seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Türkiye
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Russia
seen from China
seen from Israel
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United Kingdom
seen from China
seen from Argentina
seen from South Africa
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from United States
No touchy 💢
S.C.I. Mystery · 2018
Ji Xiaobing as Zhan Yao | S.C.I.
They’re so fucking married your honor
Top 10 BLs Out of China
(best BLs from China in no particular order, and all containing problematic tropes or serious censorship or both - triggers all ‘round)
Addicted Heroin (2016) Viki - Censored mid series but high heat classic BL prior to that, weird ending, still my favorite. Unfinished due to censorship but still very good, well acted and shot, high school set, rich kid falls madly for the genius poor kid in his class, starts an aggressive pursuit, includes kidnapping for love, obsession, stepbrother trope, plus some cheating.
Word of Honor (2021) Viki & YouTube - Censored wuxia bromance, amorphous ending. Two murder-gay assassins (pining sunshine/tsundere) who manage to be insanely gay for two boys who will never be allowed to kiss. Tropes include: wuxia, soulmates, paranormal, historical, and fantasy elements.
The Untamed Special Edition BL Cut (2020) YouTube - Censored wuxia bromance, amorphous ending. Probubly the best known BL of its kind out of China and responsible for bring many fans to the BL side.
Guardian (2018) grey - Censored bromance, episodic urban fantasy police procedural, one of the most epic long term pinings in the history of long term pinings.
Advance Bravely (2017) grey - Bodyguard romance censored mid series, weird ending. I actually kinda like this but it is very much censored has themes of revenge, salvation, infiltration, and domesticity. Hard to find and the rip is terrible.
My Esports Genius Brother (2021) GaGa - A strangely cute somewhat incomprehensible censored magical realism BL micro series about fated mates who balance each other out and must find the courage to stay together. More here.
Like Love: I Love You As a Man 1 & 2 (2014-2105) YouTube grey - Pre-censorship with an HEA, also explicit, yeah China once did that. Classic early yaoi style BL college romance for a rich popular jock type and a super nerd.
Mr. CEO is Falling in Love with Him (2017) grey - Heavily censored bromance that says what it does on the tin, but they basically end up living together.
S.C.I. AKA SCI Mysteries (2018) YouTube - Out of Hong Kong but they tend to act similar to Mainland China around censorship, this is a police procedural with a censored bromance main couple of police investigators who live together basically as husbands, it’s just not talked about. This is one of the first BLs I ever saw (I found their relationship very confusing).
Irresistible Love: Secret of the Valet 1 & 2 AKA Uncontrolled Love (2016) YouTube grey - Censored obsession romance but there’s an alt happy ending for the series on part 2, quite violent, lots of tiggers, whipping boy chassis.
Vids tagged “grey” may no longer have functioning links. Check MDL comment threads to track down. Or leave a comment I may have an updated link.
Mainland China & BL in Brief
China’s History with BL is complicated by serious homophobia and censorship, which I’ve posted about before so I’m not going to go into it again in depth.
Like Japan, most of China’s early stuff is depressing in that they like to kill their queers either with the seme character becoming so obsessed to the point of kidnapping, rape, and murder (the murder-gay trope). Otherwise they end their stuff with separation by accidental death, noble self sacrifice, or some other misery (kill your gays trope).
China entered the market in a big way with over a dozen movies 2014-2016 featuring either adult or university aged characters, often explicit relations, always obsessive love, and ultimate unhappiness.
In 2016 Addicted: Heroin released which looked to be an actual BL romance with a high school setting, high heat, and HEA and the censors lost their shizz and shut it down. (There are lots of rumors about what "playing gay” did to the careers of the respective actors, especially the one playing the uke role.)
Clearly production had already begun on a few 2017 series like Advance Bravely and Beloved Enemy, which then got killed or censored beyond all recognition, and there’s a drop off in movies with any kind of queer content after that.
This in turn resulted in the suppressed bromance long running series of 2018-2019 (SCI, Guardian). The ultimate result of which was wuxia adaptation, The Untamed in 2019. Word of Honor pushed back on the gay, again, but was still censored and not allowed to end (exactly) HEA (by romance standards). (And the uke actor was punished, again, this time ostensibly for other reasons.)
