104 PRISM: THEORY AND MODERN CHINESE LITERATURE • 17:1 • MARCH 2020 DOI 10.1215/25783491-8163817 • © 2020 LINGNAN UNIVERSITY XI TIAN Homosexualizing “Boys Love” in China Refexivity, Genre Transformation, and Cultural Interaction ABSTRACT Originating in Japan, “boys love” (BL) manga and fction that focus on romantic or homoerotic male- male relationships are considered by most of their writers, readers, and scholars to be primarily by women and for women and are purposely differentiated from gay fction and manga by both commentators and practitioners. However, BL’s increasing interweaving with homosexuality and sexual minorities in China requires scholars to reread and redefne BL practice in its Chinese context. This article discusses some of the recent transformations of the BL genre in China, examines the signif cant role female practitioners have played in indigenizing BL, and ultimately points to the trend of consciously writing and reading BL through a homosexual lens. By refexively constructing “gayness” in BL works, these practices have also created a peer-led educational space on non- normative sexuality and gender identity. The author also examines how BL “poaches” offcial and mainstream cultures, resulting in their considering BL the primary fctional vehicle of homosexuality. She therefore suggests that the trend of confating BL with homosexuality and the deliberate homosexualization of BL in both texts and real life have ultimately extended the cultural identity of BL, as well as its political meaning, and in practice have created a porous culture that welcomes gender diversity and helps increase the visibility of the gay community, revealing a signif cant social and cultural shift that cannot be ignored or reversed. KEYWORDS boys love, danmei, fandom, gender studies, online literature Originating in Japan, “boys love” (BL) manga and fction, also known as danmei 耽美 in China, which focus on romantic or homoerotic male-male relationships, are considered by most of its writers, readers, and scholars to be by women and for women (though male readers and fans have become more visible in recent years) and are purposely diferentiated from gay fction and manga by both com- mentators and practitioners, including writers, artists, readers, fans, and com- mon consumers. Existing studies on global BL phenomena primarily focus on BL texts and female writers and readers, such as psychoanalytic studies on female fantasies and identifcation, 1 sociological and ethnographic studies on online and ofine female communities, 2 and literary and historical studies on Chinese BL as part of the global BL fandom. 3 Female readers of BL are mostly young hetero- sexual women, ofen self-mocked as funü 腐女, “rotten” girls, or fujoshi 腐女子 in Japanese. Rotten girls not only love to read BL stories but also see homosexual and homoerotic relations between heterosexual men in non-BL texts and in real