Abstract
Since its initial release in 2019, the c-drama Chén Qíng Lìng (陈情令 /The Untamed) has resonated well-beyond its intended Chinese audience. Current research has delved into the series evolution and dissemination from a variety of angles, such as translation, queer studies, and intercultural reception. The present study aims to contribute to this growing work of research by conducting an exploratory study of emerging themes among the Spanish-speaking fandom. Considering the size and diversity of this community, as well as the increasing dissemination of Chinese popular culture as a form of soft power, the intersection of both themes presents itself as a site ripe for academic discourse.
To better understand how fans engage and respond to The Untamed, web scraping tools were first used to download comments from WeTV's Spanish YouTube channel and conduct a systematic qualitative analysis of their content. The main emergent themes then formed the basis for a questionnaire which guided twelve semi-structured in-depth interviews with Latin American fans of the series and a professional translator.
Findings indicate a diverse international community eagerly engaging (often for the first time) with Chinese fantasy, notwithstanding language barriers and cultural (dis)connections. Streaming platform access and translation quality emerged as significant themes, along with a range of personal tactics to overcome initial confusion with the material, and diverging stances on queer content representation. These observations align the consumption of Chinese dramas by Spanish-speaking fans with the notion of pop cosmopolitanism as a viable path to encourage global consciousness.
Since its initial release in 2019, the c-drama Chén Qíng Lìng (陈情令/The Untamed) has resonated well-beyond its intended Chinese audience. Adapted from the danmei or Boy's Love (BL) novel Mó Dào Zŭ Shī (魔道祖师/The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation), current research has delved into the series evolution and dissemination from a variety of angles. The present study aims to contribute to this growing work of research by conducting an exploratory study of emerging themes among the Spanish-speaking fandom—such as streaming platform access, translation quality, personal tactics to overcome genre confusion, and diverging stances on queer content representation.
To better understand how fans engage and respond to The Unamed, web scraping tools were first used to download comments from WeTV's Spanish YouTube channel and conduct a systematic qualitative analysis of their content. The main emergent themes then formed the basis for a questionnaire which guided twelve semi-structured in-depth interviews with Latin American fans of the series and a professional translator.
Considering both the size and diversity of the Spanish-speaking community, as well as the increasing dissemination of Chinese popular culture as a means to promote the country's soft power, the intersection of these themes presents itself as a site ripe for academic discourse. Present findings align the consumption of Chinese dramas by Spanish-speaking fans with the notion of pop cosmopolitanism as a means to encourage global consciousness.
Mó Dào Zŭ Shī
Mó Dào Zŭ Shī, hereafter referred to as MDZS, is a web novel originally published on the Chinese web literature platform Jinjiang Literature City around 2015–2016. The story falls into the realm of wŭxiá (武俠) and xiānxiá (仙侠) genres: stories taking place in an oftentimes historical fantasy setting rooted in traditional Chinese narratives, which follow the adventures of errant knight-like heroes. These characters draw their strength and powers from Daoist practices focused on immortality cultivation (Wang & Alberto, 2024, pp. 18–19).
The protagonists of this particular story, Wèi Wúxiàn (魏无羡) and Lán Wàngjī (蓝忘机), are two young men educated as part of the gentry, whose opposing personalities initially clash. Amidst political and social conflicts, their paths diverge despite a deep personal connection, although fate eventually reunites them in an effort to right some wrongs from the past. The original novel is a BL story, that is, it holds homoerotic male–male relationships at its core (Wang & Alberto, 2024, p. 11). However, adaptations vary in their degree of fidelity to this aspect of the narrative, opting at times to emphasize the central pair's “brotherhood” instead of a mutual romantic interest (Robinson, 2024, p. 96).
Penned by author Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù (墨香铜臭), the novel gained so much popularity that it was quickly available as a printed book, then as a graphic novel or manhua (漫画); an audio drama; an animated series or donghua (动画), and eventually the fully fledged live-action web series The Untamed (2019) produced by Tencent Penguin Pictures. As recently as 2025, a theatrical adaptation was successfully staged in Japan (Stage MDZS, 2025).
Multiple controversies surround MDZS, be it because of the queer elements of the story, the uncertain fate of the author, censorship at large, or the fans’ zealous response to perceived slights to Xiào Zhàn (肖战)—the idol who portrayed Wèi Wúxiàn in the live-action web series. Nonetheless, the story has been translated into multiple languages, including Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Russian, German, French, and Spanish. This, in turn, contributes to its spread and reception around the globe.
Table 1 summarizes key milestones and the chronological order of release for some of the main material's adaptations, focusing on the English and Spanish translations. An additional note signals which materials were authorized by the author or official license holders, and which ones are of fan origin, although it should be noted that the Seven Seas Entertainment official English translation was largely based on Exiled Rebels Scanlations fan-work—as per the fan translator's own initiative. Their decision to subsequently take down most of their work in favor of encouraging fans to buy the official licensed text in English was met with controversy (Alberto, 2024).
Timeline of the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation Happenings and Adaptations.
Approximate month derived from online comments’ dates.
Literature review
The book Catching Chén Qíng Lìng (2024), edited by Yue (Cathy) Wang and Maria K. Alberto, provides a very comprehensive panorama of recent academic discourse on the series at hand, starting with the web novel's online reception and its subsequent dissemination, aided greatly by translation. Critical pieces on the same anthology scrutinize the series allegations of Chinoiserie in its companion album, the many reception discourses that arose around queer censorship, the infamous #227 Incident—when heated online discourse between fans of the idol Xiào Zhàn resulted in the ban of the Archive of Our Own (AO3) website in mainland China—and even the negotiation of identity among sinophone diaspora fanfiction writers.
The collection goes on to reflect on the series international reception and fan reworkings, thus cementing its vital significance within the as of yet emerging body of work surrounding The Untamed. These and further works in separate journals, focusing on cultural transmission (Wang & Dai, 2021), queer readings (Qiao & Hu, 2024), intercultural communication (Meng, 2021), and fan tourism (Yang, 2020), attest to the material's widespread appeal and reception around the globe, which in turns makes it a compelling case study for new intercultural dynamics at a global scale. The following subsections will focus on specific research surrounding The Untamed and include other academic works that align with current findings, as a way to strengthen discussion on such a novel subject.
