Chinese Homosexuals in a Utopianised World

Active Involvement, Strategic Interactions, and Contingent Engagement with Practical Life

Bibliographic Data

ID3614979
AuthorsZeyang Wang (0009-0007-0069-3694, University of Nottingham Ningbo China), Ze-Yang Wang (University of Nottingham Ningbo China), Thomas William Whyke (0000-0002-9771-3626, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume72
Issue10
Pages2031-2055
Publication date2025-08-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Homosexuality (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0091-8369 • E-ISSN: 1540-3602
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00918369.2024.2414303
PMID39401172
OpenAlexW4403392175
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited62

Boys' Love (BL), known as Danmei () in China, is a popular female-oriented male-male intimacy genre celebrated by today's Chinese younger generation. From 2000 to 2020, BL fiction rapidly developed, becoming a major expression of male homosexuality and homoeroticism in China. This research detects the dynamics between BL fiction's utopianized space and gay readers-a community simultaneously being the major subject of BL representation and the minority of BL fans. Conducting semi-structured interviews with three Chinese BL gay readers from high school, college, and workplace, this research delineates a representative picture of Chinese gay readers' intentions, experiences, and opinions of involving a utopianized BL world. Using Ruth Levitas' utopian thinking framework, this research investigates how the utopianized representations of idealized homosexual romance, arousing homoerotic behaviors, and the normalized gay everydayness in Chinese BL fiction from 2000 to 2020 can impact gay readers' engagement with practical lives. The study argues that Chinese BL gay readers' active involvement and strategic interactions enable them to contingently engage with their lived reality, demonstrating their subjective role as active audiences with agency. This result adds to contemporary BL studies and provides an enriched utopian thinking framework, calling for subsequent minority research to value individuals and individuality

Developmental psychology · Sociology · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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