Global Fandom Jamboree Conversations: Veluree Metaveevinij (Thailand) and Khursten Michelle L. Santos (The Philipines) (Part Four)

Santos:

I would like to express my appreciation to Veluree and the knowledge she has imparted on Thai BL in her comments. Seeing the robust transformations of women’s literature and the thriving creative industry in Thailand makes me recognise the parallels in publication trends in the Philippines. Interestingly, while this has transformed women’s literature, it hasn’t developed on the same scale as it has in Thailand. In the next sections, I’ll be answering some of Veluree’s questions.

BL ECOSYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES

While my research on Boys Love (BL) initially focuses on Japan, the next stage of my research looks into the idea of how BL literacies are translated and adapted outside of Japan. For example, one of the more popular BL literacy involves kabedon, the act of pushing a person against a wall in order to have an intimate conversation. Stemming from depictions in various shojo manga, kabedon has been extensively used in BL manga. This visual concept would be adapted in global BL works as Thai BL and Pinoy BL titles would use kabedon as an opportunity to establish a couple in the story. That said, global BL media are also finding new affective media elements from local concepts and practices. An example of this is the association of nom yen, a Thai pink milk, with characters who bottom in Thai BL. The inclusion of these local concepts and practices highlights the diversification of BL literacies that are expanding beyond those defined by Japanese BL fans.

A ‘kabedon’ scene from Gaya sa Pelikula (2020)

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.

Metaveevinij:

I really appreciate the great information Kristine has given. Also, thanks for the questions Kristine 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.

ON EROBL IN THE PHILIPPINES

ON FILO AU