As China currently stands, BL is either heavily censored into little to no physical contact and couple references or the gay character(s) must die or end up de-facto apart. Basically China’s messaging is:
Stay in the closet or be unhappy and die.
This is why I tend to not be a big fan of Chinese BL.
I know, call me crazy.
If you want more about profound damage done by suppressing gay physical affection on screen and why it’s cruel and unforgivable I go on a serious rant here.
A list of bromances, sans my negtive thoughts and feels is here.
This is part of a series on top 10 BLs from each country coupled with a history of BL.
Japanese BL
Chinese BL
Taiwanese BL
Korean BL
Thai BL
Chinese masculinity and the ban on effeminate men
Where to watch it? Most Chinese BL eventually shows up on YouTube.
ALL BLS OUT OF CHINA
That I have watched and rated, by date & then rating out of 10 as of June 2022.
What your favorite LGBT Ship says about you:
WayHaught: You‘re just in it for the handcuffs.
BaiZhao: This is just the same as WayHaught except you think the phrase “bros before hoes” is a lifestyle choice.
WeiLan: You’d tell your partner on a first date, you’re looking for someone to die for.
Cazzie: You wouldn’t mind if men just didn’t exist.
Villaneve: You would let your celebrity crush run over you with their car. And you’d just be fine with that.
Wangxian: Gazing into each other’s eyes is the most romantic thing you can think of.
Bubbline: You have an anime profile picture.
Evak: You don’t ever leave your house. Sitting on your bed, watching romantic movies and edits on your computer is all you need.
Crisana: You would make a romantic playlist for your S.O.... and it would be shit.
Willara: You cry whenever good does not in fact triumph over evil. You believe love is the truest magic of them all.
Tharntype: Your favorite ship type is angel x devil. And you either want to date someone with a pure heart or someone who can and would kill you and there’s no inbetween.
Siren: If your S.O. isn’t also your personal bodyguard, you don’t want them.
decided to give it a shot and watch S.C.I.谜案集
i’m not expecting high quality television so if it sucks i won’t be very disappointed (and besides, i’ve seen guardian which is objectively a giant trash pile of a tv show and i still loved it enough to watch it twice, so yeah)
i’m like 10 minutes in and my impressions of the two protagonists are as follow:
bai yutong or the world’s no.1 Most Pretentious Bitch and Drama Queen which he proves by wearing only white, even to a crime scene and arriving at said crime scene with a dramatic roar of his ridiculous white sports car’s engine and a ‘don’t you know who i am?!’ attitude
and
kaz brekker zhan yao or the runner-up for the world’s no.1 Most Pretentious Bitch title which he doesn’t get because he insists on wearing clothes in more sensible colors than his opponent and he doesn’t own a car so if he wants to butt in on a crime investigation he needs to take a taxi
and with that i’m off to finish the first episode
S.C.I. 謎案集 S2 wishing tree
Shi Lei (director of SCI) has posted on his weibo asking for fan input. If you have a Weibo, go GIVE YOUR KNEES or WRITE A LETTER IN BLOOD TO HAVE THE ORIGINAL CAST
Wishes so far from scrolling real fast (there are 3000+ so far):
You (Shi Lei) must direct it
Must have original main cast
More BTS and please turn down the music a bit so we can hear them talk and add some subtitles
hdd backup for Shi Lei this time (lol)
use original voices, no dub
Buy Ma Han some actual PANTS
Have the leads do a duet
Do something about the leads’ hair
if you don’t have enough $ for promotion this time, please crowdfund we’ll pay
bai sir cooking scene please
Buy Zhan Yao and Bai Yutong matching rings
Can sister Bai and Gongsun be LESS WEIRD
Can I play a corpse
Zhan Yao crying scene please
princess carry princess carry princess carry
ALSO if we can keep you (Shi Lei) and original cast you can ignore all our other wishes
S.C.I : Journal of Mysterious Cases