Considering the inescapable role of language and translation in intercultural communication, and thus intercultural fan engagement, these topics shall be broached first. Next, the specific dynamics of East Asian popular culture dissemination in Spanish-speaking regions will be addressed. This is meant to clarify Spanish-speaking fans’ familiarity with other types of Asian content as a means of continuous participation in a form of pop cosmopolitanism and transnational proximity to the materials at hand, notwithstanding a form of culture and genre discount that had to be overcome. Finally, personal readings of the material revealed diverging stances on queer representation. Thus, a concise review of diverse representation strategies, particularly queer opacity, will prove useful for further discussion.
Translation and its discontents
In her work, Minae Mizumura (2008) reflects on the advantages and disadvantages of individuals recurring to a common language or lingua franca in an ever-communicated world. This role, which has presently befallen English, is cemented not necessarily by the number of native speakers, but by the number of people who embrace it as a second (or third) language with which to communicate with others (Mizumura, 2008, p. 40). As such, despite the immediate popularity of MDZS in Chinese spheres, its English translation marks a pivotal development in the series’ spreadability.
In the collection Catching Chén Qíng Lìng, fan translations—particularly the work put forward by Exiled Rebel Scanlations—are engaged with a thoughtful and open-minded stance, recognizing the lasting impact of such work. Although one could define a “fan” as anyone “who is passionately engaged with a fan object” (Jenkins & Kozinets, 2024, p. 83), it is easy to tell that there are various potential degrees of engagement. Jenkins and Kozinets’ fanship-fandom continuum serves to highlight the broad spectrum between fans who simply enjoy something in isolation, versus those who invest more energy and crucially, engage with a community or fandom surrounding their fan objects—for example, by creating and sharing works based on them (2024, p. 108). People who not only consumed MDZS but who endeavored themselves to transform said novel in a meaningful yet thoughtful way demonstrate a high level of investment while actively contributing to the expansion of the fan network.
Interviews with those responsible for the first English language version of the novel—a text that eventually was officially licensed and published by Seven Seas Entertainment—provide intimate glimpses into fans’ enduring dedication to the source material. Their testimony aligns with Lee's assertion that fan translations tend to follow a “stop the project when licensed” (2014, p. 199) mentality, even though in this case, the same fans were the ones who reached out to potential publishers. Said move allowed them to profit from their previous labor in a formal market, an alternative path to those fans who find ways to commodify their amateur work through P2P networks (Jenkins et al., 2016, pp. 151–158). Albeit freely available fan translations largely surpass overseas distribution (Lee, 2014, p. 199), the current case becomes an interesting example of collaboration between fandom and industry. Clearly, the availability of the material in a lingua franca played a significant role in the series rise in popularity, a prerequisite for publishers’ final decision to purchase and distribute the material.
Worth noting are the particular challenges of translating between Mandarin Chinese and English, both in terms of grammar and a certain “fuzziness” which allows for multiple meanings or interpretations to reside in a single Mandarin phrase (Ng, 2024, pp. 160–161). While sharing many of the same challenges, unlike the Chinese and English dyad, Chinese-Spanish translation is not so widely spread—at least not enough to enjoy such an extremely active community of fan translators (Lee, 2014, p. 202). This limits the Spanish-speaking community's access to immediate and accurate translations, which in turn hinders the material's popularity in the region, feeding a vicious cycle in which the purchase of official licenses might not feel sufficiently justified.
Nevertheless, MDZS managed to seep into the Spanish-speaking popular culture sphere. In the preface to their Spanish fan translation, El Gran Maestro de la Cultivación Demoniaca, first uploaded to Wattpad in 2017, fan translator GrayHands (n.d.) gives credit to numerous fans who contributed to this version of the manuscript. In particular, they recognize the influence of Exiled Rebels’ work in English, which formed the basis for large a part of the text in Spanish, due to GrayHand's limited knowledge of Chinese. This translation path mimics that of Viki fansubbers who usually create an English text in record time, which is subsequently used by other fans to translate into a wider variety of languages (Zhang, 2022, p. 81).
Previous scholarship on the international impact of MDZS has centered on its translation into English (Alberto, 2024), reception among the online Anglophone sphere (Ng, 2024), and within Chinese American fans (Springman, 2024; Wu & Kang, 2024). Beyond these communities, some studies have considered non-East Asian fandom practices from Thailand (Qiao & Hu, 2024) and India (Yang & Garg, 2024), or mapped out the fandom's diversity through fanfiction languages (Le, 2024). According to Le, 78% of the pertinent works collected in AO3 were written in English. Mandarin took second place with 9.6%, Russian third, and Spanish fourth, although a total of 26 different languages were found in the sample. As stated, the present study aims to contribute to this growing body of research.
East Asia in Spanish
Cervantes Institute data (2024) reveals that Spanish is the official language of over 20 countries and ranks globally as the language with the most native speakers, surpassed only by Mandarin. Of the almost 500 million Spanish native speakers, around 90% come from Latin America, with Mexico alone comprising more than a fourth of the area's speaker population. As such, the present research is likely to skew in the same directions, with an over-representation of Latin American perspectives, but conscious of the fact that many of the issues discussed at present also concern Spanish fans from Europe or the Hispanic diaspora—defined as such by their use of the Spanish language, not necessarily their racial identity.
When it comes to the presence of c-dramas and their fans in Spanish-speaking circles, research is scarce at the moment. One of the few examples comes from Moreno García (2023), who looked into fan indirect subtitling practices carried out by women in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, if one were to look at other instances of East Asian content avidly consumed by Hispanic people, a robust body of work quickly reveals itself, a testament to the region's decades-long presence in Spanish-speaking popular culture.
Japanese anime has been a household item in the Latin American and Spanish popular culture landscape since the 1970s and achieved a marked boom during the 1990s thanks in no small measure to Dragon Ball and Pokemon (Cobos, 2010; Josephy-Hernández, 2024; Santiago, 2012; Tosca & Navarro-Remesal, 2023). Anime currently enjoys more mainstream popularity, as evidenced by the proliferation of fan conventions, anime-inspired graffiti, and other welcomed instances of acculturation practices in public spaces, as well as the proud self-identification of many fans as otakus, a term resignified by the community so it is not necessarily understood as a derogatory or perverted label (Bogarín Quintana, 2012; García Núñez & García Huerta, 2014; Tavares Ruiz, 2021).
More recently, the Hallyu or Korean Wave has been steadily rising from a few doramas—Korean TV dramas—publicly broadcasted back in the early 2000s (Han, 2017, p. 2257), to a bonafide boom of interest in k-pop and the ever-expanding catalogue of shows available to stream at one's leisure (Bretón Vega, 2024; López Rocha, 2022; Sánchez Cariño, 2019; Torrero & Hazael, 2021).
