Male and female idols of the Chinese pornosphereBoys’ Love is a “feminine” type of pornography precisely because web users still have narra-
tive inclinations and write micro-stories around the anxieties and emotional complications of
their characters (Nagaike 2012, 109). These micro-fictions also include a fascination with the
imperfect bodies and diseases of their idols. In a talk by Kazumi Nagaike, “For Liberation or
Moe: The decline of bishonen and the emergence of new types of protagonists in contemporary
BL,” Nagaike argues that the subculture has been moving away from its obsession with bishonen
characters, or love between two idealized beautiful and effeminate males. She describes the
new BL wave in Japan as one concerned with not so good-looking characters (busaiku), such
as the love shared between a younger and older male (oyaji) who is average looking and cast
in the submissive position. Nagaike, sees this tendency to adore physical weaknesses, and moe,
or the cultivation of a strong attraction towards such characters, as a moment of sexually queer
emancipation (Nagaike 2014).
In a similar vein, I searched for Chinese “new wave” micro-fictions detailing aspects of
failure. Veritably, some new genres in sexually explicit fiction have emerged which share char-
acteristics of protagonists who are all somewhat “abnormal.” For instance, they are physically
handicapped, sexually impotent, or simply social outcasts and losers. On Sina Weibo, a user posts
a collection of “high quality BL” fictions that are divided by “illness:” HIV, leukemia, problems
with the brain, other diseases, disabled hands or legs, weaknesses, diseases of the five internal
organs, mental problems, sexual disorders, and disabled facial features. The reason the censors did
not delete her database was that she used pictures of the Chinese language text, rather than the
actual text, which is another common anti-censorship device. This genre presents failure (search
term “sick beautiful men” in Chinese on Sina Weibo) in one character as a plot device that
requires the other character to take notice and empathize. In almost all cases, these disabilities
are neither profound nor permanent, and they can be fixed. If a person has a permanent disa-
bility, the story unfolds around the person that takes care of his lover and who even finds erotic
pleasure in nurturing the deformed body. Most commonly though, “failure” points to the social
outcast and predisposes a social gap within the gay couple—an economic disparity or class dif-
ference that cannot be easily crossed but can lead to love.
The fantasies show that illnesses can be recuperated and pave the way to happy endings, as the
“bottom” gains power through his specific style of submission and sex appeal. There is a transfer
of power as the dominant character becomes aware of his limitations, or is suddenly smitten by
unspeakable love. In each case, failure is used to shake up engrained social divisions and to assert
the power of eroticism. In the article “Forbidden Love: Incest, Generational Conflict, and the
Erotics of Power in Chinese Boys’ Love Fiction,” Xu and Yang come to a similar conclusion
when analyzing substantial collections of women’s gay incest fantasies, or more particularly love
stories between fathers and sons. The authors view these stories, which are common amongst
BL fans, as a feminine or feminist attempt to tackle taboos and to re-order masculine power
structures within the family and within Chinese society at large.
Conclusion
A Chinese creative force and pop culture is spreading as people produce social imaginaries
around the models of Japanese pornography and animation culture. The Chinese pornosphere
consists of a vast range of illegal websites and semi-private social media databases through
which products are copied and shared. The chapter contends that a love of characters signifies
a sexualization of identity—an awareness of the limits of nation-state censorship and how to
navigate products despite fluctuating means and methods of erasure. Further, we locate a dis-
tinction between feminine and masculine imaginaries in how web users imagine sexy models.