Between de-queering and re-queering: Transfiguring ‘bromance’ as a continuum of Boys’ Love in East Asia

Abstract

This paper critically compares the reconfiguration of the concept of ‘bromance’ within the cultural and social contexts of Japan, South Korea, and China. Through a multilingual literature review, critical discourse analysis, and participant observation, it analyses the dynamics of intentional ‘de-queering’ by media and creators and ‘re-queering’ by fans surrounding cultural works depicting male relationships in the three countries. It reveals how media and fans simultaneously reconstruct ‘bromance’ as a queer possibility while bleaching its homosexual characteristics, thereby providing safe representations conforming to societal norms. By examining discourses surrounding ‘bromance’ and/in Boys’ Love (BL) and Danmei, this research illuminates the complex intersections of cultural practices and gender/sexuality discourses within East Asian nations. It presents both shared issues and differences across Japan, South Korea, and China, offering a critical perspective on their ambiguity and political nature.

Keywords

bromance Boys’ Love queer queerbaiting Japan South Korea China

Introduction

‘Bromance’ is a cultural concept and genre, originally developed in a Western context, that refers to the homosocial relationships between men and the texts that express them. The concept has evolved, reflecting the social changes that occurred in the 1990s, when social anxiety about the legitimacy of sexual identity was high, and the 2000s, when these changes became normalised (DeAngelis, 2014). The reduction of homophobia and homohysteria, that is, fear of being perceived as homosexual, has removed cultural constraints on male emotionality, allowing men to embrace inclusive and intimate behaviours (Robinson et al., 2018, 2019). ‘Bromance’ has become a popular trope, reflecting recent changes in masculinity and shifts towards open emotional connections that have become contested by feminist and queer challenges in the twenty-first century (Ciasullo and Magill, 2015).

‘Bromance’ discourse provides a script or practice for managing the dangers of homosocial intimacy, with its positive use making visible and affirming forms of homosocial intimacy (Becker and Weiner, 2016). This practice can be effective for men who consider themselves ‘straight’, with blurred boundaries between homosocial and homosexual. Furthermore, ‘bromance’ discourse can be considered ‘a way of talking and thinking about male friendships that helps produce specific ways of feeling and experiencing homosocial intimacy and masculinity’ (Becker, 2014: 235). Thus, the use of this concept in media provides a method of expressing intimacy between men while ensuring access to both homosexual and heterosexual markets (DeAngelis, 2014). Cultural works effectively uses celebrity ‘bromances’ as a marketing tool to attract audience attention (Lam and Raphael, 2018). Such textual strategies employed by creators, while criticised as ‘queerbaiting’, are positively recognised within fan studies for eliciting free fan practices and queer reading, acknowledging the audience's capacity to engage with dominant ideologies (Brennan, 2018).

Previous studies focusing on the concept of ‘bromance’ have mostly been based on Western cultural works. Following the conventional practices of global knowledge production, Asian scholars have generally analysed Eastern cultural texts within the Western framework. However, the production and consumption of queer media in different societies reflect both individual activity and broader social context. Boys’ Love (hereafter BL) wields considerable influence as a subculture among women and queer communities, with Thai BL expanding to the mass level in Asia and flattening the queer cultural map of the world (Baudinette, 2023; Shimauchi, 2023). In this East Asian social context, we employed the framework of ‘Asia as method’ (Chen, 2011), aiming to decolonise knowledge production through the critical application of Asian knowledge. In other words, rather than universalising the Western originated and contextualised ‘bromance’, this article attempts to examine how the concept of ‘bromance’ has been transfigured and reconstructed within the Asian social and cultural context and experience. This international collaborative study was conducted by three researchers with linguistic, cultural, and social roots in Japan, South Korea (hereafter Korea), and China to recapture the concept of ‘bromance’ in East Asia and focus on the uniqueness of each society through cross-reference.

‘Bromance’, a concept by definition disconnected from homosexuality, is adapted, interpreted, and used differently from its original meaning, particularly in proximity to queerness such as BL and Danmei (a BL genre in Chinese) that depict romantic and sexual relationships between men in East Asia. The term ‘BL’ has been actively used in Japan from approximately 1994 and positioned as a happy-ending romance with sexual descriptions between men, mainly aimed at female readers (Nishihara, 2025). In Japan, Korea, and China, BL and Danmei works have historically been created and consumed primarily by women, and it remains a fandom with significant female participation. However, BL has become diverse in both narrative and media forms, with creators and fandom now including diverse representations of the LGBTQ + community (e.g., Baudinette, 2023; Chui and Chan, 2025; Shimauchi, 2024b). In that sense, genres and their characteristics must be understood not as already existing items but as sources of the forces that constitute them and the processes and conditions in which they are created (Nishihara, 2025).