The availability of East Asian media content has evolved from public broadcasts of selected media into an ever-broader offer of content in various streaming platforms—such as Crunchyroll, Netflix, YouTube, and Viki. This has ushered a new era of post-national television and a diverse entertainment landscape that helps fight the complete hegemony of US media through increasingly pre-meditated national industrial strategies (Chua, 2008, pp. 99–100), a phenomenon fueled both by systematic marketing strategies and the fan economy (Wang & Dai, 2021, p. 4245; Zhang, 2022, pp. 70–71).
Viki remains a popular streaming platform for Asian content due to its social affordances and translation quality, powered by fans who are quick to work and oftentimes add extended cultural notes (Zhang, 2022, pp. 81–85). By 2017, this platform reported 30% of its international user base was from the USA, while France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Mexico made up the next largest markets. Within Viki, costume dramas emerge as the second most popular genre, and a prevalence of Spanish in the comments section highlights growth within Spanish-speaking regions (Zhang, 2022, pp. 75–86). This serves as evidence of a transnationalization of cultural fandom, with new fan communities surrounding fan objects from overseas (Lee, 2014, p. 195).
Still, despite increasing availability of Asian content in legal platforms, Spanish-speaking audiences—particularly those living in Latin America—, are no strangers to using alternative distribution networks in order to access content which historically was unlikely to be officially licensed for distribution or merchandising in their region (Cobos, 2010, p. 15).
As seen, the present cultural landscape among Spanish-speaking people presents a very active community surrounding Asian products. This has paved the way for the present incursion of Chinese content into Spanish-speaking spheres, both in terms of distribution and audience reception.
Following international patterns, contemporary adult audiences are also actively interested in discovering and learning more about the countries producing their preferred entertainment content (Lee, 2014, p. 195; López Rocha, 2022). According to data from the popular language-learning platform Duolingo, since 2020, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese have ranked among the top ten languages studied globally (Blanco, 2024). In Mexico—the country with the largest number of Spanish native speakers in the world (Statista, 2024)—, four of the five fastest growing languages are Asian, with Korean taking first place among them (Ricoy, 2020).
As such, the current familiarity with East Asian cultures and languages, in addition to previously established fandoms, could entice Spanish-speaking audiences to brave the cultural barrier with China and its content, if the material seems interesting enough. The present work responds to a research gap concerned with fans’ initial contact, challenges, and lingering impressions after consuming the widespread Chinese c-drama The Untamed, a prominent but by no means isolated example of the emerging Chinese presence in popular media.
A cultural Great Wall
For a long time, it was understood that “media products traveling from one market to another will suffer from a cultural discount” (Lee, 2008, p. 119), meaning that differences in language and background knowledge would hinder the appeal of certain products to audiences unfamiliar with the original context of the work in question. For producers eager to conquer an international market, it was tempting to then opt for culturally universal products; however, this strategy was not foolproof, at times resulting in culturally empty or “odorless” products (Iwabuchi, 2002, p. 27) without strong appeal (Lee, 2008, p. 133).
Luckily, there are several successful instances of culturally specific material that have resonated among diverse audiences. Painting a village to paint the world then presents itself as a viable artistic choice, which entices audiences, precisely through foreign culturally specific elements. For active fans, delving into online forums or enrolling in language classes to better understand foreign cultural nuances, adds to the fan experience.
Among the expanding popularity of the Chinese immortal genre, The Untamed live-action web series served as a popular siren call for Western viewers to become interested in certain material expressions of Chinese culture (Meng, 2021, p. 775). Consequently, a very culturally specific product created first and foremost for a Chinese domestic audience, unwittingly became a transnational ambassador; one whose reach was aided greatly by other East Asian content, reaffirming the idea that “transnational fandoms bleed into one another” (Han, 2017, p. 2253).
Faced with this reality, it might be better to discuss cultural (dis)connections in terms of transnational proximity. Moving beyond a nation-centric approach and the assumption that foreign cultures inevitably remain obscure, transcultural fandoms are continuously drawn into their preferred objects despite linguistic, cultural, and geographical boundaries (Jin, 2022, p. 14). The notion of transnational proximity speaks to universal sociocultural experiences, which go beyond shared languages and skew more towards all-encompassing youth culture or good storytelling. In turn, these elements go on to provide a sense of community regardless of nationality (Jin, 2022, pp. 10–14).
A prominent but by no means exclusive example of this phenomenon can be found in Latin American fans of East Asian content. For many, their enjoyment of foreign cultural products transcends mere spectatorship and becomes a form of transcultural identification (Bogarín Quintana, 2012; Han, 2017, pp. 2252–2259). This active engagement with East Asia as a result of an initial contact with popular culture from the region denotes a clear instance of pop cosmopolitanism, understood as a form of transcultural flow which “inspire[s] new forms of global consciousness and cultural competency” (Jenkins, 2004, p. 117).
No longer alien works, transcultural fan objects become cherished possessions or experiences. As part of this process, certain cultural products might become very emotionally charged, with personal stances coloring the relationship with fan objects and the fandom itself. When it comes to queerness and representation—issues at the heart of any BL story and its fans—transnational interpretations and affections also become rich ground for discussion.
(Un)veiled queerness
Objects that serve as a vehicle for the circulation of emotions become saturated with affect (Ahmed, 2014, p. 4), as attested by passionate fan communities. The representation of queer relationships in media—a personal and controversial issue for many—thus becomes a source of heated discussions, with fans championing their intrinsic value, and at times reconciling with their more recent material commodification.
As a specific instance of transnational proximity, romantic stories have often transcended cultural barriers, despite particular notions of what kind of behaviors or expressions of intimacy are considered appropriate (Lee, 2008, p. 132). Within this realm, compulsory heterosexuality has permeated contemporary popular culture for a long time. Still, even this pervasive narrative of heterosexual coupling as the ideal (Ahmed, 2014, p. 145) has not been free of controversy and detractors. Anime censorship used to be more heavily concerned with nudity at large (Josephy-Hernández, 2024, p. 290), while suggestive k-pop choreographies continue to sound alarms among certain social spheres (Torrero & Hazael, 2021, p. 83).
At present, the notion of compulsory heterosexuality has been challenged, but remains a de facto setting for many narratives. For decades, fans across the world have resisted this and other monolithic approaches to gender stereotypes through alternative interpretations of primary texts, free of the commercial logic that oftentimes dictates storytelling choices (Lee, 2014, p. 197). However, a changing cultural landscape in terms of broader LGBTQ+ rights and race consciousness continuously demands more representation and diversity from official media products.
