#Where to eat in Taiwan

[beingjellybeans]

Experience the rich and vibrant flavors of Taiwan at Fat Fook

If you’re tired of the same-old dishes that you normally have for your daily meals, why not give Taiwanese food a try? Taiwanese cuisine is a delicious and unique blend of Chinese and indigenous Taiwanese flavors, with influences from Japan and Southeast Asia. One of the hallmarks of Taiwanese cuisine is its focus on fresh and locally-sourced ingredients, which are often prepared using simple…

[smutoperator]

Super Whores

(G)I-DLE x Male Reader

Tags: anal, anal creampie, ass eating, ball sucking, (loads of) cum, deepthroating, facesitting, facials, meet & greet, orgy, pussy creampie, reverse gangbang, sex toys, squirting, standing fuck, superpowers, throatpie

Word count: 4746.

Kaohsiung, Taiwan, April 13th, 2024

Another great performance from (G)I-DLE at the Golden Wave festival in Taiwan. The super ladies did it again. Every single time, they never failed to disappoint, and today they may have pulled one of the best in their entire careers. 

You watched their performance from one of the stadium's boxes. Their outfits and sexy moves while performing drove you insane, as you couldn't wait to have the meet and greet with the girls that you were promised.

As the concert ended, you got to the girls backstage, where the meet-and-greet was about to begin. "You girls look like hookers tonight," you told them unfiltered, looking at their black leather outfits that had them showing tons of skin. Soyeon took no offense from it; she rather laughed back. "Just like we intended to," she said. 

"But hey, if we look like hookers, how about you make us act like hookers too?" she continued. Soyeon slapped her fingers, setting up her plan in motion. You couldn't even reply to her, as one of the group's security guards knocked you out. By the time you woke up, the lights of the festival had been replaced by those of a spatious room. You were sitting on your couch with a tape on your mouth when, suddenly, five beautiful faces surrounded you.

"The five hookers right there are ready for you," Soyeon started. The girls had taken off even more of the little clothing they were already wearing at the festival, leaving only their bras, panties and long boots that hard-stomped the wooden floor in the room.

"Holy shit," it was all you could say when Miyeon removed the tape from your mouth. You climbed from the couch and kissed her and Minnie first, as the other girls came around to surround you. Shuhua appeared from behind and ran her hands over your crotch. "He's hard already," she said. Yuqi followed suit just as you kissed her.

Rapidly, the girls took your clothes off, with Minnie tossing your shirt out while Shuhua took your suit off. You could just tell them to keep going, still shocked by these beautiful, horny girls fighting for every inch of your body already.

"Let me see those butts," you told the girls as they knelt on the couch and showed them to you. With two exceptions. Minnie and Soyeon stayed on their feet and kept trying to remove your clothes before you gave their asses a tap and put them on the couch alongside the other girls.

You ran your hands at the girl's butts, enjoying their backsides now only covered by little G-strings. Minnie, on the far left side of the couch, was the first one to have them pulled to the side as you unveiled her pair of tight holes. "Look at this perfect ass," you said, giving her butthole a kiss that made her moan, before diving down and eating it out.

Next in line was Soyeon. You did to her the same you did to Minnie, but adding your thumb rubbing against the leader's meaty clit and giving her cunt a couple lickings. Then you moved to Yuqi, teasing her tight butthole. Shuhua was next, with her making sure to grab your head and dive it against her pussy. For Miyeon, you teased her a bit, playing with her cheeks before diving into her tight anus. "It smells so good; you're truly the perfect princess," you told her.

"Show me those pussies next," you ordered. The girls turned around and took their panties off one by one, with you heliping Yuqi and Shuhua to take theirs off as the girls lifted their legs up to give you a better view of their pink cunts. At first, you alternated between Minnie and Soyeon's naughty slits before running all the way over the couch's extension and landing at Miyeon's tight barbie-esque pussy, running back to the center as you pleased Yuqi and Shuhua at the same time, taking your mouth to please the Chinese slut while your hand ran across the strait right into fingering the Taiwanese's cunt.

The girls picked up some sex toys they had hidden under the couch. Miyeon picked up her anal beads but inserted them in her pussy instead, with you aiding her as the balls slowly disappeared inside her pink hole while you ate them out. Right beside her, Yuqi and Shuhua already had their dildos ready inside their pussies, while Soyeon rubbed her own anal bead against her holes before you got into her and put it in her pussy. Finally, Minnie had a cone-shaped dildo you pulled out of her pussy and inserted right inside her asshole. 

You went back to Soyeon, thrusting her anal bead in and out of her cunt, making her squirt a bit as you also ate her out. Then you moved to Yuqi and took the dildo out of her pussy and let her taste it before shoving the tip of it in her anus, impaling her as you enjoyed the view of the stretched skin around her asshole. You didn't need to go to Shuhua, as she had already shoved hers up her ass before you could even ask.

You gave another kiss to Miyeon's beautiful face and admired the five beautiful ladies on the couch, showing their legs up in the air despite their knee-high boots. You took your clothes fully off, taking some time to worship the super ladies. First, eating Minnie out while shoving her dildo in Soyeon's pussy. Then, taking some time to please Soyeon's cunt.

As you were doing it, Yuqi got out of the couch and started fucking Shuhua with the dildo in her pussy while she was eating the maknae. Seeing it, you ordered the girls to play with each other as they masturbated themselves with their sex toys, and their moans started filling the room. Yuqi led the way as she continued to attack Shuhua's cunt with the dildo and spit all over it, making the Taiwanese girl moan hard.

Soyeon and Minnie, however, had their eyes on a different prize, teaming up to suck your cock while the Chinese girls kept playing on the couch and Miyeon enjoyed herself in a solo fucking. Soyeon was the one who wanted your cock the most, as she was already taking it balls deep in her mouth while you kissed Minnie. "Suck it with her," you told Minnie, who knelt and followed suit. Yuqi soon joined them as you tongue-kissed her and let her have a taste of your shaft. Minnie wanted a second go, but you decided to bring Miyeon to the fold and let her princess face get stuffed full of dick instead.

Minnie soon got another chance after she licked your balls, taking your cock as soon as Miyeon gagged on it. Behind her, Soyeon and Yuqi were making Shuhua's voice crack with moan after moan as the leader took the youngster's perky tits while the Chinese girl got back to her pussy while putting her ass up for you to see. You proceeded to fuck Minnie's face, quickly drawing Miyeon's attention as she opened her mouth to be the next in line.

However, you grabbed Yuqi by her blonde hair and fucked her face instead, going much rougher with the Chinese fuckdoll than you did to Minnie. But Yuqi showed she could fight back and quickly dunked her head deep into your crotch, taking even your balls down her tiny little slutty mouth. It didn't take long for you to fulfill Miyeon's wishes next, pounding the beautiful princess' face.

Soyeon soon appeared on the frame like a good leader, showing she had been a good teacher to her pupils as she deepthroated your full length from the start, almost bringing your cock into cumming before you saved yourself by pulling out of the lion's den. Shuhua finally took her turn, spitting on your dick and bobbing her head hard to prove herself to her unnies, showing she could match them as a super whore.

You lifted Minnie's right leg, slowly putting your cock on her pussy, while assigning Shuhua a task. "Massage my balls while I fuck her," you told the maknae. Minnie took your cock with ease, riding it even with just one leg on the ground while passionately kissing you. Shuhua reached out and rubbed her hands against your balls, with Yuqi coming from behind to spank Minnie's jiggly butt.

As soon as your cock slid out of Minnie's cunt, Shuhua took the opportunity to taste it. "Put it back on," you told her, increasing the pace as the girls gathered around to watch you pound Minnie and wish they were in her place. You didn't need any lube to destroy that Thai slut's cunt, as every time you pulled out a little, another member appeared to dive her mouth right into your cock. Yu and Minnie clung to each other as you whispered dirty words into her ear. "Super lady, more like super whore, right?" you tell her.

Seeing Miyeon come from behind to stick her nasty tongue and rim your asshole, you decide to reward her next. You tease her cute butt a bit, slapping it and telling her to move it. "Shake it for me, baby, if you want that cock deep in your pussy," you say to her. This time, you don't need to lift her leg, as Miyeon does it by herself and lets you slide that hard shaft right into her barbie pussy.

"OHHHHHH," you groan as you quickly find out how tight her insides are. You push hard, trying to break the resistance her walls offer to your cock. To make things even harder for you, Yuqi dives underneath and licks your balls. Miyeon's tight pussy and Yuqi's nasty tongue drive you to the edge as you pound the little princess nonstop. Miyeon proves to be no pushover either, riding your dick to perfection even in just one leg. In the end, you just can't resist for long and blow an early load right in her pussy.

Soyeon is right there to clean your cock and get it hard again, as your jizz slides down Miyeon's walls right into your shaft. Minnie slides under your legs to put heat in your balls as you go for a second try at Miyeon. "Don't blow it early again," Soyeon pokes fun at you. But just a few thrusts tell you that Miyeon's tight pussy will be the death of you, as you just gave up fucking it and laid on the floor.

"I want pussy in my face," you tell the girls as Miyeon sits back on the couch and digs your cum out of her pussy. Minnie volunteers to sit hers on it, while Soyeon is eager to get impaled by your huge dick. As the leader eagerly rides it, the Thai girl pushes your head right into her meaty folds. "Taste it, baby," Minnie orders.

You quickly find out that Soyeon is another dick-riding demon. Her tiny body makes it very easy for her to go really fast. She's such an experienced whore that your dick ends up like a regular challenge to her, just another one for her collection of monster cocks that fulfill her size kink on a daily basis.

Minnie squirts on your face as Soyeon continues to ride that pole, while Miyeon rests on the couch, enjoying her creamed cunt. To the side of your body, Yuqi and Shuhua toy with each other, with the maknae shoving her dildo up Yuqi's asshole and then tasting it. Soyeon shows no signs of stopping, creaming your cock to the fullest, as Yuqi replaces Minnie as the one riding your face. Shuhua soon teams up with you as you move down to taste Yuqi's recently gaped anus, with Shuhua diving into the Chinese fuckdoll's pussycat.

On the other side of your body, Soyeon jumps out of your dick and lets Miyeon take another turn on it. "Make him cum again," she tells the Barbie doll. Miyeon rises to the task, as you feel a sudden increase in the tightness of the walls, clenching your cock as it rubs her walls fully lubed with your cream. You hyperfocus on Yuqi's asshole to prevent Miyeon from succeeding, tonguing it hard while closing your eyes, just like Shuhua is right on top of you. "OH GOD!" you scream just as Miyeon increases the pace of her ride, going relentlesly for the kill, but this time, you manage to survive.

"I need your big ass in my face; please save me from this beautiful demon," you tell Shuhua as you lick your chops and push Yuqi to the side. Shuhua smashes your face with her fat ass as you can barely breathe under it, blowing air from your nose right into her holes, making her moan while doing so. Minnie wants to take your cock again, so Miyeon moves away from her. Now it's you and Yuqi who team up on Shuhua, with you licking the home girl's cunt while Yuqi shoves her middle finger up the maknae's asshole.

"Give me this finger," you beg Yuqi, who obliges. "Dirty and sweaty, isn't it? She worked it a lot during your performance, and I bet she wants to work it even harder on your cock," Yuqi tells you as she shoves more fingers up Shuhua's anus and feeds you again. "Keep going, baby; get addicted to this maknae's tasty asshole," she says.

Just as you were getting more and more of a taste of her, Shuhua leaves you hanging, pulling to the side as you get the full view of a Thai girl destroying the shit out of your dick. But that doesn't last for long, as Miyeon takes her turn to sit on your face. As you lick her pussy, you feel amazed at how you can barely feel the taste of your own cum you just deposited there a few minutes ago. Miyeon's vagina truly smells like flowers and matches her amazing beauty. The tight hole that was once your demise ends up as your saving grace, managing to distract you enough from Yuqi's own tight pussy bouncing hard on your cock.

But soon Miyeon is gone, heading to the couch to finger herself alongside Shuhua, and quickly you go from the nicest pussy in the group to the wildest. Soyeon really prides herself on how messy her pussy is—a mix of countless body fluids that she squirts out at will. And there is no better target than the face of a horny man. As soon as you place your tongue in it, she's already gushing her juices out and coating your face. The action around you is just as wild, with Miyeon fingering herself to orgasm while Shuhua fists herself. But Soyeon always takes the cake. The leader of the super whores rewards the work you put into her nasty cunt with a geyser of squirt right into your mouth, just as your tongue makes her cum with ease.

You wipe your face full of juices and move to the next phase, stacking Minnie's body on top of Yuqi's. On the other side of the couch, Shuhua and Soyeon mirror them. You place Miyeon right between the two, spanking her beautiful, sexy butt as you get back inside Minnie's pussy, who screams as you ram her hard and presses her body against Yuqi's, while Miyeon masturbates herself to the action. Meanwhile, Soyeon is double-stuffing Shuhua with a dildo in her pussy and her fingers inside the maknae's ass.

Minnie can't stop moaning even after you move into Yuqi's pussy right under her, groping the Thai girl's tits while doing so. Yuqi is feeling the burn of your hard thrusts, barely able to keep her legs open as she gets close to cumming. Yuqi craves it, bouncing her tight pussy on your cock even with Minnie on top of her, taking advantage when you get distracted by eating Miyeon's asshole right beside you and riding herself into an orgasm.

You're eager to mix Yuqi's cute juices into Soyeon's nasty ones, moving towards the leader's cunt next and resting your hands on Shuhua's ass that sits on top of her. Shuhua gives you a sexy stare that speaks louder than any words. You quickly turn her butt into the star of the show, spanking it nonstop while you keep pounding Soyeon, then kissing it and worshipping it.

Shuhua's pussy clenches around your tip as you spank her ass again while you start penetrating her. Miyeon reaches out and decides to start a spank train with her slapping your ass while you do the same to Shuhua's. On the other side, Yuqi and Minnie play with each other as the Chinese whore sucks the tits of the Thai slut. Minnie then joins Miyeon on the spanking train as the two girls laugh at you. "You thought you were the only one who knew how to slap a booty? You were wrong," Minnie tells you. And the more the two girls spank you, the harder you attack Shuhua's little pussy, mounting on her like an angry wolf.

Minnie and Miyeon are laughing, but you are ready to end their spanking fun. "Come here, little princess; get on the floor," you tell Miyeon. Instead of her knees getting the soft support from the couch, you're going to give her a pounding against the hard wood with your massive wood. You tease Miyeon's pink pussy in anticipation, but as you're about to get back inside her, you give Miyeon a surprise.

"AHHHHHH FUCKKK!" Miyeon screams as you shove your cock deep in her asshole. She bites Soyeon's legs as her tiny butthole gets stretched out. Soyeon screams, but rather because, simultaneously, Shuhua dives into her pussy. Miyeon moans hard against Soyeon's knees as her boobs bounce at each thurst you give her ass. But little did she know you were going rather easy on her.

"Let's destroy the princess," you say, mounting on top of Miyeon as she ducks her head to the floor. The girls love watching the beautiful visual get absolutely obliterated, especially Minnie and Yuqi, who masturbate themselves to the scene. Miyeon can't stop screaming as your girthy cock proves to be too much for her little asshole, struggling to walk as you finish fucking her and let Yuqi taste her unnie's flower-smelling anus.

Eager to taste her favorite hole among all the members, Yuqi dives deep into your shaft, taking it all the way down her throat until she gags. Minnie and Miyeon watch it as they masturbate themselves using their sex toys. "Oh baby, you take it so deep." You praise Yuqi's deepthroat skills as she wraps her mouth fully around your shaft and makes you almost nut in her throat.

"You fucking crazy bitch, AHHHHHH," you say, pushing Yuqi's head out of your cock. "You're going to milk me dry; I need this tomorrow to fuck my wife," you tell her. "Screw your wife; you have five wives here ready to milk you dry," she tells you. "Fucking whore, I'm going to discipline you," you tell her.

You spank Yuqi's ass and push her to a couch separated from the other girls, taking your cock straight into her ass. Unlike with Miyeon, you give Yuqi no room to breathe, pounding the Chinese fuckdoll hard from the start. Minnie crawls towards you and is the first to get a taste of Yuqi's hole, with you popping out for her to savor as soon as she is within striking distance of your shaft.