Therefore, this research aims to elucidate how the cultural concept of ‘bromance’ is translated, adapted, and practiced, as well as discursively negotiated in Japan, Korea, and China—countries that share the cultural practice of BL/Danmei, which depicts male homosexuality—and how it operates at the boundary of queerness. This paper analyses the bromance discourse surrounding BL/Danmei works originating from Japan, Korea, and China—such as The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, The Merciless and The Untamed —arguing its convenient usage as a concept of inclusion and exclusion, undergoing reconstruction through de-queering and re-queering.

Methods

We comprehensively examined the literature related to ‘bromance’ in four languages: English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (Mandarin). We targeted academic papers as well as news and other online articles. Data were collected in each country's native language using representative and comprehensive search systems within each nation. The analysis examined how ‘bromance’ came to be used in different contexts over time, its relationship with political and social trends, the nature of its cultural translation, and its relationship with related concepts and vocabulary. Furthermore, we focused on the creators’ intentions in communicating ideas to the public, marketing, publicity, and paratext created by media and audience, rather than analysing the works themselves, in order to examine what makes ‘bromance’ works ‘bromance’ and the dynamics surrounding them. These examples were selected from the authors’ participant observation of the fandom and from publicly released details or fandom movements covered by mass media or academic papers, where reliability and objectivity were verified. The three authors have been insiders of the ‘bromance’, BL, and queer media fandoms for more than 12 years, becoming interested in BL and related cultures around 2013 and beginning their research activities. Their participation in cultural activities as fans spans over 20 years. As acafans, who critically reflect on their own position as fans and study that culture as researchers and fandom insiders (Jenkins, 2011), they offered this study an emic perspective.

The authors comprised native speakers of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese; they understood at least three of the languages among English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, and were well-versed in cultures and fandoms outside their country of origin. Data on each country were examined and analysed through cross-referencing, with commonalities and differences discussed through two online meetings. The first author developed the study's basic ideas and research design, reviewed the literature, determined the analytical framework, and complied drafts for all sections. The second and third authors reviewed previous studies in their respective native languages and coauthored for the Korean and Chinese sections. To maintain consistency in the overall flow and argumentation, the first author was responsible for the final manuscript. This study uses existing public data such as research papers, newspapers, websites, magazine articles, and official social media posts,¹ and adheres to the Association of Internet Researchers’ ethical guidelines.

Results

Japan: ‘Bromance’ as an ambiguous umbrella term with queer imagination

In Japan, despite fans and media who love and depict intimate relationships between men existing for a long time, the term ‘bromance’ (transcribed directly into Japanese as ‘Buromansu’) has only appeared in academic literature since the 2010s. Searching for bromance on CiNii, the academic search site operated by the National Institute of Informatics, and J-STAGE, operated by the Japan Science and Technology Agency, yields eight results. Except for one study discussing bromance adaptation strategies for BL novels in China, no literature examines the definition or usage of bromance itself. Instead, it is typically employed to categorise visual works featuring two male protagonists from China, Korea, or the United Kingdom, or to describe famous master-servant relationships in medieval Japan as ‘ideal bromance’. In the five nationwide newspapers, the term ‘bromance’ appears in articles published from 2020 onwards. Its mention is limited to references to the Korean and Chinese drama genres and descriptions of deep relationships between politicians (e.g., Abe and Trump), where ‘bromance’ is used with the description ‘friendship between men’ (Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 2024).

Popular culture from China and Korea, including bromance works, enjoys popularity, particularly among women across generations. Works such as The Untamed (2019, China) and The Weak Hero (South Korea) appear on manga and novel publishers, e-book sites (e.g., BookWalker, n.d.), and magazines (e.g., ELLE, 2023) as stories depicting deep bonds between two male protagonists. Furthermore, Japan's largest fan-creation site, pixiv, defines bromance as ‘a type of intimacy between men without sexual involvement’ and ‘a deep friendship between men’. It classifies Yoshida Akio's manga Banana Fish, which depicts a soul-binding connection of non-romantic emotions, as bromance (pixiv Dictionary, n.d.).

