Q&A excerpt from a fanmeet/discussion event with Yuyi (余兒), author of the 九龍城寨 | City of Darkness (Twilight of the Warriors) novels — June 2024
Translation made from a transcript written out in Mandarin; the live discussion took place in Cantonese. (x)
Q (提问者为男粉丝)："漫画和电影都产生了很多BL衍生现象（全场爆笑），想问下你对这个现象有什么看法？漫画作者司徒剑桥的画风很美型，当年我看漫画的时候就有想过会有BL，但电影我看一两次都没想到。"
QUESTION (note by transcript OP: person asking is a male fan): "Both the [City of Darkness] manhua and movie have given rise to a lot of BL fanworks." [*crowd breaks out laughing*] "So I wanted to ask what your thoughts on that phenomenon are. Andy Seto's art style in the manhua is very beautiful, and the year I read it, I thought there might be BL [fanworks]. But even after seeing the movie twice I hadn't imagined this."
A："整个电影团队都没想到。（全场爆笑）十几年前九龙城寨漫画刚出的时候，港漫还没有BL发生，九龙城寨应该是第一本有BL同人出现的。当时我去了RG（编者注：即香港的一个同人志漫展Rainbow Gala）看到有同人创作就觉得“点解会咁”（怎么会这样）？当然我不是介意，我是开心的，因为大家是因为喜欢你的角色所以才这样创作。当时的同人创作持续了两三年就慢慢淡去了，直到我没想到这个月我又去了RG，居然又看到了，我只能说这就是城寨的命吧。"
"后来我反思会不会是兄弟情去到某一个阶段某一个位置，就会让你有这样的联想。（其实这些同人创作）四子他们都有看到的，也都开心，但是他们未必有看到BL的故事，只是看到同人图而已。其实我不介意这些的，但是那些作者看到我就尴尬。在RG现场我看到一本叉烧饭封面（编者注：指之前余兒老师买的All信一本）的BL同人本，就买了当作珍藏，但我没看。那个摊主还掩面很尴尬，希望大家不要尴尬，都OK的。"
ANSWER: "The entire movie team hadn't imagined it either." [*crowd laughs*] "Ten years ago, when the City of Darkness manhua had just come out, Hong Kong manhuas didn't have anything BL happening. City of Darkness should have been the first IP here to have BL doujinshi made for it. At the time, when I went to RG (transcript note: Rainbow Gala, Hong Kong's first doujin comic-con), I saw some doujin fanworks and thought 'Why would this happen?' Of course, I didn't mind. I was happy, since it was because everyone liked my characters enough that they were making creations like this. The doujin works continued to appear back then for about 2-3 years before slowly dying down. Until I went to RG again this month, and I hadn't pictured that this would happen, but I saw them all once more. I can only say that this must be the fate of the City of Darkness franchise."
"Eventually I reflected on this, and whether or not the feelings of brotherhood [in the story] had reached a certain stage and place, that caused people to have this kind of association. The [actors playing the] Walled City Four have all seen these fanworks and they're pleased about it, although they've only seen the fanart, not the stories. Actually, I really don't mind all of this, but those creators feel awkward when they see me. At RG I bought a BL doujinshi that had barbecue pork rice on the cover*, just to keep as a collector's item, although I didn't look through it. The stall vendor was covering their face, and seemed very embarrassed. I hope people don't need to feel embarrassed! It's all OK."
*The book Yuyi bought and is referring to is a fully explicit fanfic compilation of different characters in the series railing Shin (信一). Do with that knowledge what you will.
