Boys’ Love, Cosplay, and Androgynous Idols: Queer Fan Cultures in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan - Book Review

Aug 24, 2026

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A critical review of the anthology Boys’ Love, Cosplay, and Androgynous Idols, examining how BL and GL fan subcultures, ACG media, slash/femslash practices, and cosplay aesthetics develop across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. It highlights an interdisciplinary, transcultural approach that links queer theory, fan/reception studies, and Sinophone studies to analyze cross-cultural relations, decolonizing knowledge production, and shifting socio-political contexts. The review evaluates the anthology’s structure, key conceptual threads, and contributions to LGBTQ-related scholarship.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages4

Reading Time6 min

AccessFree to download

Book Review

Overview of key concepts (BL, GL, ACG, slash/femslash, cosplay)

Interdisciplinary methods and transcultural framework

Main structure by region (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan)

Thematic connective threads and political contexts

LGBTQ realities and decriminalisation in different territories

Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, 3 (1-2), 19 ISSN: 2542-4920 Book Review Boys’ Love, Cosplay, and Androgynous Idols: Queer Fan Cultures in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan Jenny Lin 1* Published: September 10, 2019 Edited By: Maud Lavin, Ling Yang, and Jing Jamie Zhao Publication Date: 2017 Publisher: Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, Queer Asia Series Price: HK $495 (Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, and Taiwan) US $60 (Other countries) Number of Pages: 292 pp. hardback. ISBN: 978-988-8390-9 If, like me, you were born before 1990 and are not immersed in online fan cultures, you may never have heard of the acronyms BL and GL that comprise the primary thrust of Boys ’ Love, Cosplay, and Androgynous Idols: Queer Fan Cultures in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (hereafter Queer Fan Cultures) . Fortunately, this captivating anthology’s editors Maud Lavin, Ling Yang, and Jing Jamie Zhao define ‘BL (Boys’ Love, a fan subculture narrating male homoeroticism)’ and ‘GL (Girls’ Love, a fan subculture narrating female homoeroticism)’ (p. xi) at the outset in the Introduction. Lavin, Yang, and Zhao expertly unpack and contextualise these and other terms that may be new to the less enlightened reader – ‘ACG (anime, comics, and games)’ (p. xii); ‘slash/femslash (fan writing practices that explore male/female homoerotic romances)’ (p. xiv); and Chinese slang ‘tongzhi (gay), guaitai (weirdo), ku ’er (cool youth)’ (p. xix)– which reappear in fruitful discussions in the following chapters. I recently assigned Queer Fan Cultures in a seminar, and my millennial students, who enthusiastically devoured the book, already knew all about BL, GL, and ACG, as well as related concepts like “cosplay”(costume play, as when people dress like manga and anime characters) and “shipping,” which denotes when fans couple two seemingly heterosexual characters in a same-sex relationship. No matter their extant knowledge of BL, undergraduate and graduate students and seasoned academics all stand to gain a tremendous deal from this anthology, which probes the theoretical dimensions of BL, GL, cosplay, and androgynous idols while expertly weaving in enlightening and nuanced socio-political observations on the complex cross-cultural relations between mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Truly interdisciplinary, the anthology deftly integrates various subcultures and platforms (e.g. celebrity fan groups, pop music, online forums) and methodological approaches (e.g. Internet ethnography, interviews, postmodern analyses) in a rhizomatic compilation akin to the online fan cultures and queer theoretical terrains the book illuminates. Furthermore, the editors successfully employ a transcultural framework by presenting case studies from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, contributing to Sinophone studies, a burgeoning field pioneered by scholars such as Shu-mei Shih (p. xix) that seeks to examine cultural connections across and between vast and disparate Chinese-speaking populations. Often occupying feminist positions, Sinophone studies practitioners are well poised to radically transform traditional humanistic disciplines long dominated by Western content, and built on Orientalist notions of Western academic superiority and attempts at categorising/containing non-Western subjects. Queer Fan Cultures aligns Sinophone studies with queer theory and fan/reception studies, and in so doing, poses a triply effective method for decolonising academic disciplines by challenging Western hegemonies, heteronormativity, and top-down power structures of knowledge construction. In the editors’ own words, they share with queer Asian studies, queer China studies, and queer Sinophone studies a common focus on non-normative genders, sexualities, and desires; a complex understanding of the hybrid and heterogeneous nature of Chinese-speaking sociocultural practices and experiences; and a strong commitment

FAQs

What do BL and GL mean in the anthology discussed by the review?

BL refers to a fan subculture narrating male homoeroticism, while GL refers to a fan subculture narrating female homoeroticism. The editors define both terms at the outset of the introduction.

Which media practices and concepts does the review say recur in later chapters?

The review highlights ACG, slash/femslash fan writing, and slang such as tongzhi, along with fandom practices like cosplay and “shipping.” These concepts reappear through discussions that connect theory and fan reception.

How does the anthology structure its essays by territory?

Section 1 focuses on mainland China and includes six chapters, while Hong Kong and Taiwan each have two chapters. The review notes this spatial division is practical but not especially compelling as a reading path.

Aug 24, 2026

Upload by Aurora