BLs with Significant Connection to their Country's Culture, History, Etc...
Okay, so I chose from BLs I rated higher than an 8/10. I made exceptions for a few that I felt fit the brief very well as shows (even if I didn't think they were very good BLs.)
Religion, Folklore, Mythology & Shamanistic Traditions
He's Coming to Me (Thai 2019 YouTube) - Boy and ghost boy fall in love, must solve ghost’s murder. Excellent rep for culture around afterlife belief and practices.
Until We Meet Again (Thai 2019 YouTube) - near perfect execution around the red thread belief, plus excellent insight in Thailand's historic dessert traditions and foodways. Plus my favorite Thai BL of all time.
Khemjira (Thai 2025 iQIYI) - not only does this involve spirituality, folklore, and regional shamanistic beliefs but there is quite a bit of local history thrown in for good measure.
Make a Wish (Thai 2023 grey) - A doctor who can see the dead strikes a bargain with a wish-granting irreverent tree angel - naturally they fall in love.
The Sign (Thai 2024 YouTube) - This show is literally everything (except straight) all at once. It's BL, queer, band of brothers, romcom, erotica, PNR, fated mates, police procedural, fantasy, mystery, suspense, and slasher. Sure, it's madness but there is genius in it. What you are looking for are the mythological parts, which are actually pretty darn good and could have marched off the wall-paintings of any major wat. Even the costumes, while stylized, are fun in the way they blend genders. It's a clever wardrobe, this one.
DNA Says Love You (Taiwan 2022 Gaga) - folklore and ghost mythology, normally I tell watchers to give this one grace on the first few eps, but that might be the part you'll find the most interesting with regards to local ghost stories and associated folklore.
Others
Marry My Dead Body (Taiwan - not a BL IMHO)
Stay By My Side (Taiwan)
The Promise of The Soul (Taiwan)
Century of Love (Thailand)
Ghost Host Ghost House (Thailand)
Dear Doctor, I'm Coming for Your Soul (Thailand)
Historical Insight
I Feel You Linger in the Air (Thai 2023 grey) - An exquisite historical BL, from filming techniques to narrative framework about a gay man from our time who falls into the past, becomes a servant to a noble house, and falls in love with the heir. My full feels and review plus historical context detailed here.
Memoir of Rati (Thai 2025 YouTube) - A solid high production historical about a young man who returns to Thailand as the adopted son of a French diplomat and falls in love with a Thai nobleman in 1915. Anchored by two incredibly solid pairs, and some beautiful optics, this story was grounded in the political reality of the time (even if the outcome for the pairs is unrealistically optimistic).
To Sir, With Love aka Khun Chai ( Thai 2022 YouTube) - This is a true lakorn (basically Thai tellenovella or soap opera) with scenery chewing performances, especially from the mother characters. Gone With the Wind + Days of Our Lives but gay. BUT specifically this delves into history of Bangkok and the Chinese trade families which I didn't even know to research until I watched this. Full review here.
Nobleman Ryu's Wedding (Korea 2021 WeTV) - A boy cross-dresses to take his runaway sister's place as a bride to a shy scholar, turns out they like being married. Also 2022's Tinted with You (time travel sort of thing).
But neither of the 2 KBLs above offer much historical insight beyond household set ups and period costuming.
Others:
Your Name Engraved Herein (Taiwan) - actually deals with some very important parts of Taiwan's history. But this is not a happy show.
Shine (Thailand) - Thai history and politics around the queer community, which brings us to...
Politics & Such
Not Me (Thai 2022 YouTube) - GMMTV gave us a dark disestablishment narrative (in a time of civil unrest - 2022) with queer award-winning director Anucha and starring the biggest guns of BL, OffGun and THIS WAS AN AMAZING THING to get to experience at the time - nerve racking but remarkable. The fact that this kind of subversion does exist in Thailand is known, but the government hates that, so it's crazy this show got aired at all.
