Challenging Common Perceptions About Sex and Sexuality on Chinese TV
Watching this video what strikes me is how the presenter is able to illustrate the important points she is making throughout her script’s narrative, with Ancient Danmei adaptation footage as well as scenes from other magnificent queer-coded historical CDramas, but there exists no other country on Earth you can replicate this for.
I was only vaguely interested in the substance of this setting-the-record-straight video (I knew most of this history already) but what really hit me was the extent of relevant visuals that could easily be assembled to support the text. In the opening introduction above, she is able to illustrate her points using visuals from several Chinese TV adaptations created from Danmei novels - Love Is More Than A Word; The Untamed ; WoH, and still didn’t run out of content for the next 20 minutes.
I have often wondered why it is that Chinese TV and China-based streaming platforms have dozens of EPIC, including fantasy, wuxia, cultivation, detective, martial, and imperial court Danmei or other queer homoerotic story adaptations featuring MM or FF love on a grand, 50+ episodes scale, but there is not even one single gay Game of Thrones in the ostensibly more “accepting, non-restrictive and uncensored” Anglophone queer media sphere.
While China has these in dozens, many rivalling or exceeding GoT or Marvel scope of ambition, it would be hard to find five big budget, blockbuster queer cinematic masterpieces each, from the prolific filmmaking Anglosphere, even if you were to ask for the historical or costumed as well as any modern era queer, big-budget spectaculars to be combined. An interesting paradox, isn’t it?
- What’s the Reason the West has Not Produced Even One Gay GoT? -
This I think is a valid enquiry but rarely have I come across comparative media analysis such as this really honest, moving and illuminating reflection by a queer American person inspired by his multiple re-watches of CDrama, The Rise of Phoenixes, in which the author tries to wrestle with this very conundrum.
Very different perspective from how most western viewers of Chinese queer media usually approach evaluating these types of productions which are often produced by Chinese queer people themselves. This is definitely partially a result of evaluating the products of other peoples’ culture on the basis of naturalising and elevating the shortcomings of the media you grew up on, and then imposing them as the minimum standards for everyone else everywhere.
Even many international viewers who are fans of a Danmei novel before its adaptation seem to forget Danmei is meant to stand as a disruptive, anti western-centric force, in active resistance to normative discourses of western narratives, and still tend to evaluate them from the limits of what is available at home.
Consequently, Chinese Dangai and mainstream queer-coded CDramas depart from Japanese and other BL traditions by not being primarily concerned with the currently existing world of individual queer students or salarymen as in Thailand, South Korea or Japan, but with imagining whole alternative worlds in which systemic transformations producing just, new civilisations can be carved out and impacted on by people who happen to possess same-sex desire and who use their queerness to change the world around them, not just who gets to sleep with whom.
It’s the idea of *transgressive male intimacy* that constitutes the central nervous system of Chinese BL, not merely transgressive male-male sex, hence a much more socially and politically panoramic romantic, emotional, and erotic potential is contained within a queer Chinese TV production (A Couple of Mirrors), even when it’s queer-coded (Nirvana In Fire) or an original screen play that’s barely ambiguous (Killer And Healer) or less covert (ABO Desire) than its international peers. Among regional BL film producing countries only China offers this magnitude of narrative depth and expanse at scale and it’s always nice to see that acknowledged.
Important to remember that China has no media rating system according to age, so there is no such thing as *NC*, *Adults Only*, *PG*, and so on; if a piece of media passes the quality test in China, that makes it equally good for everyone to consume. This means both a minor child and an adult can be inspired, informed, validated and entertained by the same outstanding works, for example Ne Zha 2.
Sort of adds another layer to perspectives on censorship and media freedom when it comes to diversity and accessibility of explicit and implicit queer representation; a single, narrow story that’s allowed to be told about men, masculinity and sexuality in any time period for a restricted audience, versus a wider creative pallet of options that are available for the enjoyment of the entire population of cinema and CDrama consumers.
Among other things, this comes in very handy for illustrating the odd script about the normalisation of queer love in China, both ancient and modern 😉.
