#fandom reflections

Background

So I'm going to give you a bit of background on where this is coming from and what turtles tend to believe about it. I will also give a bit of information about what it isn't about, because that's confusing for people as well.

2026 is a big deal for turtles and has been for many years. While the idea originated with a statement GG made in an interview, it was given significance by turtles and has grown from there ever since.

In 2019, GG was asked about marriage in an interview*. He replied by saying that he didn't plan to get married until he was 35.

*He was frequently asked questions like this back then because in that part of the world everybody is expected to get married and have children, and he was approaching the age where people start getting nagged about it.

BXG began to semi-jokingly say that meant that GG and DD would be getting married in 2026. From there it continued to grow and gain significance for most turtles.

Some BXG have even had astrological readings done to try to find out what GGDD's future might hold, and for years they've been claiming that 2026 is going to be a big year for GG and DD - for their shared lives and careers.

Some fans took it to literally mean that GG and DD are getting married in 2026, or that they're going to start collaborating again in 2026, but most just seem to treat it as a sweet date with no serious/real significance beyond celebrating the CP.

Taking it further

Some people have expanded the significance of 2026 to include other things, such as:

GG and DD will no longer be banned from being seen together

GG and DD will begin interacting publicly again

GG and DD will come out as gay and/or in a relationship

These sorts of ideas don't really have any connection with the original meaning of 2026, and they're based on fan assumptions and (in my opinion) a misunderstanding/lack of knowledge of GG and DD's life and career circumstances.

Much of this seems to have come from the story of what happened to the actors and characters from Addicted, and a lot of discussions about these things end up also touching on Addicted.

For those who do not know, Addicted is a controversial Chinese web series that was based on a BL story. It began airing in 2016 and only got a few episodes in before it was shut down by authorities due to the inclusion of underage characters, drug use, sexuality and criminality.

Many people believe that the banning of that series was what led to the heavy crackdown on LGBTQ content in China, but the crackdown predates Addicted and had been escalating in the years prior.

In the story the two characters are separated and promised to reconnect in 8 years. Some fans of the show made the same promise to the actors - they'd wait for them to be seen together in 8 years.

This led to some turtles extrapolating that onto GG and DD, and claiming that they were banned from interacting. The whole thing got intertwined with 2026, and people began saying that they weren't allowed to interact until then.

As I mentioned in a previous post, there are a lot of reasons why this just doesn't apply to GG and DD (and there's no proof that it applied to the Addicted actors either).

The Untamed was never banned, and in fact is still available (and popular) in China.

GG and DD appeared together publicly many times during promotion of the series, and they were seen on the same stage multiple times after the series finished airing.

There is no evidence that GG and DD are being 'forced apart' by external powers or official mandates. It's simply not in their best interests to be seen together publicly, for reasons I have discussed elsewhere.

So for those who believe that 2026 will mark the lifting of some sort of governmental 'ban' on any public interaction between GG and DD, this is unsubstantiated, is based on multiple assumptions and misconceptions and - in my view - is false.

Will they come out?

As for the likelihood of them coming out, I think it would be best for fans to rethink their expectations and understand the circumstances that GG and DD are under as stars in China. There is simply no likelihood whatsoever that they are going to come out about their relationship, or even about being gay/queer.

The industry in China trades on ideas of romantic availability, and that means that most stars, whether gay or straight, will hide their relationships to avoid losing fans and opportunities. It's unlikely that GG and DD will come out about their relationship as long as they want to maintain a career in the entertainment industry in China.

There are other reasons that it would likely not go well for them.

As two of the most popular stars in China, they are expected to uphold certain values and ideals. Coming out as gay could put them at risk of being perceived to be promoting or glamorizing homosexuality, of corrupting the youth, of going against the values the government wants to see promoted, and even of being the leaders of a subversive movement.

