Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2023

Publication Title

East Asian Journal of Popular Culture

Volume

9

Issue

Chinese Popular Culture in Translation and Transmissio

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1386/eapc_00110_1

Keywords

danmei fan labour cultural flows Mo Xiang Tong Xiu Mo Dao Zu Shi Chai Jidan Priest

Abstract

The genre of boys’ love (BL) has enjoyed huge popularity since its Japanese beginnings in the 1960s, and it has taken root in popular cultures in many countries. BL arrived in China via fan translations of Japanese manga into Chinese. With the rise of online fiction platforms in China, local writers produced widely popular male–male romances that gained traction locally and abroad. The outflow of Chinese BL mirrors fan activities that led to the popularity of Japanese manga and anime in the United States. Fan translations of Chinese-to-English BL fiction are one of the most important links in introducing Chinese BL to the rest of the world. This article focuses on the cultural outflow of Chinese BL through fan translations in gloBLizing the genre. Through interviews with five teams and one individual fan translator, this article examines their roles played in the dissemination of BL web novels beyond the native Chinese-speaking world. These fan translators all resided in anglophone countries, and are diverse in their cultural and linguistic backgrounds, ages and BL interests. We interviewed fan translators that translated works from fantasy, alternative history and contemporary romance. Some of these works have been adapted into multimedia and some have not.

Rights

© 2023 Intellect Ltd

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