Endless List of Romantic Relationships That I Love - Anne Shirley Cuthbert and Gilbert Blythe
"You are the fond object of my affection and my desire. You and you alone are the keeper of the key to my heart. I am not engaged, nor will I be, unless it's to you Anne. My Anne with an E. It always has been and always will be, you."
You move hearts through the roles you play, and express your inner world through the music you sing.
The characters you’ve given soul to, and the melodies you’ve filled with thought, all are your dialogues with the world, your voice speaking to life itself.
Together, they become vessels upon the river of time, carrying others forward, and carrying you too.
May your new year bring steadier steps and a firmer gaze. May you stay untroubled by the noise, and always keep strength within.
Happy birthday, Xiao Zhan 🎂 May your journey ahead be ever fuller and ever brighter!
*dons clown hat* Oh, look at me posting something that might get me arrested. *removes hat* Alright, here we go.
Hot take (from a media nerd): Boys' Love is violently popular (and prosecuted) in the PRC because it is being used as a vehicle for anti-government protest
Top left: Wu So Wei from Chai Jidan's Counter Attack (a.k.a. Revenged Love)
Top right: Wei Wuxian from MXTX's Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (a.k.a. The Untamed)
Bottom Left: Zhou Zishu from Priest's Faraway Wanderer's (a.k.a. Word of Honor)
Bottom Right: Bai Luo Yin from Chai Jidan's Addicted: Heroin
This post was inspired by the insightful and informative conversation between @theside-b and @one-2nd about the meteoric popularity of Revenged Love, how its predecessor Addicted triggered Chinese censors, and why the Chinese audience continues to patronize queer media despite the government's ban (click here to read it, I highly suggest you do). Also, some additional published readings that further illustrate this point, if you want to look into it [ 1 ], [ 2 ], [ 3 ]
If you've ever had the pleasure of reading any of the webnovels of Chinese author Chai Jidan, you'll notice that many of her main characters are defined by a single trait. Take Wu So Wei, the spunky, firecracker lead of her novel Counter Attack, or Bai Luo Yin, the level-headed genius of Addicted: Heroin. These characters are not defined by the men who pursued them or the love stories that shaped their lives.
Instead they are defined by CRIPPLING, ABJECT POVERTY.
Chai Jidan takes great pains (and many chapters) in explaining to her readers how, despite both So Wei and Luo Yin's brilliance and talent, they are hampered by the circumstances of their environment. So Wei is looked down upon in social circles because of his low education, perceived stupidity, and provincial upbringing, even though in the book he is revealed to be especially cunning, technically-skilled and business-savvy. In fact, during his pursuit of Chi Cheng, So Wei was able to discuss politics and philosophy with his more educated lover just by reading borrowed books. Meanwhile, Bai Luo Yin, valedictorian of his class and a bona fide genius, is studying at a school for low income families, lives paycheck-to-paycheck with his blue-collar father, queus up in the early morning to get government medical aid for his grandmother, and does odd jobs around the community to earn extra money for school.
Because of their upbringings, and the bullying they've experienced, both characters have developed an extreme rejection of the luxurious, socialite lifestyle touted by those around them. Luo Yin hates his mother because she left his father to marry a rich man. And So Wei goes to extreme lengths to take revenge on his former girlfriend, who ridiculed him because he is poor. Even when they entered into relationships with their (disgustingly rich) partners, both So Wei and Luo Yin continued to show aversion towards lavish possessions, often only accepting gifts from their lovers if their families will directly benefit from it in some way.
Gu Hai gifts Luo Yin's family with medical equipment and other necessities
So Wei, out of guilt, even attempts to break off his relationship with Chi Cheng multiple times after fulfilling the plot to separate him from his then girlfriend (and So Wei's ex) Yue Yue. This is done in spite of So Wei potentially losing access to the luxurious lifestyle Chi Cheng provides for him, and his growing love for his partner.
The ambition to earn just enough to provide comfortably for loved ones is actually an Asian-defiant concept.
In a country that values economic dominance, industrial competition, and capitalist sensibilities, and one that urges their workforce to do the same, brilliant people who dream of being "comfortably average" are practically committing a taboo. These are Western, liberal ideologies-- opposing bottomless "need" with "satisfaction", and prioritizing personal feelings over long-term gain. Defiant thoughts.
Speaking of defiance, let's turn to the more outright rebels of modern Chinese fiction, starting with gay martial hero Wei Wuxian--an amalgamation of the Xianxia and Danmei genres:
Wei Wuxian surrenders to Lan Wangji after freeing Wen Clan refugees from the Jin encampment
Chinese novelist Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (MXTX) often writes main characters who are pushed into oppression not by birth, but by circumstance. Wei Wuxian, the son of two highly-respected rogue cultivators (magic wielders) who died in an accident, was brought up as the third heir to the mighty Jiang clan by their leader, Jiang Fengmian. The most talented (and unruly) cultivator of his generation, Wei Wuxian develops a technique that harnesses the spirit of the dead instead of inner spiritual energy to generate combat magic-- a method perceived as heresy by the upper clans, but a boon for people born with weak or absent inner spiritual cores. Wei Wuxian's exceptional skill secured victory for the cultivators against tyrant Wen clan leader Wen Ruohan, but he becomes the collective clans' next target after he fights for the freedom of innocent Wen refugees tortured and imprisoned by the Jin clan. Killed and subsequently resurrected sixteen years later by unknown forces, he works with his lover, brother, and best friend to expose the Jin clan's corruption.