LGBTQ relationships are highly censored in Chinese media, therefore there's a likelihood that any story of them coming out would be suppressed or avoided by media to some extent. Especially if it started generating the kind of attention I suspect it might, and led to an upsurge in discussion of queer rights.

Any decision to come out would also have a massive ripple effect onto every project, endorsement and platform they have any association with, impacting the livelihood of potentially hundreds of people. There is no way either of them would ever do that. Not only do they have legal and business responsibilities, they also morally would not want to do something personal that would have a negative impact on others.

I talked about all of that in more detail in this post.

More than anything, GG and DD are individuals whose lives do not revolve around being gay or being in a relationship. It's highly unlikely they'd choose to derail their careers or take the focus away from their projects and achievements.

They have worked so hard to get where they are right now, there's no reason to believe they'll want to take the spotlight off of all of that and put it onto something that is very private between the two of them.

So anyone who thinks GG and DD will come out in 2026, hopefully this gives you a better understanding of why that's unlikely to happen.

What will happen?

In fact, it is unlikely that anything will change in 2026. I expect that we will get some candy, because I believe GG and DD care about turtles and they know how much 2026 means to us, but I don't think we can expect anything massive to happen.

DD's contract with Yuehua ends in 2026, and some fans believe/hope that he will join forces with GG and his studio. This is also unlikely, for reasons I discussed in this post.

If he doesn't renew with YH (and I doubt he will), it is more likely that he will go independent so he can have more control over his career and reap more benefits from the work that he does.

But this is totally unknowable and pointless to speculate too much about. I talked about that more in this post.

Will they get married?

Getting back to the roots of where this initially came from - the idea that GG wouldn't get married until he was 35 - do I think that GG and DD will get married in 2026?

No.

I don't believe that will happen, because I believe they are already married.

Of course I don't have any earth-shattering 'secret proof' about it, it's just what I believe based on various factors. I'm not going to dig into that right now because this post is already a lot longer than I intended. You can read some of my past thoughts on their getting married here.

What does 2026 mean to me?

I see it as a beautiful fandom anniversary. A milestone of sorts. Something we have all reached together as turtles, where we can look back over the years and reminisce about everything that brought us here.

For years we've been talking about 2026, and it's finally just around the corner. Looking back, so much has changed and yet everything's stayed largely the same. We still love them as much as we did back then. More.

It's also a great opportunity to reflect on how far GG and DD have come in their lives and in their careers. How much they've grown as performers and as people.

A celebration of GG and DD, and of turtles.

Ultimately we don't yet know what's going to happen. Things might end up as I've outlined above, or they might not. We'll find out soon enough!

Regardless of what happens in 2026, I look forward to seeing more from them and their projects, and I think it's going to be a fun year to be a turtle because I suspect turtles are going to be very active and excited.

Related posts:

I wish everyone a very happy, healthy and fulfilling 2026!

Edit: more on this here.

Do you think they’re married?

Why aren’t they seen together anymore?

Are they banned from interacting?

Will GG and DD join forces under their own studio?

Will DD renew his contract with Yuehua?

Are GG and DD representatives of the queer rights movement in China?

That person, for me, is WYB.

Time and again. Watching him in that documentary, reading his interviews and marvelling at his maturity, viewing pictures of that time when he dropped everything and went back to his hometown to volunteer during the floods, seeing him tear up when talking about his grandpa, witnessing his leadership skills during SDOC, watching his 廿 performance and feeling emotional over how much he has grown and matured as a person and artiste (the contrast is stark when I look at old CQL bts now), etc...

Now don't get me wrong. I love GG just as much but it's different. In my mind, GG is perfect. I meant perfect not in a literal sense (I'm not delusional) but more like a figure of speech. Everything GG does, to me it's like ''Yea, that's him''. The dorky XZ, the serious XZ, the artistic XZ, Singer XZ, the introspective XZ...Whereas for DD, he's more...unexpected but I'm more often touched by him. He has this pure heart which continues to amaze me and makes me love him more and more each day.

