In Crazy Love, Moo Moo!, Hia Fu and Moo Moo are engaging in some morning pillow talk. Hia Fu says that Moo Moo has graduated from being an intern. Fu has a new position for Moo - what the subtitles translate as "hubby." What Fu actually says is "mia."
I don't speak Thai, but I've watched over 100 Thai series/movies and have picked up a few words here and there. One of the things I find interesting is the way pua/mia language is used in Thai BLs (and occasionally GLs, like Hometown Romance). These are colloquial terms for hubby/wifey that can be a sweet, informal way to refer to your significant other (married or otherwise) but when used in a sexual context can also be a euphemism for top/bottom.
Fu isn't calling Moo hubby, he's calling him wifey. In the context of this scene this seems both sweetly affirming that their relationship is serious while also having a heavy touch of sexual euphemism that doesn't quite come through with the translation "hubby."
Sometimes when mia is used in Thai BL it's translated as wifey, sometimes as hubby, husband, or boyfriend. I imagine that different translation teams have different rules for this and that it also depends on the context in which it's used in the original dialogue. Some theories for why a translator might choose hubby instead of wifey:
It seems like in English, wifey has stronger gender connotations than mia does in Thai. Translators might feel that wifey feminizes the character more than is intended in the original dialogue. What sounds like playful, sexy banter in Thai sounds more like assigning one partner as "the woman" in English.
Awareness of Western sensibilities regarding heteronormativity and gender roles in same-sex relationships. In the US, at least, queer people might joke around about butch/femme or top/bottom dynamics in ways that overlap with gender stereotypes, but defining one partner as "the husband" and the other as "the wife" might be seen as evoking outdated stereotypes.
As Thai BL's global audience grows, translators might be aware that there are more international viewers who are new to BL and/or Thai media. While mia/wifey is legible shorthand for viewers familiar with the genre, hubby might make the dialogue more accessible for a broader audience.
I'm also curious about whether the use of pua/mia in BL is primarily a function of the whole seme/uke narrative role framework or if it's something that actually shows up in real life. My light research (haphazard googling) hasn't given me much information about whether or not actual gay men in Thailand call each other pua/mia with any frequency. If this article is to be believed, "in Thai gay culture the insertive partner or fai ruk may also playfully be called a βhusbandβ (phua) while receptive partner or fai rap can be called a βwifeβ or mia," but that seems to refer to sexual euphemism specifically, whereas I've seen pua/mia also used as sweet, informal pet names in Thai BL outside of sexual contexts as well.
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