In Northwestern popular culture, visibility politics strive to “legitimize sexual otherness through public recognition” (Qiao & Hu, 2024, p. 157), often through coming-out stories. This strategy can result in a sense of discomfort among audiences who feel uneasy when confronted with queer ways of loving and existing. The feeling might not necessarily entail resistance to queerness, but it does rattle individuals unused to inhabiting norms differently (Ahmed, 2014, p. 155).
In contrast, queer opacity emerges from the global Southeast as an alternative to visibility politics. This strategy portrays “other” ways of being within fictional worlds “without explicitly addressing social involvement or activism aimed at advocating the transparency of queerness” (Qiao & Hu, 2024, p. 157). That is, queerness might be hinted at through visual cues or narrative tropes, instead of openly depicted through explicit dialogue or on-screen physical demonstrations of intimacy.
BL stories have emerged in Mainland China as a response to governmental restrictions and sociocultural norms surrounding queerness (Qiao & Hu, 2024, p. 152). Chinese original works of the genre also tend to be produced and consumed online, in a serial and feedback-intensive manner similar to fanfiction dynamics in the West (Lai, 2024, pp. 46–54).
However, when it comes to web series adaptations of popular BL stories in the Chinese context, state regulations limit queer content portrayed on screen (Wang & Alberto, 2024, pp. 20–24; Leung, 2024, pp. 71–74). As a response, producers endeavor to carefully hint at queerness, instead of overtly portraying it. Consequently, a queer opacity strategy for these materials “hinges on the interpretive strategy of queer reading by ordinary fan viewers, enabling audiences, regardless of their identity, to recognize the potential for queerness in media content that does not explicitly reference LGBTQ identities” (Qiao & Hu, 2024, p. 154). For The Untamed, this resulted in a heavily queer web series which nonetheless retains a measure of plausible deniability within a controlled media landscape.
As such, audiences ensconced within a compulsory heteronormative mindset, when faced with the discomfort of projecting heterosexual tropes into a queer couple, may as well choose to see a form of “bromance.” Some might scoff at the mental gymnastics of said endeavor, but “queerness with cultural or national characteristics may not be universally understood and interpreted in a transcultural context” (Qiao & Hu, 2024, p. 152). As proven beforehand, some scenes from The Untamed sought to portray certain queer elements through apparently innocuous visual language choices with various degrees of success (Qiao & Hu, 2024).
China's aspiration to increase its soft power reach through domestic media has resulted in restricted themes nevertheless flowing into the domestic entertainment sphere (Saejang, 2024, p. 34). This aligns with a commodification of queer content within global capitalism (Ahmed, 2014, p. 163), which allowed for profitable BL content to be increasingly adapted into live action series, at least up until the fallout from the #227 Incident (Huynh & Levine, 2024, pp. 229–230).
Ultimately, the continued negotiation of queer portrayal on Chinese BL screen adaptations can be seen either as a form of enduring censorship despite open knowledge of the source material's themes or as an exercise in profit-inspired tolerance within a rigid system. How the Spanish-speaking community reacts to this particular portrayal of queerness presents as an interesting issue to explore, considering Hispanic culture oftentimes must reconcile liberal Western media portrayals and mindsets with more traditional values and postcolonial realities.
Methodology
An initial approach for the research at hand consisted of locating the official WeTV Spanish YouTube channel, where all 50 episodes of the web series The Untamed were uploaded for free consumption between March 2021 and September 2022 (WeTV Spanish, n.d.). These videos, only available in Spanish-speaking regions like Latin America and Spain, include the original unabridged c-drama footage with Spanish subtitles (at the moment, there is no official Spanish dubbing of the series). Although the series is also available on platforms like Netflix and Viki, YouTube was chosen for its low-entry barrier, as there is no need to create an account or pay a subscription fee in order to access this content. Additionally, there was an ample public comment section from which to gather data, although users who wish to post their thoughts do need to sign in through a free account. Finally, the geographical restriction of these videos helped restrict a potential deluge of available comments to those coming from fans in Spanish-speaking regions, particularly when compared to other global platforms like Viki.
Web scraping tools were used to download a total of 4880 comments posted on all 50 videos. Replies were eliminated to focus the analysis on single-standing posts, barring the need to include previous nested responses in order to understand the full message. From the remaining comments, a random stratified sample of 369 comments (10% of the total) was obtained to ensure proportional representation of posts from all episodes. Upon close scrutiny, 10 comments were identified as WeTV's generic messages urging fans to subscribe to their channel and were subsequently discarded. The final sample of 359 posts was deemed large enough to provide sufficient and manageable material for manual qualitative content analysis, before reaching a saturation point.
In the final sample, eight different languages were identified (Burmese, English, Indonesian, Mandarin, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Thai) as well as 24 posts consisting only of emojis. Spanish remained the most popular language by far with 335 instances, while all the other languages combined merely amounted to 10 instances. Emoji strings and foreign language posts were coded, considering Spanish-speaking audiences are not precluded from being multilingual.
Within this sample, at least eight different nationalities were explicitly referenced through text or flag emojis (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Spain, Venezuela), with Argentina having the most mentions, followed by Brazil, despite being a country with Portuguese instead of Spanish as its official language.
A systematic qualitative analysis of each YouTube comment was undertaken with the help of the NVivo software, following an iterative approach until broad themes emerged. These became the basis for a questionnaire used to guide semi-structured in-depth interviews with Spanish-speaking fans of the series. The idea was to gain more insight into specific recurrent topics, which were clustered into three main interview sections: series consumption (language barrier, genre confusion, other MDZS adaptations); queer representation, and fandom connections (idols, other East Asian content, Chinese culture).
The call for participants was distributed on popular social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, WeChat) in an effort to reach a diverse audience beyond immediate social spheres. A total of eleven people contacted the researcher to partake in the study. All interviews were conducted in Spanish either via Zoom or WeChat, according to the interviewee's preference, with verbal informed consent being obtained prior to initial questioning. Participants’ ages ranged from 21 to 40 years old, with a median of 31. They reported six different nationalities (Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, USA, Venezuela), with Mexican being the most recurring one. Most participants held at least a Bachelor's degree (6) or a postgraduate diploma (4); around half of them (5) resided in China at the time of the interview, and the majority (9) identified as female. Overall, around half of the respondents identified as part of the LGBTQ+ community (5). Additionally, a professional translator of BL novels into Spanish also agreed to be interviewed on the subject.