If I were to translate my love for them visually, I guess it would be like a glass of water that is constantly overflowing vs a magic glass that automatically gets a bit taller as soon as the water line inches towards the brim. Does that make sense? Haha..

I have previously likened both GG and DD to green tea, which I still stand by, but I now have a new perspective.

XZ is like a polished diamond. Sparkly, beautiful, brilliant, precious. Attracting all eyeballs wherever he goes. Not just in terms of aesthetics but his voice, personality, positivity, attitude. Before, he was like unmined, unpolished diamond, patiently waiting for his chance to shine brightly and get discovered, never fighting or competing. They may look complex but diamonds are just made of the single element, carbon. Pure, unadulterated - polished or not, just like GG who still retains his initial self and passion even after going through the shitstorm. Despite their appearance, diamonds are also one of the strongest materials in the world. Isn't that GG? Pretty on the outside but super strong and resilient on the inside.

WYB, on the other hand, is like a kaleidoscope. Depending on the design and individual interest, a kaleidoscope may not immediately grab eyeballs or be compelling enough to entice one to pick it up. The secret lies inside. Peer into it and you'll discover the beauty and complexity within. And that's not all. With every twist and turn, the patterns change and a new set of beauty presents itself. It's mysterious and dynamic and full of surprises. Like DD, you'll discover the gem within only if you are willing to give it a chance. DD might not be as easy to 'get', both in aesthetics and outward personality but with exploration and understanding, it's hard not to fall in love with him. He grows on you. And grows and grows and grows.

I'm looking forward to more great days ahead with our boys. More content and works to enjoy, pictures to admire, candies to devour, things to clown over, etc. And looking forward to more fun times and interactions with my fellow turtles here on tumblr.

All At Sea: I think of my relationship to fan spaces sometimes as a bit like being out at sea. It’s easy to get caught up in the current and drift along, but the tide is always turning and there are unexpected storms which make staying afloat more challenging at times. Sometimes it can be exhausting when you feel as though you’re swimming against a strong current and making no progress, but on other occasions you find a spot where you can swim, choose your own direction, do handstands in the water and it’s exhilarating. This year I learned it’s okay to get out of the sea sometimes, to push your toes in the sand, feel the sun on your face, and just enjoy watching the waves. Have a cocktail with friends at the beach bar, chill the fuck out, basically. From starting the year feeling in something of a fandom funk, I’ve got to a place at the end of this year where I feel very positive about fandom and grateful to share a space with so many brilliant, talented, supportive people. 

Burnout and Information Overwhelm: This year, the burnout has been real and I’ve worked out that the platforms I’m operating on contribute a lot to that feeling of mental exhaustion. Using my mobile for fandom activity, having more time than ever at my personal laptop instead of an office computer which restricted me from accessing fan platforms and ramping up my use of Tumblr, Twitter, WhatsApp and Discord for fandom activity created a kind of information overwhelm that comes with high speed interactions and heightened the sense of needing to be present, or to offer opinions as part of fast-paced interactions requiring quick thinking, and sometimes knee-jerk responses. With this came the suspicion and bitter taste caused by anonymous messages cropping up in the inboxes of me and my friends, and it felt at times as though I was constantly logged on and in a state of hypersensitivity. I’ve learned that stepping back from things and learning to balance time spent online with time spent offline is an important part of self-care and it’s okay to be absent for a while. If conversations are draining, leave them. If you see opinions you don’t like, ignore them or try to understand them. They are just opinions - and I mean opinions on characters, canon, fandom and so on as opposed to political opinions that actively seek to harm people. Everyone has different perspectives on things. There really is room for everyone. Regarding anonymous messages, if the only way someone wants to interact with you is via crappy anonymous messages, I’ve learned they are not worth your time, effort or mental energy. Interacting only brings more attention to them. Delete, block, move on. Fuck ‘em. If you want to talk to me, do it off anon. If I’ve upset you with my actions, tell me. Let’s have a proper, adult conversation. 

