From Online Danmei Literature to Web Series: A Study of Chinese Internet-based Adaptations Under Censorship
Yumo Yan
Publication: Volume 2 Issue 4
Abstract
On June 30 th 2017, “General Rules for Reviewing Netcasting Content” were issued by the China Netcasting Services Association that for the first time officially banned homosexual content from web series. Adapting their scripts from popular online danmei literature, Chinese danmei web series consequently faced severe challenge as to how to stay true to the original literature without showing explicit homosexuality on screen. Centering on this dilemma in danmei web series adaptations, this paper engages predominantly with the 2017 policy, reviews the space that web series initially opened up for homosexual representations that were not allowed on TV, and argues how this space is not entirely closed despite the 2017 censorship policy. By using a 2018 danmei web series, Guardian, as a case study, this paper examines the ways in which the series in question hints at covert queer edges and reveals a new spectator-platform relationship that is forming under censorship.
Keywords: Danmei, Homosexuality, Online Literature, Web Series, Chinese Censorship.
Yumo Yan (yy2887@columbia.edu) is a first year MA student at Film and Media Studies Program, Columbia University, USA. She received her undergraduate degree in Film from Hong Kong Baptist University. Her undergraduate thesis titled “Society in Transition: Postmodernism in the Films of Lou Ye” tackles the problem of Chinese postmodernity/postsocialism within Lou Ye’s oeuvre. Her research interests include Chinese cinema historiography, queer cinema, and film musicals.