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

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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 Thailand: 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 BLs 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 Thailands 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.

Reviews

Thomas Baudinette optimizes his Japanese cultural studies expertise as well as various methods to unravel the vibrancy of fandom, star industry, gender politics, and transnationalism within the Thai BL media since its soul-searching period. This seminal work vigorously inspires continual and future dialogues among BL scholars in Thailand, Asia, and beyond. * Natthanai Prasannam, Kasetsart University, Thailand *
The book presents a groundbreaking exploration of Thailands Boys Love media. With thought-provoking theoretical debates, this book unveils the transformative nature of Thai BL, showcasing its role in reshaping Thailands popular culture landscape and its transnational impact throughout East and Southeast Asia. A must-read for understanding the emergence of queer representation and the interplay between Thai and Japanese BL cultures as well as the intriguing connections between Thai BL media and Korean fandom practices. It is an insightful journey that illuminates the dynamic exchange between diverse cultural influences, reshaping the landscape of queer representation and media consumption in Asia. * Amporn Jirattikorn, Chiang Mai University, Thailand *

Author Bio

Thomas Baudinette is Senior Lecturer in International Studies at Macquarie University, Australia. A cultural anthropologist, his research explores queer media and its fandoms in East and Southeast Asia. His first book is Regimes of Desire: Young Gay Men, Media, and Masculinity in Tokyo (2021).