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ineffable-opinions · 2 months ago

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A Banned BL Series and A Banned BL Sub-genre

GaoGan (High Cadre, 高干) is a sub-genre of danmei, unique to BL from Mainland China. It involves characters who directly hold high position within the Communist Party (be it the political wing or the People’s Liberation Army) or are related to such characters.

Works belonging to this sub-genre was fairly common in the first decade of 2000. Now it's a banned sub-genre and we will get to the specifics of it and how that works.

A little bit about the society in which this sub-genre was created. Back then both Communist party members as well as military members could get away with pretty much anything. Society back then was a little bit more open to such practices and consequences for their actions were very limited. There was very little civilian oversight, so to speak. This meant that not only sons and daughters of high cadre but relatives including extended kin, held positions of power.

Naturally, it became a problem. For the State, I mean.

A lot of leaders now are kids of leaders from the past. They also hold in immense sway in all fields, both business and bureaucracy.

They can bag tenders and participate in those public private partnership projects and reap profits while outsiders would struggle. Laws could be bent and broken and no one could do anything to them. People suffer because of that. But you cannot really go to the police against them. Yeah, pretty messed up.

It is in this context that Addicted (你丫上瘾了) by Chai JiDan (柴鸡蛋) was first serialized. But it is in no way an extreme or a quintessential gaogan danmei. It's basically campus story in the first half with basic coming of age elements, highschoolers falling in love and lot of it is smut too.

But the threat of what their futures hold because of who they are especially Gu Hai, being the only son of his father who is a General, looms large even in first part. This is underplayed in the series compared to the novel.

Gu Hai grew up in that environment of power and reach. A lot of his rough nature is a product of such unbridled power that followed him from the cradle. His father is domineering. He is similarly domineering but with a holier-than-thou “kind” heart. He rebels against his father’s nature. He doesn't want to be the kind of person his father is. He is at the risk of becoming the monster he is fighting. He is extreme in his means, just as his father (and his late mother) and a bunch of other people such as Gu Yang and Gu Hai’s maternal uncle.

It is contrasted with how gentle and amicable Bai LouYin’s father and stepmother are, and how their lives are completely different. They don't really take any extreme steps and always pave path to reconciliation.

While Addicted sort of shows the contrast, it is not the highlight. There are novels which were written in the beginning of the millennium that showed extreme versions – focused on showing how bad it could get - be it of people getting away with that they should not get away with ideally and all sorts of bad things happening to people who have no control over their lives when it comes to people with power.

Corruption, nepotism and exploitation of power clearly are not good practices. The critique in Addicted is not on the face. It's very subtle. You need to understand what exactly is going on to understand the politics of Addicted. It is not just a random parent being despotic parent. It is because of very specific social setups. Gu Hai can coax, coerce and buy his way into changing public schools in the middle of semester, get Bai LouYin’s father a good job, treat officers on lower rungs as his personal servants and get things to work in his favour all because of the power he holds by just being General Gu’s heir. No one would dare to report his overreach because no one wants to offend General Gu lest he is less favorable to them in their time of need. Bai LouYin can avail benefits of switching schools and such since he is Gu WeiTing’s step-son.

What would give Gu Hai more power than being General’s son? Being a high cadre member himself. But doesn’t want that. From the beginning of the novel, Gu Hai rejects the military environment he grew up in. He doesn’t want to pursue his father’s footsteps.

Bai LouYin learns this when he pries into what Gu Hai wants to do with his life. Gu Hai makes it clear that he wants to pursue business. Bai LouYin dedicates his life to make that possible for Gu Hai. He does so by means joining PLA and thereby becoming his step-father’s protégé. In exchange, Gu Hai is free to live a free life. When he sets up his own manufacturing business, it is directly linked to supplying to the military and thus the exploitation of his connections that gives him a definite edge over his competitors from less privileged backgrounds continue – now as Bai LouYin’s brother too. So, he actually gets to become a rich man at a young age in his own right. It's not just Gu Hai whose business flourishes thanks at least in part to influence. Gu Yang and Gu Hai’s uncle (who seems to be powerful in his own right) too benefits from their connections.

It's something that Chai JiDan explores in a lot of her other works too, even though Counterattack and Advanced Bravely live action adaptations removed gaogan elements from turning characters into civilians.

That brings us to the de facto ban on gaogan. State doesn't want to encourage such kind of practices. It totally doesn't want it to be an aesthetic or a glorified romantic trope, especially in danmei.

