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BL: About Youth, a series that glows with goodness and will warm your heart [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-05-20

i hope you have a great dental plan; you’re going to need it. The Boys’ Love series About Youth is so, so sweet that you’ll have cavities by the time it concludes. You’ll also have a heart that’s toasty warm.

It isn’t an artificial confection of cinematic fantasy that is hard to swallow. Its sweetness feels real and meaningful, a slice of life that two teenagers anywhere could actually experience and, in the process, find themselves as individuals and find each other as romantic partners who bring out the best in each other.

Taiwan — one of the most gay-friendly Asian nations, with full marriage equality — has really pulled out all the stops in recent years to produce high quality BL series and movies. Thailand and South Korea are still the biggest players, but Taiwan is giving them a run for their money. About Youth is a terrific example of what Taiwan’s BL producers can achieve.

Let’s dive into it after the break. Then keep reading until the end because there are a few sweet surprises for you.

It’s also an act of subversion … so watch an episode, share it with others , and resist!

This regime wants to erase LGBQT people from public life and eliminate access to information, resources, and cultural heritage for our youth. Most LGBQT adolescents never see stories about people like themselves enjoying love and romance. In our current reality, watching a Boys’ Love or Girls’ Love series or movie might be the only means for young people to see models of how their own relationships could start, develop, and successfully grow.

This is not a typical drama or comedy. In many works, we often get contrived problems and issues created only for dynamic tension that must be resolved as the show progresses. For example, one guy witnesses an interaction by his love interest and misinterprets it. Then neither of them communicates with the other so we go through an unnecessary mini-drama about jealousy.

There’s nothing like that here. Above all, both Qi Zhang and Guang — the characters of the main couple — are earnestly good. Not only are they determined from the outset to be good to each other, they do all that they can to be good to others around them also.

Guang — whose parents are selfish, cold, and controlling — tries so hard to be the perfect son for them as well as being considerate and kind to everyone at his school, where he is greatly admired.

Qi Zhang never has an unkind word for anyone. He is helpful, compassionate, friendly, and sincere. What’s not to love? The surprising thing about Qi Zhang is that somebody hasn’t already snagged this ideal boyfriend-to-be.

Both Guang and Qi Zhang are adorable, with million-dollar smiles that light up their faces. Anyone would fall in love with them after just one flash of those smiles.

The lads of the side couple, Ray and Ah Jian, are pretty darned appealing as well. Ray — as we shall see — has some issues, and rightfully so, but he rather quickly puts them behind him when they no longer serve a purpose in his life. Ah Jian is supportive, caring, loyal, and determined — the type of boyfriend that Ray hoped for but had never found before and couldn’t quite believe in yet.

Cast Ye Guang Li Zhen Hao Xu Qi Zhang Shen Jyun Ray Hsu Shuo Ting Ah Jian Andy Huang

The setups

About Youth racks up an impressive score for use of common tropes:

Ah Jian lovingly feeding tasty morsels to Ray (and Ray will be his)

Random Act of Kindness

The Stumble

Rivals to Lovers

Tending a Wound

The Way to a Man’s Heart

Feed Him and He’ll Be Yours

Clean His Mouth Since You Can’t Kiss Him Yet

Whew! There’s hardly a trope that they didn’t use!

You would think the series would simply be a boring collection of tired clichés, but it’s not that way at all. They touched the tropes very lightly and creatively and proved why they work: they offer motives and opportunities for intimacy and connections in ways that we can all relate to in our own lives and relationships.

The story

One rainy night, when Guang is out walking after an argument with his awful parents, he happens upon Qi Zhang, who is even unhappier than Guang and who is soaking wet. Guang gives him his umbrella and moves on, lost in his own misery … but Qi Zhang fixes in his memory the face of the handsome boy who treated him kindly when he needed it most.

When they meet a year or so later, Qi Zhang has already long been smitten with Guang. It takes another random encounter for Guang to really notice Qi Zhang. This time it’s a role reversal. Guang is having a really bad night and it’s Qi Zhang who treats him with tenderness and compassion.

