Global Fandom Jamboree Conversations: Veluree Metaveevinij (Thailand) and Kirsten Michelle L. Santos (The Philipinea) (Part One)

Santos:

Veluree’s works and opening statement speak of the transnational impacts of Southeast Asian media within the region. From the exploration of nostalgia to aspirations of modernity and hybrid expressions of gender, Veluree has highlighted fan communities in modern transition. In doing so, we can see through her analysis of these transnational films the ways in which fans in the region reflect on the changes happening in their everyday lives and their desire for change while also longing for the past. I find this negotiation relatable as I also see it within Philippine fan communities that seek to find their identities by engaging with regional media. 

ON THAILAND’S MODERNITY 

Your finding on the contrasting interests among young Thai and Burmese fans and their aspirations has its similarities in the way Boys Love has been viewed here in the Philippines. While I don’t have any idea on the response of Thai Fans to PinoyBL, I have seen Filipino viewer responses to Thai BL and they do associate a kind of “modernity” with Thailand because of how forward Thailand appears in producing BL content alongside their long media history of presenting queer narratives. It is quite interesting that this perception of “‘modern’ sexual expression” is associated with Thailand given that Thailand has its own struggles with LGBTQ politics and issues. If I recall, a number of ThaiBL actors have been quite supportive of the LGBTQ community yet this support is not consistent among other BL actors. I’d like to ask your opinion on this “modern” tension. 

ON #MILKTEAALLIANCE: THE FAN IS POLITICAL

Your section on the #milkteaalliance is a wonderful example of transnational connectivity and political causes brought about by a media landscape that has consciously (or unconsciously) integrated fan culture and politics. In my short observations of this hashtag, I am impressed by how some actors actively participated and fans eagerly rallied behind them. What’s fascinating is how you mentioned Philippine participation in this hashtag when it came to our own border concerns with China. It is one of many examples that exhibit fan networks exercising their political agency. A wonderful counterexample to many criticisms of fans as mindless consumers of popular culture. 

That said, I find the visibly of fan politics highlight the political tension between fans. In the Philippines, whenever fans engage in political activities, there are heated discussions concerning media and its fandom as an apolitical space. The tensions surrounding political factions in the Philippines colour fan understanding of politics. For example, the hashtag #KPOPStansforLeni was an initiative by some Filipino fans to support a political candidate and develop voter education for the upcoming May 2022 Philippine presidential election. This was met by criticism by other Filipino fans who feel that fandoms shouldn’t associate their KPOP groups with political events and issues. Of course, #milkteaalliance and KPOP fans’ political initiatives are some examples of how fans align with the politics of their idols. At the same time, however, not all fans develop this political attachment. Some fans see their idols as a form of escape from political reality. A part of me wonders if you see this kind of tension within fan spaces in Thailand and Myanmar. 

Metaveevinij:

“ROTTEN WOMEN” AND BOYS LOVE LITERACIES 

 I am interested in the term “Rotten women” you mentioned in your opening statement. As far as I know, there is no such word in the BL communities in Thailand. Thai female BL fans are called ‘Sao Wai’. Sao means girls, and Wai comes from the sound of Y, the first alphabet of Yaoi. On the contrary, many Thais call television soap operas ‘Nam Nao’, which literally means “Polluted water” because of  their cliché stories and stereotypical characters. 

Therefore, at the beginning of this dialogue, I would like to unfold the literacy communities in Thailand, particularly female writers and readers connecting with the BL literacies. Hopefully, this discussion can bring better understanding of the BL communities in Thailand and the Philippines. 

Previously, novel writers in Thailand, especially female writers who write romance novels, published their works in weekly and fortnightly magazines which target housewives and female readers. Famous magazines, such as Satri Sarn, Sakulthai, and Kwan Ruean highly influenced women’s literature in Thailand. Novels of acclaimed writers published in the magazines may eventually become television dramas, which also have female audiences as a main target. 

Nonetheless, this situation has changed since the late 2010s.  Digital disruption leads to decline in popularity of printed magazines and newspapers. To survive, various magazines have transformed from printed media to online platforms. However, many editors of magazines that publish novels were in their 50s or 60s. They decided to retire from the business. The printed platform for weekly and quatarly Thai romance novels, then, have ceased operations. However, there are still publishers that publish Thai novel books. 

