Due to government restrictions on domestic BL content, Chinese viewers have increasingly turned to Thai boys’ love (BL) series, which depict homoromantic relationships between male characters. Thai BL is distinctive in its encouragement of both on- and off-screen intimacy among actors. This paper examines Chinese fans’ engagement with Thai BL dramas, highlighting how their participation in “shipping” and “fan service” practices creates a “hyperreal” experience in which the boundary between fiction and reality becomes blurred. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 30 Chinese viewers, the study argues that fans actively co-construct this hyperreality to fulfill emotional and social needs, rather than being mere passive consumers manipulated by the industry. Beyond its hyperreal appeal, Thai BL also shapes Chinese fans’ perceptions of Thailand, offering a contrast to China’s restrictive social environment by imagining Thailand as a land of freedom and acceptance. This engagement extends beyond romantic fantasy to a broader cultural imagination, with Thai BL presenting an “alternative civility”—a vision of tolerance, love, and respect for differences. By immersing themselves in these dramas, fans momentarily escape their own social realities, negotiating between fantasy and resistance in ways that redefine their relationship with both media and society.
BaudinetteT. (2023). Boys love media in Thailand: Celebrity, fans, and transnational Asian queer popular culture. Bloomsbury Publishing.
2.
BaudrillardJ. (1994). Simulacra and simulation. University of Michigan Press.
3.
BrennanJ. (2019). Introduction: A history of queerbaiting. In BrennanJ. (Ed.), Queerbaiting and fandom: Teasing fans through homoerotic possibilities (pp. 1–23). University of Iowa Press.
4.
ChoiS. J. (2023). Alpeseu (RPS) and business gay performance in the Korean K-pop world. In LeeS.KorrochK.KhiunL. K. (Eds.), Women we love: Femininities and the Korean wave (pp. 137–155). Hong Kong University Press.
5.
ChuaB. H.IwabuchiK. (2008). Introduction: East Asian TV dramas: Identifications, sentiments and effects. In ChuaB. H.IwabuchiK. (Eds.), East Asian pop culture: Analyzing the Korean wave (pp. 1–12). Hong Kong University Press.
6.
EliasN. (1994). The civilizing process: The history of manners and state formation and civilization. Blackwell.
7.
FujimotoY. (2004). Transgender: Female hermaphrodites and male androgynes. U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal, 27, 76–117.
IwabuchiK. (2002). Recentering globalization: Popular culture and Japanese transnationalism. Duke University Press.
12.
JenkinsH. (1992). Textual poachers: Television fans and participatory culture. Routledge.
13.
JeromeC.Ahmad HadzmyA. J. B.HieT. S. (2022). I can see myself in them, but they are not me’: Asian Boys Love (BL) drama and gay male viewers. Social Sciences, 11(4), 163. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11040163
14.
JirattikornA. (2021). Between ironic pleasure and exotic nostalgia: Audience reception of Thai television dramas among youth in China. Asian Journal of Communication, 31(2), 124–143. https://doi.org/10.1080/01292986.2021.1892786
15.
JirattikornA. (2023). Heterosexual reading vs. queering Thai Boys love dramas among Chinese and Filipino audiences. Intersections: Gender and sexuality in Asia and the Pacific.
KwonJ. (2015). Queering stars: Fan play and capital appropriation in the age of digital media. Journal of Fandom Studies, The, 3(1), 95–108. https://doi.org/10.1386/jfs.3.1.95_1
LinX. (2023). Breaking the structure silence: The sociological function of danmei novels in contemporary China. In WelkerJ. (Ed.), Queer transfigurations: Boys love media in Asia (pp. 31–41). University of Hawaii Press.
20.
McLellandM. (2005). The world of yaoi: The internet, censorship and the global ‘Boys Love’ fandom. Australian Feminist Law Journal, 23(1), 61–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/13200968.2005.10854344
21.
NagaikeK. (2003). Perverse sexualities, perverse desires: Representations of female fantasies and yaoi manga as pornography directed at women. US-Japan Women’s Journal, 25, 76–103.
22.
RimmermanC. A. (2002). From identity to politics: The Lesbian and gay movements in the United States. Temple University Press.
23.
RodowickD. N. (2007). The virtual life of film. Harvard University Press.
24.
SchakD. (2018). Civility and its development: The experiences of China and Taiwan. Hong Kong University Press.
25.
TangJ. L. (2023). Shipping on the edge: Negotiations of precariousness in a Chinese real-person shipping fandom community. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 26(3), 293–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779231159148
WangE. N.GeL. (2023). Fan conflicts and state power in China: Internalised heteronormativity, censorship sensibilities, and fandom. Asian Studies Review, 47(2), 355–373. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2022.2112655
28.
WilliamsR. (1977). Marxism and literature. Oxford University Press.
29.
WilliamsR. (2011). Wandering off into soap land: Fandom, genre, and ‘shipping’ the West Wing. Participations, 8(1), 270–295.
30.
XiR. (2024). Masculinities in Chinese boys’ love stories: Female imaginations, market forces, and state influence. Journal of Gender Studies, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2024.1234567
31.
YeS. (2023). Word of honor and brand homonationalism with “Chinese characteristics”: The dangai industry, queer masculinity and the “opacity” of the state. Feminist Media Studies, 23(4), 1593–1609. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2022.2037007
32.
ZhangC.DedmenA. (2021). Hyperreal homoerotic love in a monarchized military conjuncture: A situated view of the Thai Boys’ Love industry. Feminist Media Studies, 21(6), 1039–1043. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2021.1959370
33.
ZhaoY.MadillA. (2018). The heteronormative frame in Chinese Yaoi: Integrating female Chinese fan interviews with Sinophone and Anglophone survey data. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 9(5), 435–457. https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2018.1512508
34.
ZhouY.PaulB.ShermanR. (2018). Still a hetero-gendered world: A content analysis of gender stereotypes and romantic ideals in Chinese boy love stories. Sex Roles, 78(1–2), 107–118. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-017-0762-y
