Chinese female desire, gaze, and identity construction: A case study of “Boys Love”

ABSTRACT

In recent years, there are few studies on Chinese female identity construction, female gaze, and sexual desire, as seen via the consumption of Boys Love (BL) media, or the tanbi genre. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and Deleuze’s idea of desire, this paper notes that expressions and alterations regarding sexual desire by Chinese female spectators are reflected in their imagined projections and consumption of BL media as part of their identity construction. These are situated in an imagined community of BL fans in Online Social Media (OSM). Using the trajectory of responses and exchanges of Chinese female audiences on the light Thai BL comedy, 2gether the Series (2020), which is introduced via fan-subtitling, I explore the dynamics of these female spectators as a case study. To a great extent, this represents a process of evolving their own gender values, sexual desires and identities through the consumption of BL media and writings based on the former. This paper thereby attempts to explore how Chinese female spectators project masculinity in homoeroticism and demonstrates that female identity construction is autonomous, proactive, and creative. Also reflected here are their strong beliefs in egalitarian love relationships, regardless of sexual preferences.

ABSTRACT IN CHINESE

近年来学界关于中国女性观众对耽美类型影视文本的观影中所折射其女性身份建构、女性凝视和女性欲望等议题的研究较少。借用布迪厄（Bourdieu）的“习性（habitus）”和德勒兹（Deleuze）的“欲望（desire）”概念，本文描述中国女性观众对耽美类型影视文本的线上观影及其想象投射，探讨其中所反映的女性欲望的表达与调整，以进一步阐明女性身份建构内容。具体而言，以耽美文化粉丝的想象共同体的网络社交媒体（OSM）中相关微博超话为例，本文梳理探析中国女性观众对由粉丝字幕组翻译的泰国BL轻喜剧《2gether the Series (2020)》（有译为《只因我们天生一对》）的线上观影及其相关线上讨论交流情况。总结道，某种意义上说，中国女性观众该类线上观影和讨论交流很大程度上反映了自身的性别价值追求、女性欲望表达和女性身份建构的进化过程，其对男性特质的想象投射也体现了其女性身份建构的自主性、积极性和创造性。同时，中国女性观众还表达了与性取向无关的、具有普遍意义的平等恋爱的观点看法。

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese female spectatorship
• female identity construction
• BL fandom
• Online Social Media
• 2gether the Series (2020)
• fan-subtitling

KEYWORDS:

• 中国女性观众
• 女性身份建构
• BL粉丝;网络社交媒体
• 2gether the Series (有译为《只因我们天生一对》)
• 粉丝字幕翻译

Acknowledgements

I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. I also want to express my greatest gratitude to Dr. Mala Khullar who has devoted generous efforts to help me review and edit the final draft.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shuying Liang

Shuying LIANG is a PhD student at University of Macau. Her research interests include translation studies, gender studies, cultural studies, and media studies. At present, she is interested in exploring research topics relating to Chinese female BL fandom and LGBTQ+ cultures. Email: [email protected]