Full transcriptions of all interviews were analyzed in NVivo following an iterative approach until the overarching themes in the sample were properly defined. The ensuing results of both the comments and the interview analysis are presented in the following sections, arranged by theme. All interviewees’ names have been omitted to protect participants’ identities. Likewise, when discussing online posts, all references to a user's name and/or handle have also been omitted following ethical guidelines put forward by the Association of Internet Researchers (2020). Cited comments or interview excerpts are personal translations into English edited for clarity.
Findings
The following subsections will focus on the more salient themes identified through systematic qualitative analysis of online comments on WeTV's official Spanish-dubbed videos of its web series The Untamed, and enriched through in-depth interviews with Spanish-speaking fans of the series.
First, like the titular rogue cultivator of the series, Spanish-speaking fans of The Untamed wandered into MDZS and its adaptations by venturing into less-traveled fandom paths—at least from their mainstream cultural standing. Enticed by other fans who shared their previous familiarity with East Asian content, for these people The Untamed was one of their first forays into c-dramas and, with few exceptions, an introduction to Chinese idols.
Next, platform access and the language barrier between Spanish and Chinese proved to be significant, albeit not insurmountable, obstacles to experience The Untamed, with some fans embracing the opportunity to work on their Chinese-speaking skills. The issue was oftentimes surprisingly conquered by using English as the lingua franca to understand the material, a choice partly informed by the perceived lack of direct Chinese-Spanish translations of quality. Along with this obstacle, a considerable cultural gap presented itself when engaging with either MDZS or the wŭxiá/xiānxiá genres for the first time, which resulted in a variety of personal strategies, used to solve the issue. Additionally, despite clear admiration, there was some reluctance to identify oneself as a fan of the titular idols.
Finally, the issue of queer representation came up in unexpected ways. While Western audiences are prone to bemoan censorship restrictions that limit direct onscreen portrayals of queerness, Spanish-speaking fans were divided on the issue. Some participants appreciated a more subdued and implicit representation of queerness, aligned with queer opacity tactics.
Rogue fans
A Chinese snapshot of the audience for the web series adaptation The Untamed (2019) divides fans between original novel fans, actor fans, web drama fans, and voice actor fans (Meng, 2021, p. 775). Interestingly, these categories hardly apply to a Spanish-speaking audience with limited access or familiarity with the original novel in Mandarin, Chinese idols, or local voice actors. How these unlikely fans first came in contact with MDZS proved to be a result of multiple factors.
A few online comments alluded to the fact that people were watching The Untamed for the first time as a result of a friend's recommendation or because of the fandom's popularity. All interview respondents concurred, with half of them naming friends and family members as their initial point of contact with the franchise. Others explained they had come across references to the material in social media (Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest) or stumbled upon MDZS via other fandoms, such as those aligned with Japanese content, BL novels, as well as Chinese pop music: “Yes, it was the influence from the fandom […], the same community who said: ‘hey, this is cool; watch it.’”
One respondent claimed to have seen The Untamed when Netflix suggested it, after she had already consumed many other Chinese dramas during the COVID-19 confinement. The timing of the web series release, just before the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, was also cited by others as an important factor in the consumption and prolonged engagement with the franchise: “The pandemic is to blame as well. The pandemic, Twitter, and previous fandoms.”
Interestingly, online comments subtly revealed using other East Asian series as points of entry into The Untamed, mostly in an indirect manner, using terminology like “anime” and “dorama” when referring to Chinese animations and c-dramas: “I’ve seen the chibi [series], the manhua, the anime, and I have read the novel, and watched this dorama series three times now.”
When asked about their own experience with other East Asian content, all respondents answered in the affirmative. Nine cited anime series encountered during childhood (e.g., Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball) or consumed more recently (Full Metal Alchemist, Jujutsu Kaizen). Those who lacked experience with Japanese content instead referred to Korean media as a previous foray into East Asian productions, with a total of nine respondents alluding to previous consumption of doramas (Boys Over Flowers, Because This Is My First Life). Only four people reported having seen other c-dramas or donghua before (First Love, Addicted, Eternal Love, Heaven's Official Blessing), and almost all (nine participants) attested to having already consumed more Chinese content after finishing The Untamed (Word of Honor, Link Click) or be willing to (one participant).
The Untamed served as a point of entry into c-dramas for some Spanish-speaking fans. As stated in a comment: “This is where I met my dear little bunny Xiào Zhàn and danmei novels.” About a third of interview respondents admitted this series was their introduction to c-dramas, while almost half pointed out The Untamed was their first encounter with the wŭxiá and xiānxiá genres. The challenges of engaging with this new type of content shall be discussed further on; however, the overall experience seems to have been a positive one, with four interviewees admitting to taking on the mantle of the fan who pushed others into engaging with the franchise: “I sat down my mom to watch this series […] I said: ‘oh mom, you watch many Korean series. Sit down and watch this one as well.’”
Interestingly, three respondents mentioned their parents as the new audience being drawn in, either through direct cajoling or by virtue of being around while their offspring watched The Untamed. All those parents were also acquainted with doramas, and as a result of hailing from Latin American homes, with serial dramas at large in the form of telenovelas which for decades have contributed to creating a cultural reality in this society (Sánchez Cariño, 2019, p. 46).
Although at least 21 online comments made direct or indirect mentions of admiration and support for Chinese idols Xiào Zhàn and Wáng Yībó, who played the titular roles in The Untamed, it seems most of this affection came to be after watching the web series. When enquiring about the issue during interviews, nine respondents admitted to never having heard of these idols prior to watching this series. Two respondents were familiar with Wáng Yībó from his appearance in other c-dramas and in a K-pop group, while only one person knew Xiào Zhàn beforehand from his singing career.
Curiously, although everyone recognized the idols’ talent, almost half of the respondents were reluctant to identify themselves as their fans: “I like [him], I would like to see more of his work, from both of them, but no…. It's just that I’ve seen fans are very intense, so I don’t consider myself a fan on that level.” This statement might be alluding to the fact that Chinese idol fans follow a model established by Korean and Japanese idol culture in which a fan's identity as such is strongly aligned to a consumption behavior geared towards maximizing their chosen idol's measure of success and rentability (Huynh & Levine, 2024, pp. 222–225). One of the respondents admitted to having gone from a very passionate stance to a more sober one after seeing certain behaviors from Asian fans: I’m very into temporal fixations. So, when I saw [The Untamed] I loved it, loved it. Oh, I saw them [Xiào Zhàn and Wáng Yībó] everywhere! I read their news and stuff, but later I got over it, right? […] I used to see them everywhere and think: ‘oh, how nice, how cute!’ but that was it. I mean, not enough to, I don’t know, the kind of things the Chinese do. Oh, setting up a fan club and paying a lot of money to get their [idols’] face in a yogurt. I don’t know, that kind of stuff.