In the meantime, there is a new arrival of digital platforms for writing and reading novels. The website called Dek-D.com, established since 1999 for teenage content, has opened a section for publishing online novels.  Later, many other digital platforms, such as ReadAWrite, Tunwalai, and Joylada, established and quickly gained popularity among young writers and readers. Many writers who publish their works on these platforms are the young generation who are familiar with popular culture from Japanese manga, K-pop, and Western fantasy novels. Finally, these newcomers become key creators for the Boys Love novels that drive the BL community in Thailand. Thai BL writings closely relate to fandom cultures. Many BL novels are written as ‘fan fictions’, in which popular idols are paired up as the imaginary male-male couples. As a result, the readers of this kind of fiction usually share a common interest with K-pop and J-pop fans. This situation possibly happens in the Philippines as well. 

Consequently, I would like to ask you for further elaboration. What kind of ecosystem has BL novels or contents been created in the Philippines? As I already mentioned about Thailand’s case, changes in media technology and the emergence of a new generation of novel writers and readers are key factors that lead to the popularity of this kind of content. I wonder how it is going in the Philippines’ case.

ERO BL 

Another issue I would like to discuss with you is ero BL, a pornogaphic subgenre in Boys Love manga that you mentioned in your paper (Santos 2020). This subgenre exists in Thai Boys Love literacies as well. As mentioned earlier, many Thai BL novel writers published their works online. The online platforms usually have specific genres for BL novels. For example, in readAwrite, there is a “Boy Love Lovely Room” tag for BL romance novels. However, if love scenes or sex scenes in novels are quite explicit, there is also a “Boy Love Secret Room” tag for BL erotic novels. Readers can access novels tagged “Boy Love Secret Room” only if their ages are 18 years old and over. Some contents are able to be accessed for free. But, writers can limit some content for only readers who pay them ‘coins’ - a currency that is exchanged in the online novel platforms. Many online writers, therefore, try to attract readers by composing sexually explicit narratives. In the Thai online novel community, these explicit scenes are called NC (No children) scenes. Writers, sometimes, inform readers that their content are ‘NC 18+’ (suitable for either 18  years old or above) or ‘NC 20+’ (suitable for either 20 years old or above) to attract readers who are looking for sexually content which are similar to soft core or hard core porn. 

Genres of Thai Online Novels, 

including Boy Love Lovely Room and Boy Love Secret Room

As mentioned above, ero BL exists because there is a system to support them - both readers and writers are motivated to read and write this kind of content. Although online communities seem to give writers more freedom to write adult content, there is also an attempt to limit this kind of content for only suitable readers. I wonder if there is any kind of system in the Philippines supporting ero BL. 

INFLUENCE OF THAI BL IN THE PHILIPPINES 

Last but not least, I would like to discuss with you about Thai BL’s influence in the Philippines. As you mentioned in the opening statement, FILO AU, a fan-produced content based on social media, has transformed Thai BL 2gether (2020) to BL in Filippino’s setting. Could you please elaborate more about this transformation? This fan made content exists in the form of novels, manga, or moving images. Also, it would be more interesting if you could explain further the local audience feedback. Do Filipino fans read the adaptation of 2gether (2020) by comparing it with the original one? Or, they just read it as the Filipino BL. 

Compared to Japan, Thailand, and China, the media ecosystem of surrounding BL in the Philippines is still very young and has much room to grow. Unlike in Thailand, where there is wide access to Japanese and Thai-produced BL media, from novels to comics, the Philippines has limited access to these materials and often rely on the limited fan-translated works that are openly distributed online for free. It shares a similar history with Thailand where the initial community of BL readers heavily interacted with BL communities online, many of which are Anglophone BL (or yaoi) fan spaces such as Aestheticism.net or Aarinfantasy.com. In the early 2000s, these spaces were central in educating different fans of the different literacies associated with Japan’s BL culture. As such, initial Filipino BL creators were heavily influenced by these literacies and would use them to create various fan-works. Online blogging spaces such as Livejournal and archives for self-produced fictions such as Fanfiction.net, Archive of Our Own, and Wattpad were important spaces for Filipino BL fans to explore writing BL. Y!Gallery, Deviantart and Pixiv were critical for learning how to draw BL. By 2010s, social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter became important avenues for BL interaction. While these online developments provided a larger space for BL expression, the diverse access points to BL has also diluted BL literacies from Japan. 