Link to the Rise of Phoenixes article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/01/the-refreshing-gender-politics-of-the-rise-of-phoenixes
Seeing yourself on screen is a beautiful thing, even if you need subtitles.
Link to the full video the clip comes from: The Romance of Male Concubines in the Han Dynasty of Ancient China - https://youtu.be/WMCl-4SKjbs?si=FYSpo-c78n19RGa_
I love when Priest's pairs have these brief moments when they are casually talking and they suddenly start smiling/laughing in the most carefree way to show that they are in the same page or very comfortable around each other in that scene. I just love the simplicity of these affectionate gestures. I love their interactions.
A Summary: The Spirealm | 致命游戏 (Kaleidoscope of Death 死亡万花筒 Live Action) & Why You Should (Eventually) Watch It
Talk about the most short-lived drama release ever, not even totalling two hours if I recall. Creating this summary as I've seen a handful of confused friends, so here it goes!
It's going to be a long review because I sped through all 78 episodes and only properly watched the first two doors, but I got you. You'll get both the brief book rundown and the drama parts!
If you just wanna see the bromance (LOVE) parts please skip to section 4!!!!
1. Overview
Title: The Spirealm (kinda awful I'm sorry it's a mouthful) or 致命游戏 which means fatal game
Adapted From: Danmei (BL) Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu
Novel Prints: There are GORGEOUS Thai, Vietnamese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese versions printed, AND Singapore publisher Rosmei has signed the license for the ENGLISH version, probably going on sale this year (preview is here). You can still access fan translations by Taida on I think wordpress and someone else on Tumblr sorry bad memory (they did half and half each) if you'd like to read it for context. It is one of my FAVE danmeis EVER and I am a die-hard OG book fan, check out my full danmei review here.
Total Episodes: 78 (20 minutes each with the exception of last episode which 10 minutes, with several BTS not that I think we will get to see all of them yet)
Where to Watch (LOL): Erm considering that iQIYI China AND International took the episodes down, there is no legal way to watch this, BUT thanks to some cnetz with super fast and great wifi, we managed to get ripped HD versions without subs. iQIYI is very hard on copyright though, they've taken down several subbed and unsubbed versions already on YouTube, but you should type the titles of show into Twitter and the top tags will tell you where to access the raws and very little subbed episodes, that may also be taken down at any point. I have the Chinese raws but as it's hosted on a cloud, I had to pay to access it.
Main Characters: Lin Qiushi & Ruan Nanzhu/Ruan Baijie (in the novel) and Ling Jiushi & Ruan Nanzhu/Ruan Baijie (in the drama)
Produced By: iQIYI so for SURE they won't film it fully BL even if the original is, but I've seen enough bromance cuts
Book (drama follows closely if not removing the supernatural premises): Lin Qiushi, a designer, opens the door to his home one day from inside and sees 12 iron doors outside. Confused, he opens one of them and arrives at a snow covered village in the mid of winter, and meets Ruan Baijie, who's a pretty, unusually tall and whiny/timid woman. They realise that they're in a horrifying door game, and they'll have to find a door and a key to get out, while battling a long-haired, human-eating deity. They, along with a few others, have to survive day after day until they get out, and on the first night, two people have died in gory ways. Ruan Baijie and Lin Qiushi partner each other, and despite seemingly timid and crying all the time, she saves Lin Qiushi a few times mysteriously, and Lin Qiushi finds himself trusting in Ruan Baijie.
They get through the door together and when they leave successfully, Lin Qiushi realizes that the people who died in the door will die in real life by some freak accident too - car accidents, forced suicides, a robbery gone wrong, a lift trapped in the air and going ablaze, and more. That night, Lin Qiushi wakes up to see a super handsome and tall Ruan Nanzhu at his bedside and this man feels familiar to him, but he can't put a finger on it. All he can think of when Ruan Nanzhu says his name is Ruan Baijie (ahem he would later find out who it is of course). Ruan Nanzhu takes him to his mansion in the suburbs where he meets a group of other people just like them, who're forced to go through the doors for survival. Ruan Nanzhu then invites him to join Obsidian, his organization.