"Damn it, what the fuck is this?" you ask yourself as you get back inside Yuqi. It seems like she suddenly got much tighter. The break you gave her allowed her to please her holes freely and activate her super-whore powers. Now you couldn't even reach halfway inside her butthole. "Can your wife do this?" she laughs. Yuqi turns herself into a pleasure machine. One hand in her pussy, another in her tits, her asshole clenching further and further. "Oh my God!" you say. "She's taking him to the sky," Soyeon completes.

And to the heavens you went as you blew your second pop of the day right on Yuqi's tight butthole. She may not have Kim Kardashian's ass, but her boots were hot enough for you to drain your balls all over them. But this was far from the end, as you would soon know.

"Let's get this cock back up again." Soyeon came in and ran her hands on your shaft. Suddenly, you got erect again. "What kind of super powers do these girls have?" you asked yourself. After so many years, the (G)I-DLE girls know an orgy is only a proper orgy if Soyeon gets her dose of anal sex.

"Ahhh, fuck, there she goes," you groan as Soyeon sits on your pole, quickly engulfing it to the fullest with her ass. She quickly starts masturbating herself as she rides, squirting all over Minnie's face. Soyeon's tight ass was hard to resist, as once she finished descending down your cock, you started pushing upwards. Better was that she took it like a champion, truly a top-notch anal queen.

It really doesn't get better than this. You were buried deep in Soyeon's asshole, with Minnie massaging your balls and Miyeon sitting on your face. Shuhua had a privileged view, sucking her unnie's boob as she rode you while she shoved a dildo up her own asshole. Soyeon always manages to become the center of attention when she gets assfucked. No cock is too much for her to handle, and she rides you balls deep with ease.

After just a couple minutes, you had to pull out not to burst again. Minnie took advantage and tasted Soyeon's hole from your cock. But she wanted more. While Minnie sucked you off, Soyeon constantly winked her gaped butthole, ordering Minnie to put it back in as soon as possible. As Minnie finished feasting on your cock, Soyeon quickly grabbed it and put it back inside her ass.

"Pound it, baby, pound it hard," Soyeon ordered as you pushed your cock upwards against her hole. A loud noise of your balls clapping her cheeks filled the room. Her favorite noise, I shall say, She could moan faster than she could rap on stage. Minnie and Shuhua acted as the hyped girls, watching it from below, carressing your balls, and taking your cock in their mouths every time you needed to take a break. Soyeon was a relentless slut that made you groan multiple times. Had you not had Miyeon's pussy as a relief right in your face, you probably would have cum inside her ass multiple times already.

"Who wants to get fucked in the ass next?" you asked the girls. "Me, me, me," Minnie was quick to answer. And you felt it was indeed long overdue. Minnie had already played every possible hole in this orgy, so there was nothing better than rewarding her with the assfucking she was craving.

Minnie spread her legs and took no time to bounce on your cock. You two put up an amazing show for the other girls, as she rotated all over your dick and you pushed up to violently thrust into her ass. The girls quickly decided to take part in it, as Yuqi fingered Minnie's pussy while Soyeon groped the Thai girl's boobs. Minnie was unfazed; her urge to jump on your cock was bigger than anything else, and she kept going even as the other girls tried to distract her.

You and Minnie kept going as hard as possible, with her eventually coming out on top as you had to pull out not to cum again. But your relief was short. After recovering from the ass pounding you gave her, Yuqi returned right back to throat your cock all the way deep. In the end, you came for a third time anyway, just in a different hole.

"I'm a cumcard, I'm a cumcard," Yuqi sang as she savored the jizz in her mouth. Truly, no one was able to drain your balls better than her. Yuqi decided to spice things up, leading your still-hard cock back into Minnie's asshole while spitting some cum into your shaft and mixing it with Minnie's anal juices. But she kept a bit in her mouth, using it to spit all over Minnie's cunt. "I'm going to breed you with my mouth," she said to her unnie.

Yuqi made a sloppy mess of Minnie's pussy while you put the Thai slut under a full Nelson and pounded her even harder. Soyeon soon joined her, tasting your cum and Yuqi's saliva straight out of Minnie's pussy like the nasty whore she is. Minnie screamed high note after high note as you destroyed her asshole nonstop.

As soon as you stopped, Yuqi and Soyeon feasted. The Chinese doll licked Minnie's cunt while the leader dove to suck your cock and taste Minnie's butthole. Only one ass was left to be fucked, and the girls knew it was the best of them.

Just the way Shuhua looked at you was enough for you to understand the message. Her naughty way of communicating without saying any words was truly incredible. Shuhua removed the dildo she had long inserted in her asshole. What amazed you was that her hole instantly tightened. Your big cock was ready to fuck Shuhua's perfect ass on her home soil.

Shuhua screamed as you mounted on top of her little body like a bull. Soyeon personally took on the duties of massaging your balls as you fucked Shuhua in the ass. "I want to see this cock at full strength; don't hold back; pound that slutty maknae," she told you. Shuhua fingered her pussy. Despite being a well-versed anal slut, she was stuggling with your massive bull as Soyeon used her superpowers on your cock to make it grow insanely big and wide inside the maknae's tiny butthole.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH," Shuhua screamed hard as your cock plowed her asshole. Behind her, all four girls gathered to watch. Soyeon touched your shaft, amazed at how big she had managed to turn it. "Fuck her balls deep," she told you, and you obliged, ripping Shuhua's anus further apart with your monster cock.

As you gave your massive cock to Minnie for her to lube it up, another girl suddenly jumped onto the frame, stacking her body on top of Shuhua's. "I want it too," Yuqi said, ready to take it in the ass again. But you needed to fuck Shuhua a little more, getting back inside her butt once again while your belly bumped against Yuqi's ass every time you thursted deep inside the maknae.

You couldn't say no to Yuqi's request and switched back to her ass, giving it some thrusts. Shuhua continued to moan even as you fucked Yuqi, almost as if the two were connected. "Shushu wants it so much she's moaning even without your cock in her ass," Minnie said. "You should give it back to her," she continued, as you and Yuqi enjoyed some naughty kissing.

It didn't take long for you to switch back to Shuhua. "CREAMPIE THE MAKNAE! CREAMPIE THE MAKNAE" Soyeon and Minnie chanted behind both of you as the Thai girl fingered Shuhua's pussy, using her superpowers to make the maknae's butthole clench and lead you into blasting inside of the host girl just as you spanked Shuhua's cheeky butt.

"Taste it, baby," you said, pulling out of Shuhua's asshole and feeding your cock into Minnie's mouth. The Thai slut, however, wanted it more, making you cum again as soon as you got inside her throat. With her powers, Minnie made your cock shoot every time it got close to another girl's face, coating Miyeon's, Soyeon's, and finally Yuqi's faces full of sperm before coming to a stop.

The girls licked each other, with Soyeon paying special attention to Shuhua's as she tasted the cum you had dumped on the maknae's ass. Your balls were completely drained, as these five sluts had managed to milk every last drop from you with their slutty superpowers. 

"Damn, that was amazing," Soyeon said. "We have to go now, but if you need anything, just call one of the super whores out there," she said.

You were definitely going to follow her advice.

[read-marx-and-lenin]

about taiwan. but im still confused as to why should china care. they havent controlled taiwan for some time and seems to just cause conflict. why not just leave taiwan be and be happy with the mainland. what good does claiming taiwanese island bring? why do they care if an island belongs to them or not?

What good does the ROC claiming the mainland bring? Why does the KMT care about the ROC being the legitimate successor to Sun Yat-sen's Republic? Why is the DPP bribing right-wing US warhawks and inviting US destroyers into the Taiwan Strait?

This is not a situation where a bunch of nasty evil communists are persecuting an innocent island nation. This is a situation where a right-wing counter-revolutionary army, upon losing a civil war, occupied the island and maintained a military dictatorship for 45 years, only eventually opening up to democracy after massive amounts of protests and unrest. The PRC was the only democracy in China for those 45 years. They were fighting to liberate the Taiwanese people, not to oppress them.

After the ROC abolished the military dictatorship and repealed the law declaring the CPC to be rebels and enemies of the nation, the CPC and the KMT began to engage in peaceful dialog, leading to the 1992 Consensus. This consensus formed the basis of informal PRC-ROC relations, under the shared belief that Taiwan is a territory of China.

The election of the pro-independence DPP in 2016 has threatened the prospects of peaceful reunification. Unlike the KMT, the DPP has never had any relations with the CPC and is firmly opposed to reunification. Cross-Strait dialog between the two governments was cut off and the ROC quickly began to take a much more antagonistic role towards the PRC.

The PRC does not want a war. The Taiwanese people do not want a war. The KMT does not want a war. It is only the DPP and a bunch of US imperialists who have been bribed by the DPP who want a war. This is why the PRC has condemned foreign interference in Chinese affairs and condemned the separatist movement in Taiwan.

The PRC does not even want political control over Taiwan. They have proposed a "one China, two systems" approach to reunification that would enable the Taiwanese government to maintain its current legal system and operate with a high degree of autonomy. They know that the Taiwanese people would not soon accept CPC control over the island and they are not proposing that as a solution. But if the separatists get their way and start the Civil War all over again, it's very likely that that is what will happen, with many innocent lives lost to boot.

The DPP could choose at any point to resume the peaceful cross-Strait dialogues that the KMT had been engaging in. But they would rather continue their nonsensical rhetoric and wordplay where they can have their cake and eat it too; where the 1992 Consensus was never a consensus and where Taiwan is already independent despite never having declared independence. More worryingly, they want to continue courting US imperialists and engaging in behavior intended to provoke armed conflict in the region. They would rather start a war than risk having to acknowledge Taiwan's status as a territory of China.

If you want to understand the PRC's position better, this publication by the PRC is a good summary of their current position on the subject.

[absolutebl]

Meet You At the Blossom - Watch Along

Maybe a trash watch? We will find out.

But first what do we know about this show?

Well, I can't for the life of me remember the title. The article placement it too weird so it will henceforth be called Blossom okay?

Here's what I learned from @renafire

Duck daddy!!!!! I bring news! China didn't kill the gays! Meet You at the Blossom is an HEA! Golden retriever XiaoBao x ice prince Huaien (who gets the shit stabbed out of him an awful lot for being a ML). A side CP of dumb, pretty bodyguard x eccentric doctor. The background plot was basically a bunch of middle age men fighting about the ML's long dead mother. Needles! So many needles! (It was practically a sickfic tbh) Flapping sleeves! Flowing hair! Poison! Politics! A villain weirdly into kites! Prisoners in chains you can easily slip your hand through! Dimples! Loyal bodyguards becoming family! It's not the best thing ever, but it ends happily! There was even a line about "true love has nothing to do with gender" which I feel like is a big deal for something associated with China?

This convinced me to watch, so I thought I'd just post it verbatim to convince you, too.

So I'd refused to watch Blossom because I assumed the leads would die or at least be torn asunder at the end, and that there would be no kisses.

So this Watch Along is going to be me eating crow.

China pretty much always does censored BL (when they do it at all) since 2017 or so. You can watch something like My E-Sports Genius Brother for the style of "happy but censored BL" that I've grown to expect from China. (Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.)

They didn't used to do this! Time once was that China was this chaotic minefield of tasty mess meets terrible tropes (like kidnapping, stepbrothers, rape, whipping boy, and dub con). I had a weird love for it at the time because it was the Wild Wild World of BL beck then and I didn't know to expect better.

I come from 90s Yaoi. Remember?

Ah the bad old days. (You can read a history of CBL here. Not updated in ages.)

Where was I?

So, what I knew about Blossom was that it was a Wuxia BL and that it was made with Thailand, or for Thailand, or something to do with Thailand (there is Thai script on the promo material) and that it wasn't being distributed inside Mainland China. (I still worry about the actors but that's kinda a natural state for me and BL outside of Japan.)

Outside of China Blossom got wide distribution showing up everywhere iQIYI (China based), Viki (Japan based), Gaga (Taiwan based) WeTV (US Based) and YouTube (Thai Channel Artop Media is serving it).

It also looks like Heavenly is involved and they are Korea based. So like, everyone had their mitts on this thing. We live in crazy times.

Okay so, here are my 20 expectations:

Pony tails with a ribbon or two

Lots of questionable older tropes, especially dub-con & kidnapping (the herb that makes you horny maybe?)

Flowing filmy robes wafting everywhere

EXTREMELY PRETTY men, costumes, make up, setting... well, everything

No consent whatsoever

Pokey pokey, but not with the right kind of swords (a naked blade will be grabbed by a naked hand, sadly also not in the preferred way)

A bodyguard hotter than he has any right to be, wearing black

Floaty fighty fighty, including but not limited to: skid backwards through puffs of dust, a leap to land + one knee down + holding sword + head bowed, a twirly protect baby from baddies

A boat in a lotus pond

Poison, probably green, glittery if I'm lucky

Circular architecture

A big fuck off fan

Puppy-cat pairing

They wander through bamboo, sit down at the edge of a lake, probubly on a log

Wound tending, of course, because there will be lots of wounds

Someone pushed onto a platform bed (also kneeling in front of it)

A jail with straw in it

Older men with sparse beards detracting from the romance

Fruit or some other food being thrown

Some serious SLEEVE action.

Li Le as Zong Zheng Huai En

Probably the reserved unhinged one. Has sword, will prod.

He has a solid track record of shows under his belt. So to speak. One wonders how they persuaded him to do BL. He sure is pretty tho.

Wang Yun Kai as Jin Xiao Bao

The son of the wealthiest man in the Jiangnan region, probably the cheerful cute one.

He's an entirely green actor.

Most of the cast is from mainland China, with the exception of Achi Sukonlaphat Sribubpha, who is Thai (obvs) and under Artop Media.

Nancy Chen is directing

She is a Taiwanese director and screenwriter, who directed HIStory 4 and HIStory 5 (neither all that great) and was behind very queer friendly Pappy & Daddy.

I wouldn't call her a stellar director. I would say I've been reserving judgement, but if you pin me down I'd call her Taiwan's New.

Pitch

Xiao Bao (cute) falls in love with icy, white-robed stunner Huai En due to an unexpected meeting. Discovers she is actually a boy (and a baddie). Hijinx ensue.

Adapted from the novel Hua Kai You Shi Tui Mi Wu Sheng 花开有时, 颓靡无声 by Shui Qian Cheng 水千丞

Co-production with China and Taiwan. But the country of origin is listed as Thailand.

12 Episodes, 40 min each (or so) for a total fresh content run time of 8 hours.

Aired: Jul 11, 2024 - Aug 15, 2024 on iQiyi, Viki, WeTV, Gaga

Shall we get started?

I had a surfeit of options since Viki, Gaga, and iQIYI all had Blossom. I like Viki's interface best, want to support Gaga the most, but in this case, I opted for iQIYI because... screen shots. So it's all your fault.

EPISODE 1: Nicknames, pretty men, dimples, twirly, stabby, floof!

I don't like the intro music, it's too slow and tinkly, but classic for the genre I suppose. Still I'm fast forwarding through all the falling cherry blossoms.

All right. Now it's about time for... YES...

Emperor Infodump

Chancellor of Extraneous Explanations

As You Know Bo

Sorry sorry. The puns must flow.

The deets: layabout emperor = chaos & suffering. New emp = strong & popular but his baby bro wants to rule. New emp exiles bro to obscurity. New emp = good ruler. Order established through patriarchal dominance. Children laughing in the street. Got it.

I will not be remembering names, FYI.

We open on kid in trouble over a kite killed(?) by baddie.

Enter pretty spangled skippy puppy McDimples. I shall call him Dimples. Dimples = spoiled rich kid having trouble finding a wife - presumably because they all know he gay.

Enter hottie evil cut-glass cheekbones McPoutypants. Haven't decided what I shall call him. It'll come to me.

Extremely pretty men. CHECK.

Ooo, a big hat on horse back!

Of course, how could I not have had that trope on my checklist? My bad.

And a bunch of assassins slow-dropping out of trees like lazy fruit. I forgot that, too.

I gotta say, fairy prince or high elf is not a bad moniker for twirly-sword cheekbones supreme.

Floaty fighty fighty! CHECK

Oh, I thought they'd go in for crossdressing at the very least but I guess they went for Dimples is an idiot instead. Interesting choice. I see we also have the "baby is a clumsy bunny" trope all set to deploy. Carry on.

Grab the sword and skid through the dirt. CHECK!

