https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0409-2526
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ABSTRACT
This study focused on the Japanese cyber-fandom of Thai boys’ love (BL) dramas, examining how their perception of Thailand was transformed through viewership and participation in fandom activities and how it affected the fans themselves and the broader Japanese society. In the Japanese cyberfandom of Thai BL dramas, people with diverse gender identities and sexualities intermingle, learn, and become aware of their changing gazes toward Thai and Japanese culture, queerness, and other related issues. Through a qualitative analysis of audience ethnography and interviews with 25 participants, this study shows that Thailand’s culture contrasts with others, particularly the cultures of the West, and an Oriental gaze from the Japanese point of view has emerged in this context. A movement beyond the national Thailand–Japan framework has also emerged, which explores the multifaceted nature of BL dramas within a single-issue context. Thus, Thai BL drama fandom extends beyond an Oriental perspective, practising inter-Asian referencing and reflecting on the national framework by watching BL dramas and participating in fandom. In other words, this study presents new possibilities for BL: (1) overcoming an oriental perspective and reflecting on a national framework for the acceptance and consumption of BL content and (2) cultural experience and real social connection through fandom activities and discourse through inter-Asian referencing in practice.
Notes
1 Tai-numa literally translates as “Thai Swamp” because it is hard to get out (to quit being a fan) once one gets hooked (attracted). This became a self-description of the Thai BL drama fandom.
2 It implies that the interviewee’s friend did not have a particular image about Thai culture; they might confuse them with Indian films, which show lots of dancing.
3 For example, the term otaku (a person extremely knowledgeable about the minute details of a particular hobby) in Japanese, which is included in the Oxford English Dictionary, is used by default to refer to male otaku, while female otaku are tagged as “On-na (female) otaku” (Outani Citation2020). In Japan, there are many other examples such as “science girls.”
4 Johnny and Associates (Johnny’s) was the name of a Japanese entertainment production company but also a generic term for the male idols belonging to the company. The name was changed to STARTO ENTERTAINMENT in October 2023 due to sexual assault issues by its founder, Johnny Kitagawa.
5 Chinese genre of literatures and other fictional media that portrays male–male romance.
6 REACTION CUTIE PIE EP7. It shows the actors, staff and fans in the audience cheering and applauding in the scene described above. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XprGMS1OSwQ&t=1122s (accessed 4 March 2024).
7 List of BL actors that posted about Pride or went to Pride Parade https://www.reddit.com/r/ThaiBL/comments/140se14/list_of_bl_actors_that_posted_about_pride_this/?rdt=52630&onetap_auto=true&one_tap=true (accessed 4 March 2024).
8 The term is also used in various newspaper media and magazines, for example, in the prestigious Galaxy Awards sent by the Broadcast Criticism Roundtable, where the award-winning BL drama work was described as “going beyond BL and being completed as a universal adolescent romantic drama” as a reason for winning the award. https://twitter.com/houkon_jp/status/1524947655641530368?s=20&t=er0sZEpqMx7uokmaZBA3nQ (As of 13 May 2022. Accessed 15 January 2024).
9 “Results of the 2021 survey of Japanese language institutions” (As of 2022. Accessed 11 March 2024) https://www.jpf.go.jp/j/project/japanese/survey/area/country/2022/thailand.html#JISSHI
Den-ichi Thaigo mojibu “Review of the Thai language boom since 2020” https://note.com/thaigo/n/n398cdab9135e (As of 31 July 2023).
10 Video of two actors from KinnPorsche asking the Gender Studies professor at Chulalongkorn University about the issues LGBTQIA+ people face ahead of Pride Month 2022. Be On Cloud, TongSprite X PrideMonth EP1 (2022/6/15). Accessed 24 April 2023. https://youtu.be/p9qLVeN02g0
11 Recently, the actor in the Japanese gay movie Egoist (2023) argued that “legalisation should be hastened, especially with regard to same-sex marriage”; however, it is rare for actors in Japan to speak about political issues. AERA.dot (issued 13 February 2023). Accessed 8 March 2023. https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/497876484f32af3b46f117fb8facd26549763827?page=3
12 https://twitter.com/sabon_b_l/status/1745369268013916595?s=20 (as of 11 January 2024).
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Sae Shimauchi
Sae Shimauchi, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, International Center. Her expertise lies in the area of internationalisation of higher education and cultural studies. She is particularly interested in the impact of international education and study abroad on students and society, and how transnational popular culture in Asia are transforming people and societies. Her academic publication includes books in Japanese Paradigm Shift on International Student Mobility in East Asia (Toshindo, 2016), Global Studies of Undergraduate Education (Yonezawa, A., Shimauchi, S. and Yoshida, A.,eds. Akashishoten, 2022), the latest articles “Thai Boys Love Drama Fandom as a Transnational and Trans-subcultural Contact Zone in Japan” Continuum 37(3), 381–394 (2023) and “Inter-Asian Perceptions of Studying ‘Abroad’ in Asia: Analysis of Japanese Students’ Discourse” (by Iwabuchi, K., & Shimauchi, S.). Globalisation, Societies and Education, 1–12 (2023).