Through various doors, Lin Qiushi grows and supports a super intelligent and powerful Ruan Nanzhu, falls in love with him, gets through many many scary doors with him and some of their other team members, makes friends, loses them to the cruelty of the doors as they ponder over what the door means, and what being alive/dying means.
And at the end of it, at the end of of it all, when they're all good and living their life, Lin Qiushi also finds out what Ruan Nanzhu's secret is, and the lengths to which Ruan Nanzhu went to, just to be with him.
Drama: Ling Jiushi is a VR game designer who gets pulled into a game, and he meets Ruan Baijie (in his male form) right off the bat (SO NOT CROSSDRESSING I AM SAD). All the parts are actually the same as the novel, albeit with the game setting and Ling Jiushi and Ruan Nanzhu's identity adjustments to suit the game premise. Most of the other doors and their lines are the same, just that the ending is a bit more confusing than it could be. There's a big bad as well and they actually show the opposing organizations when in the novel, these other organizations aside from Obsidian didn't even actually have a face or goal to them.
3. Characters
^ Them in the book (based on manhua that never got to go live LOL) (RNZ/RBJ left, LQS right)
^ Them in the show (LJS left, RNZ right)
Ruan Nanzhu/Ruan Baijie: MY HANDSOME CROSSDRESSING INTELLIGENT ALOOF BUT WHINY (WHEN IT COMES TO LIN QIUSHI) SASSY BOSS!!!! He's super mysterious and super thick-skinned too, and all he wants is Lin Qiushi's attention the moment he meets him. He's intrigued by Lin Qiushi's calm and his brains and the way he handles things, and has a lot of trust for him right from the get-go. This is also shown in the drama itself. As the leader of Obsidian, he cares a lot for his team members and his friends even if he doesn't show it most of the time, and the last thing he wants to do is lose Lin Qiushi, and he would do ANYTHING for Lin Qiushi, ANYTHING!!! Just look at him whining:
Ling Jiushi (Lin Qiushi): In the novel he's super calm, has quite a lot of brains, a little bit of a blur in the beginning but he's super smart as well. Worries a lot for Ruan Nanzhu and is also a loyal friend to some of his only friends, and feels a lot when he loses them. Falls gradually in love with Ruan Nanzhu in the novel, like they just belong together. In this drama, Ling Jiushi holds that same trust for Ruan Nanzhu, but in demeanour he seems a bit more like a klutz and and not as cool as he was in the novel, but I guess it's acceptable. Literally like the only thing he loves more than RNZ (maybe) is his cat Chestnut LOL and RNZ is NOT really happy about that but Chestnut LOVES RNZ
Yixie and Qianli: CUTEST TWINS ;-; WHO TREAT RNZ and LQS as their big brothers LOOK AT THEM BOWING AND RNZ/LJS like parents LMAO
A handful of other characters who will keep turning up and get your hearts ;-;
4. ALL FAVE BROMANCE MOMENTS + TROPES
THEY TOUCH EACH OTHER A LOT LIKE HOLDING HANDS AND TOUCHING FACES, PIGGY BACKING?!?! DID I MENTION FACE TOUCHING
WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP THEY HELP EACH OTHER WHEN HURT OR GET HURT FOR EACH OTHER
AND WHEN THEY WAKE UP IN BED THE OTHER IS AT THEIR BEDSIDE
AND DID I MENTION HE FEEDS HIM IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE
AND THAT THEY DATED UNDER THE FIREWORKS LIKE THE NOVEL DOES NOT EVEN HAVE THIS SHIT
AND THE KABEDONS
AND FINALLY RUAN NANZHU RIZZ OMG
5. Settings
They REALLY OUTDID THEMSELVES. THIS JUST FROM DOORS 1-6:
THEY LOOK EXACTLY LIKE THE NOVEL DESCRIBED!!!!