Having seen how these unlikely fans first came in contact with The Untamed despite their unfamiliarity with Chinese c-dramas and idols, the next issue at hand was to figure out how they were able to watch and understand this instance of foreign media.
It's in Chinese!
In Spanish, when encountering an idea or concept so foreign it seems unintelligible, people are prone to exclaim: “I don’t know, it's in Chinese!” This idiom attests to the large cultural and linguistic gap between Hispanics and China. Although interest in Chinese culture and popular media is still relatively new, the established familiarity with other types of East Asian content provides a pathway for fans to engage with foreign content, including access routes and language strategies.
For example, a majority of Spanish-speaking fans come from Latin America, a region characterized for ample circulation of media through non-regulated channels. As such, content available in free platforms—or as part of the content library included in services already commonly purchased like cable or Netflix—is more likely to be consumed. Among participants, Netflix and YouTube were the most prevalent platforms used to watch The Untamed, with seven recurrences each. Two participants mentioned Viki but explained they drifted away from it, partly due to a paywall: Maybe I saw it for the first time on Viki, but since Viki now required payment, or I think it no longer had the subtitles, something like that, and I found it on YouTube, and it's all free, and it has the best subtitles…
However, despite coming from the official production company, these videos were not exempt from technical glitches. Recurring comments complained about problems with subtitle quality: “At times some words or phrases are a bit weird, fortunately I remember many things from other subtitling work and I don’t get mixed up […], but the effort is appreciated.”
More often, audio problems were brought forward. Specifically, some episodes would randomly play contemporary music unrelated with the scene, interrupting both the original score and dialogue. Fans were vocal when expressing their frustration with the issue: “I don’t get the bits with awful music, it's maddening, it's better to leave it with no audio instead of playing that monstrosity that alters our Qi!” No comment or correction from WeTV addressed the problem, although a possible explanation could be related to preventing unlawful distribution of the material, an idea inadvertently put forward by one user: “I don’t like that they put music over the videos; that way I can’t download the videos properly.”
In contrast, none of the interview participants reported any technical issues when watching the series—at most internet speed hiccups unrelated to their chosen viewing platform—although two people admitted to using unofficial websites when the series was unavailable in their preferred streaming platforms. One highlighted the reasoning for choosing between different viewing options: Netflix it's much more convenient and all, but I think YouTube […] is a very accessible platform because […] you only grab your cellphone and start watching it, and if you have no account it doesn’t matter, right?
However, only two interview participants mentioned having initially watched The Untamed with Spanish subtitles. Four people admitted recurring to a combination of English and Spanish subtitles, while five declared using English subtitles for the entire series run. When probed on their language choice, some people explained they felt more comfortable consuming foreign content in English: “The thing is since I’ve been abroad for so long and English is the one [language] I use the most, then it's like I’ve gotten used to the language […].” Still, for other fully bilingual people, the problem was firmly ensconced in an evident quality disparity between subtitles in English and Spanish: “I have bad experiences with languages which are not yet as often subtitled in as English, […] Spanish is lacking, so I always skip to English.” [I watched it] in English. Despite people complaining that those [subtitles] were very inconsistent as well. It was much more similar to what was stablished in the series; in terms of language, both in style and the way they presented the characters. And in Spanish it was much more inconsistent.
The few participants with no knowledge of Mandarin expressed regret at the situation, perhaps keenly aware of things lost in translation. As a recently fluent Mandarin speaker put it: “Obviously if you don’t know Chinese you’re only getting twenty per cent of the series […] If those girls understood Chinese, they would like it five hundred times more.” Even then, language was not the only cultural obstacle these fans had to surmount when trying to catch up with The Untamed, as evidenced with multiple mentions of a considerable cultural gap when engaging with the series.
(Dis)connections
As already stated, for many fans, this c-drama was their first encounter with the wŭxiá and xiānxiá genres. Through comments, online users at times would make fun of their own struggle with the series and ask for clarification. A couple of interview respondents cited similar public fan exchanges as a useful tool when trying to make sense of the story and genre conventions. A big source of confusion among respondents was the large cast of characters addressed by a variety of names and titles, along with a significant time jump in the first few episodes.
To cope with the learning curve of the genre, fans adopted strategies like consulting the novel's glossary, books like Understanding Chinese Fantasy Genres (2020), reading fan discussions and forums online (YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, Wikis), or taking personal notes; at times, another fan provided direct guidance to the novice. The only participants who did not report any challenges of the kind when watching The Untamed attributed the fact to previous familiarity with the BL and wŭxiá/xiānxiá genres, or other iterations of MDZS. One participant cleverly explained the situation in the following way: From my point of view as a foreigner, it felt like a fanfic. In the sense that ‘the audience already knows what this is. I don’t have to explain it as much’ […] but I don’t know what you’re doing, baby! Explain it better to me, please.
Nine people declared having consumed other iterations of the story besides the live-action adaptation, including the comic, animation, and novel. Two people admitted to never finishing the web series, although they did consume the whole story in another form. Three respondents only watched The Untamed once, while another three watched it in full once or twice, and afterwards only consumed random episodes at whim. Finally, two respondents upheld they had seen the complete web series at least four or five times. This constant repetition served as a source of enjoyment and fulfillment, with each encounter providing additional understanding of the story and language: I’ve watched the same series many times because I like it. The first time you can’t take your eyes away from the subtitles […] And then little by little you understand the story, learn more details, and now that I speak the language better, I listen to them and think: ‘ah, this is not exactly the same as in the subtitle, right?’
For those who held the novel above its adaptations, richer descriptions and emotional depth were deemed decisive factors for this choice. Considering the official Spanish translation of the novel was just published in 2024, it is not surprising that these fans read the original novel in its English translations. The few people who came across the Spanish fan translation expressed frustration with the work: “I felt the translation was like, a bit too stiff.”
A respondent highlighted the clarity of the text, with its glossary and cultural notes, as the reason they were able to understand the story and subsequently engage with its live action adaption; on the other hand, someone else claimed having previous images from the series in their head, allowed them to better engage with the written text. Finally, another participant admitted that their preference for the full text over the drama stemmed partly because after consuming the BL material “the drama didn’t give me what I wanted,” alluding to the heavy censorship of the queer love story.
