Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture

by Thomas Baudinette

Over the past several years, the Thai popular culture landscape has radically transformed due to the emergence of “Boys Love” (BL) soap operas which celebrate the love between handsome young men. Boys Love Media in Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture is the first book length study of this increasingly significant transnational pop culture phenomenon. Drawing upon six years of ethnographic research, the book reveals BL's impacts on depictions of same-sex desire in Thai media culture and the resultant mainstreaming of queer romance through new forms of celebrity and participatory fandom.

The author explores how the rise of BL has transformed contemporary Thai consumer culture, leading to heterosexual female fans of male celebrities who perform homoeroticism becoming the main audience to whom Thai pop culture is geared. Through the case study of BL, this book thus also investigates how Thai media is responding to broader regional trends across Asia where the economic potentials of female and queer fans are becoming increasingly important. Baudinette ultimately argues that the center of queer cultural production in Asia has shifted from Japan to Thailand, investigating both the growing international fandom of Thailand's BL series as well as the influence of international investment into the development of these media. The book particularly focuses on specific case studies of the fandom for Thai BL celebrity couples in Thailand, China, the Philippines, and Japan to explore how BL series have transformed each of these national contexts' queer consumer cultures.

Genres: Nonfiction

244 pages, Hardcover

First published October 5, 2023

Reviews

[mandarina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo he leído para el tfm. Thomas Baudinette espero que sepas que eres perfecto

[Postjoeism · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has completely transformed my perspective on Thai BL. Previously, I viewed the genre strictly through the lens of film studies, dismissing it as low-quality content that focused solely on shipping while being heavily influenced by Western criticisms of queerbaiting. However, the author’s analysis, which utilizes cultural and fan studies, provided a much-needed explanation for why I often find myself more invested in the ship dynamics than the series themselves. This shifted my view of Thai BL toward a more positive light. While the book may seem overly optimistic given that it was written in 2022, it is certainly a more constructive outlook than viewing the industry with purely negative cynicism.

Ultimately, Thai BL represents a new form of queer culture that has emerged in Thailand. It has established its own unique system of celebrity ship couples and transnational fandoms. The genre is now shifting the balance of queer culture across Asia through the hope, joy, and emotional bonds that people create together across borders, a conclusion that I find myself in full agreement with.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as part of my research for a humanities and anthropology project for school, and this gives a well rounded overview of the BL industry in Thailand. Well written, a bit dense to get through, but exactly what I was needing! I love that he comes at this topic as an Aca-Fan, which gives it just enough of a personal touch.

[Yeast · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the content is common sense to people in the fandom - but good to have scholarly work to unpack it: the history, industry, affective ties, and multiple ways to be queer amid tensions between reality and fiction, consumption and solidarity, fantasy and lived experiences.

[Stacy Sereda · Rating 5 out of 5]

enjoyed reading this almost as much as a enjoy watching the actual BL series