And a fainting!

Pony tail with ribbons. CHECK

Dimples might be a bit too much of a prat and an idiot for me.

[Have begun watching at 1.25 speed. Don't fault me.]

I always find the orange/yellow eye makeup that Cdramas put on characters of questionable morality fascinating. Why those colors specifically? And why eye makeup specifically?

We arrive home. It fancy. Daddy doesn't want an unknown lady for his baby (silly daddy, ladies are for ladies, boys are for boys).

Everyone acknowledging that elf prince is, in fact, The Prettiest is very pleasing to me.

Meanwhile, there is some kind of list/stuff/thingy and Prince Shen wants it and is a bad guy, maybe? I can't remember names from the beginning so I have no idea what's going on with the plot but also, it is only going to get more convoluted. Plus the weekend is coming so I'll eventually be drinking and watching this. Plot is for people who don't like BL. And don't have six bottles of sake in their fridge.

Snicker.

Where was I?

Oh yes. Judiciously NOT following the plot.

Dimples and his 2 enablers seem to share about 1/3 of a braincell between them. But they're sincere about it.

Engage secret identity trope and the expected cross dressing.

Ooo Shen is The Prettiest's uncle? Damn it I'm trying to follow the plot again. Must not get sucked into plot. This is a Cdrama therein lies madness. Ah, Prettiest is the son of the emperor's exiled younger bro? Got it.

Twirly protect baby from baddies! CHECK

And that's episode 1 in the bag. In the sheath?

My thoughts so far:

This couldn't be more exactly what I expected if it tried. I mean it is trying. And it's succeeding in being a Wuxia BL. So. Yay! Performing to the packaging. I appreciate that in a show.

I'm looking forward to more.

(On the advice of one of my spies I've switched to watching on YT when I can, YT and Gaga are supposed to have the better subs than iQIYI and Viki. That said I found iQIYI's serviceable.)

EPISODE 2: Checking a bunch of stuff off my list in rapid succession

Poisoning?

No. Sex herb? CHECK

Discovery that she is in fact he?

Dominance Tussle? Dub con? Rape? Already? CHECK

Well that came fast (presumably so did he).

There’s a lot happening all at once at the beginning of just ep 2. 

It’s an ACCOUNT BOOK that’s causing all this fuss? Hilarious. 

Enter the anticipated hottie (bodyguard? spy?) in all black wearing a hedgehog. CHECK

(I didn’t expect the hedgehog, I have to admit.)

Oh is the single brain cell society is trying to grow additional brain cells? That's not gonna work.

Cheekbones is still the prettiest.

Oh HELLO stern grabby Daddy not-older brother of yummy. We likey.

Who do you belong to?

Why do you have The Biggest Sleeves?

Do I take that as a sign of gayness?

Please? 

Ooo looks like I’m right. 

Also this is very silly.

And "I never said she was a woman."

It’s just so funny.

OH NO!

Stern prince bro is leaving already?

I only had Grabby McDaddy for a very short length of time. I already miss him. 

Meanwhile, Dimples apparently has no compunction about being in love with a man, we blew through a bisexual identity crisis while I wasn't looking, and now we exist inside the gay=okay bubble? I did not expect The Bubble(tm) to show up in a Wuxia, but I guess this is a BL universe and we all just float around in it… 

Cheekbones is a bit of an asshole. Quite apart from the, ya know, bit of rapey rape thing.

I also did not have absolutely terrible VO dubbing on my bingo card. I forgot about that one in Cdramas.

EPISODE 3: Distracted by the pretty

Some kind of dark past for dimples and his little (not blood ) sister. 

Sniff test, the greatest trope of 2024 apparently. Nice to see the execution of a modern trope in a vintage style BL.

Aa ha! Kneeling next to a platform bed. CHECK

And more poisoning and drugs.

Wound tending. CHECK

Aweeeee Dimples is worried about Cheekbones! How cute.

Also, the ice queen appears to be melting.

Ooo. More sexitimes? Consensual this time. Okay. I guess Taiwan did get its nuts all over this show. (Honestly, that was a mistype but I'm keeping it in.)

The bit with all the bodyguards was great.

And my love for Mr. All-Black Clued-in Hottie persists.

We are now in the “does he like me back?” phase of the high school narrative. We are also in the "do I like him at all?" part of the narrative. Suddenly, this is an angsty YA. 

Ice queen has melted and is now turning into jelly. (Can you tell I’m very pleased with myself and this metaphor?) 

And now, Dimples is sick?

Boy, is this fast moving! I have to say, that is something I did not expect at all. Usually Cdramas are much slower than this.

I do love how shameless D imples is. It’s kind of delightful. He’s definitely in his bisexual awakening slut phase.

Cheekbones is also a doctor, apparently. Useful man. 

In other news: I would really like to add a full length crossover wafting robe into my wardrobe. I have no idea why I feel compelled by such a thing.

EPISODE 4: Gay sleeves AT last

Not a lot happened in this episode. Mostly flirting. More backstory and plot that doesn’t really matter. Presumably this intended to be character motivation?

We do not need him to be motivated we need him to be pretty. Understand the brief please.

Why no more floaty floaty sleeves?

Oooo, because sleeves in gay! CHECK

I did like the scene of the blood being cleaned up after the assassination attempt(?). It’s kind of nice to see that depicted for a change. I always worry about all that blood on that nice stone work.

Oh the handholding it was very cute.

Ice queen has melted and now turned entirely to jelly. Very very jelly.

Dimples is so stupid proud of his tall deadly wife. It's flipping adorable in a very goofy way.

I guess Cheekbones has come around and now Dimples has officially been claimed, multiple times and in multiple ways. He can't change his mind or anything now. Trouble is afoot...

asleeve?

ahead...

ahem.

I'll stop now.

EPISODE 5 - It is a Thing I guess?

OMG Cheekbones just loves his stilly bint of a bf. It’s absolutely absurd. The ultimate puppy/cat pairing.

I love it that he’s just casually walking around with a knife sticking out of his back and only cares that baby may have gotten a splinter in his finger.

Now we are in the vows portion of the early romance. I am assuming betrayal is coming soon? 

Grabby McDaddy! I missed you! Here to perform the part of Basil Exposition I see? No grabby for me? Sad. Unfortunately, if you aren’t flirting with a man I’m going to be fast forwarding. Although your sleeves are very nice.

Uh oh, Dimples is in trouble. 

Okay that was that. No screen caps, I lazy.

EPISODE 6 - DOOOMMMM

Oh lovely. More rape. I guess Dimples went looking for that response? Is that the implication? Does Dimples have a rape kink? What is with this show? 

No brothels for a baby I guess.

It’s not gay... it’s poison? 

It’s not bisexuality... it’s the slut herb? 

The single brain cell club is now the wailing fates. 

I guess cutting off a man’s hand out of jealousy is no biggie? Well this is a BL. Jealousy is the #1 excuse!

Fighty floaty blood spatter death! This time on wooden planks. Those are impossible to get clean. 

Meanwhile, there’s a lot of backstory and stuff I don’t care about, and probably can’t follow even if I did care about it.

I don’t like the Emperor at all. But then I don’t think I meant to. I am a little shocked that there aren’t more men with sparse beards distracting from the romance. But I guess this is a BL, they go for youth even in wuxia.

EPISODE 7 - You know what they say about a man with big sleeves?

Oh, Daddy McGrabby is back and he's a good guy (?)! He’s also in love with Dimples. 

Oh no!

What is this sensation I feel being thrust upon me?

Is that…? Is that second lead syndrome?  I think it is.

Oh well, it was fated the moment I saw the length of his... sleeves in episode 2.

Meanwhile?

Dimples gets tortured by acupuncture. 

Poisonings are always so elegant and classy in Cdramas.

Blah blah captured rescued captured rescued again sort of. Cheekbones is now seriously imperiled. We swap one for the other in Grave Danger (TM).

Enter the Divine Doctor character! Who (Dr) I have been told reliably by previous witnesses is A Favorite. I do love this particular archetype (quirky healer wise beyond his years - sometimes actual immortal. ) I am prepared to be delighted.  

EPISODE 8 - Divine Doctor is Emperor of the Gays

The divine doctor and 1/3 brain cell is not a pairing I thought was going to happen. Frankly it doesn't seem like the writers thought about it much either.

But it did make me laugh out loud.

It’s fantastic. I love them. I love this for me. I love a secondary couple for this show. Carry-on.

I LOVE THE DOCTOR SO MUCH. 

Everyone was absolutely correct. He is the best character. He is my favorite. He is openly gay and a troublemaker and absolute queen. And I adore him forever. No notes.

King Emperor behavior!

The evil crown prince has a crush on Daddy McGrabby. With good reason, he does have the biggest sleeves.

(I have a crush on Daddy McGrabby.) And he clearly likes brats, so I think the crown prince is in with a chance, actually.

(Not me, sadly. Despite the rumors I am not a brat. I make no case for this.)

EPISODE 9 - The Plot Thickens like Shampoo

Oh, Cheekbones is the new crown prince? We have a whole Snape situation going on here?

And finally Cheekbone knows what is happened to his poor little tortured Dimples. (oof that acting tho. before you say "what acting" i KNOW.)

In all honesty, I’m quite engaged by the drama of the show at this point and kind of losing my snark because of it. Don't get mad at me.

It’s not a bad show. I mean it’s a melodramatic soap opera, but that’s to be expected. It's so soapy it's like one of those extra foamy soap dispenser soaps.

To be entirely fair most gay men of my acquaintances have very similar relationship trajectories. Minus some of the casual murder (aside from character assassinations of course). 

EPISODE 10 - Oh Noes All Round

Not enough of my beloved divine doctor emperor of the gays. But you can’t have everything. 

Oh noes, my babies are fighting. 

But he brought you a big thistle! Don't fight!

Oh they get to kind of make up, or something. It’s sweet. Puppy Dimples accidentally caught himself a psychopath. To be fair tho, all cats are psychopaths at heart.

Oh noes Daddy McGrabby is planning on killing Cheekbones. No Daddy. Not the Cheekbones!

The cheek kiss from Cheekbones was so romantic. Normally I’m not a huge fan of this particular smooch, but under these circumstances it was very good.

EPISODE 11 - So Many Gay Emperors no one cares about the actual emperor

I wish I could shut somebody up by a simple double tap to the collarbone. It’s like the wuxia version of a block feature on tumblr.

Meanwhile, the part where 2/3 of a brain cell are comparing how hot their respective fierce gay emperors are to each other is truly hilarious. I actually clapped.

This is so ridiculous.

Epic eye roll from the remaining 1/3 of a brain cell. And I have to say I’m on his side in this matter.

Oh noes Daddy McGrabby is not, in fact, on the side of twrew lurve after all.

How sad. 

EPISODE 12 - The Bisexual In the Bathtub & other nursery rhymes of my youth

I love this silly bint of a bisexual in the bath between two fierce gay dudes who are about to give their life force to keep him alive.

Someone definitely once drew this as Lord of the Rings fanart 20 years ago.

I guess our single brain cell has been torn asunder. And Daddy McGrabby never did get his man.

Next series?

Bing him back to me.

With EVEN BIGGER SLEEVES!

IN CONCLUSION

All cards on the table?

This was undeniably a wuxia and most definitely a BL.

Evil stunning princely Cheekbones meets and falls in love with the bisexual Disaster dimples of his dreams. There’s a lot of floaty fighting, tangled plot, and overworked emotions. From start to finish it was exactly as it claimed to be, including more than the expected amount of sexual claiming.

I’m not wild about the wuxia genre, but I will tell you what I do like:

Very pretty men in flowing robes + eye makeup + hair ribbons wafting about stabbing and kissing each other plus ridiculous soap opera machinations. I also like cheekbones and dimples. AND I love a stupid gay sleeve, okay? There was also truly epic levels of stink-eye, and that too is to be lauded.

This show left me grinning like crazy. Was it great? Not really, but it was a great experience and I enjoyed it immensely.

I’m so glad you all persuaded me to watch it in the end.

Thank you! 

I should probably give it an 9/10 because I had such a good time watching it. But I’m not going to, because it isn’t a 9/10 drama. It had a lot of flaws chewing at that pretty (boom mic riddled) scenery, not to mention all the rapey rape.

It’s a solid 8/10

(source)

[twig-tea]

With 23.5 finally coming out, the people are rejoicing at finally getting a high profile gl from GMMTV. But there have already been several gls airing this year, including my fav TsukuTabe, that have been flying under the radar with fandom, and in general there are more gls already out there than folks seem to think. I just know you have a list of all the gls we should be watching, please share with the class!

Thank you for the ask! How did you know I had a draft of GL recs to make at some point? [Trick question, I mentioned it to you.]

It may seem like I'm out here hating on GL because i've made a couple of negative reviews of recently airing series recently (Love Senior and Chaser Game W in case you're curious) but I actually have lots of GL that I love and that I wish were better known! Thanks for sending this ask so I am inspired to actually finish it! I've limited myself to series so that I could keep the list and this post to a reasonable length. Where possible I've listed where you can find each of these and included a link. And I've included an 'elevator pitch' summary but I am NOT in marketing for a reason, so please don't roast me too hard for my terrible comparisons. Alright, enough waffling!

Twig's GL Rec List

She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat S1 & 2 (Japan, 2022 & 2024, both seasons fansubbed by @furritsubs; if you need help accessing this show feel free to DM me!)

Elevator pitch: Our Dining Table with lesbians and an even slower burn. Watch for beautiful food, acespec rep, mental health and therapy rep

What might turn some off: Extremely low heat, and quite slow-moving; warning for a disordered eating and family trauma plot (v gently handled)

Let's start with the one you've already mentioned. This is a heartwarming slice-of-life slow burn in which an autismspec-coded woman who likes to eat is invited by her neighbour, a femme acespec woman who loves to cook, to come and eat her food. It starts from a very practical place (when you love making food you need someone to help eat it), but their relationship grows as they spend more time together. The story follows them as they both move towards self-actualization in several ways: as a lesbian, as asexual, at work, with their families, with their friends, with each other. This show is so careful to say the important words aloud. And there is so much delicious cooking! Each episode highlights a particular recipe, and the food porn is real. Do not watch while hungry, but definitely watch. The found famiy vibes in this one one are also immaculate.

She Makes My Heart Flutter (Korea, 2022, YouTube)

Elevator pitch: Younger lesbian friend group tries to help out (slightly) older lesbian bar owner with mixed success. I can't think of a good BL equivalent, The Moment Since feels the closest with its similar bartender/patron romance

What might turn some off: Comedic tone; short runtime; struggles with being closeted

This is a gem of a miniseries about a bar owner and an interior designer who smoulder at one another while an intrepid group of younger bar regulars (including the bar owner's neice) meddle. This series is really cute, solid, and full of sapphics! Once again found family vibes are immaculate (you may sense a theme in my faves). Run don't walk.

Fragrance of the First Flower (Taiwan, 2021, GagaOOLala)

Elevator pitch: Right-person-wrong-time/second chance romance; tonally is a little like We Best Love 2: Fighting Mr. 2nd but with an ambiguous ending.

What might turn you off: Medium heat, second chance romance means they break up once, internalized homophobia, adultery/cheating, at one point there's a creepy dude, child with autism (depicted well), ambiguous ending

At its core this is a story of a woman who can't stop getting in the way of her own happiness. This series is a little more sad than the rest of this rec list but I couldn't not include it because this relationship is so poignant. Plus there's a s2 that supposedly is to come out in 2024 so maybe we'll get our happy ending after all?

Love Greater Than or Equal to 70 Degrees C (Korea, 2019, YouTube)

Elevator pitch: Ingredients but with lesbians staring at one another over beautiful tea pairings! What more could you ask for?

What might turn you off: Low heat; short runtime; ambiguous ending; like Ingredients this is essentially a long ad for the café it's filmed at.

This is a Korean miniseries about passionate tea sommeliers making really fancy tea while staring at one another a LOT. Perfect sapphic representation, 10/10 no notes. This one packs a lot of the drama tropes into its short runtime, so even though it's short it's full of butterfly-inspiring moments.

Sleep With Me (Philippines, 2022, GagaOOLala/iWantTFC/Netflix w/VPN set to Philippines)

Elevator pitch: The Truth About Cats and Dogs but the self esteem issues are handled without catfishing. BL equivalent: Hmmm. Closest I can think of is Gaya Sa Pelikula.