6. Overall Thoughts
PROS: This was NOT a cheap production, I'm telling you, they followed the cases very well and there're a lot of super recognisable lines, if not ALL of them, even if they changed the cases a little. I think they did it because in the novel originally, the author DOES leave a lot of details hanging like someone dies and you know he had a background and there are some shady things happening but the author NEVER actually goes into detail. So the drama did their best to cover these loopholes, even if it felt a little awkward at times. Money went into settings and attires and every damn thing, this looks EXPENSIVE. And if you've ever imagined each door and the bosses inside in your head, you might have felt chills go down your spine because damn did they really colour the book's settings for me (despite its differences). DID I MENTION that Xia Zhiguang really got the damn memo and he was a passable Ruan Nanzhu/Ruan Baijie who knew how to turn on his BL eyes. PLUS they really did some of the character deaths really well - they're technically some of the biggest parts of this story so ;-; (not two main of course)
CONS (maybe): They did away with the supernatural/horror premise and replaced it with a GAME premise, which means that there's a scientific element to it and the try to explain away stuff with the game, including the ending. I don't 100% get the ending, but the feel/vibe is about the same. Might not be for hardcore reader fans tho! They skipped out on a couple of doors, some of which were my faves, but it's fine, it's long enough LOL. They give away/explain some of the clues and surprises super early which means you don't get that added boom at the back as well. Despite that, I have to say they tried to round up the loopholes from the book as much as they could and give it an explanation while tying elements/conspiracies across doors (probably also to save cast fees LOL). And as always it's not a solid ending, it's an open confusing one, and even more confusing than the book itself because THERE IS NO CERTAIN HAPPILY EVER AFTER WITH HUBBY for it (there is in the book tho, they live together happily every after). Secondl,y, I'd say HJJ's acting is a bit stiff and OOC compared to the novel, but Xia Zhiguang really made up for it.
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HOPE THIS HELPS YOU GUYS!!! But I guess if you need subs it's going to be a long LONGGGG ride, considering that iQIYI doesn't seem to be going to be able to put it up anytime soon CRIES.
hey loves, i can't say much tonight as i'm exhausted/unwell from a very weird long horrible day and already flat on my back in bed. BUT i see various of you here on the hellsite panicking about the jitd ending. and i mean i understand why, we have all been burned by dangai before, especially when it's a priest adaptation, bc she's just out here writing Happily Gay Ever After, which is not allowed. (still feel bad for all those people who never saw the extra shl episode 😢)
but here's the thing. i can't tell you how i know this, but for two three separate reasons, i can say: just trust, okay? we are not gonna get kicked in the teeth on this one. shit will fr be ROUGH in those last few episodes, bc as usual we're dealing with self-sacrificial idiots, plus people who are extremely damaged (priest girl sometimes i worry about your childhood). but i am here to promise that the ending will not let you down. you are safe, you are in trustworthy hands. <3
PS there's reasons youku had to sell it to wowow, right? don't forget that!
This is a quick introduction to some popular BL tropes that are fairly new to live-action BL:
wife chasing crematorium
substitute lover [edited]
transmigration
(Contains spoilers)
All corrections and critiques are welcome.
As you probably know My Stand-In is based on the danmei novel Professional Body Double. Specifically, it belongs to 188男团 (“188 group” where 188 cm is the height of every gong (seme) in the novel series). It is a shared universe of novels with characters from one featuring in another and almost all gong are very scummy (or “red-flag” so to speak) initially.
Trope #1: wife chasing crematorium
What 188 group novels all have in common is the trope popularly known among English-speaking fandom as “wife chasing crematorium”. This is a super-popular trope, not only in danmei.
origin
追妻火葬场 (zhuī qī huǒzàng chǎng; chasing his wife’s crematorium)
derived from the longer phrase 傲娇一时爽，追妻火葬场 (àojiāo yīshí shuǎng, zhuī qī huǒzàng chǎng; Tsundere was on his high horse for a while, now chasing his wife’s crematorium.)
Alternative form: 追夫火葬场 (zhuī fū huǒzàng chǎng; chasing husband’s crematorium) – usually involves scum shou (uke) chasing after his gong (seme) after initially abusing gong’s love.
The trope involves the love interest being initially cold or even cruel to the protagonist who is in love. This continues until all of that love gone. By then, the love interest would have come to his senses, eager to seek forgiveness and chase after the protagonist. In some cases, the love is already lost irrevocably, especially when the protagonist is dead – hence, literal crematorium. There are also works where the love interest is discarded all together and protagonist moves on to someone else. Rarely, there are works where the protagonist is the scum.
