Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference 14-17th December 2016 Program Index

for heterosexual female audiences, on the production of a Thai lakorn (drama) entitled Lovesick The Series.
Employing Iwabuchi’s (2002) theory of glocalisation, I discuss how BL’s generic conventions are adapted to
lakorn, investigating the juxtaposition of Thai understandings of gay desire with those expressed in BL.
Through this discussion, I interrogate the development of a cross-cultural discourse of gay desire within the
Thai mediascape. I demonstrate that the conservative nature of Thai media, where television networks have
censored expressions of non-heteronormative sexuality in the past, leads Lovesick to adopt certain narrative
structures that reinforce the normality of heterosexual relationships. In particular, I examine how the image
of the kathoey (the so-called “ladyboy”) is utilised within Lovesick to reinforce the heteronormativity of the
principal gay couple. I conclude with a brief survey of international fan reactions to the perceived lack of
“authentic BL tropes” in Lovesick, reflecting on how the transnational character of BL fandom potentially
represents an internationalisation of one Japanese discourse of same-sex desire.
Asako P. Saito Narrative or database consumption? Conceptualising Chinese and Japanese Three Kingdoms Boys
Love
The classic Chinese tale of Three Kingdoms has been retold countless times throughout history. Cinema,
television, and gaming are some of the numerous mediums in which its themes and characters are
consumed in China today. In Japan, where it has enjoyed great popularity for centuries, Three Kingdoms has
also been extended to various genres and mediums. Of interest to this particular paper are its rewritings
within the context of the Japanese female-oriented subculture known as Boys Love (BL). With origins in
1970s Japanese girls’ comics, this subculture focuses on the romantic and often sexual love between men.
Japanese and, more recently, Chinese women are playfully experimenting with unconventional homoerotic
pairings of Three Kingdoms characters in their writings. In this presentation, I aim to examine this crosscultural
phenomenon through the lens of Hiroki Azuma’s theories on postmodern consumption of popular
culture. Although Azuma’s study focused solely on consumption in the Japanese context, I hope to
demonstrate its versatility by applying it to both Japanese and Chinese Three Kingdoms BL.
Kristine Santos Transnational fujoshi literacies as seen in “glocalised” Boys Love fanworks
The global export of Japanese popular culture has led not only to an influx of Japanese cultural goods to
youths but also access to Japanese fan culture. In this presentation, I explore the power of dōjinshi (fanproduced
comics) in teaching girls of various cultural backgrounds about literacies tied to the fan culture of
fujoshi, “rotten girl” fans of Boys Love (BL). These literacies range from theoretical concepts such as
“coupling” to intertextual creative practices that typify the production of BL fanworks. For this presentation,
I specifically discuss the global distribution of Japanese BL dōjinshi in online spaces such as Pixiv, Livejournal,
Tumblr, and online manga reading sites. I examine how these spaces have been pivotal in educating non-
Japanese fans about the various literacies involved in fujoshi culture. I argue that whilst these spaces have
been integral in building fujoshi literacies amongst foreign fans, they have also contributed to the
development of a “glocalised” fujoshi culture. The presentation concludes by arguing that, rather than being
tied to the same imagination as Japanese fujoshi, the glocalisation of BL dōjinshi has caused a rift between
Japanese and non-Japanese fans.
260