It all began with a random act of kindness by Guang to Qi Zhang

Guang has no real friends other than Ray (also from an upper-class family and thus approved by his parents). His parents control his time and activities, expecting him to work day and night on studies and get top marks, with zero time “wasted” doing anything fun or normal for a teenager. They have a booming business in the education field so they require him to be poster-boy perfect. They neither know nor care about Guang’s wishes and needs.

Qi Zhang, on the other hand, has a loving and supportive single mom and the memory of a kind and loving musician father who passed away some years previously. Qi Zhang helps his mom with running her street-food stall and, in turn, she totally supports his love of music and the time he spends with his band.

As Guang relishes time spent being “rebellious” (that is, not a 24/7 slave to his parents’ demands), Qi Zhang shows him the simple joys of life: eating something delicious at a hole-in-the-wall place instead of the 5-star restaurants his parents go to, riding a skateboard, making giant bubbles with a hoop and soapy water, and so on. He takes him to meet his bandmates and hang out with them during rehearsals.

Guang has never been so happy. Now he has another best friend (Qi Zhang), along with Ray, and is finally doing at least some things that are entirely his choice, not his parents’ orders.

In a parallel thread, Ray is unhappy. His semi-straight boyfriend makes him dress up like a girl but then blows him off when his actual girlfriend wants him to be with her. At one point, they have a confrontation in a café and the barista, Ah Jian, intervenes and throws the boyfriend out.

Ah Jian and Ray start spending time with each other and Ray is happy being with someone who appears to truly value him. But then The Stumble happens: they are face to face, mouths an inch apart. They kiss but after twenty seconds or so, Ah Jian breaks it off and tells Ray he needs more time; apparently he’s either not used to kissing boys or he’s just not sure yet about how deep he wants this relationship to be.

Ray with Ah Jian, a guy who treats him with love and respect

Ray runs off, clearly feeling rejected, much like how he felt with his ex. Ah Jian regrets his hesitation and begins the process of wooing Ray back but he’s stubborn and it takes a while. Eventually, Ray gives in and the two begin a happy and healthy relationship.

In time, Qi Zhang and Guang admit that they have both gone beyond friendship and now love each other romantically. There’s no drama about it, no gay panic, no fear of what others will say. They know it’s real and right for them and so it’s fine.

The only real conflict that Guang and Qi Zhang have in their growing relationship is entirely organic and relatable to us all. After a particularly harsh argument with his parents — including being hit in the face by his dad — Guang turns to Qi Zhang, who meets him. By the way, those arguments are entirely one-sided, the parents berating and emotionally abusing Guang, and upping their rage if he dares to raise even a tiny question or objection.

Qi Zhang makes the mistake of trying to fix things rather than listening to Guang and acknowledging his pain; for example, he tells Guang that he’s sure his parents love him and want the best for him. Guang understandably feels hurt and angry and speaks harshly to Qi Zhang.

The next day, they meet again and patch things up. Both realize their respective mistakes, apologize to each other, and vow to do better in the future. These boys are 100% healthy, green-flagged boyfriends!

There are some more adventures and dramatic passages before the story ends, including some conflicts and tensions — but those are external to the boys’ relationship, such as Guang’s struggles with his parents.

I will leave those for you to discover rather than spoil the tale for you. I will tell you this though: the story ends on a positive note, with our main boys sharing some kisses, and we know they are going to continue being good with each other and good for each other.

Conclusion

I think the writers made good choices for moving the story forward and giving us a satisfying tale. But, if it was real life, I would have acted differently if I were Guang. I would have played bad-ass hardball with my parents: you want to f*ck around and find out? Get out of my face and start behaving like nice people or in a couple of months, when I turn 18, i’ll be publishing my tell-all about your cruelty. I’ll go on the circuit of talk shows and Youtubers and TikTok influencers and then we’ll see how your fame as model educators works out for you, a**holes.