What might turn you off: There's some ableism (treated as such) in this show; Open ending.

Stellar GL between a late night radio DJ and an insomniac who listens to her show. One of the main couple is a wheelchair user and the show tackles ablelism and navigating disability in relationship as well as feelings of inadequacy in a relationship and how that manifests as interpersonal conflict.

Our Relationship Ended Before it Began (Korea, 2022, YouTube)

Elevator Pitch: Along the lines of I Cannot Reach You; the show gives both perspectives and they are held back by queer angst.

What might turn you off: No kiss (but they make it very clear both want to kiss), internalized homophobia

Really sweet miniseries about having a crush and being afraid of being hurt so you don't actually make a move. I really like the way the girl who has not dated a girl before defaults to gender roles and it throws the more experienced lesbian lol I also really like the way this show makes clear that both of them are waiting for a kiss, and that if you get in your head about things, it can get in the way of your own happiness!

Pearl Next Door (Philippines, 2020, Youtube)

Elevator Pitch: Gameboys but with lesbian vloggers.

What might turn you off: Love triangle, lots of teasing but low heat in the end, a lot of (good) conversations about mental health issues, ambiguous ending

This is the GL spinoff to Gameboys, starring Pearl from Gameboys. Pearl ends up being fought over by the two gorgeous women in the gif, an old love and a new. I love the queer friendships in this story as much as the relationships. I will say it's an open ending (that felt a bit like the showrunners didn't want to decide between ships) and definitely the love triangle features prominently but even in the face of these aspects that would normally turn me off a series I had a good time. The characters and interpersonal conflicts feel very real, and are allowed to be complex even when the show tone is comedic.

Dear Uranus (Taiwan, 2021, YouTube)

Elevator Pitch: Schoolgirl ensemble GL; a little like My School President but without the singing.

What might turn you off: Short runtime; ambiguous ending; a little bit of bullying; very standard romance trope execution

The first Taiwanese GL miniseries, this series was produced by a Taiwanese lesbian couple (Rabbit & Wolf)! Lots of excellent drama tropes, and incredibly gorgeous women (I think the entire watching audience fell in love with Erol.

Lily Fever (Korea, 2015, YouTube)

Elevator pitch: Complete crack; YYY but with more kissing and frankly an even less coherent story.

What might turn you off: The lack of coherent plot; less a romance and more a very thirsty lesbian kissing everyone she can

This miniseries is utter chaos. Nothing really makes sense, it's all just random excuses to cause very suggestive moments (and kissing) to happen. I love so much how this series depicts women being so absolutely thirsty for one another (and yes that date isn't a typo, this series is ~9 years old). Not an "happy ever after" ending but it really isn't that kind of story.

Chasing Sunsets (Philippines, 2020, YouTube)

Elevator pitch: Ocean Likes Me with lesbians. Resort romance with a mental health twist.

What might turn you off: Some of the mental health stuff gets intense, this was filmed in 2020 so the pandemic features heavily; hopeful but slightly ambiguous ending.

A complex story from the Philippines covering mental health and finding yourself. A woman shows up to a resort and befriends one of the women running the resort. They get closer as they spend time together, and the resort owner realizes something is off. There's also a BL side couple in this series.

Show Me Love (Thai, 2023, YouTube)

Elevator pitch: A little like My Day the series with lesbians, in that they work together and fall in love and it's full of tropes

What might turn you off: The advertising for the Miss Grand competition, there is some bullying and cheating (though way less than I was expecting tbh), not a lot actually happens, the editing gets a bit wonky at the end

This is essentially a massive ad for the Miss Grand Thailand competition; this GL was produced by the same company that produces that competition, and the stars are mostly Miss Grand competitors. The main pairing were shipped in the actual competition, and the company decided to make a GL about them. It's very slow paced and low-stakes, and there are better kisses than I expected considering everything I just said about where this show came from. There are a lot of cute moments!

Girlfriend Project (Korea, 2022, YouTube)

Elevator Pitch: Love Class with lesbians

What might turn you off: One of the leads is kind of mean in that pgitail-pulling way? It ends abruptly (but happily)

This is a short miniseries about two girls paired in a class that are assigned to "date". The chemistry is chemistrying. And there is a kiss (a good kiss, and a tiptoes kiss at that!). This show also has one of my favourite tropes, in which someone who seems like a pushover stands up for themselves and their partner finds it very attractive. For the record, in this show they are watching another GL by the same company, Love Tech.

Lulu (Philippines, 2022, Vivamax/grey)

Elevator Pitch: Present Perfect with lesbians (but with a better ending).

What might turn you off: Depictions of panic attacks, brief depiction of drowning, pandemic lockdowns, illness, exes, waffling, happy but open ending (which I actually liked for this story)

Two women trying to move on from the garbage in their lives meet at the beach of a B&B (where one saves the other from drowning) and become one another's company during their escape and then something more. They both have baggage that seems determined to keep them apart even as they continue to be drawn together. In the end, they decide to stick it out and see where they end up, with no guarantee of happily ever after, which I found very sweet. Requires either a VivaMax account or searching the grey for it, but it's worth the effort (check MyDramaList comments for suggestions on where to find it). Plus one of the leads has a cactus as a pet.

Welcome to the Lesbian Bar (Korea, 2023, YouTube)

Elevator Pitch: A little like Fudanshi Bartender but without the fudanshi bartender and all of the bar patrons are lesbians lol

What might turn you off: Short, can get a little bit preachy, abrupt ending

Cute short series with different very stories every episode as different patrons visit the bar. The stories range from women who have been together for awhile, to people meeting from an online app for the first time, to someone visiting a lesbian bar for the first time; and yet the story all weaves together in a way that's satisfying though ends abruptly. Includes some solid marriage equality propaganda.

GAP the Series (Thai, 2022, YouTube)

Elevator Pitch: Kind of the vibes of Together with Me but lesbians and in an office instead of school. Angry boss falls for charming new intern and

What might turn you off: This one is the highest heat of all these recs; homophobia especially amongst family, brief depictions of death by car, brief mentions of suicide, cheating, bullying, abuse of power in the office.

A list would not be complete without this one! Honestly the plot is a bit wobbly but the show is a lot of fun. The girls are very cute, the feelings and tension builds really well between them, the friend group is excellent, and in the special we get a wedding.

---

The rest of these have caveats of one kind or another, but i couldn't leave them off a rec list, so here are the side couples and censored stories that are still worth your time anyway (I might do a separate more detailed post for these, as well as for films, one day if there's interest):

Nevertheless (GL side; Korean, 2021, Netflix) Not sure it's worth watching a whole kdrama for side lesbians? Search soljiwan on youtube. They are great. Even the Netflix account stans them. I watched this (ngl, I watched the SolJiwan cut) as it aired and was constantly braced for it to let us down but it did not! A really good friends-to-lovers story.

Friend Zone 2: Dangerous Area (GL side; Thailand, 2019, YouTube): These sapphics are messy and I love them. Decent conversation about dating someone with mental health issues in this series, and they're one of the only couples in this ensemble to get a happy ending. If you're just watching the lesbian couple (which you can, their story is pretty self-contained) you don't need to have seen s1.

Six Survivors (GL side; Japan, 2022, Viki) This show is a horror comedy and it is SO MUCH FUN. Warning for zombies and blood, but way less than you might think. One of the eponymous 6 survivors is a lesbian who keeps trying to convert them to veganism lol. If you watched Chaser Game W you'll recognize one of the actresses in this, the lead actress is from Kamisama no Ekohiiki, and one of the guys is from the prequel series His as well as I Want to See Only You! And yes there is a kiss. Also a surprising number of Mallrats references. Not for people who can't handle gore or relationships being complicated/not a "true love" story/ambiguous ending.

Kamisama no Ekohiiki (complicated question of is it GL in parts, Japan, 2021, furritsubs once again coming through to save the day) This one is a bit complex because there's bodyswap, but the girl who falls for the bodyswapped boy-in-a-girl's-body is clear that she is only interested in the girl. One of the better bodyswap stories because the bodyswap is not a secret for very long, so instead there's a lot of introspection about what gender means and who/what they are attracted to. Feels wrong to call this GL, necessarily, but it's very queer.

Couple of Mirrors (Censored GL, China, 2021, Viki) Story of a rich girl and her assassin girlfriend. This production did an amazing job getting away with what they could, just don't watch the last five minutes and we've got essentially a happy lesbian family.

Legend of Yunze (Censored GL, China, 2021, @douqi7s) Very cute very low budget xianxia miniseries with two seasons and a special. The special is set in modern times in a future lifetime so if you want a cute censored-but-clearly-a-soulmate-love-story this is the one for you. Don't be thrown off by the weird cuts/abrupt episode endings, that's in line with cdramas in general.

Led Astray by Love (Censored GL, China, 2021, @douqi7s) A very fun and adorable isekai story in which a modern day girl is transported to a wuxia novel setting and has to figure out how to get home, and gets romanced by the princess along the way.

And a few additional links for people who even more content:

My Indian sapphic webseries rec list

My suggestions for content with toms (Thai category that's similar to but not exactly the same as butch lesbians) in response to this post.

This really good GL MyDramaList list (not made by me!) lists what seems to be everything I've mentioned and about 200 more. Even I haven't seen a few of these!

My YouTube playlist of sapphic content: This includes anything I stumble across or find in my searches, a lot of music videos and random shorts as well as some microseries and miniseries that I don't consider GL but are WLW/sapphic in addition to true "GL" content. For serialized content, I add just the first ep. A complete mess, but you can trawl through to find stuff to watch, like Hetero!

SOONOTSUE: The same producers of She Makes My Heart Flutter have other short series on their channel worth checking out; if you liked that one, try Out of Breath!

Shakeshoulder: Thai YouTube producers of very pulpy (read: low budget and dramatic plots) shorts

FuFuKnows: This YouTube channel is owned by a gay Taiwanese couple that produces shorts every week, including some with GL mains and sides. These are very low budget but cover a whole swath of queer themes.

@douqi7s is a godsend providing subtitles for all kinds of content, including sapphic shorts and more series than I've listed here. Check their tumblr for links to all of their content; A Practical Guide to Being a Superstar's Assistant has one of the best setups to giving us great moments in the guise of something else so that they get past censorship I've ever seen; I also recommend The Vampires if you're into genre fiction, as well as Legend of Yunqian if you enjoyed the xianxia parts of Legend of Yunze. @wlwcatalogue did an excellent summary of many of the non-wuxia options here.

Quick pitch for the streaming platform GagaOOLala; it's affordable, has a ton of content, including a whack of GLs (originals, license series, and a ton of shorts), and is run by queer people out of Taiwan who care about good quality queer content being made and having an audience, and using the soft power from those successful series to support social change. And if you can't afford a subscription it's worth checking out what they have for free, they open up temporary free access to some things for various events throughout the year.

In searching for gifs for this post I found fellow tumblr user @drowningparty 's WLW compendium list; they've listed more series and films so check it out if you still need more content!

*wipes sweat off brow* that should be enough to be getting on with, but it's really just the tip of the iceberg! If there's something specific you want to see with sapphics let me know and I can tell you if I know it exists. Anyway, I hope this gives you and everyone else a taste of what all is out there! I of course always want more, I am serious about being a sapphic dragon hoarding every crumb i can get my lizardy hands on, but I do think what we have should also be appreciated more. If I missed one of your faves, please tell me!

[g-xix]

AMP Masterlist

(✿◠‿◠)

ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢ ꜰᴏʀ: ᴋᴀɪ ᴄᴇɴᴀᴛ, ᴅᴜᴋᴇ ᴅᴇɴɴɪꜱ, ꜰᴀɴᴜᴍ, ᴀɢᴇɴᴛ ᴢᴇʀᴏ

☁️= fluff, 🔞= smut, 💢 = angst

REQUESTS ARE OPEN!!! Send litr anything in thru the inbox n i'll write it (or not)... No promises it'll be done any time soon tho :DD

[UNDER CONSTRUCTION!]

Kai Cenat

🔞"AMP eating out HC's" - Headcannons ab what the AMP (+JiDion) are like giving head "AMP x Harry Potter AU Headcanons" - Headcanons of what the AMP Crew are like in a Harry Potter/Hogwarts alternate universe ⚡

"Where would AMP Leave Hickeys on you?"

Chrisnxtdoor

"Where would AMP Leave Hickeys on you?"

Agent00

🔞"AMP eating out HC's" - Headcannons ab what the AMP (+JiDion) are like giving head "AMP x Harry Potter AU Headcanons" - Headcanons of what the AMP Crew are like in a Harry Potter/Hogwarts alternate universe ⚡ 🔞"Possessive" - You flirted with Duke and Agent didn't like that. At all. So, as anyone logical would, he decides to take that out on your body (warning - very kinky) "Where would AMP Leave Hickeys on you?"

Davis

"Where would AMP Leave Hickeys on you?"

Fanum

🔞"AMP eating out HC's" - Headcannons ab what the AMP (+JiDion) are like giving head "AMP x Harry Potter AU Headcanons" - Headcanons of what the AMP Crew are like in a Harry Potter/Hogwarts alternate universe ⚡ "Where would AMP Leave Hickeys on you?"

Duke Dennis

🔞"AMP eating out HC's" - Headcannons ab what the AMP (+JiDion) are like giving head "AMP x Harry Potter AU Headcanons" - Headcanons of what the AMP Crew are like in a Harry Potter/Hogwarts alternate universe ⚡ "Where would AMP Leave Hickeys on you?"

Jidion

🔞"AMP eating out HC's" - Headcannons ab what the AMP (+JiDion) are like giving head

iShowSpeed

"AMP x Harry Potter AU Headcanons" - Headcanons of what the AMP Crew are like in a Harry Potter/Hogwarts alternate universe ⚡

Rayasianboy_ ☁️"Movie Nights" - In which Kai Cenat's cousin, chef for the AMP house finds herself cuddling up to a cute guy she only found out about that morning, but already has Duke and Agent betting on them having a little relationship together.... | Kai Cenat!cousin!reader x Ray, super fluffy

☁️"Graduation" - Just when it appears your relationship with Ray is kicking off - you have to come to rocky terms with the fact that Ray has to return to Taiwan to finish school... And although you spend days and nights crying and missing your boyfriend - what when you get the chance to go to his graduation ceremony and reunite with the boy you love from across the world? [continuation of MOVIE NIGHTS fic]

ALL!! - silly little drabbles Jfc Agent is FINE AF "Beta Squad x AMP Last to fall asleep challenge gif collection" "Beta Squad x AMP last to fall asleep challenge camera roll" "Beta Squad vs AMP charity match picture book"

looking for someone you can't find? Head back to the main masterlist to check out the other masterlists to see if the person you're looking for is there! Don't be scared to send a message via DMs or thru the inbox if you need any help xx

p.s. Customise which Oneshots YOU want to be tagged in by submitting your preferences on THIS GOOGLE FORM!

[ineffable-opinions]

MAME & BL Literacies (Part 4)

Other parts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Contents:

MAME’s queer characters and their lives

Fetishization of queer men and profiting off LGBT community

Why other queer genres like gei comi struggle to get live action adaptation?

(bonus) What Did You Eat Yesterday sexy times

BL and rape culture

Everyday ethnocentrism & BL

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This is the last part of this essay series. In this part, I want to discuss the response this review of TharnType by @waitmyturtles generated. As always, corrections and criticisms are welcome.

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Here are the points @solitaryandwandering raised:

1. fans will get SO rabid for MAME’s stuff yet resist tuning in for more queer-friendly Taiwanese BL or lower heat fare

I think that the BL MAME creates is "queer-friendly". Moreover, her BL focuses on the intersection of queerness with local forms of gender, patriarchy & heterosexism, class, race, skin color, age, employment, location & regionalism, abilities and disabilities, education, health conditions and access to medical care, urban-rural divide, migrant status, culture, etc.

MAME's BL have aspects of Thai queer culture and praxis that are otherwise overlooked. Here's an example.

Through Techno’s interaction with Tharn in episode 1 of TharnType, MAME highlights an important issue: invisibility of androphilic “man”. Techno comments that Tharn is the first masculine presenting androphilic male he has met, even though he has several queer friends.

This is in part due to skewed presence of androphilic male characters in mainstream media. In Thai soap operas and movies, androphilic men are 'presented as effeminate, overreactive, with a passionate but unrequited interest in men'.