Whilst the term ‘bromance’ came into use around the emergence of overseas works, the closest concept has been ‘buddy’ from historical to contemporary television series (Oda et al., 2021). The basic setting of ‘buddy’ personalities, values, and backgrounds is that of an equal relationship between two people with contrasting characteristics, who trust each other despite occasional clashes. Secondary creation, in which fans translate relationships depicted as ‘buddy’ or ‘bromance’ into BL or where slash and shipping relationships between male idols are depicted, have been part of hidden fan activities (Welker, 2022). In this sense, ‘buddy’ and ‘bromance’ stories have a high affinity with the BL fandom.

‘Bromance’ receives diverse explanations on a major e-book store, ranging from ‘diverse relationships beyond romance’ to descriptions such as ‘irreplaceable partners’, ‘a soulmate-like bond’, and ‘mutual rivals striving for greater heights’, but ‘as the reception and interpretation of works vary by individual, there is no definitive answer that can conclusively label something as bromance’ (BookWalker, n.d.). Furthermore, an online article by a television company producing numerous BL dramas since the 2020s states: ‘While BL is confined to relationships developing into romance or physical intimacy, bromance is not limited to these and represents a wider spectrum of relationships’ (TV Tokyo Plus, 2020). It acknowledges that ‘bromance’ can hint at potential BL, while asserting that its appeal lies in the freedom to imagine and fill in the gaps.

Importantly, the media and fans use these concepts to control the image and value of cultural works. An interesting case study is the ‘bromance’ discourse surrounding the BL drama Hidamari ga Kikoeru (I Hear the Sunspot) broadcasted in 2024. In 2025, when the drama was released on DVD, a producer described it as ‘a bromance drama made with all their heart’ on their social media account (now deleted), despite the drama clearly depicting romantic feelings between two males, including intimate contact, such as kissing, and being based on a long-running and popular BL labelled manga by Fumino Yuki (2014). The extent to which the production side understood the meaning of ‘bromance’ remains unclear; however, the label ‘BL’ is avoided, with bromance being used as a publicly more acceptable alternative concept that encompasses its BL nature.

Another example is Yamashita Tomoko's Sankaku Mado no Soto wa Yoru (The Night beyond the Tricornered Window) (Figure 1), published by a non-BL label and often introduced as a ‘bromance’ in the media. Yamashita said that ‘Not having a BL label is important for people who have a resistance to BL genre but enjoy something close to BL, and it is probably easier for them to accept it’ (Yamashita, 2024: 267). The author also stated that it was a pity that this work was published under a non-BL label and declared that ‘this is BL’ (Yamashita, 2024: 267).

Figure 1.

Tomoko Yamashita, The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window.

Thus, ‘bromance’ is used strategically to de-queer cultural products by the media, including production and public relations. It functions as a more inclusive and affirmative alternative term to BL in contexts where works depict special relationships between men in manga, anime, dramas, and films. While employed as a tool for de-queering through its outward distinction from homoerotic or homosexual love, it simultaneously possesses an ambiguous boundary that allows for queer reading. This is achieved by departing from the original meaning of ‘bromance’ as explicitly denying homosexuality, instead ‘hinting at’ deeper relationships between men, thereby enabling re-queering within the BL continuum.

As BL includes romance and sexual love, it is essentially queer and cannot be considered in isolation from queer representations. However, in societies where the rights of sexual minorities are not protected and women and their culture are not equally respected, BL has often been considered as a fantasy space for heterosexual women, separate from real-life homosexuality and regarded as a fictional domain distinct from real-life queerness. Owing to homophobia and an aversion to the objectification and glorification of men by women, with misogyny at its root, ‘BL’ and the act of enjoying it must be hidden (Garg and Yang, 2023; Shimauchi, 2024a). Instead, ‘bromance’ is easily understood by the public while taking on the subjectivity of looking at male-on-male relationships to the extent that this does not cause friction with existing normative values. In this sense, ‘bromance’ does not shake the heterosexual norms and patriarchy that are the canon of the society to which the media and audiences belong. Thus, ‘bromance’ minimises the risk of feeling out of place in Japanese society.