In 188 group novels, this is how the basic structure of wife chasing crematorium:
Shou loves gong. Gong treats shou terribly.
Gong goes too far. Shou is fed-up and leaves gong, one way or other. Gong realises that he has been in love all along.
Gong regrets his action and chases after shou. Grovelling ensues.
Gong and shou gets back together. Gong dotes on shou and the couple face other challenges (family, villains) together, if any. Happy ending.
Fans are in it for the melodrama. They want to watch scummy gong to go too far, the relationship to break down and for the gong to grovel and make amends through various selfless deeds, until they reestablish the relationship and trust (as much as possible). Every one of those stories end with a happy ending with the gong endlessly doting on shou and the relationship having turned wholesome.
Trope #2: substitute lover
Other than the previous trope Professional Body Double and its adaptation My Stand-In involves the “substitute lover” trope. This one is not exclusive to danmei.
Substitute lover trope involves, usually the gong, having a 白月光 (white moonlight): a person whom he loves a lot but can’t reach/touch. This is usually his first love and has a profound impact on him.
Aside: White moonlight in itself is a common trope. Both Vip Only and Sahara Sensei to Toki-kun used white moonlight trope to in a typical kishōtenketsu narrative structure.
Since white moonlight is unattainable, gong finds a substitute lover.
The relationship between gong and substitute lover is usually just physical. This is because gong doesn’t plan to move on from white moonlight, instead stubbornly carries the torch. Gong doesn’t plan on betraying the pure feeling he have for his white moonlight by giving any of his love to anyone else. So, he tries to ensure that no love leaks out of the dam he has built to store his love for the white moonlight. This is, from gong’s POV, a kind of emotional fidelity which he extends to his white moonlight. A tribute of gong’s unshakable love for his white moonlight.
The substitute lover sometimes resembles white moonlight in some way –
in body – first ever live action BL (shonen-ai actually) adaptation Summer Vacation 1999 (1988) based of Hagio Moto’s The Heart of Thomas plays around with this trope, a lot. More recently, Playboyy sorta lampshaded it with the twins premise.
in spirit – a recent example is Love is Better the Second Time Around wherein prof. Takashi sleeps with his assistant Shiraishi Yuto because the assistant (or his desperation at least) reminded him of his white moonlight Miyata Akihiro.
Aside: There is only one live-action BL that actively subverted this trope: HIStory3: Make Our Days Count. The series introduced a doppelgänger of Yu XiGu (Xiang HaoTing’s white moonlight), a perfect candidate for substitute lover trope. But instead of pursuing it, they subverted the trope.
There are usually two outcomes to the substitute lover trope:
gong falls for substitute lover. In some cases, this involves white moonlight turning into rival or villain.
gong and his white moonlight get together. In this case, substitute lover turn into rival or get a lover of his own.
Itsuka no Kimi e, first ever live-action adaptation of a yaoi manga, employed substitute lover trope in one of its best executions. It is so brilliantly done that I can’t think of anything topping that, unless 4th volume (particularly the case-solving plot involving the photography club) of Takumi-kun series gets live action adaptation.
The Boy Next World employed this trope with Phukan offering to be substitute for his parallel universe counterpart until Cirrus can return to his original world and reunite with his lover Phukan. It is even in the title of episode 3.
Trope #3: transmigration
Basic premise of Professional Body Double and its adaptation My Stand-In revolves around transmigration of soul.
This too is a popular trope in BL. One of the most popular danmei Mo Dao Zu Shi and its adaptation The Untamed involves this trope.
Maybe I should say set-up instead of trope for this one. Transmigration involves soul of a character getting transferred to a body different from his own at the time of triggering event.
Own body, different time – either past or future. When past is involved, it is likely a do-over story where the protagonist gets to redo their life, change their love interest, make different life choices, take different course of action, etc.
Reincarnation – completely different lifetime but with retained memories of past-life/lives. Until We Meet Again; Choco Milk Shake (different lifetime for the pets)
Different body, present (near-present) time – character’s soul enters a different person’s body. The character gets involved in his previous circumstances but now in a different capacity. Revive (2016), that danmei adaptation no one ever talks about, went to town with this set-up.