Danmei actually have a mixed history with the State. Chinese government is notorious for crackdowns, jailing authors, shutting down websites, forcing self-censorship and purges that throttled danmei production and distribution. (More on this here.)

Lesser known is the part where State benefited from it. There was the shipping of real-life high cadre politicians.

Former Chinese President Hu Jintao and former Premier Wen Jiabao were shipped by fans. (source)

There were also the Little Pinks - groups of presumably (some critics argue that it is just a presumption) young women who are nationalistic verging on jingoism, who would endorse Chinese government and its policies on various platforms. They are called so because their brand of rhetoric first started in the danmei forum of JJWXC, a popular web-publishing platform. Little Pinks started out on this platform, scolding authors and readers who wrote what they didn’t agree with. They have pervaded other social media sites and are compared to the Little Reds of Cultural Revolution. Little Pinks captured public attention. They became quite an eyesore for the general public and other BL fans. But State machinery, especially its media, have showered them with praise on occasions.

State of things have changed over the years and there have been understandable public anger against the sort of behaviors high cadre politicians and their kin engaged in as well as the unfair advantage they enjoyed. The State had to curb nepotism and accumulation of power in the hands of those from political families. Exploitation of power couldn't explicitly depict or endorsed on media.

The new rules are imposed through censors, self-censorship and editorial overreach and what not. Compared to earlier days of danmei, today’s BL production space looks very difference since sites have disappear. There used to be revolutionary potential, not just in terms of furthering the rights of the queer community but also in many other aspects of society. It has disappeared over the years through purging and authors growing tired. Popularization and commercialization of danmei actually did not benefit the way one would imagine. As BL fans’ grip over what they could say disappeared, a lot of new authors came in who from the very beginning were willing to adjust to these demands from the State and were writing to accommodate, if not outright support, what the State willed.

So, before the ban on gaogan, there was period where fics were written praising the high cadre and highlighting their goodness, generosity and patriotism while being perfect gentlemen, paragons of virtue, upright citizen who valiantly fought enemies of the State, both internal and external.

When it aired, Addicted was fairly popular. By his own admission, Andy Lau was watching it. While exact reason for the ban is not known, there is a lot of speculation. One of the most cited reasons is simply its popularity and how that attracting attention to queer people (through the pairing of a very masculine men who were unlike the stereotypical “sissies”) and queer rights.

Another was the substance abuse related words in title and ship name such as shangyin and hailouyin which is another topic that State scrutinizes. But then A Round Trip to Love had multiple criminal elements including spiking, confinement and sexual abuse that aired.

It's not like gaogan genre just died. Authors went interstellar on their stories. So now when you open Addicted in LCRead you will be greeted by an intro page which claims that the story is not set on Earth and is set in another galaxy blah blah blah. Lot of later authors actually decided to pursue the safe, sci-fi route and decided to stick to lanes that would let them tell these stories without actually irritating the State.

This work around method will last while it can.

Quite frankly, Addicted couldn't have been made in other countries with its very specific political setting. Its essence lies in Bai LouYin joining PLA to help Gu Hai forsake the path laid out for him and Gu Hai repaying with devotion while alternatively sinking and floating in high cadre life as son, brother and husband. This won’t work in countries with mandatory military service or where military and politics interweave in a dangerous manner.

Honestly, I am not knowledgeable about Thailand to interpret what it means for Hero to walk out of ror dor (army cadet) exam (thank you @pharawee for the explanation). Also, Thai government is fully dedicated to their plan of using BL as a soft power tool. I am not sure how to feel about the Thai adaptation, Heroin the series, given the production chose to situate the beginning of the story in 2018* (four years after 2014 coup d'état). Addicted becoming a propaganda tool in favor of military at the hands of any State is a disturbing scenario to say the least.

*There is a eight year break in the relationship between the main couple in the original novel.

Seems like second season isn't happening. Makes me wonder...

Link to novel translations.

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ineffable-opinions · 1 year ago

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What Did You Eat Yesterday (season 2)

Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (2023)

Ongoing review: Love. Rating: 8/10 so far.

What I liked:

The post-de@th arrangement episode

Shiro san’s mother inviting KenjiShiro to share grave in the name of cost minimization.

Kenji’s reaction to this.

The way he changes the address from oka-san to oka-sama. How he asked Shiro to take his mother’s side in this imagined family feud. Kenji now is the man I wish to marry. Where can I find such a husband! I love Shiro’s confusion upon seeing Kenji’s reaction.