Korea: BL secretly encoded in ‘bromance’ and actively decoded by fans

The term ‘bromance’ (transcribed directly into Korean hangul as ‘pŭromaensŭ’) has appeared in newspaper articles since 2009. Searching for ‘bromance’ on Big Kinds, the largest news analysis and search database operated by the Korea Press Foundation, shows the first appearance of ‘bromance’ in 2009, defined as an interesting, lewd, and intense portrayal of friendship and near affection between men (Seoul Economics Daily, 2009). Initially, ‘bromance’ referred to a new cultural phenomenon and content originating in the West. It became associated with Korean popular culture when two male actors won the Best Couple Award for their portrayal of a life-threatening friendship between Korean and Japanese men set against the backdrop of World War II in the Korean film My Way. Although male friendship has an unspoken boundary, ‘bromance’ refers to a relationship built on mutual trust and reliance rooted in human connection (DongA Ilbo, 2012). In the 2000s, films depicting male homosocial relationships often gained a cult following among some women in Korea, particularly donginnyo (women who participate in amateur fanzine culture), but they were not successful. Since the 2010s, more films depicting homosocial relationships between men have seen commercial success. Since 2013, ‘bromance’ has referred to homosocial relationships between men in Korean films (e.g., the crime movie The New World, 2013) and dramas rather than Western contents (Maeil Business Newspaper, 2013; Munhwa Ilbo, 2013). References to the association between ‘bromance’ and BL first appeared in 2013 in an analytical article about female fans of the movie The New World (Hankyoreh, 2013).

Noteworthily, Korean authors, specifically those who specialise in BL content such as web novels and webtoons, began to commercialise their work during the early 2010s. Prior to this, it remained principally within amateur creations by donginnyo groups. However, during the first half of the 2010s, web novel and webtoon platforms began to focus on the BL genre, which resulted in its broader mainstream acceptance. Because the term ‘bromance’ was introduced in Korea in 2009 and saw widespread usage around 2013, it likely functioned both to obscure BL from mainstream visibility and to serve as a euphemism for BL. In this way, mass media employed ‘bromance’ to address the growing demand for BL content.

Subsequently, reality programmes, such as One Night Two Days,² and e-images by male performers played a major role in the ‘bromance’ boom from 2016 to 2018. In particular, performers took promotional photos together for their programmes and tagged them with words such as ‘bromance’, ‘male–male couple’, and ‘male–male chemistry’. Fans and the media often used these Instagram photos and referred to them as ‘bromance’. In Korea, ‘bromance’ is not used to refer to buddy or equal relationships, as in Japan, but rather to relationships with a difference in age, such as senior and junior actors or older and younger brothers unrelated by blood. This aspect also allows ‘bromance’ to be used for homosocial relationships that emerged within the power hierarchy in pre-modern times, such as during the Joseon dynasty. The film industry has been criticised for making ‘bromance’ the main focus and the disappearance of female characters, whereas an increasing number of dramas have added ‘bromance’ to existing heterosexual romances. The drama series Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (2016) exemplifies this. A love story between a male and female protagonist and a male–male bond as another selling point has gained support from many female viewers.

In 2021, Korean BL web drama production began in earnest, and articles mixing ‘bromance’ and BL began to appear (Sports Seoul, 2021). Netflix's Japan–Korea joint production Soulmate (2026 forthcoming) an interesting case study. Chosun Ilbo (2024) described it as ‘a bromance that goes beyond long-standing friends and an emotional exchange’. Various descriptions are given in different languages in the Netflix introduction: ‘A story of soul and love’ (Japanese), ‘A 10-year love story’ (English), and ‘follows two young men as they gradually realise and change the meaning of love and life over a period of 10 years’ (Korean) (Netflix, 2024). It is a love story between two men, described as a ‘bromance’, not ‘BL’ or ‘homosexual love’. However, fans eagerly awaiting the film describe it as BL (Sportskeeda, 2025).