Different body, different life – soul enters character in a book, game, simulation, etc. and would be primarily tasked to thrive there. One Room Angel (2023) explored a type of badro with this set-up.
With transmigration set-up, it is common to have one of these two:
Transmigrator retaining some connection to previous life.
Transmigrator’s previous life doesn’t matter anymore.
These Tropes in My Stand-In
These tropes are explored to varying degrees and with different levels of efficiency in Professional Body Double. In its live-action adaptation, there are a bunch of limitations. Primary one being the cultural difference – audience of a danmei novel are already familiar with these tropes to some extend but the live-action audience is one which has been primarily consuming sweet BL from Thailand that are inherently deficient in BL literacies.
Another is the khujin problem. Branded pairs are very important to Thai BL industry, so they cannot have two different actors playing before and after transmigration. (Actually, this was not impossible but there hasn’t been any precedent. Also, The Untamed enjoyed success by having Xiao Zhan play pre- and post-transmigration Wei WuXian. I wish they tried two khujin (UpPoom & UpWinner) one couple, since they chose to introduce Winner as pre-transmigration Joe. I don’t know, maybe that’s asking for fan wars and pitting actors against each other.)
[In the tags, @deliriousblue reflects on what having two different actors could do with example from Cupid's Last Wish (a series I haven't watched) and its impact on audience on an emotional level.
@myezblog has commented that Alchemy of Souls (another I haven't watched) is an excellent example of transmigration played two different actors.]
Third limitation is one that comes from medium – you can’t have long monologues in live-action. This deprives audience of the inner workings of character’s minds. Most of the motives, especially Ming’s trouble with warring desires of his heart, is inaccessible to the audience. @clairedaring have posted a deep-dive by Liltsu into some of that here.
Aside: Another interesting trope is giving watch (a taboo gift) – Chinese superstition rising from 送钟 (gifting watch) and 送终 (to bury the dead/attend funeral) being homophones. Taboo gift trope - white lilies associated with death and funerals - have appeared in Summer Vacation 1999 (1988) and Forbidden Love; both of these have substitute lover and death.
Ming’s characterization as a young master, coming from money and prestige that breeds arrogance and deficient in empathy (this post by @tungtung-thanawat is particularly enlightening) is a highlight of his cruelty as a 188 group gong.
While redemption of scum gong is what 188 group offers its audience, it is not necessarily what live-action audience would be wanting from the set-up. It is likely that a part of the audience was in fact looking for revenge plot.
As @lurkingshan highlighted in this post there is no exploration of identity (tied to Joe’s body pre- and post-transmigration) forth-coming precisely because this isn’t that kind of story and body is only treated as a temporary shelter for the soul for most part when transmigration trope is involved. Moreover, the novel is steeped in Confucian values. So, most of the resolution to what it means for Joe to have a mother now is dealt through his selfless gratitude and the filial piety he offers her.
The same is the case with his old body – a proper funeral for that body is what he owes his own parents for having given flesh and blood to the body which housed his soul previously. Remarkably, his own house figures prominently as an inheritance and as an enduring connection to his own parents – a bond more precious to that him than the bond he had to his old body. I am unsure how much of those core Confucian values they will retain in the live-action adaptation, given the cultural difference.
As @befuddledcinnamonroll discusses here, it is tied to cultural ideas of self, religious beliefs, etc.
@bengiyo has pointed out a weakness in execution of the transmigration trope over the substitute lover trope: the latter is a recurring and inverted trope in this series while the former plays out straight. Even though it is clear that coma!Joe is basically friendless and his career already dead (or that he has no career to speak of), it might have been better to hint at a lack of resolution and impending doom, and build anticipation by leaving clues about the troubles that coma!Joe has left behind. That way when the substitute lover trope peaks again, audience would feel as trapped as Joe.
This is where I think Revive (2016) did a better job with friends, colleagues, past-lovers and rivals especially with such similar set-ups: entertainment industry, classism, scum gong, and intersecting lives pre- and post-transmigration.