Countering this perception is the hegemony of masculine aesthetics in urban Thailand’s queer culture. 'The English word “man” has been borrowed into Thai gay-speak to denote acting in a masculine way. Man describes a masculine presentation of either gay-identified or heterosexual males and contrasts with the Thai term phu-chai, which also translates as “man” but is used in the specific sense of denoting the gender role of a heterosexually identified male.

'Many Thai gays believe that effeminate gay men, or gay sao, will experience discrimination and prejudice because of their feminine characteristics and behaviours. Thai gays also think that performing gender-normative forms of manhood are useful in establishing sexual and romantic relations with other gays. These expectations are associated with the culture of images, known in Thai as phap-phot, by which many homosexual men feel compelled to act in accord with normative male gender roles.'

This is in contrast to Techno’s queer friends who blur the lines between the masculine and feminine domains. His use of the word kathoey is case in point.

Moreover, the need for social conformity for Thai gays in terms of their gender performance is an urban phenomenon. Ethnographic study by Wijngaarden traced the rapid adoption of more masculine gender performance by gay men who moved from rural setting to urban for the purpose of education and employment. Ambiguity in gender performance is more accepted in rural setting where there is gender-based understandings of homosexuality. Also, gay dating scene in urban areas seem to assign value to masculine presentation.

source

I don't really know what @solitaryandwandering mean by "queer-friendly" in the context of Taiwanese BL.

Support of fu-people (BL fans) for queer works in Taiwan is well-known. When the play 《愛情生活》 Life of Love by Xu ZhengPing was staged, they had BL version shows too.

The play has a short film adaptation which is available for free on GagaOOLala.

Fu-people have also shown their support for series like Breakfast by 想再見你.

2. Fetishization of queer men in yaoi

By that standard, is Minamoto Kazuki fetishizing straight women through his works?

source

Minamoto Kazuki is a gay mangaka who creates straight romance and smut.

Arguably, his most famous manga, at least in BL fandom, is Wall Circle’s Doujin Artist Nekoyashiki-Kun’s Desire for Recognition Grows which got live action adaptation: KabeKoji in 2022.

Apart from creating commercial BL and yaoi (self-published BL like the ones in the image given above), he has also authored an autobiographical work titled Shoujo Manga Artist Minamoto-San Comes Out and a manga exploring queer life and homophobia titled The Gay Who Turned Kaiju.

Moreover, many scholars, mangaka, fans, etc. from Asia and elsewhere have already spoken/written plenty about the issue of fetishization. Here's a compilation of resources.

3. zero critical consumption and leveraging of abusive concepts

I wonder why it is assumed that BL is consumed without critical thinking. It is true that BL, especially MAME's BL, are not didactic. TharnType is a BL with odo (royal road) narrative progression. It is not one of the sweet BL that GMMTV produces. Due to a general lack of BL literacies, there are off-the-mark expectations associated with BL, particularly Thai BL. Hence, odo BL seems to violate a lot of these misguided expectations.

TharnType is a well-done odo BL, in my opinion. "Leveraging of abusive concepts" is not a failure but a feature.

When it comes to depiction of abuse, there are those who think that it always gives the wrong message. There are variety in opinions on what is the right way to go about it. BL being an accommodating genre has space for all sorts of treatment. Even in live action, there is good variety in terms of how the theme is treated. But nothing is everyone’s cup of tea. This being the case it is understandable if someone like how MAME handles abuse, just as it is understandable if someone doesn't.

Assuming that fans don't engage critically with the theme and are mindlessly consuming it, have the implication of infantilizing the audience - as though they are without faculties of discretion and are incapable of making judgements. It also has the added implication of demonizing all media concerning queer people that deals with abuse. If MAME’s approach is deemed “unsafe” for queer population, based on that judgement, where does BL and gei comi that offer erotic treatment of abuse fall? What about queer people producing and consuming them?

That brings me to the points @nieves-de-sugui has raised.

4. how much all of these tropes where used (and still are). I believe that when things are made for tv they should take all the things you mentioned into account more than they do.

I believe that makers of live action queer content are very cautious. Thanks to that we are yet to get live action adaptation of any gei comi.

I have seen mainstream media ignore Gengoroh Tagame (probably the most popular gay mangaka creating content aimed at androphilic men) and his works for years in spite of his tangible influence on East Asian queer men. And then suddenly creating a live action adaptation of his all-ages manga My Brother’s Husband.

Who will dare to adapt his works Gunji or Fisherman’s Lodge or Pride? How can we show rape, trauma and taboo involving queer people on screen? What message will it give to the queer population? To the non-queer population?

A scene from Fisherman’s Lodge. Image courtesy of @finalatomicbuster.

If MAME was not involved in producing her BL, it is doubtful if it would have ever happened the way it did. Almost all BL adaptation is a censored adaptation, with notable exceptions like Sei no Gekiyaku. Recently, 25 Ji, Akasaka de (2024) removed complicated sexual content (including a dub-con episode) from the volume 1 of the manga, which was critical to the story and the couple’s development, in adaptation. Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka (2024) went as far as removing the more sexual second couple from the live action adaptation probably because makers thought it was better not to go anywhere near cruelty.

The first ever anime adaptation of a gei comi, Shin Yaranai ka based on Junichi Yamakawa's Kuso Miso Technique, is *sigh* disappointing to say the least.

I wanted to quickly mention What Did You Eat Yesterday yaoi version since @waitmyturtles mentioned the series.

5. What Did You Eat Yesterday

I want to highlight that What Did You Eat Yesterday was not a BL in publication. It was published in Morning, a conservative magazine for middle-aged men. This is what got a live action adaptation.

Fumi Yoshinaga has created a proper BL doujin series that includes content that couldn't be part of publication in Morning.

Here are some panels from the two latest volumes of the yaoi. I wonder if audience would have had the same impression of the show if they had incorporated the doujin bits too.

6. One piece of the puzzle that's missing here is Thai rape culture that blankets all of their society.

This is an important point @yousaygoodbyeandisay raised and it applies not just to Thailand.

Sexual assault as a theme in BL, handled in a myriad of ways, has been the case since the inception of the genre. I have discussed the history in the context of Japan here.

It was during the publication of JUNE magazine that the importance of depiction of sexual assault in BL became clear to the editor through response letters from readers.

June is a place of therapistic rehabilitation for those women who had experiences of mental and physical abuses as a female. Mr. Sagawa said that he cannot ignore that there are not a few readers who had such experiences during their childhood.

source

MAME studied BL and its production academically (you can find her research output by searching her name: อรวรรณ วิชญวรรณกุล) before she entered live action production. She not only know what she is writing/creating but also is willing to deal with difficult themes without taking sweet, fable-like route.

Now onto the points @mikuni14 raised.

7. my shock seeing so much SA related stuff (the show covered just about every problematic sex thing there is, and finally forgave the heinous criminal instead of putting him in jail. I don't know how MAME can create for example AePete and also somany vile things

For those who don’t know, MAME is a unique Thai BL creator. Thai BL creators on average lack BL literacies for various reasons. MAME is one of the exceptions. This is because:

she is a BL author & hence, one of the creators of BL literacies

she studied BL and its production academically [you can find her research output by searching her name: อรวรรณ วิชญวรรณกุล]

then she started producing live action BL

In an industry which is lacking in BL literacies, what she brings to the table is fu-culture (BL fan culture) in all its glory. Unfortunately, the live action audience who are fans of sweet BL, have a hard time adjusting.

Here are some typical narrative progressions for a (Japanese) BL:

あまあま – sweet

ユニーク – unique

シリアス – serious

邪道 – evil road (jadō)

王道 - royal road (odo)

Any theme/one-line plot can choose to take any of these narrative progressions. Moreover, Thai BL usually originates online which allows for innovation.

MAME employs different narrative progressions for different ships. AePete follows the typical sweet BL progression. KengklaTechno follows jado and TharnType odo.

TarTum is a sweet BL, complicated by them being step-brothers. While their pairing is barely on odo, Tum as a character has a complicated odo progression within their ship.

Since TharnType is an odo BL all wrong-doings are not punished. Take for example KinnPorsche, another odo BL, where the ending can’t be 'organized crime gets the main characters in jail'. In odo BL involving crime, most of the victims are usually cannon fodders. So, characters are not bothered much by the crime. But in MAME's universe, Tum is an important character, someone designed to make audience root for him. Hence the audience can’t dismiss the crimes against him. It is not wrong to want the narrative to have Lhong jailed. If TharnType was a sweet BL, it would have gone there.

8. selective memory

Selective memory is indicative of preferences and it helps to fine tune BL consumption. MAME's storytelling incorporates diverse elements. Those who enjoy her works also might find that there something or the other that isn't to their taste. This is an important part of BL literacies.

I enjoy dangerous characterizations over subdued ones and prefer a meriba more than a happy ending. While there are plenty of BL media with those, they are super rare in live action. So, I appreciate MAME for taking into account fans who want something different from sweet BL.

Here are the points @bengiyo raised:

9. What Did You Eat Yesterday v/s Old Fashion Cupcake

This has nothing to do with MAME but has to do with BL literacies more generally. Old Fashion Cupcake is more appealing to BL fans because it is a BL and hence not sanitized to continue run on a conservative magazine. So, it permeates moe (affect). Moreover, creators of Old Fashion Cupcake are better informed than creators of What Did You Eat Yesterday in terms of BL literacies. So, the direction and acting works better in the former than the latter.

9. The Effect feeling like the first huge volley leveled at BL from within the genre.

I am always amazed at the takes on the Effect. Somehow it is assumed to be a critique of BL genre. That's not the case. The Effect is a proper jado BL.

What audience are picking up on is the 'I can do it better' spirit that motivates a lot of BL creation. It is natural for audience to feel like the depiction of complex themes, such as sexual abuse, bullying, delinquency, identity theft, murder, infidelity, pregnancy, etc. are not dealt with well. Creating BL that fits one's taste better is one way authors and artists go about addressing the issue. That is how we end up with same theme dealt with in numerous ways. When that expands, we end up with sub-genres and BL categories.

Jado BL are rare, particularly in Thai BL.

It is difficult to sell BL with jado and other narrative progressions. It becomes even more difficult to sell branded pairings when the characters they play are not impeccable. It is unlikely that actors playing bad guys can sell products for advertisers. (Imagine the characters from The Effect being in ads together!) It is even more unlikely that fans would go broke behind wicked characters and would want to attend fan-meetings and concerts featuring them in some way.

This is also so as not to trouble the average audience’s worldview (世界観) and is clearly a low effort and low skill (in terms of BL literacies) approach. But since a lot of audience don’t appreciate villain-like characterization, it is clearly low risk, no chance of a backlash from angry audience and the best method for assured money making.

@respectthepetty has also flagged the next issue:

10. History3: Make Our Days Count.

Gays were being buried and put in prison in Taiwanese BLs in the same year it legalized marriage equality.

There is a lot of ethnocentrism in the hate that MODC gets, apart from lack of BL literacies. While I understand where that take is coming from given American media history in the context of Hayes code, AIDS crisis, etc., I wish media from elsewhere would be looked at independently.

Queer narratives everywhere have their own over-used tropes and historical issues. Malayalam media, for example, has the issue of having one of two queer characters having varathan vibe (Rosy in Ponnaranjanam, Kiran in Sancharram, Antony's boyfriend in Mumbai Police, Kiran in My Life Partner, etc.) that makes them look odd in Kerala's rurban landscape. Even Kaathaloram played into this trope. The problem is that it perpetuates the belief that queerness is an import of sorts.

Mindless application of media critique learned from the west leads to the brushing aside of pertinent issues with media of the region in favor of finding legitimacy via commonality with the west. That way we end up with crits accusing Moothon of employing bury the gay trope while ignoring that:

Moothon is a gangster action flick like Kammattippaadam

It is rare for romances irrespective of the gender of the main characters and genre of the movie to have happy ending in Malayalam. In fact, almost all great love stories in Malayalam movies are tragedies. This is unlike in Hollywood where heterosexual romances usually get happy endings.

more importantly, every queer character, including Latheef, is infused with varathan vibe.

Taiwanese BL has issues worth exploring. Issues of their own media - not varathan queer trope from Malayalam media or bury your gay trope from American media.

MODC was an dealing with well-established BL tropes (like any other show in the History franchise). It explored bereavement (a tribute to Lan Yu, first ever danmei live action adaptation) and substitute lover trope.

The series introduced a doppelgänger of Yu XiGu (Xiang HaoTing’s white moonlight), a perfect candidate for substitute lover trope. But instead of pursuing it, they subverted the trope.

History franchise, which was build to grow BL and BL literacy in Taiwan, ended up victim to prejudice since it failed to measure up to foreign standards. MODC offered something rare. The audience didn't appreciate it. They dismissed it for not measuring up to expectations colored by experiences which danmei is not connected with for historical reasons.

By that standard, would tongzhi literature from Taiwan too have to make amends for sins of the west towards its queers? Imagine stripping of death as a theme from tongzhi author Chiang-Sheng Kuo's works! Then there is also difference in how death is perceived in different societies.

Why must BL be arm-twisted to fit into norms from elsewhere and correct the wrongs of someone else?

11. BL profit off LGBT community

This is really interesting. There are many questions that I can think of that is linked to this take:

Is BL really profitable? Short answer is no. Long answer here.

Is it really LGBT community that BL profits off?

Probably not. It is moe that BL sells. That imo, is the main difference between BL and other queer genres.

Anyway, BL predates LGBT acronym. It predates de-pathologization of homosexuality in many BL creating regions. Fu-people were creating BL before mainstream media started representing queer people in media. Fu-people battled state and its censors everywhere along with queer people. Live action BL surely is commercialized. But that is capitalism reaping the dividends of decades of fu-people's labor of love.

@he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle raised the following point.

12. 2019 saw significant increase in quantity and quality of BL. Since then, live actions smoothed out the rougher edges of the source material (like what happened with Kinnporsche and Love in the Air).

While I understand the rational behind toning down dangerous characterization to appeal to the largest audience, I think that kind of censorship for commercialization limits potential of the genre. The impact is most visible in case of GMMTV BL such as Only Friend (where it could neither be sweet BL nor could it embark properly on jado).

Compare it with adaptation of the ero-BL Sei no Gekiyaku. It stayed true to the content and pushed the boundaries enough to bring about convergence between gay pinku cinema and BL. When BL is allowed to explore its potential freely, it not only imparts BL literacies but also makes it possible for other queer genres to gain new audience, which in turn encourages production houses to venture into different queer genres.

jjsanguine raised the following point.

13. I don't even hate toxic characters or plotlines, actually I love them. But like even if the characters don't know they're doing it, the show should. And it really really doesn't. And neither do the fans. Kind of alarming.

This is in relation to Lhong and San.

Lhong is a yandere in a odo BL. (for detailed discussion see Part 3) It is a matter of the world view and less about show's self-awareness (which I believe it has). If TharnType was an jado BL, Tharn could have ended up with Lhong and Type would be the stalking horse.

@jjsanguine later commented about how Lhong felt "goofy" by way of his over-the-top actions which made the show's convictions questionable.

San and Tharn's relationship was, to an extend, the most realistically depicted. I remember starting to learn about Thai queerness and realizing that a lot of elements in their relationship reads like ethnography. Consider for example Tharn being only fourteen at the time of sexual debut and San being older. This is not too different from the average age of sexual debut in Thailand. Despite it being a compoundable offense, average age of sexual debut is declining. Tharn's discovery of what he likes and dislikes and shedding cuteness (which San comments about) and adopting manliness (which Techno comments about) too is in line with what is observed among urban queer youth. Contrast this with Sky in Love in the Air whose sexual debut and exploitation are tied to his migration to urban landscape. Sky's backstory too read like ethnography and his vulnerability a reflection of the many others' in his society.

@absolutebl raised the following points:

14. Rape - as plot device - doesn't make good stories - lazy & bad writing: Feminist critique and modern narrative analysis.

Feminist and queer BL scholars from Akiko Mizoguchi to James Welker have discussed rape as a plot device in BL. Since experts have written plenty, I'll spare my effort discussing this misconception.

15. rape is an act of sexuality (or worse, sexy), it is NOT - it is an act of violence. But that is only the start to the way it’s chronically mishandled, especially in commercial fiction (of which romance makes the largest percentage). 