My Ride (Thai 2022 grey) - Kindly, overworked doctor meets broken-hearted motorcycle taxi driver in an “other side of the tracks” slow burn romance. Good insight into "lower class" jobs and city life.
Love in Translation (Thai 2023 iQIYI) - Actually pretty accurate insight into how to start and run a business in Thailand if one is not Thai, including all the issues and problems with bureaucracy and retail.
Mandate (Thai 2025 grey) - I haven't finished this one but I do like it, and it seems pretty good and showcasing rural politics in Thailand, so I'm putting it here just in case.
Others
Moonlight Chicken (Thai)
Bangkok Boy (Thai)
Plus and Minus (Taiwan)
Stay Still (Hong Kong YouTube)
Rural Insight
A Tale of Thousand Stars (Thai 2021) - northern Thai village life insight, and a truly great BL. One of the best from GMMTV.
Manner of Death (Thai 2021 WeTV) - A smoldering muscle boy murderY gay romantic suspense series with added cactus baby and rural setting. Watch along here.
Addicted: Heroin (China 2016 Viki) - I put this one in because it's one of the very rare Chinese dramas where we get stark and realistic insight into life outside of major cities and in an explicitly poor neighborhood. There have been a few Cdramas that touch on this, but not many, and this show gives us the starkness so well. (I have a private theory that this was part of the reason this show was cracked down on so hard by CCP.)
Secrets Happened on the Litchi Island (China 2025 YouTube) - watch this one if you want rural insight glorified, it's a kind of magical realizm show. Stunning setting. It felt like a BL had a love child with one of those odd Chinese relaxation farm propaganda channels.
Restart After Come Back Home aka Risutato wa tadaima no ato de (Japan 2020 grey) - Beautiful atmospheric movie about returning home to find yourself and finding love along the way, more classic gay romance than BL but charming. An intimate portrayal of rural Japan meets complex family dynamics.
His the movie (Japan 2020 Viki)- This movie is beautiful and the setting is a unique (but realistic) look at a rural village in Japan.
Love Tractor (Korea 2023 iQIYI) - insight into rural Korea. Including farm life. Most of this country-set BL had me feral for the beautiful broken city boy and his hot young farmer. Basically a light-weight Restart After Come Back Home. Full review here.
For something short form and similar to the above, and also VERY good, please try Strongberry's Some More from 2018.
Others
My Sweetheart Jom (Thai)
Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo (Korea)
Began Beginning (Myanmar YouTube)
I specifically left the beach/island ones (Lover Merman, Love Sea) and super tourist ones off this list as per original askers request. But also there are TONS of them.
Food, Art, Etc...
What Zabb Man! (Thai) street food and hotel industry
La Cuisine (Thai) culinary training
This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans (Thai) restaurant
Bite Me (Thai) Grab service, restaurant operations, northern variations on foodways
Be Loved In House: I Do (Taiwan) is theoretically set in a jewelry design studio.
The Tasty Florida (Korea) restaurant
Unintentional Love Story (Korea) offers insight into pottery making, coastal town living.
You Make Me Dance (Korea) dance, loan sharks
My Day (Pinoy) industrial food manufacture
There are so many more food setting BLs (like My Sweet Dear, Cooking Crush, Ocean's Like You), but a lot of them don't focus on the food, or showcase foreign cuisine, so I didn't put those in.
Also, I should add, there are some things that don't get repped in BL but are important to the source culture. Why? Because of it being BL/gay or because it's simply not done, like Thai military service and Korean conscription (although Just Friends? touches on that).
More like this:
Religious representation, setting, and narrative devices in BL
Collectivism & Identity Politics - Ask culture vs guess culture & why linguistics is Important to understanding BL
This post drawn from a question asked by @dmitriverlouanne
"Any recommendations for BLs that show a lot of the country's culture (e.g. food, history, class dynamics, social rules etc.) I don't mean in a touristic sense (e.g. sending characters to pristine beaches). I mean learning about the country."
(source)
