genre of danmei has been subject to persistent state censorship, this paper further explores strategies of containment and tactics of negotiation deployed by both content producers and cultural consumers.