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Drawing on the seme–uke narrative structure, it argues that fanboys may identify with either role: seme identification aligns with an orthodox virile masculine ideal, while uke identification draws on a wen–wu dual masculine ideal. The work also links such identification to escapism and social pressure relief.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/rotten-boy-readers-of-danmei-fiction-masculinity-and-escapism/156167/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/rotten-boy-readers-of-danmei-fiction-masculinity-and-escapism/156167.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Riley","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-17","2026-08-28",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",11,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What audience group does the article focus on?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"The article focuses on male “rotten” readers of danmei fiction, a group it says is often overlooked compared with the presumed majority of female readers.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How does the seme–uke dichotomy relate to masculinity in danmei identification?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"It argues that fanboys may identify with the seme or uke roles. Seme identification supports an orthodox masculine ideal, while uke identification still aligns with an indigenous Chinese masculine ideal built from the wen–wu duality.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"Why does escapism matter for male danmei readers in the article?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"When identifying with uke characters, readers can seek protection and security from powerful semes in a fictional world, which helps mitigate social pressure and status quo constraints in real life.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},156167,1787954573,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":130,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},1374391975076,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/14000253ca4ec9f6853?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1783305029341752051","Research Article  \n‘Rotten’Boy Readers of Danmei Fiction: Masculinity and Escapism  \nAiqing Wang1  \nAbstract  \nIn contemporary China, danmei, aka Boys Love, has evolved into a literary genre and subculture with legions of fan producers and consumers, the vast majority of whom are presumed to be heterosexual adolescent girls and youthful women referred to as ‘rotten’ girls, yet the male ‘rotten’readership of danmei fiction tend to be overlooked. Given the fact that Chinese danmei narratives are prominently featured by a non-reversible seme (top) × uke (bottom) bipartite dichotomy, I propound that fanboys may either identify with the seme or uke role. The identification with virile seme characters, whose penetrated partners are enfeebled, accords with an orthodox masculine ideal, as manifested by Classical literature and the web-based ‘stud fiction’ and ‘feel-good writing’. When identifying with uke characters, danmei fanboys can still comply with the indigenous Chinese masculine ideal, in that it is constituted of two interwoven components, viz. wen embodying feminine attributes and wu embodying masculine attributes. Literati during the Wei and Jin dynasties and Northern and Southern dynasties resort to androgynous demeanour so as to escape from the status quo and social responsibilities. Similarly, danmei readers may identify with ukes and seek a sense of security and protection from the potent, invincible semes in a fictional world, thereby mitigating the social pressure in the real world.  \nKeywords: Danmei, ‘rotten’boys, seme-uke dichotomy, masculine ideal, wen-wu dyad, escapism  \n1 Lect. Dr., University of Liverpool, Liverpool, [aiqing.wang@liverpool.ac.uk](aiqing.wang@liverpool.ac.uk), [https://orcid.org/0000-0001-](https://orcid.org/0000-0001-)[ ](https://orcid.org/0000-0001-)7546-4959  \nResearch Article-Submit Date: 29.01.2021, Acceptance Date: 30.07.2021  \nDOI: 10.17932/IAU.IJMCL.2015.014/ijmcl_v08i1001  \nInternational Journal of Media, Culture and Literature Volume 8Issue 1-June 2022(1-28) 1  \n‘Rotten’ Boy Readers of Danmei Fiction: Masculinity and Escapism  \nIntroduction  \nIn contemporary Chinese literature, there is a marginalised genre dubbed as耽美 danmei ‘indulgence in beauty; addicted to beauty’ featuring male-male same-sex romance and homoeroticism between pubescent boys and youthful men (Chao 2016, Yang and Xu 2016, 2017a, 2017b, Zhang 2016), which permeated a niche market in mainland China during 1990s (Liu 2009, Yang and Bao 2012, Zhu and Zhang 2015) . As female-oriented, gender-inflected fantasies, danmei fiction equips readers with aspirations for aesthetics, voyeurism, gender equality, as well as escape from gender constraints and traditional gender norms and zeitgeist (Chou 2010, Zhang 2016, Lilja and Wasshede 2017). Moreover, danmei literature enables readers to delight in male characters’ aberrant, ‘transgressive’ conduct and sexual ecstasy (Nagaike 2003, 2015, Nagaike and Aoyama 2015), and to mitigate negative self-image induced by gender-related anxiety via fictionally constructed masculinity and expression of repressed sensual desire (McLelland 1999, Wood 2006, Kamm 2013, Zsila and Demetrovics 2017) .  \nThe danmei genre, therefore, has attained a quintessential status as an‘oppositional discourse’ deviant from its orthodox counterparts and conventional cultural institutions, rendering danmei a subculture of ever-growing visibility (Martin 1986: 44-45, Wei 2008, Xu and Yang 2013) . Despite the fact that owing to its homosexual essence and interconnection with obscenity (Suzuki 1998, Nagaike 2003, McLelland 2015) , danmei is subject to stringent government censorship and surveillance from the party-state (Yi 2013, Ng 2015, McLelland 2016, Wang 2019), the marginalised danmei subculture has still attracted legions of producers/consumers who are (self-)referred to as 腐女funü ‘rotten girl(s)’(Chao 2016, 2017). By virtue of the sensitivity of danmei content and the widely dispersed nature of its online commun","cbCaifdds5vdNcIR","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifdds5vdNcIR","pdf",508360,28,"English","# Introduction\n## Danmei as a marginalized genre\n## Readership patterns and gender assumptions\n## Male fans and “rotten” boys","[{\"question\":\"What audience group does the article focus on?\",\"answer\":\"The article focuses on male “rotten” readers of danmei fiction, a group it says is often overlooked compared with the presumed majority of female readers.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the seme–uke dichotomy relate to masculinity in danmei identification?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that fanboys may identify with the seme or uke roles. Seme identification supports an orthodox masculine ideal, while uke identification still aligns with an indigenous Chinese masculine ideal built from the wen–wu duality.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does escapism matter for male danmei readers in the article?\",\"answer\":\"When identifying with uke characters, readers can seek protection and security from powerful semes in a fictional world, which helps mitigate social pressure and status quo constraints in real life.\"}]","‘Rotten’ Boy Readers of Danmei Fiction - Masculinity and Escapism | PDF",71]