Subtle soulmates
Expanding on this topic regarding the depiction of queerness at the heart of The Untamed, it should not be surprising that many (68) online comments made direct references to the main couple of this BL story. Seasoned fans are familiar with shipping discussions—debates surrounding potential romantic and sexual couplings (Lai, 2024)—which can eclipse all other aspects of a story, although considering the BL nature of this case, the enthusiasm feels quite justified. Nonetheless, among the celebratory posts, a few instances of negative feelings towards the treatment of the relationship could be found: In the manhua Lan Zhan arrived to rescue our Wei [Ying] and everything was so romantic. Here they CENSORED IT, WHY ARE YOU SO AFRAID OF SUCCESS
More than one respondent shared their surprise and admiration at the clever ways producers was able to depict queer love in roundabout ways: “It's always interesting to see how censorship can also result in creative innovations when producing or telling this type of stories.” Although some of the more subtle nods remained hidden from them until revealed by online forums, these fans concurred that despite the toned-down interactions between the protagonists, the real nature of their relationship felt obvious: The Untamed not only leaves the implicit extremely clear, but it respects the audience enough to be like: ‘you understand why I’m doing this. You know why it's stablished this way and you know what their relationship really is, whether you’re a fan or not’. I feel that, when you are a bit more open-minded, you say: ‘no, censorship took away an essential part’ [but] that also helped a bit so that my mom, well, had a gentler approach to [the issue].
Discussion
As previously stated, many issues of transnational fandom are echoed in the case of Spanish-speaking fans engaging with The Untamed. Firstly, the role of translation remains paramount when bringing fan objects into new foreign audiences. Presently, when faced with the absence or subpar quality of access options in Spanish, English was used as the lingua franca which allowed Spanish-speaking audiences to consume East Asian content. For fans already familiar with other types of foreign content, this was a known strategy.
Evidently, this sample skewed towards multilingual people, with most of them implicitly attesting to fluency in English as a second language, and many reporting some level of competence in an East Asian language. Further research should focus on monolingual fans to better understand how their restricted access not only to subtitling options, but online resources as well, shape their overall enjoyment of this type of foreign media.
The crucial role of fan translations is cemented through these testimonies. For MDZS, its popularity outside of Mainland China was heavily influenced by the availability of its first fan translation, which eventually became the basis for the official licensed English novel (Alberto, 2024; Ng, 2024). When interviewed on the issue, a translator of BL novels into Spanish maintained that professional work overall possessed better quality than fan endeavors. This as a result of the thorough preparation and investigation official translators undertake, not just in terms of language, but also regarding the text's author, genre, and even the fandom itself—if one already exists.
Nonetheless, they also conceded how: “It's very likely that fan translations have more reach in Hispanic circles, since most of the countries that use [Spanish] have more limited resources and can’t afford the expense of buying official books.” This material barrier can also be traced to recurring comments on platform preference, which was often dictated by the real or perceived availability of the content for free. Still, the willingness to buy official merchandise speaks to fans' predisposition to spend money once they are sure of their fan object.
The first wŭxiá/xiānxiá BL novels officially licensed into Spanish by Norma Editorial were those of author Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù (Norma Editorial, 2025), almost certainly because of their popularity in the English market, aided in part by their numerous adaptations, as corroborated by said translator. When asked about the possibility of buying the official Spanish translations now that they were available, some fans were open to the idea, but the fact remains that this option might not even exist if not for previous fan labor. At least in the case of these BL novels, it seems that without fans, there would not be translations.
With ever increasing ways to transform fan labor into paid endeavors—be it by licensing one's work or relying on one's own prior experience as a fan to guide certain professional choices—it becomes harder to pull apart amateur and professional practices. Additionally, transnational licenses do not exist in a vacuum. If certain media are more likely to get licensed when fan networks have already established potential markets for it, it is hard to ascribe all measures of success solely to official distribution.
Spanish-speaking fans of East Asian content once again prove to be very active (Cobos, 2010; García Núñez & García Huerta, 2014; Sánchez Cariño, 2019; Tavares Ruiz, 2021). Even when their actions could be ascribed to the apparently low effort end of Jenkins and Kozinets fanship-fandom continuum, something as innocuous as sitting down to watch a web series can be as simple as letting Netflix choose the next series, or as challenging as having to navigate obscure corners of the internet in search of good videos and quality subtitles.
Likewise, solving questions or fighting cultural discount (Lee, 2008) can be done by simply commenting on a video and waiting for a response, or can spur a personal sojourn into the rabbit hole of Chinese fantasy. After all, it is not unusual to find cultural notes squeezed between subtitles or presented as footnotes in novels, but even with these aids explaining references to oriental poetry or historical figures—a necessity for Hispanic audiences—more information might be desirable.
In the same line, it seems that along the expected cultural discount, a certain genre discount was also taking place between relatively new audiences of wŭxiá and xiānxiá content. Viki users might gravitate towards c-dramas “more out of cultural affinity rather than cultural proximity” (Zhang, 2022, p. 85). This could be the case for most Spanish-speaking users, which further attests to the series enduring appeal and the fans’ continuous efforts to better understand their new objects of affection and engage with a mentality more akin to that of transnational proximity (Jin, 2022). Such investment of time and labor—including time spent on numerous rewatches—yields affection in return (Ahmed, 2014, p. 127).
Even when only watching on a superficial level, c-drama audiences are exposed to traditional elements of Chinese culture (Guo & Jiang, 2019, pp. 618–619). Continuous consumption of these series could result in an increase in China's soft power (Saejang, 2024, p. 34). Simultaneously, far from being passive viewers, fans have also found a way to capitalize on their hobby, for instance, by learning Mandarin, a behavior aligned with previously observed trends (López Rocha, 2022, p. 133). This casual exposure to foreignness through popular culture, coupled with a resulting willingness to expand one's comprehension and understanding of the real-world language and traditions that shaped it, positions Spanish-speaking fans’ engagement with The Untamed and MDZS at large as a clear instance of pop cosmopolitanism (Jenkins, 2004).
Lastly, a fascinating response to queer opacity tactics emerged as a phenomenon worthy of further study. This alternative to visible politics, which relies on subtle or implicit nods to queerness over direct onscreen depictions of it (Qiao & Hu, 2024, pp. 153–154), revealed itself as an acceptable and even desirable mode of representation for some participants. Other works have noted that this dissemination tactic for queer content can offer individuals “the opportunity to gradually appreciate queer culture” (Qiao & Hu, 2024, pp. 159–160), an exact sentiment echoed by more than one participant.
