The Origin of the Word "Danmei"
Actually, when I first saw English communities use the word "danmei" to mean Chinese BL works, I was really surprised. Because this word originally came from Japan. I remember when I was in middle school, I first got into danmei. I borrowed a set of books called Tokyo Babylon from my current cofounder (we became friends when we were 12). And I gradually fell in love with this genre.
Tokoy Babylon in my own shelf
At first, "danmei" was the Japanese translation of the English word Aestheticism. In the early 1900s, it meant a literary style about beautiful words and senses. It had nothing to do with boys' love. Until the 1970s, a group of Japanese girls' manga artists called the "Showa 24-year group" started putting this style into comics. In 1976, Keiko Takemiya drew *Kaze to Ki no Uta*. In 1978, the magazine JUNE started. Only then was the word officially borrowed to mean romantic relationships between men. But Japanese BL was never just manga. From the 1990s, it grew into a full industry with different media — manga was the base, but radio dramas, anime, games, and live-action dramas all became big too.
In the early 1990s, "danmei" came to mainland China through Hong Kong and Taiwan, along with pirated Japanese manga, magazines, and Drama CDs. Minami Ozaki's Zetsuai 1989 entering China was a big moment. (I first encountered it around 2004. I caught up on Zetsuai 1989 in high school.)
How Danmei Developed in China
Back then, it was mainly offline sharing and online forums. I even wrote letters to friends I met at comic conventions to talk about danmei 😁.
In 2003, Jinjiang Literature City launched and quickly became the main base for original danmei writing in mainland China. Early writers wanted to get away from Japanese anime influence, so they turned to ancient Chinese culture for material. That's why historical, wuxia, and xianxia stories became the most popular thing at first.
Around 2008 or 2009, the discussion board "Little Pink" (the Jinjiang forum), board 52, became a place for online voice acting exchanges. The club I was in, "Moon Voice Chinese Dubbing Group," was also founded in 2009. (I joined in 2015.)
Around 2015, when I returned to China from Canada, the Chinese danmei fan community was already starting to grow. Through friends in the group, I went to work at Maoer FM. At the end of that year, we started the audio drama business (I built the first data sheet for radio dramas myself~~ hehe). From that point on, Chinese danmei audio dramas finally had a real place.
Around the same time, early comic platforms started adapting danmei novels, and Chai Jidan's web drama Addicted also got a lot of attention. By then, the different forms of danmei in China had basically started to form.
By the way, Maoer FM was early-stage funded by Bilibili. Yes, that Bilibili, the one that made Heaven Official's Blessing Animation.
But good times didn't last. Addicted was actually killed before it even finished airing (censorship reasons). Jinjiang's "Danmei" channel was ordered to change its name to "Pure Love," and a lot of articles got locked. That's how the special Chinese danmei TV drama format was born: bromance. In 2019, The Untamed became super popular. It was adapted from Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's *Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation*. The BL was rewritten as "brotherhood," but the actors' chemistry and the original fans' passion made it a huge hit. Investors saw money and rushed in. Between 2020 and 2021, tons of danmei novel IPs were adapted into TV projects at the same time — Hao Yi Xing (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun), Zuo Jian You Ni (Run Freely / Saye), Zhang Gong An (A League of Nobleman), Ji Xing Gao Zhao (Eternal Faith / Tian Guan Ci Fu), Feng Huo Liu Jin (Winner Takes All / Sha Po Lang), Guang Yuan (Justice in the Dark/ Silent Reading), and so on.
Netizens jokingly called this year "Danmei Adaptation 101," like a talent show making tons of shows at once and competing to air.
In April 2021, Word of Honor aired and blew up the market again. I was one of the "Mountain People" (fans) back then. (I still have a lot of official and fan-gifted merch at home. Seeing them still makes me sad, so I put them in a box.) In September, the National Radio and Television Administration issued the "danmei ban," completely stopping all danmei adaptations. Censorship got much tighter in the following years.
Random Thoughts
I started paying attention to the North American community because of two things. First, a novel I wrote (the copyright is fully signed to Fanqie now, so don't ask which one — I don't own the rights anymore) got "notice to fix." I had to change it over 20 times. One chapter was about three friends (corresponding to three CPs in the story) who met in school as teenagers, helped each other, and because one of them got curious, all three started questioning their own sexuality. In the final rounds of revision, the problems were crazy — students can't study together before exams, schools can't rank students by grades. "Bad influence on youth." 🙄 I felt like I couldn't keep doing this. Then I noticed GagaOOLala started carrying Chinese-made danmei dramas. So I changed my mind... maybe we should go to the English-speaking community instead~
Notes:
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Whether it's mind maps or text, everything is based on my own experience and views. If anything is missing or wrong, feel free to tell me and add to it.
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The mind map only lists some works, otherwise it would be too big. Especially for Japan, Thailand, and Korea, there are too many good
My MaoerFM: https://www.missevan.com/3/
Or you can just search 暗切线，I am the one with Maoer ID 3, I read maoer Message maybe 1-2 times / week. (Do not sent message to ID 77090, that is the work account when I worked there, currently no one use that account)
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