Incorporating homosexual representations in the name of ‘bromance’ has become customary in Korean popular culture. In 1997, the Youth Protection Act defined the gay internet community as a ‘medium harmful to youth’, a provision that was maintained until it was repealed in 2007. Furthermore, in 2007, a novel comprehensive anti-discrimination law was submitted to the National Assembly. It has since been dismissed by Christian conservatives who see the ‘sexual orientation’ section as problematic. Under the influence of dogmatic and conservative social rules that regard same-sex relationships as contrary to social norms and order, the concept of ‘bromance’ functions as a relationship that slips through the boundaries between homosexual and homosocial and serves to maintain the integrity of hetero norms (Su, 2021). Lee (2022) defined the requirement for a film to be a ‘bromance’ as the two people being heterosexual despite having an intimate relationship. Korean society has long been queerphobic (Kwon, 2023), and films containing depictions of homosexuality are repressed. In 2024, the trailer for the gay drama Love in the Big City (2024) was prevented from being publicised owing to complaints by 119 organisations represented by the FirstKorea civil solidarity (KStyle, 2024; Korea Christian Journal, 2024). Therefore, the category of ‘bromance’ is conveniently used as an explanatory variable for male–male relationships to avoid angering a heteronormative society that makes homosexuality invisible.

Cho et al. (2024) examined the film The Merciless (2017) (Figure 2) and argued that the protagonist Jaeho's attempt to sacrifice his social power and maintain an intimate relationship with Hyun-su is a rare portrayal in the history of Korean cinema. In contrast to the film's superficial ‘bromance’ marketing strategy of ‘not homosexuality, just chemistry’, BL fans and fandom are not concerned with the meaning of ‘bromance’ or the approval of the homosexuality in it. ‘Bromance’ films function as a database for borrowing, manipulation, and parody rather than a grand narrative (Cho et al., 2024). According to Kim (2022), the logic of ‘leaving BL’ discourse focuses only on the relationship between BL representations and reality, and not on the intentions and desires of BL authors and readers. The intentions and interpretations of fans who create, consume, and accept BL may have the potential to connect with and transform real society. In other words, ‘bromance’ as a canon depicts homosociality while occasionally strategically leaving room for homosexual interpretations, attracting BL fans who expect depictions of homosexuality and leaving queer interpretations to the audience without being bothered by conservative homophobia.

Figure 2.

The Merciless (2017).

China: ‘Bromance’ as a masquerade for and against state control

Danmei in China was introduced from Japan in the 1990s and developed as an imported cultural form while simultaneously connecting with ancient Chinese traditions of intimate male love ‘Duanxiu’, which historically referred to male-male love. From the 2010s onwards, Danmei content proliferated and entered mainstream popular culture, whilst also becoming increasingly subject to government regulation.

‘Bromance’ in China does not function in the same way as in Japan or Korea. Instead, the cultural work of ‘bromance’ is largely carried out through pre-existing concepts embedded in Chinese society, particularly ‘Xiongdiqing (brotherhood)’, which emphasises loyalty, righteousness, and emotionally intimate male friendship. This concept is widely employed to express male friendships, often as a means of circumventing censorship. A search of the China National Knowledge Infrastructure conducted on 7 May 2025, identified 418 records of ‘Xiongdiqing’. The earliest record was from April 1984, titled ‘Unforgettable brotherhood’, presenting an incident in which a Chinese pilot injured in the Korean War was rescued by North Koreans, through which a relationship was established. An article on the origins of Danmei novels in China discusses the attitude of the male protagonists, who prioritise friendship between men over love toward a wife as ‘Xiongdiqing’ (Bao, 2011). In December 2016, the English word ‘bromance’ was featured in a study on the reproduction and interpretation of ‘maifu’ (attracting BL fan's viewership) in reality television (Shi, 2016).