Most BL works in the Philippines are fan works produced and distributed online. These BL fanworks shift with global media trends as some feature popular anime and manga characters while recent BL fanworks focus on shipping idols from KPOP, and actors from danmei-related drama or Thai BL. The lack of local original BL works is primarily due to the lack of media infrastructures that sustainably allow Filipino BL creators to make a living out of creating BL. Since 2013, there is only one BL publisher in the Philippines, Black Ink which publishes BL novels and comics in Filipino. The difficulty in producing BL comics and novels at a commercial pace have left creators to pursue self-publication. Artists such as CinnamonRub choose platforms such as Tapas to distribute their BL works. Philippine BL fan events such as Blush have produced BL anthologies but the cost of production and the lack of contributions have made the publication of the anthology inconsistent. In 2020, taking inspiration from Thai BL dramas, PinoyBL, Philippine-produced BL web dramas also emerged. A handful of PinoyBL titles reached global acclaim as titles such as Gameboys received nominations and awards from all over the world. This energy brought about by the confluence of global BL cultures will hopefully help nurture and develop BL media in the Philippines. 

In terms of literacies, Black Ink follows uses Japanese BL literacies while adapting some of these by featuring stories in the Philippine context. An example of this can be seen in Claudine Erang and Peach Balai’s 2015 comic BTS, which features two rival actors where one actor followed a Filipino path to stardom. Black Ink, despite its low prices ($2.00 for an 80-page comic), is less accessible compared to a Thai BL show which can be watched for free on mobile devices. Different mobile packages that give “free” bandwidth data to Youtube has made Thai BL more accessible to Filipino BL fans. As such, since 2014, a good number of Filipinos became more interested in Thai BL (Baudinette 2020). By the time series such as SOTUS became accessible on Netflix and 2gether was globally broadcasted with Filipino subtitles on Youtube at the start of 2020, Thai BL became the more recognizable form of BL in the Philippines. The emergence of PinoyBL, would often allude to Thai BL as their inspiration and motivation rather than Japanese BL. The lack of access to legal or fan translations of Thai Y-novels made Thai BL dramas the main point of access to Thai BL and BL Literacies. As such, there is an interesting mix of BL fans in the Philippines. First, there are BL fans who are literate in Japanese BL literacies and its connections to transnational flows of BL across the region. Second, there are BL fans who are unaware of BL’s long history and highly associate BL culture with Thailand.  

ON EROBL IN THE PHILIPPINES 

While I analyzed EroBL in commercial Japan works, I can’t say that EroBL has emerged in commercial BL works in the Philippines. The obscenity laws in the Philippines prevent the depiction of these kinds of scenes. Black Ink labels some of its BL titles as M, indicating that it contains mature content, but many of its texts imply sexual scenes rather than depict them. PinoyBL also imply sexual intimacy but do not portray sexual acts in their dramas. 

This lack of EroBL in commercial BL media does not mean that pornographic BL works are not produced by Filipino BL creators nor does it mean that there is a lack of support from local BL fans. Many of these are distributed as fanworks online, either as explicit fanfiction or fanart. Some are self-produced and are distributed in local and global fan events such as Comic Market in Japan (Santos 2019).  

ON FILO AU 

While PinoyBL is a commercial BL work inspired by Thai BL web dramas, FILO AU is a fan-based adaptation that engages with Thai BL through localised shipping practices on social media. Filo AU emerged in 2018 as part of K-POP shipping culture and with the popularity of Thai BL it has been used by fans as an avenue to explore different scenarios for their favourite ThaiBL ships. In tagging a social media AU as FILO AU, readers are expected to see ships situated not from their original canon but in the Philippines. For example, BrightWin FILO AU may feature BrightWin as rival athletes from Philippine universities renowned for their athletic rivalry. Sometimes, these popular ThaiBL ships are rewritten in a FILO AU as characters in a famous Filipino romance movie. Even when there are local actors that can slip into these FILO AU, the choice to use queer characters and identities, such as Thai BL characters, highlight the strong heteronormative attachments to local actors and the need to use queer characters to explore queer local Filipino contexts that are deeply attached to heteronormative media and norms. 

