Brand Nohomonationalism: Guofeng (‘National Style’) Framings of Boys’ Love Television Series in China

ABSTRACT

In the last few years, Chinese ‘boys’ love’ television dramas (dangai) have attained immense popularity within China and globally. While state authorities are known to censor LGBTQ content, the Chinese state media has used guofeng (‘national style’) language to laud some such series, including The Untamed and Word of Honor, in nationalistic terms. Through effusively praising depictions of traditional Chinese culture while downplaying or obscuring the texts’ origins in homoerotic novels, such commentary has sought to recruit dangai series towards advancing Chinese cultural power while containing the texts’ queer transgressiveness. We refer to this phenomenon as brand nohomonationalism, or the undergirding of nationalist ideology by particular configurations of normative sexual discourse, which expands on the insights of Puar’s ‘homonationalism’, Iwabuchi’s ‘brand nationalism’, and Williams’ ‘brand homonationalism’ in the broader Asian context. Although brand nohomonationalist commentary has been curtailed since recent injunctions against ‘effeminate men’ and danmei (boys’ love) content, it is part of the Chinese government’s broader efforts to exercise ideological authority over popular culture. Analysing the phenomenon provides new insights into how sexual and national identities are co-constructed.

近年来, 中国的耽美(BL)/耽改电视剧在中国和全球范围内都获得了巨大人气。虽然中国政府审查LGBTQ内容是众所周知的, 但中国官方媒体却用‘国风’语言, 以民族主义的口吻赞扬了几部这样的电视剧, 包括《陈情令 (2019)》和《山河令 (2021)》。通过盛赞剧中对中国传统文化的描述, 同时淡化或掩盖这些作品来自耽美小说的渊源, 这类评论试图利用耽改系列来推进中国的文化实力, 同时遏制酷儿文本的越轨行为。本文将这种现象称为‘brand nohomonationalism (品牌无同性恋民族主义)’, 或规范的性话语的特殊结构对民族主义意识形态的支撑。它是对Jasbir Puar的‘同性恋民族主义’, 岩渕功一的‘品牌民族主义’和Alan Williams的‘品牌同性恋民族主义’的扩展, 存在于广泛的亚洲语境之中。虽然自从中国最近对所谓的‘娘炮’男人和耽美内容发出禁令后, ‘品牌无同性恋民族主义’已经被削减, 但它是中国政府对流行文化行使意识形态权威的广泛努力的一部分。分析这一现象为性别和国家身份如何共同构建提供了新的见解。

KEYWORDS:

• Danmei (boys’ love
• BL)
• dangai (adaptation of BL for Chinese television)
• guofeng (national style)
• The Untamed
• Word of Honor
• China

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the two anonymous Asian Studies Review referees for their helpful and constructive comments.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹. It has since moved to Amazon’s Prime Video.

². Chinese censorship also applies to the depiction of heterosexual relationships, but same-sex interactions are subject to more restrictions, with even kissing forbidden.

³. It is also worth noting the phenomenon of fan ‘reporting’ (jubao), as Wang and Ge (2022) have discussed for the Untamed fandom, where some fans reported rival fans to censors for producing fan-produced content about the actors that was not in accordance with heteronormative standards.

⁴. See e.g., People’s Daily (2018) for Guardian.

⁵. In contrast, Western commentary typically addresses the queerness of the central relationship (e.g., Downey, 2020).

⁶. In August 2021, Zhang Zhehan was widely condemned in government and popular commentary for actions deemed unpatriotic, and subsequently, WoH was removed from PRC video platforms, although it is still viewable on Youku’s YouTube channel.

⁷. China’s equivalent of the IMDb site, where users can post reviews and rate movies.

⁸. Actors who become famous from starring in dangai series often transition to ‘heterosexual and hypermasculine roles’ in productions that clearly ‘embrace socialist morals and patriotic sentiments’ (Ye, 2022, 13).