Akiko Mizoguchi's two decade of work have addressed this in relation to Japanese BL which I feel holds true for BL more generally. Moreover, BL is not a romance sub-genre. BL is a genre in itself. A lot of BL is romance. There is enough overlap between those genres to give the impression that BL is a romance sub-genre. But there are plenty of other works too. Like One Room Angel and Social Reform Season. Similarly, BL is not a porn sub-genre. A lot of BL is porn. But come on!

16. [MAME] produces consistent highly-profitable narratives by-and-about queer folks but utterly disingenuous to the queer experience and that defines exploitation in the ET industry... Right, just adding that yes BL does not represent (in any way) the reality of being queer in any of these countries.

I have already discussed how MAME's works are intersectional reflections of queer experience. BL has been reflecting different queer experiences in Japan even before the term boys' love emerged. But narrow, ethnocentric ideas of queerness doesn't lend itself to honest understanding of other forms and representation. Consider characters being addressed as เมีย ‘wife’. It is a Thai queer practice. One can always dismiss that since it sounds heterosexist in the culture one comes from as absolutebl does in this post. That, imo, is 'disingenuous to the queer experience' of Thai people.

The question is what are westerners missing in their own countries' queer media that they feel they must just judge everything with no care for the cultures and people producing content for themselves? Seriously, what have the westernization done to some in the audience that they emerge so desperate for queer content that they watch BL yet remain blind to the cultures (fu-culture in particular) that produce them and splooge vitriolic ethnocentrism?

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That concludes this discourse series. I want to sincerely thank everyone who contributed to and inspired this 🙏.

Other parts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

[mavrintarou]

[10:42AM] Suna Rintarou

Dropping this quick - need to head out. Will come back and edit it.

Warning: daddy Rin, angst, fluff, and of course, you guys asked and I tried to deliver smut . Rintarou rushes out of the gym, not caring to say goodbye to his teammates.

Only two weeks ago, they discovered that Rintarou had become a father.

Since then, after practice was over, he was gone. Like a ninja.

To see his little girl.

.

Y/n eats her rice porridge, watching Rin cuddle their two-week-old infant. The moment he made it through the door, he ran to the bedroom to change into fresh new clothes before coming to pick up the baby from her cot. She has been sleeping on his chest for a while as he watches his phone.

Who would have known when she found out she was pregnant and announced it to him with joy that he walked out the door and never turned back?

At almost seven months, he shows up – mad and upset that she had disappeared. He had been searching for her for months, only to find out why he had difficulty finding her because she had left the country for Taiwan.

“Suna Rintarou, you walked out on us; you wanted NOTHING to do with us. You have NO right to be mad. Go back to Japan.”

Unfortunately, he did not. He returned the following day, explaining that he wanted to be part of the baby’s life.

“I will take full responsibility.” His green eyes pierce right into hers with seriousness. “I want to be part of my child’s life.”

Y/n had never witnessed such vulnerability in him before as he pleaded desperately to make amends. It was almost unfathomable to her that the same man who walked out on her without a second glance was now standing there, baring his heart and soul. Despite her cursed soft heart, Y/n easily gave in to his plea. “Fine.”

She transferred her job back to Japan. Rin helped her move back where he could have easier access to her during the pregnancy.

Throughout the pregnancy, an unexpected civility existed between them. Y/n made a conscious effort to include him in her doctor appointments, extending invitations that she half-expected him to decline. To her surprise, he consistently showed up, never failing to be by her side.

He gave her a credit card so she could use it, but he has yet to see any purchases made on it.

And that bothered him.

“You should be eating more; you must eat for two now.” He scolded, noticing the emptiness of her fridge. Concern etched on his face, he continued, “I always thought pregnant women were supposed to have a radiant glow; you look like you need five meals and twelve hours of sleep.”

“I don’t have time to cook and clean, so it’s easier to order takeout.” She snapped, “I know I look ugly right now; you don’t need to rub it in my face.”

Rin’s eyes widen in disbelief. “No, no, that’s now what I meant, Y/n. You are not ugly. I’m merely saying that you must take care of yourself…” he clarified, his voice filled with regret. As he noticed the fat tears welling up in her eyes, he sighed, realizing he had only made matters worse. The tears streamed down her cheeks, and all Rin wanted was to hold her tightly, to offer comfort. “Damn it,” he muttered under his breath, closing the distance between them and pulling her into his embrace. He let her cry, berating himself for his insensitivity. After a few minutes, he gently kissed the top of her head and whispered, “can I hire someone to take care of those things for you? Someone who can handle the cooking and cleaning, so you don’t have to worry about it?”

She pondered on the thought, and Rin had assumed it was a silent no until she quietly whispered, “okay, only until baby arrives.”

Mrs. Satomi proved to be a blessing for both Y/n and Rin. A huge weight is lifted off his shoulders when he witnesses the transformation in Y/n’s well-being. He had taken great care in selecting Mrs. Satomi, ensuring she had experience catering to pregnant women’s needs. She expertly prepared meals that satisfied Y/n’s cravings and provided both mother and baby with the essential nutrients. The joy that filled Rin’s heart was immeasurable as he beheld the radiant glow on Y/n’s face.

He would stop by thrice during the week, Saturday or Sunday, if Y/n allowed. He found comfort when she asked him if he could set up the crib in the nursery, and he rushed over with brand-new tools. He suggested they paint the nursery and take care of it all, not wanting her to help or be near the paint smell.

“Can’t believe you’re going to be a dad…” Atsumu mumbled, painting the wall. “Out of all of us, I would not have expected you to be a dad first.”

“Well, can’t have you and Osamu always taking first in everything.” Rin smirked, “you guys need to catch up. I don’t want my baby to be without friends.”

The last two weeks before Y/n’s due date, Rin lay in bed thinking, tossing, and turning. He is excited to meet their baby. He’s excited to be a father.

But through all the excitement, something else is heavy on his shoulders and heart.

His relationship with Y/n.

Throughout their eleven-month relationship, he cherished every moment with her. Y/n was someone he saw a future with and could genuinely settle down with, unlike any of his previous girlfriends. However, when she announced her pregnancy, something within him snapped, and he unleashed hurtful words that he knew he could never take back.

The regret consumed him, and he found it difficult to believe he had reacted in such a way. He despised himself for his actions, unable to forgive the outburst that had tinted their relationship.

She was still cautious around him. He knew she was protecting herself from him and respected her boundaries.

But he needed her.

He wants to be with her.

Rin grabbed his phone and texted her.

Sleeping?

Immediately she responded, no.

Rin’s fingers began typing quickly. Hear me out; the doctor said you still have two weeks left but can go into labor any day now. Can I stay over to ensure that someone is there for you, especially when Mrs. Satomi leaves for the day?

His heartbeat is racing as he waits for her reply.

Okay, I would like that too.

.

Day two of staying over the night.

Rin began to question if staying overnight was really a great idea.

He was horny.

He has been horny for weeks seeing Y/n’s pregnant body.

“Y/n?!” He froze at her bedroom door after hearing her sudden whimper. Swallowing the lump in his throat, his eyes trail from her large breasts, dangerously ready to spill out of place with her nightgown. The end of her gown was beginning to rise as Y/n shifted in bed.

“Rin!” She gasped, taking a deep breath.

He is by her side instantly, afraid to touch her, “what’s wrong?”

“My… calf is cra – cramping… ah!” She lets out a deep sporadic breath.

Internally panicking, Rin knew he needed to stay calm. Taking a deep breath, he reaches for Y/n to calm her down. “Listen – listen to me, we get these muscle cramps all the time, so I’m going to try something that they do when we get these cramps on the court; you trust me?”

In that moment, Rin found her fucken adorable as she nodded, trusting him.

He takes her leg into his hand and massages the muscle with his big strong hands. Y/n tensed under his touch, biting her lower lip to mute her cries.

After a few seconds, she relaxed under his touch, her breath deep but calmer. She drops onto her back and groans, “whatever you’re doing, it’s working….”

Rin sighed in relief and smiled, but that smile faded when his eyes noticed her nightgown had risen, showing her panties. He turns his head, blushing.

“I’m okay… I’m okay now…”

His hand stops massaging her muscle, and he grabs her comforter and gently shifts her leg so he pulls the comforter over her.

A hand shoots and grabs his arm, and he looks at her, “thank you.”

He smiles and leans to kiss her forehead, “you’re wel –“ his eyes widen when she leans up and presses her lips against his.

Her small hand found its way behind his head, pressing his lips against hers.

It was a short kiss.

“Rin…” she whispered against his lips, eyes burning with the same amount of passion as his.

“Please,” he begged, and as if Y/n knew what he was begging for, she nodded.

Rin’s mouth is on hers once more, his knee dropping on the bed as he cups her face. Her hands tugged his shirt until they had to break the kiss to toss the material off. He flips the comforters off her and swiftly drags off her nightgown. Her breasts and her belly were all beautiful to him.

Grabbing her panties, he pulled them off and settled between her legs.

“Rin,” she awkwardly reached for his head, “I… my body has changed….”

“I should hope so,” he grins, kissing just above her protruding belly button. “You’re beautiful, Y/n. Really beautiful.” His fingers graze her wet folds, and he slides two fingers easily into her, thrusting gently back and forth. “You’re so wet…”

Again, her lower lip was trapped between her teeth to prevent herself from becoming a moaning mess. Rin pulls her lower lip free, “I wanna hear you.”

She swallowed before begging, “please… I need you.”

That was all he needed.

Rin positioned himself between her legs after shedding off his boxers briefs. He stroked his aching cock that was dying to be wrapped around her hot walls.

“I need you too,” he breathed before pressing the tip of his cock to her entrance and, slow and gentle, pushed until he was deep inside her. He choked back a groan, “fuck, shit… sorry baby… daddy doesn’t mean to swear….”

Y/n moans, “Rin… Oh God I… I could cum… please move…”

He held her hips firmly and gave soft, slow thrusts. It had been too long, and he wanted to savor the moment but knew himself he was close too. Embarrassingly close.

“You feel so… amazing…” he grunts, “I missed you… I missed you so much…” with one hand, he pressed his thumb to her swollen clit before rubbing it. “Yes… fuck – Y/n… cum – let’s cum together….”

“Yes!” she cried, “faster Rin….”

He sped up his hips but did not go too fast or hard.

Her pussy walls fluttered around his cock, and her cries echo her room, and that was enough to bring Rin himself over the edge.

His hips slow down in movement as they tremble, his cock aching to release cum deep inside her. He catches his breath and rubs her belly.

A few weeks ago, she allowed him to touch her belly, to feel their baby move within her. Rin’s eyes watered up at the feeling of his child.

“I can’t wait to meet them.”

“Me too,” Y/n whispered with a smile on her face.

He missed her smile so much.

Rin withdraws and heads to the bathroom to grab a wet towel, returning to clean her up.

“Can – can I stay with you?” he stuttered, “sleep with you tonight?”

Y/n reached to cup his cheek, “we would love that.”

.

“Don’t spoil her too much, or else I won’t be able to put her down so I can do other stuff,” Y/n grumbles, covering Rin and Emi with a blanket.

“This is daddy-daughter bonding time; it’s okay.” He whispered, motioning for her to lay down beside him. “Come cuddle with us.”

. . .

E/n: he's an ass but I think we forgive him.

@queenelleee @mfreedomstuff @erintaro @callmeraider @chaotic-fangirl-blog @wolffmaiden @cloud-lyy

[gunsatthaphan]

~ Monthly BL Breakdown: March 2024 ~ 

🌦️ Happy April!!! 🐝

Disclaimer: ALL shows can be streamed here or here, as well as on Youtube and other platforms. For more info on where to watch what, check out this post! 

New breakdowns are coming at the end of every month - feel free to add stuff! -> previous breakdowns

What came out this month? (green = seen/currently watching)

🌟 Love is Better the Second Time Around - March 5th (Japan) 

🌟 Deep Night - March 7th (Thailand) 

🌟 Your Tie is Crooked - March 11th (Japan/Thailand)

🌟 Close Friend 3: Soju Bomb! - March 13th (Thailand)

🌟 Kiseki Chapter 2 - March 17th (Thailand)

🌟 Two Worlds - March 21st (Thailand) ✅

🌟 High Demand - March 23rd (Thailand) 

🌟 Be Your Star - March 23rd (Thailand)

🌟 Jazz For Two - March 26th (South Korea)

🌟 The Star - March 28th (Thailand) 

🌟 Please Teach Me - March 29th (South Korea)

🌟 Only Boo! - March 31st (Thailand) ✅

Monthly likes/dislikes

❣️ ø

👎🏻 ø

New series & movie announcements

🎥 Babanbabanban Vampire (manga adaption) - Coming 2025 (Japan)

🎥 My Lovely Enemy - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 My Dear Daddy (starring Fluke Pusit) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Battle of the Writers (starring TutorYim) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Meet You at the Blossom - Date TBA (Taiwan/Thailand)

🎥 Silent House - Date TBA (China)

🎥 This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans - Coming July 5th (Thailand)

🎥 What the Nong - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Night Owl - Date TBA (China)

🎥 จาฤกรติชา (novel adaption) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 GG Precinct - Date TBA (Taiwan)

🎥 Sangmin & Dinneaw (Thai/Korean collaboration) - Date TBA (Thailand/South Korea)

🎥 Let's Eat Together 2 (sequel movie) - Coming June 2024 (Japan)

🎥 Global Examination - Date TBA (Taiwan)

🎥 Yaoi Academy - Date TBA (Thailand)

Other news from the BL world

❗️ Actor Jes Jespipat was announced as the replacement for Build Jakapan in the upcoming Be On Cloud BL 4 Minutes. B. previously withdrew from the project after a defamation lawsuit involving him and his ex girlfriend in 2023. The project is now in production and will likely air towards the end of the year.

❗️ Actor Maiake Kandis announced his withdrawal from the upcoming BL Red Peafowl. He was originally cast as one of the leads, being paired with Dollar Patchara. He later came forward saying his statement was fake news and that he is in fact not withdrawing. He also said he does not know if or when the production will start.

❗️ Former GMMTV actor Fluke Pusit (The Shipper, The Warp Effect) was announced as the lead actor in the upcoming BL Your Dear Daddy. He will star alongside Poonpun Jitaboon, an air date is unknown.

❗️ Domundi actors TutorYim (Cutie Pie, Middlemans Love) were announced as the leads in the upcoming BL Battle of the Writers. The show will be produced by Hydroindus Entertainment and is based on the Chinese novel "The Great Battle of Games". The full cast was announced on March 9th; an airdate as well as further information on the show is unknown.

❗️ Lay Talay and Perth Nakhun (My Engineer) reunited for a mini series called Your Tie is Crooked, consisting of 3 episodes à 2 minutes. It was released on the Japanese streaming platform TVer on March 11th.

❗️ The premiere of the upcoming BL Wuju Bakery has been postponed to September. It was originally scheduled to air in March, though due to an increase of the episode length and general production upscaling, the original air date is no longer realizable, according to the production.

❗️ Change 2561 (Pit Babe) announced an upcoming original BL called This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans. Sailub and Pon (AlanJeff in PB) will star as the lead couple, alongside GarfieldBenz and others. A first trailer was released on March 20th.

❗️ Actor Yoon Phusanu revealed that he has left his management under Y Entertainment, following a dispute about his appearance in the 2023 Thai BL For Him. In a press conference he stated that the production cut his part completely and refused to pay him in the process. Main actors Dew N. and Tor A. later disclosed that they also encountered the issue of not receiving payment for their work from the company, along with accusations of se*ual assault from members of the production team. In an official statement Y Entertainment clarified they would transfer the actor's salaries as soon as possible.

❗️ The GMMTV BL Cherry Magic reached more than 1.7 million tweets for the final episode and a total of over 9 Million tweets for all 12 episodes, making it the gmmtv show with the most Twitter interaction in the history of the company.

❗️ The upcoming Korean remake of the Norwegian teen web series SKAM is officially in production. A short teaser was released on March 28th, revealing the title of the project: Fragile. An airdate, as well as a cast and further information is unknown.