In the past, MXTX has openly discussed her story's Wen clan arc as a direct parallel to the real-life atrocities China experienced at the hands of Japanese forces during World War II. She even named the movement against Wen Ruohan as the "Sunshot Campaign", a direct allusion to the sun that features prominently in Japan's national symbols (as the Land of the Rising Sun), and the Wen colors (white and red) a direct reference to the Japanese flag.
However, her actual parallel for the Jin clan, the second oppressor, is more dangerous to discuss by comparison.
In her novels, the Jin clan serves as the cultivator world's economic superpower-- the clan with the largest population, industries, and merchants. Characterized by their golden dragon and peacock motiffs, and with a reverence for the peony flower, the Jin clan is also governed by some of the cultivator world's most ruthless police, who impose their cruel punishments beyond their clan and onto others. Though MXTX has NEVER paralleled the Jins to any government or entity in our current world, she has been constantly persecuted by the Chinese censors (and now the actual police), for allegedly mirroring her second oppressor to... someone closer to home. And by writing a character like Wei Wuxian, who openly defies extreme opulence and corruption, and works to shift power towards the more simplistic and monastic Lan clan, MXTX along with many danmei authors are now being perceived as spurring movements against modern Chinese sensibilities:
China’s censorship campaign turns to danmei, an online genre of same-sex love stories between men
And this is not just under the lens of homosexuality and China's aversion to queer existence. Most danmei stories feature main characters actively rebelling against oppressive governmental forces-- ones that impose harsh rules to maintain power, while continuing to subjugate indigents, minorities and marginalized sectors.
Though not explicitly rebellious, these authors often incorporate wordplay, symbols and allusions that point towards a critical commentary of their own government system.
It doesn't help that PRC is plagued by issues like these, which identify top government officials as part of the country's systemic corruption:
Purge is latest sign president Xi Jinping’s anti corruption drive has reached highest echelons of armed forces
Zhou Zishu is tortured after he refuses to rejoin Tian Chuang.
Chinese author Priest is perhaps one of the most explicitly rebellious writers of the genre (her pen name is derived from the idea of a church leader-- someone who stands for righteousness). Priest writes not just for danmei, but for het xianxia and wuxia genres as well, and she LOVES creating outright anti-government characters. Zhou Zishu, her lead in the danmei wuxia novel Faraway Wanderers, is a high-ranking government official and a member of the nobility-- nephew of the ruling emperor and cousin to the prince regent. He is leader of Tian Chuang-- a secret intelligence faction of the royal police who spies on and kills the empire's dissidents. After growing disillusioned with the Prince's corruption, he commits fatal self-flagellation and resigns to a vagrant, nomadic life. Now given mere months to live, he gets a second chance at redemption when he and the nation's most wanted criminal leader--Wen Kexing-- team up to prevent a civil war between martial sects. These leaders are committing the mass genocide of smaller sects (and each other) in search of a secret weapon-- the famed Glazed Armor that would allegedly provide them with the power to subjugate the whole martial world.
For years, and despite the growing commotion both within and outside of China, the PRC has dispelled rumors of a government-controlled spy ring that's apparently monitoring the military operations of countries in territorial dispute with China. With rumors seemingly debunked, and media censorship so brutal even chats are monitored between individuals, talks of these secret factions only persist in literature, but they are ESPECIALLY POPULAR in Danmei. I know of about two other authors besides Priest who write about these organizations: Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat), and Shui Qian Cheng. This all came to a head last year, when Indonesia and the Philippines arrested alleged Chinese spies occupying sham government posts in their countries, and a former spy himself came forward to expose the country's operations:
A spy for one of the most feared and powerful arms of China’s intelligence apparatus is revealing his identity and operations overseas, incl
The loudest outcry came from within the danmei fandoms, who've been allegedly sounding the alarm on this unconstitutional operation for years. As the rest of the world uncovers more information, and look towards the one media from China that's capable of transcending the censors and going international, it's no wonder PRC has laid down the law against Boys' Love.
Now I am NOT saying that the Danmei genre and its authors are anti-government. THEY ARE NOT ANTI-GOVERNMENT. The genre aims to promote equal rights for a marginalized community, and is serving as a safe space for LGBTQIA+ members who've been deprived of proper representation because of China's crackdown on what is perceived as "morally wrong" behaviors.
The Beijing LGBT Center is the latest to shut down amid a crackdown on advocacy groups by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
I am also not saying that all danmei are considered anti-government propagada. But the content itself IS inherently rebellious. Whether the rebellion stems from the propagation of liberal sensibilities, like in Chai Jidan's work, or the takedown of actual systemic corruption, like for MXTX and Priest, participation in this discourse constitutes freedom of expression for some, and the safest form of protest for many.
This is why PRC media often frames Danmei fandoms as depraved underaged fans fueled by lust -- a method they use to further justify the banning of the genre. They run continuous stories of fans chasing their favorite stars in airports or selling their discarded cups as merch in online stores, and release it onto fandom echo chambers as a "trend", or even as "common fandom behavior".
The Oxford Dictionary defines "echo chambers" as an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered.
These echo chambers also often construe false information about BL celebrities and danmei authors, and like the worst airborne virus known to mankind, fuel fandom delusion enough to warrant a mass stalking at the nearest mall. Out come the police, who blame a whole community of oppressed individuals for the unruly behavior of some fetishists.
Chinese internet giants will get about three months to adhere to Beijing’s new directive against “information cocoons.”
So yes, so long as the censors continue to choke communication channels, and people are in need of a safe space to protest injustice and discrimination, Boys' Love (danmei) shall remain violently popular in the PRC. And its government will not change its mind on the ban, regardless of the money it brings in. This is more than just entertainment-- THIS is political.
*dons clown hat once more* time to go into hiding now. Stay kooky folks.
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