Metaveevinji:

I really appreciate the great information Kristen has given. Also, thanks for the questions Kristen picked up for further discussion. I will respond accordingly. 

ON THE TENSION OF MODERNITY IN THAILAND

I argue in my paper that audiences in Thailand and Myanmar are consuming transnational media because of the feeling of ‘modernity’. This argument is in accordance with what Koichi Iwabuchi (2004) argued in his edited book, Feeling Asian Modernities Transnational Consumption of Japanese TV Dramas. Burmese audiences feel a notion of ‘modernity’ when they are watching Thai media, whereas Thai audiences feel similarly when they are watching Korean series. Therefore, transnational media seems to fulfill audiences in a particular way that local media cannot offer them. 

Recently, there are controversial arguments among netizens in Thailand regarding the difference between Thai and Korean TV dramas/movies. Many Thai netizens, especially the young generation, argue that qualities of Thai media content are lower than those of Korean content. They denounced the predictable formula and melodrama styles of Thai content. Although this criticism is partly true, they ignore the fact that Thai content, including BL series, is able to attract an international audience and receive global recognition. I would like to argue that this criticism comes from the tension of modernity in Thailand. Thai young audiences feel that content in Thai media is less modern so that they cannot be attracted by this local content. 

Arguably, nowadays the audience in Thailand has separated into two main groups. The first group is the audience who still enjoy watching Thai soap operas. The second group is the audience who enjoy watching Korean, Japanese, and Western media. The first group usually is in their 30s and over, while the second group seem the younger generation. Nonetheless, in many times, ages cannot identify this difference, and these two groups of audiences can be overlapped. Thai BLs seem an ‘in between’ of these two kinds of media content. They have Thai settings with  non-heterosexual relationship and Japanese influence. Therefore, young Thai audiences seem to accept this kind of content more than traditional Thai soap operas.    

What I am trying to say is the fact that there is a big generation gap. Or, maybe, it is not a ‘generation’ but an ‘ideological’ gap in Thailand. Many audiences feel that they can relate themselves to Korean TV dramas rather than Thai TV dramas. This means that Thai media cannot offer content that convinces particular audiences in Thailand. For example, young audiences may feel that romantic relationships portrayed in Thai soap operas are not ‘real’ for them, compared with romantic relationships portrayed in Thai BL series, Japanese manga, or Korean dramas. This ideological gap can be seen in a form of differences in political ideologies as well. Arguably, this leads to the phenomena that many Thai youths are using popular culture as an expression of their political ideologies. 

THE FANDOM IS POLITICAL OR APOLITICAL SPACE 

As mentioned in my opening statement, I am interested in the way that young protesters use #MilkTeaAlliance and other popular hashtags to evoke global pro-democracy movement. I am excited to know that the Filipino fans also participate in this movement. As you mentioned, in many times, fan activities seem to be a way to escape from political reality. Nevertheless, I would like to argue that eventually fans cannot help to relate themselves to political reality in Thailand. For example, Thai fans are fascinated to watch Korean series because characters in the series criticize established institutions, such as the military, police, and court in a way that they would like to criticize these institutions in Thailand. 

When the famous Korean series, such as Kingdom (2019), Squid Game (2021), and Vincenzo (2021), are released on the streaming platform. Many Thai fans captured some dialogues and scenes to relate series content to what is going on in Thailand.  My argument is that consuming popular culture seems to be apolitical activity. But, in fact, this activity is closely related to political ideology, regardless of whether audiences realize this fact. 

My current research project, therefore, aims to investigate how the BL fans join online political movements by using a concept of fan-based citizenship, which is public engagement and civic action that arise from fandom participation (Hinck 2019). Hopefully, my forthcoming paper can provide a better understanding of the complexity of cultural and political spaces in BL fandom.