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Baihe and Danmei: Chinese GL and BL in an Age of Censorship [1]

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

Date: 2025-06-24

Baihe and Danmei are popular genres of story about romanticized relationships between women and between men, respectively. Besides the content of the stories, something very different about Chinese gay media is that China has strict censorship rules. LGBTQ people are banned from media under the morality rules of censorship, here’s a passage from Wikipedia:

It is very, very strict, not only are fictional depictions targeted but gay content in international competition is edited out altogether. They won’t even let men be straight but less than a traditionally masculine stereotype. So these authors are not only writing stories, they are risking life and limb to share the content of gay people that they love and it is commendable that they do this. Let’s get a little into the history of the genre as well as what sets Danmei apart outside of the political content.

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

The Growth of BL Media in China

So how did content of gay content become popular at all when media is so restricted? The first BL fans in China got their hands on pirate Taiwanese copies of Japanese Boys’ Love and built their community up from there. They used the Japanese term tanbi, which refers to prose BL writing in Japan, and referred to their fandom as Danmei. These fans discussed and created amongst themselves until BL was made in China proper around 1998. These communities grew and there is a continuous pattern of gay media flying under the radar in small groups, those groups growing and commercializing until they catch the attention of censors, followed by strict enforcement or rule changes that censor BL.

As for how such heavily suppressed content became popular abroad, fan translations of the Chinese content were passed around the internet and in 2021 Seven Seas started officially publishing Danmei work in English editions. Despite this success Danmei fans can still be cagey at times, there is specific lingo developed to subtly discuss where to find books with sex scenes and also to discuss gay ships without tipping off censors.

This secrecy is pretty similar to queer coded media and lingo in America from back in they day, so fans often feel that while it is always appreciated to support official translations there is also an idea you should also be a little more hush hush as far as promoting stories too much outside of smaller circles until they are officially licensed. Part of this attitude may be because many, many shows with coded content air on Chinese TV and then are taken down as the implicitly gay parts get attention and censors turn up the heat and there have even been Chinese authors that produce content for Taiwan audiences that get arrested for producing it while living in China.

What Sets Danmei Apart

Danmei has vibe very similar to other BL works, but something that really sets it apart is how many works focus on fantasy and how it exists mostly as prose. Danmei is heavily influence by the genres of Wuxia and Xianxia. Wuxia is a genre of historical fantasy about martial arts practitioners following a code of chivalry. It has a lot of martial arts involved as a requirement of being Wuxia but will often focused on justice and morality as theme with the combat itself being a means to be chivalrous and defend the weak. Xianxe is about a fantastic version of the world based Chinese philosophies and mythologies are the focus of the story. The philosophy piece is giving real credence to mystical ideas similar to how secret societies are often used in fantasy literature as important players in the fictional world. The supernatural characters are often trying to work towards godhood by “cultivating” ( I put this in quotes because a common English term is “cultivation story”) spiritual power to try and achieve immortality. They also involve supernatural beings such a deities, demons, spirits, ghosts and other mythical creatures.

I really love the genre having a focus on these kinds of stories, I adore fantasy and romantic fantasy especially, so having a genre of gay fiction that focuses heavily on gay people getting into high magic adventures is such a fun time for me! The down side is that being the main character of a fantasy book often comes with a high degree of danger and drama. Some people appreciate that BL/GL takes the high dramatized stories the US likes to make about gay people and give us a more saccharine alternative and those people might not be a fan of these. Characters often have tortured pasts, do horrible things due to supernatural circumstance, or die in tragic fashion.

A lot of flagships Danmei stories like Heavenly Official’s Blessing have these sorts of stories. There are stories that are fairly sweet too, one I enjoy is The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, which is about a man who gets turned into a fish in the world of a romance novel he read. He ends up being the pet of a mute prince known for being excessively cruel in the book that is a child of the emperor. Li Yu has to engage in magical shenanigans to get the prince to open up and return to human form. It is very heartwarming and hilarious watching this poor guy struggle with his fish-hood.

As for Baihe, I can’t speak to that as much. Similar to Danmei it has a vibrant fan community but few-to-none official publications and I don’t like reading long form works on a screen. So I can’t speak to specific titles, but Seven Seas (the publisher who started to bring a bunch of Danmei titles to America back in 2021) is planning to release one this November, The Beauty’s Blade: Mei Ren Jian! I have heard that Danmei is more popular than Baihe, so I am glad to see the stories make their way over with official ways to support the authors.

That is about all you need to know to start getting into Danmei. I might recommend checking out reviews of series you haven’t heard of, because some of the stories do get seriously violent or sexual, but hopefuly I’ve sparked your interest and you’ll check it out. Supporting media about gay people and making it more popular in a place where it’s censored is even more constructive than watching your average BL/GL. There is a lot to discover and love, especially if you enjoy fantasy as much as I do.

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