Look for the Rainbow: Fandom spaces are communities which form around peoples passions. They are places of brilliant creativity but the things we love have a tendency to give rise to extreme emotional responses. I’ve veered from extreme highs to extreme lows and this year I have learned the importance of finding a balance that works. I think a relentlessly positive, non-critical approach can be just as stifling as a culture of intense negativity and constant division, but having said that when I’m having my storm cloudy moments I’m trying to focus on the rainbow. Wallowing in bad feeling tends to nurture and cultivate that sense of dissatisfaction until it becomes suffocating. There’s a tremendous amount of good in fandom space. Good people, good ideas, tireless effort, incredible organisation, passion, creativity and vibrancy. There’s a huge amount to feel positively about and whilst I would never advocate for a laissez faire, entirely non-critical approach, I also think everyone has their own capacity for critical thinking and the way those thoughts can permeate and shape our whole experience of fandom and - by extension - influence our creative abilities. I’ve learned to focus more on the things I get out of fandom that make me happy, to retain a critical eye on things as I always will given the nature of my research, but not to allow the critical to obscure the many positive things about fandom. 

Evaluating Self-Worth: I’ve really tried in the latter part of this year not to measure myself or my worth by external metrics of success. The kudos, the hits, the number of followers, the amount of positive interaction over anonymous messages, the posts I’m tagged in, the hype, the rec lists I’m on or not on, and so on. Comparing yourself to other people can lead to resentment and frustration or to an inflated sense of self-importance. It says a little something about how I started the year that I thought I want to grow my tumblr and write a really successful fic, and thought I would know if I had accomplished that by feedback and response. I’m actually quite embarrassed to admit that because I think it makes me look like a dick, and I’m super pleased with the support my fics get in any event, but I wanted to share it because I think it’s important in terms of this lesson I’ve learned this year. I went from a place of being very focused on external measures of success to ending this year realising that my most successful stories have been the ones I’m proudest of and they are not the ones with the most hits or kudos. Those are the stories that I enjoyed creating the most, and the ones that left me feeling incredibly positive and proud at the end of this year, looking forward to the next year in fandom and planning projects that I already know won’t be the most popular, but they are the ones I’m creatively excited about and inspired by, so those are the ones I should be focusing on. Despite its resistance to corporate structures, there’s something very capitalist about the way we can sometimes be lured into evaluating self-worth in fandom, and those structures are embedded within fandom itself. They won’t go away, but focusing on them doesn’t half make me unhappy. 

Support Other Creators: It’s easy to let negative feelings overwhelm the way we interact with one another in fandom. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned this year is that you get back what you put in. Through supporting other creators you build friendships formed around shared creative passions and interests. You feel pride in your friends accomplishments. You improve your own work by reading widely, cheerleading, editing, beta reading, alpha reading, brit picking. Writing can be a lonely endeavour but it doesn’t have to be that way when you’re part of a community that uplifts others. 

Treat People With Kindness: Not everybody has the same levels of confidence or the same energy for rigorous debate. We all have days where we feel like we could crack into pieces, where we feel lonely, invisible, anxious, excluded, unhappy or fragile. It’s easy to be brave behind a computer screen, but ultimately people on the other end are going through stuff in the same way we all are. I’m making a concerted effort in 2019 to engage patiently and respectfully with opinions I disagree with and to be open to anyone who wants to chat or talk through things. I want to work on building new friendships (yeah, I’m going to slide into your DMs, like hiiiii :D) and maintaining old ones, ensuring I give back the same energy and support I get from friends so they know how appreciated they are. I started this year thinking Tumblr required a level of saltiness and a dgaf attitude that’s never been me, honestly. The lesson I’ve learned this year is to resist going along with the pile and to stop and think before engaging. For some people that might seem like an annoying attempt to sit on the fence and please everyone which is never going to happen, but to be honest I think it’s all about finding what works for you in that regard. I’m here for the hot takes and the salt at times, but tbh it’s pretty much just not me. Even when I’ve responded heatedly to an anonymous message that thoroughly deserved it, it’s felt performative and weird and I’m just not going to do that anymore. 

