Abstract
This thesis examines the emergent Boys’ Love subculture in Taiwan. The term Boys’ Love, or the abbreviated BL, refers to stories that feature male homoeroticism. Boys’ Love probably begins appearing in Taiwan around the 1990s in which there is “an extraordinary efflorescence of sexual subcultures and discussion … about homosexuality in public fora” (Martin, 2003: 2). This thesis attempts to position Taiwan’s Boys’ Love fandom in relation to its role within a broader transformation in public discourse on sexualities since 1990s Taiwan. In this thesis, I will analyze the relevance of Taiwan’s Boys’ Love subculture to the heterosexual-familial symbolic system, and further examine how this institutionalized heterosexuality was reinforced during the enforcement of martial laws which has been casting a long shadow over the development of the public sphere in this island. In this thesis, I intend to approach Taiwan’s Boys’ Love subculture from three angles. First, I will describe the emergence and development of Boys’ Love in Japan, along with its importation to Taiwan and the following development in this island. I will also discuss how Boys’ Love subculture develops and appears in various forms with the change of time. Second, I will analyze Taiwan’s BL stories and examine the carnivalesque and conservative modes presented in these Male X Male stories. I will also discuss how the underflow of conventional modes shapes Taiwan’s BL subculture as a “controlled chaos” or “kaleidoscope” that is restricted within Taiwan’s heterosexual reproductive symbolic system. Third, I will contact fans and examine the heterosexist dimensions in Taiwan’s BL subculture. I attempt to associate fans’ fixation on BL stories with the heterosexist operation of Taiwan’s reproductive-imperative symbolic system. I will also discuss the heterosexual gaze of the homosexuality in Taiwan as well as the aesthetics of “silent tolerance” in the Chinese nation. In the final chapter, I try to contextualize Taiwan’s BL phenomenon and study its relation to the formation of the public sphere in this island. I will discuss the logic of linkage between nation/state (guojia) and heterosexual-familial reproduction (jia) that leads to the prevalent heterosexism, which is to a degree reflected in Taiwan’s BL subculture.