The Danmei culture and representations of feminine masculinity have been censored as a threat to the social family system, as masculinity in China is closely linked to state power (Hu et al., 2023). Since the distribution of Danmei drama Addicted Heroin ceased in February 2016, the term Daimei has gradually become marginalised within the context of visual content. After 2017, Danmei works containing homosexual depictions have been described using politically safe alternative terms, such as ‘Dangai’ (a modification of Danmei, ensuring that the relationship is not recognisable as homosexual) and ‘Shuangnanzhu’ (dual male leads). The interpretation of the relationship is left to the audience. The term ‘Shuangnanzhu’ first appeared in a TV Guide article in May 2020, which noted the huge success of ‘dual male lead’ dramas such as The Untamed (Wang, 2020). These BL adaptations reached their peak with Guardian (2018), The Untamed (2019), and Word of Honor (2021), capitalising on bromance appeal (Figure 3). These works skilfully employed ‘bromance’, gained significant popularity, and led to the emergence of alternative terms for ‘bromance’. Since 2022, when the director of the Beijing Municipal Radio and Television Bureau explicitly criticised Dangai web dramas (China News: Beijing Municipal Radio and Television Bureau, 2022), this label has removed the politics of gender and sexuality from cultural works and shifted their focus to a story of social collaboration in which two men fight together. Other Danmei works have also shown that ‘the romantic relationship between the two main characters is weakened, while the relationship between men and society is strengthened’ (Zhou, 2024a: 721). Bringing male-to-male social relationships to the fore (Ning, 2014) by using terms such as ‘Shuangnanzhu’ is a pragmatic strategy to bring Danmei stories depicting homosexual relationships into a safer and more acceptable lexicon, playing the same role as ‘bromance’ in Japan and Korea. Over the past years, this related terminology has acquired a distinct political function as a safe euphemism for sustaining expressions of desire.

Figure 3.

Guardian, The Untamed, and Word of Honor.

In response to regulations against homosexual depictions, the production, distribution, and interpretive practices of queer narratives surrounding Danmei drama have developed in the fandom. For instance, fans have suppressed their fan activities to escape heteronormative state censorship by using the discourse of ‘socialist brotherhood’ (Ng and Li, 2020). Hu and Wang (2021) referred to the strategy of using ‘bromance’ to express romance between men in Chinese fanfiction-derived dramas as ‘bromance as masquerade’. Drama productions have used suggestive filming techniques to hint at a romantic relationship between the two male protagonists and marketing to stimulate involvement in the BL subculture by suggesting an intimate relationship between the actors. Considering the counter-public function of Danmei in China as a tool for creative thinking and queer expression of the audience's hidden desires (Wong, 2020), this disguise can be considered a form of passive resistance to censorship (Hu and Wang, 2021).³ The Danmei fandom keeps the BL subculture alive through a process of remediation, in which the new medium of audio drama remakes previous forms in the face of censorship (Hu and Liu, 2024). Fans develop digital literacy and collective strategies through self-censorship and shared sisterhood, that is, mutual support, such as sharing knowledge among themselves (Hu and Liu, 2024).

This aspect of the invasive power of the Danmei fandom is flexible and persistent in the face of inhibition and condemnation (Hu et al., 2023). Some fans turn themselves into the ‘fandom police’ (Wang and Ge, 2023), causing self-censorship of the fandom, such as snitching and complicity with government cleansing (Tian, 2020). The Danmei culture in China is built on a constant negotiation between platforms, state censorship, writers, and audiences driven by the logic of capitalism and cannot be understood within a simple binary framework of control and resistance (Ge, 2025). In this context, ‘bromance’, including the Chinese term of two male leads and brotherhood used in production, distribution, and interpretation, does not conflict with societal values and norms. These terms neatly conceal queer relationships between men to negotiate with and sometimes adapt to the norms under state control.

Discussion

Similarities and differences between Japan, Korea, and China

The use of ‘bromance’ in Japan, Korea, and China shares a common feature: it functions as a concept employed as a rhetorical device in mainstream culture to de-queer narratives depicting special relationships between men. Creators and media outlets recognise the potential appeal to the BL fandom; they carefully avoid violating societal norms and values or triggering censorship by subtly hinting at homosexual themes within acceptable boundaries.

In Korea there is a strategy to attract a large audience by presenting male connections while maintaining heteronormativity. The ‘bromance’ genre is established as a mass market strategy combined with the celebrity shipping culture.⁴ The intimate portrayal of male leads, not depicted in the main story, can be seen in various paratext, such as social media promotions, related content, and fan meetings.

Conversely, in Japan and China, ‘bromance’ is a relatively ambiguous, arbitrarily defined, and fluid genre. In Japan, it exists on a continuum with BL, bleaching homosexuality to make it invisible. To appeal to audiences harbouring internalised homophobia and misogyny, media and producers strategically promote ‘beyond BL’ and ‘universal love’ or ‘pure love’ (Shimauchi, 2024a). This de-queering of explicitly homosexual depictions occurs within a context of overwhelmingly positive and favourable context, both in publicity and fans’ reception.