What happened

Basically a turtle account on Instagram had shared something from fashion week on their Stories, which are only up for 24 hours or so and are not handled in the same way as regular posts.

There's no way of knowing who views regular Instagram posts, but it's different with Stories. During the short window of time that it is available, anyone can see who has viewed a Story.

When fans were checking out the Instagram story they noticed that the viewing history showed DD's Instagram account listed among those who had seen it. Not a fake, not a fan account, but his actual Instagram account. This indicated that he had viewed the Instagram story the CP fan had shared.

The turtle's account had a (actually pretty cool) photo edit for their userpic that featured GG and DD singing together. A lot of turtles assume that he saw that thumbnail and clicked on it to try to see the larger image, not realizing that his activity would be tracked and publicly viewable (we have no way of knowing if that's why he clicked, so it's just speculation and clowning).

There has been a lot of hype about this whole incident - by the turtles on instagram, by some turtles in the Chinese fandom, and by motos who are angry about it and making all kinds of ridiculous claims about his privacy being invaded, claims about the whole thing being faked, etc.

To be clear:

This is simply unfakeable, and it is indisputable that he did view that story.

We do not know why he viewed it. It could have been accidental for all we know, so no one should get too carried away in interpreting what happened.

People are free to clown about this.

His activity was publicly available as part of the normal functioning of that feature of the platform, so claims that his privacy was compromised are inaccurate.

My thoughts on the situation

Having said that, I would definitely not brag about or publicize if I saw evidence that either GG or DD had viewed my account. After I was done dying a thousand deaths*, I would try to afford them some grace by not making a big deal about it, and by not trying to leverage it to gain some kind of credibility or notoriety within the fandom.

*I love them both, but the idea of them reading my posts horrifies me. 😅

Frankly the overhyping of this whole situation makes me uncomfortable.

I believe that DD is interested in turtles and in the fandom, and (rightly) views us as his fans and supporters. While I think turtles are justified in being happy to see him interact with a turtle account, I find it impossible to believe that he would have wanted this to turn into a Big Thing. He has said that he is uncomfortable being stared at in public, etc. and I really don't see this any differently.

I doubt he knew that his browsing history on that Story would be public. He tends to be very private and cautious about how he handles his social media accounts, and I think if he knew that his activity would be tracked and publicly viewable he might not have interacted with it. Not because it is a CP account, but because everything that he does generates attention.

The fact that turtles are turning it into a big party makes me wince. I can't relate to how this is being handled. This is just my own personal reaction, not an ethical prescription.

My blog is about GG and DD. While everything here is from my perspective and all of it represents my own personal thoughts and feelings and all of it comes through the lens of my experiences and values, theories, etc. I am not the focus of this blog.

For this reason, I feel deeply uncomfortable with the idea of ever being the center of that kind of attention. If I found this kind of exaggerated hype and speculation happening with one of my posts I would probably close down my account, put it to private or at least remove the post that was getting all of the attention.

Nothing about what I'm doing here is meant to be about me in any central kind of way, and I actively don't want broader notoriety or fame of any kind.

I strive to primarily focus on GG and DD and their projects, and I would never want to make anything either of them did about me. I hope that I would show restraint and discretion if I ever encountered a situation where they might be exposed by anything connected with me or my blog.

That is my own perspective on things, and I want to make it clear that reasonable people can have different perspectives. I'm not saying this to put a shadow on anything anybody else is doing. I'm just expressing my own feelings on the situation.

I also don't want to exaggerate any negative interpretation of this. It's really not a huge deal. By this time next week we'll have all probably completely forgotten about it. It's just something that I'm not into, that's all.

If y'all are enjoying clowning about it, please don't let me stand in your way. ☺️