Upcoming series & movies for April

👉🏻 Love is Like a Cat - April 1st (South Korea / Thailand)

👉🏻 We Are - April 3rd (Thailand)

👉🏻 Memory in the Letter - April 6th (Thailand)

👉🏻 Living With Him - April 11th (Japan)

👉🏻 Gray Shelter - April 11th (South Korea)

👉🏻 At 25:00 in Akasaka - April 18th (Japan)

👉🏻 Boys Be Brave - April 19th (South Korea)

👉🏻 With You I Bloom - April 24th (Japan)

👉🏻 My Stand-In - April 26th (Thailand)

👉🏻 Knock Knock Boys - April TBA (Thailand)

👉🏻 GMMTV2024 Part 2 (lineup event) - April TBA (Thailand)

[lyselkatz]

Lycoris Aurea*

Happiness, courage in adversity, placing hopes in the future.

My HC here: DFS followed the tales of a golden flower blooming in the legendary PéngLái Immortal Island 蓬萊仙島** beyond the Eastern Sea and managed to find it after an arduous journey.

Consumed by them both and combined with their respective blends of YángZhouMàn, BeiFengBáiYáng and the cleansing technics from LXY's master, it successfully cured HuaHua's poison, at the price of half of DFS's inner power***. HuaHua's hair turned totally white in the process.

👩‍🦳

* Lycoris flowers are actually toxic to humans and animals - do not touch/sniff/eat!

** Of course I picked Formosa/Taiwan among the many theoretical locations for the legendary island and the actual places where the flower is endemic.

*** And I just wanted to draw a-Fei with facial hair 🤭!

For @howling-harpy ♡

...☕?/commission

[gaybd1]

So my favorite character in The Brothers Sun is Taiwan. Like yeah Taiwan has its own shows and movies but it just feels Different to see Taiwan in a big international/American show! It’s SO cool actually and so um here are some thoughts I had and things I Noticed about different Taiwan scenes and things in the show idk

Episode 1

the opening shot of Taipei tells us this is a Thursday- the top of 101 is green and is a different color every day of the week

that corkscrew-shaped apartment building we see Charles living in is kind of an urban legend here in Taipei. They say it’s the most expensive place to live in the city, that each apartment has its own swimming pool, and that there’s an elevator specifically to bring cars up to display in your living room. No idea if the interiors look like that for real though

I was gonna say it’s pretty crazy he has an American-style oven in Taipei bc nobody does but actually in that apartment… yeah he probably would

afaik there’s not a way to (“legally”/officially) stream any of those famous British baking shows here rip

I do wonder if they actually filmed the opening scene in the corkscrew building or if they just really pay attention to detail because the skyline seen out the window matches up to what it would really look like from that part of the city

the shoes, I mean we all know about shoes-off houses but yeah

豆漿. Soy milk. Yeah

They definitely eat Hi-chews in one of these scenes

Episode 2

It makes way more sense for the guys to have snuck out for shaved ice as kids than youtiao… I’m just saying… like would *I* do that yes but it’s usually just like. A thing you eat with soup or breakfast

Episode 3

“Are you sure you can handle-“ “the heat? I’m from Taiwan.” lmfao BITCH Taiwan has some of the blandest cuisine I’ve ever tasted (he does think it’s too spicy tho lol)

“Keelung. A fishing village just north of Taipei.” Okay like I can see how the older generation would call it that but it’s actually a whole ass city…

Episode 5

Not a Taiwan thing but the Maotai made me laugh. It’s like the Coca Cola of Chinese baijiu and imho it’s just as awful as every other brand

Episode 6

ok the episode that made me want to make this list

the Costco shit IS funny because vitamins, baby formula, that’s all the good stuff you want to bring back from abroad BUT actually we have Costco in Taiwan and can easily get a lot of that stuff? This concept imo would fit a lot better for China than Taiwan. It’s still very much a thing to load your suitcase up with baby formula on the way home to China, and there’s actually a huge smuggling business bringing it in through Hong Kong but I digress

Idk why I’m happy to hear Changhua and Douliu mentioned in an American TV show… Seriously, I don’t know. They’re kind of like nowhere places I’ve never even been. I just feel like everyone’s grandparents live there.

Even the way they film Mama Sun on the plane. Like the Mandarin music in the background with the announcement for Taoyuan airport… to me it feels specifically like a transpacific flight to Taiwan lolol but that’s definitely like a bias probably

Okay not to be SO nitpicky but so when she looks out the window on the plane to see Taipei 101 etc I’m not sure about that? The airport is actually in another city and I feel like I usually come in around and over the ocean or something?

But WOW the taxi scene my favorite scene it’s SO visceral and SO Taiwan… the street, the lights, the Cosmed/Mos Burger/7-Eleven, the street noises, like I can FEEL Taiwan through the screen and HER FACE taking it all in I WANT TO SOB

The temple, beautiful like this episode makes me believe Michelle Yeoh is Taiwanese lol

I appreciate the viscerality of the night market shots too but it seemed a bit empty

Okay so Mama Sun’s mom is super rich too based on where she lives which I guess it makes sense. But what I am curious about is the story about why they’re speaking Cantonese because Taiwan has a lot of languages but that’s not one of them like officially at all. I wonder if there’s a character backstory there or they just like. Didn’t want to bother teaching Michelle how to speak Minnan or something

The cemetery too is so fancy, I mean it fits but wow that’s expensive real estate

In the hospital scene, Taipei 101 is lit blue out the window, making it a Friday. Has everything in the show so far happened in only 8 days?

Episode 7

“Last night the Boxers made their move” 101 says it’s Tuesday for anyone keeping track

I LOST it at the Foodpanda driver assassin the first time I saw this… So Taiwan

Big fancy church in Taipei? I know they exist but I’ve never seen one in person (like 2%? of the country is Christian)

A mom bringing back tea as a souvenir from Taiwan? 100% real

Episode 8

RAW is a real restaurant in Taipei. It’s very fancy and very expensive and had I think two Michelin stars. I don’t know ANYONE who’s actually been there lol

[random-conspiracy]

Ok, I'm entering my villain (& heroes!) arch aajshashasa. This stupid fixation of superpowers and fiction comic stories.

WELL, HOT TAKE OF THE DAY:

The majority of superpowers in fiction and oc's are boring because they're straightforward. Picture it, there's aaaaaaaaaaaaaaalways someone with the power of:

Mimic someone's power

Invisivility

Steel skin

Puppeteer or any variation of body and mind manipulation (because *wink wink* we're all edgys and saw creepypastas a lot hashas)

Perhaps fly

Ultra speed

And shit like that ajshashasa. Don't get me wrong, those are amazing superpowers. Even just one person in a normal-esque world is a fucking anomaly and represents a game changer.

HOWEVER it's quite boring and honestly quite lazy. Because oh yes! The evil twisted villain of the wee has the power of... mind control. OH BOY! I fucking wonder what is gonna happen! (sacarsm). Or shadow control powers or super force and you know the rest. WHAT a twist! (/s).

And the same goes for the heroes that GOD forbid they're not teenagers or young adults in well shaped bodies BECAUSE UUUUUUFFFFFFFFFF. Call me crazy but if you can fly I doubt you're using at all your muscles the same way a common person does ahshasa. But why fucking not, we can never have enough twinks and women in spandex, can we? ahshahsa.

There's no twist and creative work in a superheroe or a villain or whatever that has JUST that exact power that conveniently works.

I'm a slut for the characters with random and incoherent powers!

That's where this shit goes hard. Beacuse it's so easy to be a superhero whn you can walk through walls or move at high speed. But what happens when you have the power to deconstruct objetcs? Fly just 50 cm off the groud? Exact knowledge of the pupulation in Taiwan (while you live in Argentina)?

What happens to them??? I wanna see the shenanigans, the creative solutions to abnormal problems! And what happens to the powers that become a burden or that straight up are incompatible with the common society. What happens if you're born without bones? If TV signals sometimes cross without way to evade it into your mind?

I wanna see creative villains. With powers like super healing and bubblegum madness. Concidental induction and urbomancy. Hhahshahsas

The thing is not actually that the pwoers are common or simple, the thing is for me that the weaponization in battle is the number one thought. Like, yeah, I bet turning sound waves into lethal blades is powerful but out of battle, does it matter? It means somethig? Can you cut a frozen pizza for dinner or you destroy your whole kitchen?

(Tbf, a story a bout a character struggling to see beyond his powers shapped to battle could be interesting BUT that's another story ahsahsas).

And I'm also bored of the god-like powers. You can fly and you can control minds! For free I guess and with no real consequences. Bceause let's be serious, Spidermand and Superman as archetypes of the hero had their own limitation (not precisely linked to their powers by themselves BUT WHATEVER). They're more or less the exception to this.

I Wanna See Limits

LIMITS. I care 0 if the character can eat the fucking Sun. What I want to see is that power in personal impact and relativity. Sometimes the right (or wrong!) word has more power that destroying the Earth. And a lot of it comes from the limitations. How easy is everything when you have all the power, but the limitations are what shape the plausibility, the humanity and the imagination around it. For example Magneto. It's because of his clear limitations that he scaping from the plastic underground prison in the movies is so fantastic. He uses a creative solution to work around his limits. Amazing!

Idk man, Brandon Sanderson said this shit already. Go see him go see him.

[accio-victuuri]

YIZHAN’S 06.29 HK Event ( A Summary ) ✨

As the title says, this will be a timeline of sorts around the show. It’s always a treat to see them in one place so the next step is really to archive the story behind it. A mix of events, cpns & fandom reflections.

The last part of this is more on my words on why ( i think ) they didn’t interact or even see each other at the event, if you’re interested in that, you can scroll down and skip the others.

This is gonna be a long post, Enjoy! ^^

What is the event all about?

The name of the show is The Greater Bay Area Film Concert 2023 and the venue is in Hongkong. It is described as :

More than a hundred filmmakers, musicians, cultural and sports technology representatives from both sides of the Taiwan Strait as well as Hong Kong and Macao will gather on the banks of the Xiangjiang River to work together Write a new picture of Chinese-style modernization belonging to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

It is also a big event because it is broadcasted in multiple platforms:

CCTV 6 Movie Channel, Phoenix Satellite TV Chinese Channel, Phoenix Satellite TV Hong Kong Channel, Guangdong Satellite TV, Shenzhen Satellite TV, Radio Television Hong Kong, and Macao Radio and Television , Australia and Asia Satellite TV and other TV platforms live broadcast, China Central People's Broadcasting Corporation, Hong Kong TVB recorded and broadcast, movie channel Rong Media, 1905 Movie Network, Phoenix.com, Phoenix Show and other major media platforms of the whole network broadcast simultaneously.

I personally haven’t experienced an event they both attended — or actually even as individuals as endorsed as this. It is considered a “government” event and it would make sense that they will be present. Even if they are still considered “traffic” stars, this time, it works in their favor because they need the audience that these two will bring.

It is labeled as a “concert” but it’s truly a “party” for the 26th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China. The actual date is 7/1, but this is a primer to that, and why it’s taking place in HK. This is a touchy subject so I won’t go into detail and i feel like a good number of us are happy to see them perform but at the same time knowing what this party is about makes us feel off. It’s always been a popular theory among turtles that our best bet for a same event and interaction is for a government approved celebration. This way, their fans will ( hopefully ) be in their best behavior.

The same sentiment was actually passed on to turtles the day before the event. Reminding that it’s not like the other shows where you can say whatever.

Before the 629 Party:

By the last week of June, there were already some buzz surrounding the show and who will be attending. The most talked about being XZ & WYB. Melons were already releasing news about it but there were still talk about them not being in the same place.

It could be the same show but they will be in completely different places. It got cpfs excited, knowing how rough the past days were with all the YBO business, this is exactly what a lot of fans needed. some really positive news. Though there were some minor signs that all is well, a loud sign like this was so much better.

6.26, fans were talking about a potential double airport which turned out to not be true. However, this added fuel to the fire that they will both attend.

6.27 for cpfs was of course all about celebrating CQL’s 4th anniversary and well it was truly a special day. The weekend before, cpfs were already sharing face-to-face events and online materials on the actual day was a lot. It is the answer to the question of whether the cp fandom was already broken. The answer is a very loud No. Same day, Yubin also shared a video that showed a split second glimpse of them back in 2018 and eating hotpot. At this point, it was only a matter of time for them to be in the same event.

6.28, around 8:30 AM there were videos and then photos of XZ leaving and flying to HK. This lined up with melons that he will leave on this day. Even if there are no official announcements yet, it was the answer we were looking for. He was looking so good and his hair was tied up — which of course made us think of all the times they both had this style. the best. and also how they look so similar. twins!!!!

and well, how it is sort of similar to how lei yu’s hair was tied too in BTF.

There is a speculation that he was really supposed to fly 629 but that information was leaked so they decided against it. Or they booked multiple flights. The reason is @ the airport, there was a video of ZZ looking through his bag when he was about to go to the gate and it seemed like he forgot important things. So his staff had to leave and get it. It leads us to believe that he may not be prepared to go on that flight in particular.

They were also on HS as attending. This goes to show how no one is over BJYX. lol. It still brings the heat, because of who they are as individuals and moreso as a pair. There are so many guests, a lot of them really well-know names to the general public but the entertainment blogs know who to talk about.

10:00 & 10:15 AM Movie Channel weibo account announced the attendees and two very familiar faces are on it. The news we have all been waiting to hear has been confirmed.

It’s cute that the photos they used were from the recent Weibo Night. GG’s is what he used for the event poster.

11:25 AM Yibo-official shared that WYB is attending.

Next up, the program list was revealed and ZZ & WYB are confirmed to be performing. WYB = Wuming OST and ZZ will sing Run Without Care.

An event like this takes careful planning and while i do believe that them attending is not about “pleasing cpfs” — it doesn’t take away the fact that it feels like a gift to us. the drama from the past days. cql 4th anniversary. The universe is on our side on this one.

2:00 PM - ZZ landed in Hongkong. 🛬

3:00 PM - XZS posts about ZZ attending

In the evening, Movie Channel weibo account had a pre-show livestream related to the event and ZZ & WYB were talked about and evaluated.

6.29, at approximately 8:00 AM, Bobo is seen at the airport and is on his way to Shenzhen then to HK. Wearing a really cute Pokemon shirt!!!! People are saying he took this route cause he doesn’t want to be photographed by the public.

The HS bringing them together is also trending so early, #7 on general HS and #11 on entertainment. Everyone is so excited! HK based media accounts on weibo are also joining in and posting about the event with the boys as the main photo.

( these screenshots taken at the time of posting, however hours later, they were edited to include other acts in p2 especially. )

Some videos about them were also circling around, i don’t really think these are necessary cause it’s different when a cpf makes them and meant for the fandom audience compared to the “media”putting their own spin to it. Stuff like these are definitely a hit or miss and may be antis in disguise.

Around 12nn, WYB is in Shenzhen and on the way to HK. His itinerary really caused the confusion before. cause people really thought there was another event in SZ cause why would he go that route.

BJYX was also on HS before the event. In the regular one, that high up, not even entertainment.

6PM , WYB is seen attending the rehearsal for the show. There were also talks of how far they might be seated from each other.

The program started 30 minutes earlier than the broadcast of 8:00 PM. That’s why the fancams were released way earlier. Yibo left right after his performance and didn’t spend that much time with the other guests/audience.

XZ was seen around 9PM, he spent time in the audience then performed as well. He also left right after.

Both of them were all over HS. moreso GG.

Media Compilation 📸

• XZ Studio

pre show photoshoot fire one | two

live photos

XZ’s performance of 潇洒走一回

• Yibo-Official

pre-show photoshoot b&w

live photos

WYB’s performance of Wuming

CPN clues here and there

1. The joint event is on a Thursday, and as we all know, Thursday is a good day to see you.

2. The song chosen for XZ was part of a record released back in 10-28-1991. It’s the same birth month & year as him, but the date is such a good coincidence. 28. Ai Bo ( Love Bo ) 🫶🏼

3. Emphasis on Yibo’s moles in one of the YBO photos. Bobo is known for other things physically but not really his moles, so it’s interesting how it was highlighted. A mole is really more of XZ’s thing so i can’t help but feel like there is something there 👀 ; a connection being made.

4. I know some people were bummed that ZZ was not in the audience, or hasn’t even showed up at the tables when Bobo performed. Well, he missed alot too. It’s not like it was only Yibo’s.

Same thing with WYB leaving the event right after his performance. We know this is his usual MO but we had hopes anyway.

I know it’s heartbreaking but we have to focus on the positive that they are in the same event ! ✨we will get there, we just have to be patient and remember that their safety is the most important.