Meanwhile, China's ‘bromance’ is strategically employed as a mediator between fandom and state censorship. As in Japan, other strategic terms exist to conceal or reconstruct same-sex relationships, such as ‘pure love’. During the six-month ‘Internet Clean-up Campaign’ beginning in April 2014, which targeted pornography and illegal publications, Jinjiang Literature City (one of China's largest online publishing platforms for female-oriented and BL novels), renamed its ‘Danmei’ section ‘Pure Love/No CP (Couple)’ (Zhou, 2024b). This measure aimed to conceal Danmei works by placing them within the same category as heterosexual content.

De-queering occurs not only on the production and marketing side but also on the fan side. A self-cleansing of fandom occurs against a background of BL-phobia and disrespect for female-centred culture in Japan and state censorship in China. Western research indicates that shipper fandom transcends mainstream sexual and cultural norms and offers political possibilities for social change (Jenkins, 2006). However, in East Asia, fan creation of flexible and fluid depictions of sexuality and gender is privately held within the community, and self-cleansing may occur within the fandom, including sanctions against fans who deviate from rules and social norms. Fan-initiated interpretations of ‘bromance’ content are not always against social norms, and fandom is not always a queer utopia. Besides, this has not directly led to social change yet (Tang, 2023).

Re-queering of ‘bromance’ by fans is common; however, the openness regarding their expression differs by country. In China, although the authorities censor the content, relative openness exists in fans’ collective supportive behaviour towards ‘bromance’ (Figure 4). Enjoying male-to-male idol coupling and interpreting their relationships through intimate moments, including in K-pop and other forms, has become visible as fan behaviour (Fauzi and Nugraha, 2020). In contrast, queer interpretation in Japan is still a relatively concealed activity. Fans enjoy reading between the lines of ‘bromance’, but a strong norm exists that such activities should remain underground.

Figure 4.

Screenshot of fan support activity of Chinese ‘bromance’ drama Guardian (Huojiulalala, 20 July 2018).

Furthermore, in Korea, after the feminist reboot,⁵ along with the focus on women's narratives in popular culture, a push has occurred for ‘womance’ to counter ‘bromance’ content that erases women. While in Japan, the rise of feminism and link between the BL fandom and feminism is not as clear as in Korea (Kim, 2022), thus, the counter discourse such as ‘womance’ has not emerged. In China, nationalism has a stronger link with state censorship than with feminism (Liao et al., 2022). Therefore, the unstable and nuanced practices of fans in the social contexts of these countries must be examined.

Comparison with ‘bromance’ in the West and discussion of ‘queerbaiting’

Regarding ‘bromance’ and its paratext, in the West, when the actor in the film Jump Street was described as ‘very gay’ in an interview, he responded, ‘I’m proud of that’. This film is said to transcend previous ‘bromances’, elevating its queerness (Ciasullo and Magill, 2015). Conversely, in Japan, whilst the number of characters in BL dramas explicitly portrayed as gay has increased, this is not always clearly expressed, and few production team members and actors make direct statements about the homosexual experience and human rights of sexual minorities.⁶ Some publicity is designed to appeal to a heterosexual audience and promote heterosexual norms (Shimauchi, 2024a). Similarly, celebrities in China cannot easily express anything other than normative masculinity, partly owing to the authorities’ policing of feminine men (Louie, 2024).

Under these circumstances, queerbaiting may be used to describe works in the ‘bromance’ genre in Japan, Korea, and China that hint at homosexuality while being aware of BL fans and queer audiences or showing performances or paratextual acts that hint at sexual contact or romantic feelings but refraining from explicit depictions. For instance, in the aforementioned The Merciless, there is little evidence of a sexual relationship between the main characters; however, through intimate language and staging that evoke romantic and sexual relationships, it ‘appeals to female spectators who appreciate the more intimate relationship between characters than the action’ (Cho et al., 2024: 298). Queerbaiting appears to offer allegiance to queer visibility issues in a manner that is not concrete (Brennan, 2018) and is an act of multidimensional exploitation found in the media, marketing, and social interaction. Queerbaiting crosses over into narrative depictions as well as marketing strategies, and can threaten both queer and non-queer people (Woods and Hardman, 2022). If this queerbaiting concept is simply applied, the strategic ambiguity of queerness in production, publicity, and distribution under the ‘bromance’ mask in these three countries would be something to be critically examined in the context of queerbaiting.

