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Queer Transfigurations

Boys Love Media in Asia
  • Edited by: James Welker and Allison Alexy
  • With contributions by: Thomas Baudinette , Poowin Bunyavejchewin , Thomas Baudinette , Poowin Bunyavejchewin , Tricia Abigail Santos Fermin , Katrien Jacobs , Han Hau Lai , Dredge Byung’chu Kang-Nguyễn , Hyojin Kim , Jungmin Kwon , Aerin Lai , Xi Lin , Lakshmi Menon , Kazumi Nagaike , Gita Pramudita Prameswari , Asako P. Santo , Kristine Michelle Santos , Kania Arini Sukotjo , Peiti Wang , Yanrui Xu , Ling Yang and Wei Wei
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2022
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About this book

The boys love (BL) genre was created for girls and women by young female manga (comic) artists in early 1970s Japan to challenge oppressive gender and sexual norms. Over the years, BL has seen almost irrepressible growth in popularity and since the 2000s has become a global media phenomenon, weaving its way into anime, prose fiction, live-action dramas, video games, audio dramas, and fan works. BL’s male–male romantic and sexual relationships have found a particularly receptive home in other parts of Asia, where strong local fan communities and locally produced BL works have garnered a following throughout the region, taking on new meanings and engendering widespread cultural effects.

Queer Transfigurations is the first detailed examination of the BL media explosion across Asia. The book brings together twenty-one scholars exploring BL media, its fans, and its sociocultural impacts in a dozen countries in East, Southeast, and South Asia—and beyond. Contributors draw on their expertise in an array of disciplines and fields, including anthropology, fan studies, gender and sexuality studies, history, literature, media studies, political science, and sociology to shed light on BL media and its fandoms.

Queer Transfigurations reveals the far-reaching influences of the BL genre, demonstrating that it is truly transnational and transcultural in diverse cultural contexts. It has also helped bring about positive changes in the status of LGBT(Q) people and communities as well as enlighten local understandings of gender and sexuality throughout Asia. In short, Queer Transfigurations shows that, some fifty years after the first BL manga appeared in print, the genre is continuing to reverberate and transform lives.

Author / Editor information

Contributor: James Welker James Welker is professor in the Department of Cross-Cultural Studies at Kanagawa University, Yokohama, Japan. --- Contributor: Allison Alexy Allison Alexy is assistant professor in the Department of Women’s Studies and the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan.

Reviews

This collection . . . offers an ambitious survey of the boys’ love (BL) manga genre, its media extensions, and the communities of fans that have proliferated across different parts of Asia. [Each] chapter’s unique, localized perspective contributes to a rich overall examination of the topic. --- Not only does Queer Transfigurations extend the borders of BL beyond Japan, but it also significantly updates our understanding of BL from a fan studies perspective and the social, cultural, and political effects of BL in Asia. . . . [It] is a well-edited, novel, and interesting collection of chapters well-suited for academic readers [and] is a crucial volume for manga and fan studies scholars, as well as for anyone interested in Boys Love and LGBTQ+ media. [The] positive, forward-looking tone of this volume mirrors Welker’s final argument that the BL genre has been ‘positively reshaping the imaginary and real worlds of its fans and others in Asia and beyond’ and leaves readers feeling refreshed and optimistic for the future.

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    v
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    Series Editor’s Preface

    ix
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    Acknowledgments

    xi
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    A Note on Language and Names

    xiii
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    1 Introduction: Boys Love (BL) Media and Its Asian Transfigurations

    1
    James Welker
  • Part I East Asia
  • China
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    2 Between BL and Slash: Danmei Fiction, Transcultural Mediation, and Changing Gender Norms in Contemporary China

    17
    Yanrui Xu and Ling Yang
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    3 Breaking the Structural Silence: The Sociological Function of Danmei Novels in Contemporary China

    31
    Xi Lin
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    4 BL as a “Resource of Hope” among Chinese Gay Men in Japan

    42
    Thomas Baudinette
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    5 Straight Men, Gay Buddies: The Chinese BL Boom and Its Impact on Male Homosociality

    55
    Wei Wei
  • Hong Kong
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    6 “Send Them to Mars!”: Boys Love Erotica and Civil Rights in Hong Kong

    68
    Katrien Jacobs and Han Hau Lai
  • South Korea
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    7 The Commercialization and Popularization of Boys Love in South Korea

    80
    Jungmin Kwon
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    8 Rethinking the Meaning of Boys Love in an Era of Feminism: Online Discourse on “Leaving BL” in Late 2010s Korea

    92
    Hyojin Kim
  • Taiwan
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    9 Repression or Revolution?: On the Taiwanese BL Fan Community’s Reactions to the Same-Sex Marriage Legalization Movement

    108
    Peiti Wang
  • Part II Southeast Asia
  • Indonesia
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    10 Hiding in Plain Sight: Boys Love Content at Indonesia’s “Comic Frontier”

    123
    Kania Arini Sukotjo
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    11 Dissonant Passions: Indonesian Boys Love Fans’ Identity Negotiation and Perspectives on LGBT Issues

    138
    Gita Pramudita Prameswari
  • Philippines
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    12 BL Coupling in a Different Light: Filipino Fans Envisioning an Alternative Model of Intimacy

    153
    Tricia Abigail Santos Fermin
  • Singapore
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    13 Docile BL Bodies: Boys Love under State and Societal Censorship in Singapore

    167
    Aerin Lai
  • Thailand
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    14 The Queer if Limited Effects of Boys Love Manga Fandom in Thailand

    181
    Poowin Bunyavejchewin
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    15 Faen of Gay Faen: Realizing Boys Love in Thailand betwixt Imagination and Existence

    194
    Kang-Nguyễn Byung’chu Dredge
  • Part III South Asia
  • India
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    16 Desi Desu: Sex, Sexuality, and BL Consumption in Urban India

    209
    Lakshmi Menon
  • Part IV Border Crossing
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    17 Glocalization of Boys Love Dōjinshi in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Australia

    225
    Kristine Michelle Santos
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    18 On the Psychology, Physicality, and Communication Strategies of Male Fans of BL in East Asia: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Men’s Desires to “Become” Fudanshi

    243
    Kazumi Nagaike
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    19 From Legends to Games to Homoerotic Fiction: Dynasty Warriors BL Texts from China, Japan, and Taiwan

    257
    Asako P. Saito
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    Afterword: Boys Love as a World-Shaping Genre

    272
    James Welker
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    Contributors

    279
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    Index

    287

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
July 28, 2022
eBook ISBN:
9780824892234
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824892234
eBook ISBN: 9780824892234
Keywords for this book
Asian Comics; Boys Love (BL); Boys Love Media; Comics (Manga)
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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