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.