Mama Xu (Qi Zhang’s mom) gives comfort and advice to her son’s boyfriend … such a contrast with Guang’s own parents

But that’s me. Sometimes I go into a take-no-prisoners mode. Like I said, Guang and Qi Zhang are genuinely and earnestly good lads; they’re way better than I am.

And I hope they’ll continue to show us how much better by means of a sequel one of these days.

All of the actors did a fine job. Even the despicable parents of Guang performed their roles well, making me believe that yes, they really could be that self-absorbed, cruel, and heartless (all the while claiming that their only concern was for Guang to do well in the future).

I loved this show and I loved the main boys and the side-couple boys and Qi Zhang’s mom and his friends. I loathed Guang’s parents! Fortunately, in the credits there are photos of Li Zhen Hao laughing and hugging the actors who play his evil parents so we remember to hate the characters but appreciate the actors.

I gave the series a 5-out-5 stars rating on the database I keep of BL series and movies. My only complaint would be that i wish it had been one episode longer so we could see how the boys fared after their relationship fully launched.

During the final episodes, Guang has been reclaiming his own life and taking care of himself emotionally, so we can assume that will continue and his parents will just have to accept the new reality. I would like to have seen if the bad parents finally get some self-awareness and try to make amends or get their comeuppance in an extra episode.

You will enjoy it and it will leave you with warm feelings (and maybe a cavity or two from all that sweetness).

Sweet bonus #1

Intimate scenes, including kissing, can be stressful for actors, especially if their onscreen partner is someone they met very recently (scenes are not shot in chronological order, so an intimate scene could actually be shot at the start of filming).

Just because two actors are filmed kissing, it doesn’t mean they are attracted to each other or even like each other; Hollywood has had many famous onscreen romantic partners who detested each other in real life. That’s why it’s called acting, not being.

Practice makes perfect

So it shouldn’t be surprising that Li Zhen Hao, who portrays Guang, was nervous about his upcoming kiss with Shen Jyun (Qi Zhang). Fortunately, the shooting schedule had that shot as their final scene to film so the boys already knew each other well by the time they needed to do it.

Beyond the usual reasons for it to be stressful, Zhen Hao had a very personal reason to be nervous: he was 18 years old and had never been kissed.

When he confided in his co-star, Jyun was ready to help him gain some experience to overcome his shyness and nerves. The two guys sneaked off to find some privacy and practiced kissing so that Zhen Hao would be comfortable doing it in front of a camera and surrounding crew.

When the time came, they did a stellar job: their kissing looked like they were sharing genuine feelings of affection and romance (and we’ll see in a moment that indeed they were genuine). Good job, boys!

Sweet bonus #2

Apparently they really enjoyed all of that kissing — practice as well as the actual scene — that they did. Those feelings of love portrayed in their kissing? They were real.

A year or two ago, I saw Zhen Hao and Jyun on a TV show, one of those that mixes talk with some silly pranks and fun games. The guys seemed to be having a really good time.

A segment involved them answering questions that had been submitted by their fans. One question inquired if they texted each other goodnight each evening.

Zhen Hao responded by chuckling and saying no, they don’t do that. He explained that texting is unnecessary because they live together so they say goodnight and good morning face-to-face like every couple does who share their home and life.

Congrats, boys, on finding love and romance while you were filming a show about finding love and romance! Your ship sailed and I couldn’t be happier for you. I hope your future together is as sweet as the series you gave us.

Sweet bonus #3

The original soundtrack for About Youth is very, very good. Sometimes when a series is about guys in a band, the music is actually bad; that’s disappointing when it’s a key element of the story. Happily, in this case, it’s a great OST.

This song (according to the plot, not real life) was written by Qi Zhang’s deceased father. When Qi Zhang is trying to decide which song to perform, his mom tells him to look into his heart and find what’s there … and he finds the love he has for Guang and this is the song that he wants to sing to him.

[END]
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