Top 10 BLs Out of China
(best BLs from China in no particular order, and all containing problematic tropes or serious censorship or both - triggers all ‘round)
Addicted Heroin (2016) Viki - Censored mid series but high heat classic BL prior to that, weird ending, still my favorite. Unfinished due to censorship but still very good, well acted and shot, high school set, rich kid falls madly for the genius poor kid in his class, starts an aggressive pursuit, includes kidnapping for love, obsession, stepbrother trope, plus some cheating.
Word of Honor (2021) Viki & YouTube - Censored wuxia bromance, amorphous ending. Two murder-gay assassins (pining sunshine/tsundere) who manage to be insanely gay for two boys who will never be allowed to kiss. Tropes include: wuxia, soulmates, paranormal, historical, and fantasy elements.
The Untamed Special Edition BL Cut (2020) YouTube - Censored wuxia bromance, amorphous ending. Probubly the best known BL of its kind out of China and responsible for bring many fans to the BL side.
Guardian (2018) grey - Censored bromance, episodic urban fantasy police procedural, one of the most epic long term pinings in the history of long term pinings.
Advance Bravely (2017) grey - Bodyguard romance censored mid series, weird ending. I actually kinda like this but it is very much censored has themes of revenge, salvation, infiltration, and domesticity. Hard to find and the rip is terrible.
My Esports Genius Brother (2021) GaGa - A strangely cute somewhat incomprehensible censored magical realism BL micro series about fated mates who balance each other out and must find the courage to stay together. More here.
Like Love: I Love You As a Man 1 & 2 (2014-2105) YouTube grey - Pre-censorship with an HEA, also explicit, yeah China once did that. Classic early yaoi style BL college romance for a rich popular jock type and a super nerd.
Mr. CEO is Falling in Love with Him (2017) grey - Heavily censored bromance that says what it does on the tin, but they basically end up living together.
S.C.I. AKA SCI Mysteries (2018) YouTube - Out of Hong Kong but they tend to act similar to Mainland China around censorship, this is a police procedural with a censored bromance main couple of police investigators who live together basically as husbands, it’s just not talked about. This is one of the first BLs I ever saw (I found their relationship very confusing).
Irresistible Love: Secret of the Valet 1 & 2 AKA Uncontrolled Love (2016) YouTube grey - Censored obsession romance but there’s an alt happy ending for the series on part 2, quite violent, lots of tiggers, whipping boy chassis.
Vids tagged “grey” may no longer have functioning links. Check MDL comment threads to track down. Or leave a comment I may have an updated link.
Mainland China & BL in Brief
China’s History with BL is complicated by serious homophobia and censorship, which I’ve posted about before so I’m not going to go into it again in depth.
Like Japan, most of China’s early stuff is depressing in that they like to kill their queers either with the seme character becoming so obsessed to the point of kidnapping, rape, and murder (the murder-gay trope). Otherwise they end their stuff with separation by accidental death, noble self sacrifice, or some other misery (kill your gays trope).
China entered the market in a big way with over a dozen movies 2014-2016 featuring either adult or university aged characters, often explicit relations, always obsessive love, and ultimate unhappiness.
In 2016 Addicted: Heroin released which looked to be an actual BL romance with a high school setting, high heat, and HEA and the censors lost their shizz and shut it down. (There are lots of rumors about what “playing gay” did to the careers of the respective actors, especially the one playing the uke role.)
Clearly production had already begun on a few 2017 series like Advance Bravely and Beloved Enemy, which then got killed or censored beyond all recognition, and there’s a drop off in movies with any kind of queer content after that.
This in turn resulted in the suppressed bromance long running series of 2018-2019 (SCI, Guardian). The ultimate result of which was wuxia adaptation, The Untamed in 2019. Word of Honor pushed back on the gay, again, but was still censored and not allowed to end (exactly) HEA (by romance standards). (And the uke actor was punished, again, this time ostensibly for other reasons.)
As China currently stands, BL is either heavily censored into little to no physical contact and couple references or the gay character(s) must die or end up de-facto apart. Basically China’s messaging is:
Stay in the closet or be unhappy and die.
This is why I tend to not be a big fan of Chinese BL.
I know, call me crazy.
If you want more about profound damage done by suppressing gay physical affection on screen and why it’s cruel and unforgivable I go on a serious rant here.
A list of bromances, sans my negtive thoughts and feels is here.
This is part of a series on top 10 BLs from each country coupled with a history of BL.
Japanese BL
Chinese BL
Taiwanese BL
Korean BL
Thai BL
Chinese masculinity and the ban on effeminate men
Where to watch it? Most Chinese BL eventually shows up on YouTube.
ALL BLS OUT OF CHINA
That I have watched and rated, by date & then rating out of 10 as of June 2022.
Keep reading