In the Hispanic context media, portrayals of queerness are heavily influenced by liberal trends in Western media, despite various degrees of sociocultural acceptance to the LGBTQ+ community. Conservative audiences, particularly older generations, can be more reluctant to engage with queer content. They might be resigned to enduring a measure of discomfort when accidentally facing this type of character and stories, but media with opaque yet evident portrayals of queer love could serve as a way to bridge the gap, helping audiences to first recognize queer characters as worthy by themselves, and then focusing on the romance aspect (Ahmed, 2014, p.156).
Still, one must remain wary of pushing queer opacity politics in a way that might inversely justify certain kinds of censorship to promote a personal moral code (Springman, 2024). This trend could explain why other respondents were adamant in their rejection of censorship of any kind. In these cases, a lot of the frustration seems to come from a desire to at least allow original queer stories to be portrayed in the same manner through all their iterations.
Conclusion
Overall, this research has provided numerous insights into the transnational reach of the MDZS franchise at large within Spanish-speaking circles, focusing particularly on its web series adaptation The Untamed.
Findings indicate a diverse international community eagerly engaging—often for the first time—with Chinese fantasy, notwithstanding language barriers and cultural (dis)connections. Previous familiarity with Japanese and Korean content appears to have paved the way for these fans’ recent incursion into c-dramas, but specific language, cultural, and genre gaps still remain.
Spanish-speaking fans overwhelmingly encountered MDZS through other fan networks, be it personal acquaintances, social media algorithms, or recommendations from similar fandoms. Familiarity with Chinese idols was practically non-existent prior to contact with The Untamed, although subsequent admiration did result in some participants consuming more c-dramas solely because their preferred actor starred in them. Even so, many respondents were reluctant to identify themselves as fans of these idols, largely due to the perceived overwhelming fervor of Chinese fans.
More research on the matter might reveal interesting insights on how different manifestations of fandom influence transcultural identification with the label. Despite expressing passionate engagement with the series at hand, these participants were reluctant to self-ascribe a label they were not comfortable with, possibly due to an unwillingness to engage in certain practices incurred by the Chinese fandom, such as paying fees or the #227 incident. These ambivalent positions reveal hitherto unforeseen consequences of some commonly accepted East Asian fan practices, which might unknowingly be limiting the potential transcultural growth of idol fandoms.
Accessibility in terms of platform access and translation quality also emerged as significant themes. When mapping the spread of The Untamed it becomes clear that a great deal is owed to fan labor. The first English translation of the novel paved the way for transnational fans to consume the original text and boost the popularity of subsequent adaptations. In time, the first Spanish translation of the book was largely based on that same English fan work, and the franchise's popularity presented itself as a crucial element when a Spanish publishing house decided to officially acquire the distribution rights.
Evidently, there is ample opportunity to improve Chinese-Spanish translation, both as an amateur and a professional endeavor. The present research has proven that there are many Spanish-speaking fans lurking among the vast numbers of multilingual people who choose to consume foreign content in English, at times by virtue of sheer availability. Addressing them in their native tongue would not only expand the number of c-drama viewers but also the material and cultural reach of Chinese culture at large.
As such, concentrated efforts into making c-dramas available in Spanish—be it through professional dubbing, quality subtitling, and accessible distribution—are likely to yield positive results. The zealousness of Spanish-speaking fans and the potential gains to foreign nations willing to cater to them have already been proven by the success of the Hallyu and the hybridization of Japanese anime. These examples of nation branding have been shown to project a positive national image and pave the way to economic and political ties through popular culture, contributing to globalization from a grassroots stance (Bretón Vega, 2024, pp. 102–103; Lee, 2014, p. 204; Torrero & Hazael, 2021, p. 85; Zhang, 2022, p. 71). China looms on the near horizon as another nation poised to traverse these familiar cultural pathways into the homes and hearts of Spanish-speaking corners of the world.
Despite the literal and figurative distance between fans and this c-drama, participants demonstrated using a wide range of personal tactics to overcome initial confusion with the material. These endeavors—partly informed by previous experience with other East Asian content—are the result of a deep transcultural connection with significant objects of various genres, languages, and nations. They highlight the value of continuing fandom discussions under the guise of transcultural proximity (Jin, 2022) over nation-centered approaches.
Additionally, considering their enthusiastic sojourn into learning more about the language and culture of their preferred media (López Rocha, 2022, p. 131), efforts to translate Chinese content into Spanish and make it readily available on accessible platforms might indirectly result in more Mandarin speakers and Chinese culture enthusiasts. This phenomenon could in time encourage both recreational (Yang, 2020) and professional ties (López Rocha, 2022) between the strategically developing region of Latin America—which boasts the world's largest concentration of Spanish speakers (Instituto Cervantes, 2024)—and China.
Furthermore, diverging stances on the censorship restrictions imposed on BL c-dramas open up the floor for additional discussion of queer representation politics around the world, and specifically within the Hispanic sphere. Follow-up work might concentrate on different approaches to queer content and how to better engage reluctant audiences, considering queer opacity tactics might resonate positively in some traditional cultural pockets, which still abound among the Spanish-speaking population.
Finally, despite a common language, many material and social conventions still separate Spanish-speaking people from Latin America, Europe, and the USA, and as such, future research on any of the themes identified in this work will benefit from a deeper analysis of these differences. Incidentally, the diverse Spanish-speaking audiences consuming Asian content through Viki remain an untapped source of valuable information.
Spanish-speaking fans of The Untamed and MDZS at large have proven to be a varied group of passionate people willing to brave a large—but not insurmountable—cultural and linguistic divide in pursuit of good storytelling. As an interesting embodiment of pop cosmopolitanism (Jenkins, 2004), this community has actively transformed what could have otherwise been an enjoyable, yet inconsequential sojourn to a Chinese fantasy world, into a conscious journey towards a deeper understanding of a far-away culture. Like their beloved characters, these fans forged their own path when traversing the realm of popular culture, proving there is an eager audience willing to embrace new Asian content. With ready access and the right language tools, one can only imagine where this journey will lead them to, and how many other rogue fans might be inspired to join them along the way.
Footnotes
Ethical Statement
This study adhered to all relevant ethical and legal principles as observed and supervised by the academic authority guiding the research. Verbal informed consent for research participation and publication was obtained from all participants prior to data collection from interviews. The consent statement was provided in Spanish according to the participant's language preference. For publicly available data in the form of online comments, all references to a user's name and/or handle were omitted following ethical guidelines put forward by the Association of Internet Researchers.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Data Availability Statement
The data that support the findings of this study are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.