Tales of yaoi
Jan. 23rd, 2012 12:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snowynightI have been an avid reader of original Chinese yaoi lately. It may be the glee of reading in my native language and culture. It may also be that I want to look for something new. It may also be that original yaoi is the nearest thing to have gay characters and is a taboo in China government's eyes.
And it's an interesting experience.
Like Western fic fandom, everything weird or squicky has been written. Nazi? Domestic abuse of every form in the name of proper revenge (and the couple still stay together and hailed by readers as a happy ending)? Imprinting on a baby? Human/hamster? I see it all and the above are at least rec by several people as good fic.
It's a choose not to warn experience. Consent issue is never discussed. The virginity of the characters or who's the uke/seme are more worthy of warning. Rape is love is a very usual trope. Domestic abuse masqueraded as love is common. It reminds me of old school slash and 90's romance actually.
Dimension/Time travel is a popular genre. The bad among them are an excuse for the protagonist to be super powerful. There's no exact hurt/comfort genre. Angst is quite pouplar instead. Curiously, knotting developed at similar time as Western fandom, though I' quite sure it's convergent evolution.
Fanfic can be commercially published. But serial number filed off is looked down on.
There are very good fic, very bad and very weird fic.
Sturgeon's law is universal across cultures. It does mean that you have to navigate very carefully. My experience can be summarized as below.
1. Beware of the word "sweet".
There's a story recced as very sweet. I'm curious because the author writes dark fic usually. I locate a spoiler before going further beyond chapter 2. There A breaks his lover B's leg because B wants to study aboard. To be fair, the spoiler also says the narrative doesn't condone it. But sweet?
(To illustrate what kinds of stories the author writes, this's an example. The protagonist A suffers from multiple killing attempt from his ex-boyfriend B's friends and mother, walked in B cheating on him and basically B said their relationship ended. So A tried to devote his time to a career and forgets B. Then B wants to get back with A by raping A because only A's willing to sacrifice everything for B. Only in the last several dozens of pages that A manage to start a new life and have a normal boyfriend C. B went out unscathed because he was rich and powerful. Then some readers complain that A's being difficult.)
The story that A and B are stepbrothers. Both of them are abused but B's angry that A didn't defend him then. So B revenged by domestic abuse of every forms. The story ends with A remaining with B after B promising that he won't rape and beat A anymore. Why B has such a thought? Because A tries to leave B and only failed because of the physical strength difference. It's a very sad story of Stockholm Syndrome and domestic abuse. But I come in expecting "small turmoils that 's finally overcome in a sweet tale."
2. Looking for spoilers is good thing to do
If I had looked for spoilers, I might have avoided story 2.
3.Heed the labels very carefully.
A major archive web site has genre labels. I use it to avoid the genre Abuse=love. (Note: It's not a warning. It's a popular genre)
4 . Always assume that the Mainland China site you're reading may disappear the next day. Download .txt as back up is important.
See: China government Internet censorship
Just be very careful. You can enjoy a world of good fiction too.
And it's an interesting experience.
Like Western fic fandom, everything weird or squicky has been written. Nazi? Domestic abuse of every form in the name of proper revenge (and the couple still stay together and hailed by readers as a happy ending)? Imprinting on a baby? Human/hamster? I see it all and the above are at least rec by several people as good fic.
It's a choose not to warn experience. Consent issue is never discussed. The virginity of the characters or who's the uke/seme are more worthy of warning. Rape is love is a very usual trope. Domestic abuse masqueraded as love is common. It reminds me of old school slash and 90's romance actually.
Dimension/Time travel is a popular genre. The bad among them are an excuse for the protagonist to be super powerful. There's no exact hurt/comfort genre. Angst is quite pouplar instead. Curiously, knotting developed at similar time as Western fandom, though I' quite sure it's convergent evolution.
Fanfic can be commercially published. But serial number filed off is looked down on.
There are very good fic, very bad and very weird fic.
Sturgeon's law is universal across cultures. It does mean that you have to navigate very carefully. My experience can be summarized as below.
1. Beware of the word "sweet".
There's a story recced as very sweet. I'm curious because the author writes dark fic usually. I locate a spoiler before going further beyond chapter 2. There A breaks his lover B's leg because B wants to study aboard. To be fair, the spoiler also says the narrative doesn't condone it. But sweet?
(To illustrate what kinds of stories the author writes, this's an example. The protagonist A suffers from multiple killing attempt from his ex-boyfriend B's friends and mother, walked in B cheating on him and basically B said their relationship ended. So A tried to devote his time to a career and forgets B. Then B wants to get back with A by raping A because only A's willing to sacrifice everything for B. Only in the last several dozens of pages that A manage to start a new life and have a normal boyfriend C. B went out unscathed because he was rich and powerful. Then some readers complain that A's being difficult.)
The story that A and B are stepbrothers. Both of them are abused but B's angry that A didn't defend him then. So B revenged by domestic abuse of every forms. The story ends with A remaining with B after B promising that he won't rape and beat A anymore. Why B has such a thought? Because A tries to leave B and only failed because of the physical strength difference. It's a very sad story of Stockholm Syndrome and domestic abuse. But I come in expecting "small turmoils that 's finally overcome in a sweet tale."
2. Looking for spoilers is good thing to do
If I had looked for spoilers, I might have avoided story 2.
3.Heed the labels very carefully.
A major archive web site has genre labels. I use it to avoid the genre Abuse=love. (Note: It's not a warning. It's a popular genre)
4 . Always assume that the Mainland China site you're reading may disappear the next day. Download .txt as back up is important.
See: China government Internet censorship
Just be very careful. You can enjoy a world of good fiction too.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 06:29 am (UTC)I think The Lord of the Rings film fandom was similar as well, especially on some archives.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 06:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 10:31 am (UTC)It's really interesting, I agree with the commenter above that it sounds like slash fandom c. 10 - 15 years ago in a lot of ways.
(I recently went drowning in nostlagia and re-read fic I had loved at the time. There was so much more abuse going on than I'd remembered!)
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 11:05 am (UTC)This's one major reason I don't revisit Star Trek: TOS fandom. I don't want to discover the horrible reality.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-29 08:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-30 03:26 am (UTC)