Side note: Why the f*ck is Shiro not inviting Kenji to join his household? What is he waiting for? I know real people don’t follow BL logic and that KenjiShiro don’t think of their relationship to be of a settled happily-ever-after type. But still! I don’t think Kenji’s family would object or ask for the other way around.

3. Shiro being thrown off guard by propriety and informality.

Shiro babe, you can offer financial assistance to your parents but don’t give it in one go, unless they ask. Don’t make it obvious, filial-piety coat it. Tell them this is what little you can do to show your gratitude for having raised you. You can also send them money in installments: the money you gave them already is going into making it possible for them to save and afford this for themselves. You can also win lotteries. Strike that, that’s too Gu Hai. For those who didn’t get that: HaiLouyin, in the danmei novel Addicted, indirectly fulfils filial piety by arranging random lucky draws that gets Bai Hanqi, who refuses to accept money, a lot of consumer durables.

4. Shiro apologizing for having let his parents mistreat Kenji. Kenji’s maturity despite his sadness on the matter.

5. Kenji is probably one of the most femme characters: he reflects so much of traditional femininity.

Barbershop drama

Barbershop owner and wife pretending to be civil for the sake of their child.

This is such a protective thing that parents do.

2. Owner’s wife’s decision to divorce once her daughter gets into uni and to leave the barbershop.

I am not a big fan of people springing well-thought-out decisions on others. I also believe that people can change, and that can be for good. That marriage ended with owner’s infidelity; the band-aid had to come off someday.

3. The ikemen hairdresser’s straight forward attitude and the customers who seem to appreciate it.

4. His girlfriend

I am not very happy with her choosing to leave him. This kind of self-sacrificial letting go really doesn’t suit a BL character, does it? Aren’t you supposed to fight for your love? Also, if the ikemen is able to let her go so easily, maybe it’s not worth it. But then he kept her stuff untouched. Also, she looks so good, such a scholarly beauty.

5. I love how the ikemen love drama.

Much water has flown through the drain

This is so anti-Great Indian Kitchen (2021).

GIK is a Malayalam drama movie that holds a mirror to sexism in praxis in Malayali household. Drain water appears prominently in GIK.

2. Shiro’s past - being weak/cheap uke! Aka simp. Kenji feeling jealous.

3. Kenji not being Shiro’s type.

Kenji’s care and attention winning Shiro’s heart. This is the greatest BL trope – that there is someone who treats so well you’ll love them regardless of everything else. Kindness wins!

4. Shiro having treated Kenji with sincerity from Day 1 as seen from the recollection of the first meal he prepared for Kenji.

KenjiShiro is the closest thing to an arranged marriage couple, not the western romance trope bullshit. The proper, south-Asian kind. Sometimes people marry people who are not their type but treat them with sincerity and affection befitting a spouse.

5. Shiro admitting that Kenji is his boyfriend.

6. More than that the simulation!

The cousin one got me crackling like nothing else. That’s the go-to lie that couples, including straight ones, tell their nosy ‘well-wishers’, especially landlords, where I live.

Shrine-visit

Main CP & secondary CP going to shrine together.

Cherry Magic! 30-sai made Dotei Da to Mahotsukai ni Nareru rashii (2020) did this before.

2. Shiro praying! The household happiness charm!

This happened contemporaneously with I Can’t Reach You (2023) with charm drama involving teenagers.

3. Shiro having never done this with friends or at night.

4. Kenji wanting to party at Nichome and Daisaku X Gilbert CP turning him down.

Ten years since they last visited Nichome! This is some relationship flexing, saying we are an old-married couple without actually saying it.

5. Discussing parents and single kids.

Filial piety pain.

6. Building with a history. “I’ll eat in bedroom,” was the funniest.

Kenji thinking that Shiro was contributing more to the rent. Shiro, please stop being so-so. Add Kenji to your household already.

Wataru kun

He toes the line between the BL’s classic bishonen Gilbert and someone suffering histrionic personality disorder. This could be intentional; I don’t know for sure since I haven’t read the manga. If not, then screenwriter, director, actor or all can be held responsible for it.

This is a BL. Characters like him are supposed to feel at home here and find the right partner too. This has been achieved. So, this is less of a criticism and more of a praise.

Aside: Turns out post-death arrangements are cheaper in Japan even without purchasing power parity adjustments. If it was not for my desire to be buried under Mimusops elengi flowers…

#きのう何食べた？#kinou nani tabeta?#jdrama #jbl #what did you eat yesterday #japanese bl #japanese series #bl jdrama

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