The 2016 BL (boys love) series Addicted garnered 10 million views on its first day of showing and 100 million views within a month. The series remains mainland China’s most popular overtly BL series because all the series that followed after were no longer labeled BL but were instead called bromance.
The series is based on the novel by Chai Ji Dan titled Are You Addicted? and catapulted the male leads, Timmy Xu and Johnny Huang, to stardom.
Episode 12 of Addicted shows sex (not full-on sex but
sex nevertheless), and this probably is the episode that provoked the Chinese
authorities to axe the show. The
producers were forced to show the remaining 3 episodes on YouTube where the
kissing and sex scenes (episodes 12 and final episode 15) were censored. All 15 episodes are available to view on YouTube
(China Huace TV Official Channel) – not available in China. The two episodes with censored scenes can
also be viewed on YouTube through unofficial channels.
I actually wonder why the authorities didn’t intervene
earlier. In episode 8, Gu Hai (played by
Johnny Huang) wanted to wank Bai Luo Yin (Timmy Xu). This is a naughty scene.
The lead actors were banned from seeing each other in
public. Timmy Xu, one of the male leads,
had difficulty finding work for a year after the ban, but thankfully, he and
fellow lead actor Johnny Huang are currently stars in the Chinese entertainment
industry enjoying projects left and right.
In 2017, Advance Bravely, another BL novel by Chai Ji
Dan, was made into a series, and it was not banned because it was made into a
bromance instead of a BL series.
I read the novel (Advance Bravely), and it was quite
graphic. The sex scenes in the novel
were very detailed, just like watching a pornographic video.
China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, and the Chinese
Society of Psychiatry removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses
in 2001. The Chinese government does not fully take on board the delisting of homosexuality as a mental illness.
In 2019, the BL novel Mo Dao Zu Shi (Grandmaster of
Demonic Cultivation) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, was turned into a live-action
bromance series titled The Untamed.
The phenomenal series, to date, has over 9.5 billion (legitimate,
non-pirated) views in China alone.
The animated series, also titled Mo Dao Zu Shi, has garnered
over 4.5 billion views, so far. The
anime is one of my favorite animated series of all time. I like the anime better than the live-action
drama.
The novel upon which the live-action drama and anime were based is relatively benign sexually. It does not pretend to be bromantic, but there is only one sex scene and one stolen kiss scene.
The communist party in the Philippines does not seem to have
issues with homosexuality. Over a decade
ago, the party showed a same-sex couple getting married in a party-organized
event. The media had a field day.
Mainland Chinese authorities seem to be selective in
suppressing homosexual representation.
They actively suppress homosexual kissing and lovemaking in audiovisual media but do
not suppress overtly homosexual novels like Mo Dao Zu Shi.
The Alibaba Group showed a 20-second ad in 2020 insinuating a gay relationship. This was not taken down by the government. The government probably did not bother since ads have a short lifespan and sexual acts – homosexual or otherwise – are not allowed in public ads.
Gay communities are now said to be active in China and are
tolerated without negative legal implications.
I hope for the BL series to be allowed freedom soon, although I think it is a safe bet that it will take a while, a long while, before that happens.
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This is a spur-of-the-moment write-up, so I didn't include notes and references. Stats and info are
readily available in the Net. I stand
corrected for errors, if any.