Chinese Fandom of Thai Boys’ Love Dramas - Shipping the Queer Romance and Fan Service Practices

Aug 29, 2026

Due to government restrictions on domestic BL content, Chinese viewers increasingly turn to Thai boys’ love (BL) series that portray homoromantic relationships between male characters. Thai BL uniquely promotes intimacy both on- and off-screen, shaping fan involvement through “shipping” and “fan service” practices. Using in-depth interviews with 30 Chinese viewers, the study shows fans actively co-construct a “hyperreal” boundary between fiction and reality for emotional and social needs. The engagement also reframes perceptions of Thailand as a space of freedom, acceptance, and “alternative civility,” enabling temporary escape and negotiated cultural resistance.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Theoretical Framework: The Hyperreality of Shipping Queer Romance

Original Article Chinese Fandom of Thai Boys’ Love Dramas: Shipping the Queer Romance and Fan Service Practices Amporn Jirattikorn 1 􀀁 Global Media and China 2025, Vol. 0(0) 1–18 © The Author(s) 2025 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/20594364251385213](DOI: 10.1177/20594364251385213) [journals.sagepub.com/home/gch](journals.sagepub.com/home/gch) Abstract Due to government restrictions on domestic BL content, Chinese viewers have increasingly turned to Thai boys’ love (BL) series, which depict homoromantic relationships between male characters. Thai BL is distinctive in its encouragement of both on-and off-screen intimacy among actors. This paper examines Chinese fans’ engagement with Thai BL dramas, highlighting how their participation in “shipping” and “fan service” practices creates a “hyperreal” experience in which the boundary between ﬁction and reality becomes blurred. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 30 Chinese viewers, the study argues that fans actively co-construct this hyperreality to fulﬁll emotional and social needs, rather than being mere passive consumers manipulated by the industry. Beyond its hyperreal appeal, Thai BL also shapes Chinese fans’ perceptions of Thailand, offering a contrast to China’s restrictive social environment by imagining Thailand as a land of freedom and acceptance. This engagement extends beyond romantic fantasy to a broader cultural imagination, with Thai BL presenting an “alternative civility”—a vision of tolerance, love, and respect for differences. By immersing themselves in these dramas, fans momentarily escape their own social realities, negotiating between fantasy and resistance in ways that redeﬁne their relationship with both media and society. Keywords Thai Boys’ Love, shipping, fan service, hyperreal, alternative civility, Chinese fandom 1 Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand Corresponding Author: Amporn Jirattikorn, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, 239 Hauy Kaew Road, Suthep, Muang Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand. Email: [amporn.j@cmu.ac.th](amporn.j@cmu.ac.th) Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by) nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as speciﬁed on the SAGE and Open Access pages ([https://us.sagepub.com/](https://us.sagepub.com/)[ ](https://us.sagepub.com/)[en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)). In recent years, China has seen a rising interest in Thai boys ’ love (BL) series, a genre that depicts homoromantic or homoerotic relationships between male characters. Thailand is by far the world’s leading producer of live-action BL series, surpassing other major Asian countries like China, Korea, and Japan, where BL originated in text form. Despite the BL market’s high purchasing power and its robust fan economy, these major producers of Asian popular culture have not produced as many liveaction BL series. China has restricted BL content for political reasons (Ye, 2023) . In Korea and Japan, societies ’ relative lack of acceptance of LGBTQ+ issues (Kwon, 2023) have limited the production of live-action BL series. Thailand’s openness to gender diversity and LGBTQ + content has thus enabled it to become a dominant player in BL production. Thailand’s open environment has also fostered a distinctive commercial culture within Thai BL, particularly in the industry ’s integration of “shipping” and “fan service.” Shipping refers to the practice where fans imagine ﬁctional characters in the series as having romantic or sexual relationships. It is common in the indus

FAQs

Why do Chinese viewers increasingly watch Thai BL dramas?

Domestic BL content faces government restrictions in China, so viewers turn to Thai BL series that portray male homoromantic relationships. The genre’s popularity also connects to a growing BL fan economy.

What does “shipping” mean in Thai BL fandom?

Shipping refers to fans imagining fictional characters as being in romantic or sexual relationships. It is supported by public interactions where actors help blur fiction and reality.

How does Thai BL affect Chinese fans’ views of Thailand?

Engagement with Thai BL reshapes perceptions by imagining Thailand as freer and more accepting toward LGBTQ+ identities. It offers an “alternative civility” centered on tolerance, love, and respect for differences.

Aug 29, 2026

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