5. ZZ’s table mates are Yoshi ( WYB’s BTF co star and friend ) as well as Huang Bo ( WYB’s One and Only co star ). What a coincidence. 🫢🫢

6. This photo from XZS. 📸 what a great shot considering WYB performed Wuming.

7. Here we go again with their usual strategy of not posting at the same time when they are at an event. You can say that this was somehow coordinated by the people from the show. We noticed WYB was scheduled at the start to get traffic early, and then ZZ close to the last to get people to stay till the final hours.

However, XZS really posted and showed XZ after WYB’s performance of Wuming was broadcasted. The screenshot i’m posting shows Movie Channel posted at :52, but that’s a bit late cause minutes before that other accounts have already shared. Even me. I was uploading the Wuming performance here on tumblr when XZS popped up on my Weibo notification.

Interpret it how you want, but the two are not here to “compete”.

A fan was able to see them shooting these materials 628, so they could have posted it anytime before the actual broadcast but didn’t.

8. Let’s go back to ZZ’s photos lol. It’s 18 photos uploaded but the actual number of shots is 33. What a good combination! Also his posting time is 20:50, or that can also be 8:50. 8/5. Yibo’s birthday 😭

9. The Movie Channel weibo accounted posted a video cut of their performance. Just them. And put a caption like “ it’s like the same stage” cause they did perform on the same stage, just at different times 😂 but then it was later edited out / deleted. Lol. Here is the video someone saved of the cut.

10. The IP address in ZZ’s video post is in Guangdong. Again, i’m not sure how these IPs work or if a staff is posting for him but the thing is this place is close to Shenzhen. WYB is rumored to be going from HK to Shenzhen again so who knows. It’s all CPN anyway ☺️

11. ZZ’s pants, it has a heart that is outlined with a color green.

There are probably more out there, but these are the interesting ones i’m including as of now. If some “big” ones show itself then i will just make a separate post on it. I find that the sweetest candies from events happen weeks or months later. When we get more “clues.” In the meantime i hope enjoyed these ones.

========================

Personal thoughts on “not interacting” and the reality of being a BXG.

I’m using this post/photos from one of my favorite BJYX fansite to start and give a general theme of what my stand is with this whole thing. “no need to prove it.”

I think most of us dare hoped, but the reality is, when it comes to same events with them, we should always manage our expectations. do not expect anything. There are some who are frustrated because of what they think ZZ/WYB should do or act around each other — as if we really have a say on that. As someone who has been on here for quite some time, it is a fact that being a BXG is hard. You don’t have to believe in BJYXSZD, but if you’re here to see cute interactions like how “CPs” do then this is not the fandom for you. It takes a whole lot of understanding of their status as celebrities and the toxicity between their solo fans as well as C-ent in general. Then add the whole 2*7 incident. Some may say it’s so easy to just interact and shut people up. No it’s not. Xiao Zhan is not just Xiao Zhan ; Wang Yibo is not just Wang Yibo. The reality is, at events like this, they are products. Both of them have millions or billions riding on them. So there you go. It’s not as easy as everyone thinks. I understand if people feel bummed — it’s okay to leave the CPF side of the fandom if that will be better for you. There is no shame in letting go if it only upsets you because fandom should make you happy. As I said, it takes a certain kind of person to stay and continue believing in them.

As CPFs, we should be kinder to them both. more understanding. not too demanding. We are the ones who are supposed to be on their side and know why they do certain things. It is tiring to be this selfless but it is what it is.

Now on to the more serious reason…

As I’ve mentioned above, this event is really not the “party” for entertainment everyone is making it out to be. It’s not an NYE program. It’s to celebrate the anniversary of HK’s return to China and you all know how that paints this as political. The same goes for celebrities who attended this event.

Both of them were already on HS leading up to it. HK media are focusing on them. Even during the event, the HS about them was so high up.

This is why I think they decided to not give any chance for the public to see them in the same space. If ZZ was there, the camera will surely pan to him when WYB was performing. If not, there will be fancams and people will scrutinize every micro expressions. Their solo fans will be at war. and well basically, the event will be about them. It’s not the greater bay area film concert anymore. It’s the BOJUNYIXIAO REUNION SHOW. Which is something they don’t want. The “celebration” shouldn’t be about them at all. Tho the media used them to hype it up. At the end of the day, they don’t want and need that kind of attention. It’s okay when it’s about their performance but not anything else.

They want to be known as individuals and not as a “pairing” even tho a lot of people and not just cpfs are interested in what will happen if they go on the same stage and interact 😂😂😂😂 These two really act like a real celebrity couple in c-ent who don’t interact in events!

Right now, I’m really happy to see them onstage and get all the content. I’m comforted that they are in the same city and were basically MIA days before they popped up at the airport to leave so hopefully they get to spend more time together!

To my fellow bxgs who believe, stay strong! ♥️💛💚.

[respectthepetty]

CHARLES TU!!!!!!!???????????? are you ok?!!

Anon, First Note of Love is everything I hate stuffed into one trailer:

Singing

This hair with a baseball cap

Accidental kisses that don't cause injury

Stepping in right on time to save the damsel

Running hand-in-hand

And STAR HUNTER! Where is Big Dragon 2?!

But I'm going to eat it all up because Charles Tu from my all-time favorite BL HIStory 4: Close to You is back on my screen as Neil, the music star with a tragic past.

Especially because he is paired with Michael Chang (My Tooth, Your Love) whose character's name is Sea, yet he is wearing a guitar pick on his necklace with the initial "N" for NEIL!!!!!

And if Taiwanese show W Series: Love Yourself taught me anything from the (queer love) story between Sam Lin (We Best Love) and Hsu Kai (Kiseki: Dear to Me), it's that Taiwan knows how to combine love and music in an emotionally wrecking way.

I already love ALL Taiwanese BLs, so I didn't need anything to convince me to watch this.

Charles Tu is just an extra bonus.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Taiwan has one show, but that's all they need

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

April 2024 Wk 1

Ongoing Series - Thai

Two Worlds (Thurs IQIYI) ep 4 of 10 - I don’t say this often but I LOVE this love triangle. The longing gazes = chef's kiss. I like that we are finally getting flashbacks to Tai’s side of the love affaire. This show remains highly engaging. So pleased for MaxNat.  

Deep Night (Thurs iQiyi) ep 5 of 8 - More lesbians! Yay! Meanwhile, when our leads make up they make out! (Yes I’m proud of myself.) I think this might be BLs first rooftop sex scene. We’ve reached new heights, BLabies. (Yes I’m proud of that too.) Anygay, basically a soap opera at this point, I'm not thrilled but I don’t mind.

"Do you apologize for being straight?"

City of Stars (Fri iQIYI) ep 10 of 12 - It was lovely. Very well done celebrity leaving the closet ep. Nice ensemble work too. Next week is doom! As expected. 

Only Boo! (Sun YouTube) ep 1 of 12 - New main couple for GMMTV in an idol romance about a boy who dances good and a food stand vendor. It’s fine but overly very pulp feeling for something from GMMTV. I'm a little concerned.

1000 Years Old (Thurs iQIYI) ep 8 of 12 - meh.

To Be Continued (Sat C3 Thailand grey) ep 7 of 8 - Never turned up on my usual sites. So will have to wait until next week. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Unknown (Taiwan Tues YouTube & Viki) ep 7 of 11 - Qian was, indeed, the one who couldn’t let go. This show is fucking fantastic. It's the best thing I'm watching right now by a mile.

Jazz for Two (Korea Gaga/grey) eps 3-8fin - The bully and the blue-haired drummer side pairing were great. I hated the father. Hated him so much. Our main tsundere seme was a bit too tsundere for me. I was v annoyed by the time he finally softened. I'm amused by all the ways they finagled boys kissin-but-not-kissing in the first half of this show. 2024's "pan around the back of the head" has now become a "dipping of the brolly." We did, however, eventually get an okay kiss.

Honestly?

This was basically what I wanted from Given and didn’t get. So I’m pleased. The music still wasn't great, but you can skip those bits. A solid enemies to lovers BL, where the sins of brothers' past haunts the present. Great optics, decent chemistry, and a tidy script even if tsundere characterization went a bit extreme in some cases. 8/10 RECOMMENDED trigger for suicide

Love is Better the Second Time Around AKA Koi wo Suru nara Nidome ga Joto (Japan Weds Gaga) ep 5 of 6 - We got the past betrayal in detail and it was decently bad. Bitterness understood. Too soon to live together! The BL U-Haul strikes again. I do like their weird curry passive aggressive argument. This is an interesting show. Do I LOVE it? No. But I think I like it.

On a not-really-related note: adoption, including adult adoption, is actually pretty common in Japan (comparatively). It's often tied to business scionism.

My Strawberry Film (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 8fin - It all turned out to be a tragic GL in the end. Not BL = not my problem. No rating. I will forget its existence right about… now. 

Love is like a Cat (Korea Mon Viki) eps 1-2 of 12 - Okay, weirdly kinky with the head scratching. Not much has happened and I’m not wild about what has. 

It's done, ready to binge, but I suck

What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Gaga) 10 eps

It's airing but...

We Are (Weds GMMTV iQIYI) ep 1 of 16 - University ensemble BL featuring PondPhuwin, WinnySatang, AouBoom, MarcPawinPoon - basically the good kind of messy gay friendship group (so more My Engineer and less Only Friends). Looks a bit like the Kiss series but everyone is queer. I'm IN but I need my other computer and I'm traveling as usual. So I'll get caught up next week and probably won't regularly be able to watch this one.

Graduation Countdown (Taiwan YouTube) - It's too much for me to keep up with 2 minute verticals, I don't have that kind of TikTok endurance training.

A Secretly Love (Thai Sat WeTV grey) 10 eps - Completed. Worth watching?

Lady Boy Friends (Thai WeTV grey) 16 eps - reminds me a bit too much of Diary of Tootsies only high school. Not my thing. DNF unless it turns a corner and is truly amazing.

Kiseki Chapter 2 (Sun iQIYI) 6 eps - It’s so boring DNFed at 2.

Close Friend Season 3: Soju Bomb! (Weds iQIYI) 6 - The problem with situational comedy BL is it must be situational, comedic and a BL. This show gets 1 of 3 claims correct. 33% is not a passing grade. Dropped at 3.

In the news

Takumi-kun Series 6: Nagai Nagai Monogatari is getting the undeserved honor of Furritsubs. Follow them for details. Tip 'em if you like 'em. (Will I watch it? Oh, probably. Damn it.)

Then Next Prince turned out to be a trailer only. Word on the webs is we will be lucky if we get it this year. It’s BL Princess Diaries. Jimmy has a new pairing (that boy from Night Dream) which is... interesting. All in all, this show does not look good. Pretty but not good.

Next Week Looks Like This:

4/11 Gray Shelter AKA Gray Currents (Korea ????) 4 eps - SooHyuk is only just surviving and reunites with YoonDae, an old friend. They end up living together. One of the leads is played by Choco of Choco Milk Shake.

4/12 Living With Him AKA Kare no Iru Seikatsu (Japan Gaga) 10 eps - Kindly Ryota goes off to uni only to find his new roommate is his childhood bestie, Kazuhito. Kazuhito doesn’t have a girlfriend and Ryota tries to help him figure out why, they fall in love along the way. Same director as Old Fashion Cupcake.

Still to Come in April

4/18 At 25:00, in Alaska AKA 25 Ji, Akasaka de (Japan Gaga) 10 eps - Yuki lands his first starring role in a BL drama alongside superstar Asami (previously his senior at uni). Said superstar suggests they form a sham relationship until filming concludes. As they actually begin to fall in love, the spotlight begins to burn. I think I've seen this before (joke) and also the trailer doesn't inspire confidence.

4/26 My Stand-In (Thai iQIYI) 12 eps - adaptation of Chinese novel "Professional Body Double" by Shui Qiang Cheng. Stars Up (Lovely Writer) and Poom (Bake Me Please) directed by the same team as KP (not a recommendation IMHO - my biggest criticism of that show was the clashing directing styles). This one looks well complicated, lemme try: Joe is a stuntman for famous actor Tong. Joe falls in love with Ming but Ming sees Joe as nothing more than a Tong-replacement. After learning this horrible truth, Joe dies. Joe then wakes up in the body of another man also named Joe. He manages to rebuild the same life as before—with the same people eventually re-meeting Ming. Ming wants Joe back but Joe doesn't understand why. But Ming seems to know what's going on and wants to give him some kind of explanation.

I'm exhausted just trying to describe the plot.

Knock-Knock Boys (Thai WeTV) - 4 college friends conspire to help their friend lose his virginity. Familiar faces like Seng (yes, Billy's previous partner) and Best, news here.

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

NOTE: It looks like one of my personal favorites of last year Unintentional Love Story is getting a spin off!

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

See City of Stars & Unknown.

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are too much work.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire

If ya wanna be tagged each week leave a comment and I will add you to the template. Easy peesy.

[meichenxi]

Hanzi update (+accidental trauma talk)

tw illness, trauma, vomiting, weight loss, recovery. I didn't plan to write about this but because of what happened in the last year I can't really write about how I studied Chinese without talking about it. so. but it's mainly about hanzi lol

I've been learning how to write traditional characters with the vague idea that I'd go and study in Taiwan, and also that if I want to write Classical Chinese or Japanese they're far more useful - but the program I want to go to Taiwan for requires HSK7, which I DO not think I can achieve and have the results of before March. Who knows! Perhaps within me lies untold brilliance and dedication!!

...well, I wouldn't rely on it. (I am also busy with a job, a partner, studying an A-level course to begin tutoring it in September, and writing the second draft of my novel.)

And even if I ended up going to Taiwan with my absolutely fantastic HSK7, there's no way I could handwrite all of those words within a year. If I learn 10 characters a day, that's like 3650 characters in a year, but realistically that will never happen - and you still have to actually remember them.

I also know from my last experience where I learnt a stupid amount of characters very quickly (about 800 in two weeks) that I can technically do it, I have a very large swollen brain, but then the brain, being very large and very swollen, promptly burns out. And leaves me to not do any Chinese again for like two months. So basically - completely pointless, because after those two months of rest I had forgotten most of them anyway. I will not be doing that again.

This time around I have been slowly, very slowly, learning things on Skritter. I have about 400 characters so far. I'm not doing words but doing characters, which is a bit slower, but I figure it'll be more useful in the long run. After I have the first 1000, I'm planning to then systematically go through the HSK and TOCFL lists and check I know how to put characters together and which 'jing' is used in 'yijing' etc.

This approach is only really going to work because I know a lot of vocabulary and can read a lot of stuff already - otherwise I wouldn't recommend to anybody without that backbone of vocabulary to just learn random isolated characters, unless you're masochistic or much harder-core than I am.

As I have said in a lot of posts before, I had a very difficult experience in China last August and have basically taken an entire year off studying because in all honesty I just couldn't bring myself to face the language again. Every time I tried I had this crazy grief and nightmares and stress response. What I went through was so stressful that during those two months in China that I lost seven kilograms, as I couldn't eat much without vomiting it back up due to stress and fear, didn't sleep, and ended up having to leave for Thailand pretty severely malnutritioned - which then made me susceptible to illnesses there and I spent the next two months after with awful health, vomiting and weak and generally sick. Luckily I was with friends and I gained the weight again and my period and digestive system sorted itself out.

And I never expected that a language itself could carry trauma? Like. Nobody died, it wasn't like that, I wasn't abused or assaulted or anything but still...for just under a year, every time I spoke or heard or read Chinese I couldn't help thinking of those two months. Even now it's still hard. I'm finding my way back to it but, to be honest, I didn't expect how hard it would be. I thought I could just - move past it, because I'd already had so many great experiences in China and Taiwan and with Chinese, that they would cancel each other out or at least be aided by the huge amounts of love that the language has shown me. Alas, it was not the case.

Anyway. All of that to say - I have only managed to do about 400 characters in a year, because I essentially gave up studying completely.

Now I've just finished reviewing and re-remembering those 400 characters on Skritter, so I'm ready to start again! I don't know what's changed, I guess just time - I feel more positive, I feel curious and interested about the language again. I don't know. I'm not going to question it too deeply. But for these past two weeks, I've been having a lot of fun :)

I'll update everyone on my progress as I go! Next post - 500.