However, we argue that discussions on queerbaiting in Western societies, where social acceptance of LGBTQ + people and legalisation of same-sex marriage are generally more advanced than in East Asia, should not be applied directly to East Asian texts. For instance, in relation to the criticism that couple marketing of actors in Thai BL are queerbaiting, Baudinette (2023) argued that the queer representation of BL couples presents the possibility of a society in which queer people can live more easily in the Asian context. In Japanese, Korean, and Chinese social contexts, where sexual minority rights and LGBTQ + recognition face significant challenges, queerness, opened up by fandom, is obstructed by mainstream media and the state. Consequently, it is essential to continue critically examining not the works themselves or the current behaviour of fans as examples of queerbaiting but rather the social circumstances surrounding ‘bromance’ and how the surrounding discourse is defined and utilised. We advocate for the importance of acknowledging the connection between ‘bromance’ as content and queerness as perceived by the audience while also recognising the complex politics of gender and sexuality in each society and the cultural dynamics surrounding them.

Conclusion

We found that ‘bromance’ is intertwined with the unique social and cultural contexts of Japan, Korea, and China, and strategically utilised as an ambiguous concept within the continuum of queer media, including BL, Danmei, related fan practices. Simultaneously, ‘bromance’ is used as a method to express affection for men without crossing the line into homosexuality or the BL genre while maintaining heterosexual, male-centric societal norms. In addition to the de-queering effects from production and media, as well as fans who uphold heterosexual norms or keep BL as a fantasy for heterosexual women, or the intersecting dynamics between these groups, ‘bromance’ is actively de-queered by both media and audiences. Although the visibility of BL as marketable content has increased, legal and institutional changes for sexual minorities lag behind. In the resultant gap, de-queering has occurred due to heightened societal monitoring. However, these de-queering processes are also actively re-queered within fans’ interpretations.

This demonstrates that a cultural genre is not born from a concept but is constructed by social practice, discursive negotiation, and historical value, and explains the unique nature of queer cultural works in East Asia, specifically in Japan, Korea and China. Although ‘bromance’ appears to be a well-established category name, it is fluid and intentionally ambiguous, with boundaries that vary depending on the social and cultural context. The media and audiences attempt to hide homosexuality for various reasons within diverse and complex social and cultural contexts. ‘Bromance’, by remaining vague as a broad collective concept that includes love, bonding, and friendship, sometimes serves as a cloak that plays with queer essence from within the safety zone of a normative heterosexual society, and at other times refers to concepts and works that leave room for queer reading. At all levels—cultural texts, production, promotion, and fan interpretations—‘bromance’ holds the potential to be interpreted within the continuum of BL.

As a limitation, this study did not fully include the process and examples of re-queering by fans of ‘bromance’ works as it focused on the analysis of ‘bromance’ as a discourse within the broad framework of three countries. Similarly, it did not examine the people's desire to secure ‘bromance’ as non-queer and disconnect it from BL. Future research should focus on queer reading as participatory cultures and critically examine the social and cultural values and norms underlying the anti-queering desire.

This study demonstrates that ‘bromance’ is used as a convenient concept of inclusion and exclusion for the general public. Oguma (1998) discussed the political dynamics through which the Empire of Japan conveniently shifted the boundaries of ‘Japanese identity’, sometimes including and sometimes excluding people from places such as Okinawa, Ainu, Taiwan, and Korea, which were then colonies or peripheral regions. When considering ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’, we must critically question those who engage in such practices and under what forces, rather than those who are subjected to them, because such practices are accompanied by power and dominant ideologies. Similarly, we must continuously examine why, how, and by what means the act of crossing the boundaries of ‘bromance’ and BL, or unilaterally erasing those boundaries, is being conducted.

Footnotes

ORCID iDs

Sae Shimauchi

Hyo Jin Kim

Author contributions

Conceptualisation, Methodology, Literature Review, and Original Draft Preparation: SS; Formal Analysis, Investigation, and Writing: SS, HJK, EMZ; English Translation, Supervision, and Funding Acquisition: SS.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The first author received financial support for the research, proofreading, and publication of this article from JSPS KAKENHI (grant number 24K00431) and Tokyo Metropolitan University.

Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, (grant number Support for expenses related to publication of aca, 24K00431).

Declaration of conflicting interest

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

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