LGBT

[Video] Boys’ Love in China: From fan fiction to cultural soft power

Once a niche subculture, China’s danmei (耽美), or Boys’ Love fiction, has grown into a global phenomenon adored by millions of young women. But after a wave of crackdowns and tighter online controls, questions are rising over danmei’s future, both within China and as a vehicle of global soft power.

Yi Jina

14 Nov 2025

China’s soft power paradox: Censorship vs cultural exports

The export of Chinese pop fiction, including Boys’ Love (BL) fiction, has found ready markets in Southeast Asia such as Thailand. But some undesirable genres pose a dilemma for China’s soft power.

Kornphanat Tungkeunkunt

24 Dec 2024

America is not yet ready for a female president

Commentator Zhang Tiankan notes that US presidential candidate Kamala Harris lost the election due to her lack of experience and unconvincing campaign rhetoric. Meanwhile, voters picked President-elect Donald Trump in a rejection of the Democratic Party’s policies and measures.

Zhang Tiankan

12 Nov 2024

‘Western infiltration’ or social progress? LGBT rights caught in US-China crossfire

Lianhe Zaobao’s China Desk looks at the recent controversy surrounding Chinese transgender personality Jin Xing, and the challenges faced by the LGBT community in China, particularly as worsening US-China relations increasingly frame LGBT rights as Western ideological infiltration.

China Desk, Lianhe Zaobao

04 Nov 2024

Taiwan allowing cross-strait same-sex unions: A bargaining chip in the reunification tussle?

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has announced proposed amendments to the "Cross-Strait Act" to allow same-sex unions between partners from Taiwan and mainland China. Is this a bid by Taiwan to woo the gay community in mainland China ahead of reunification, as some netizens speculate? And will mainland China adopt an even more conservative position given that room to discuss LGBT issues has shrunk amid recent clampdowns? Zaobao's China Desk delves into the topic.

China Desk, Lianhe Zaobao

15 Dec 2021

Gay rights, Taiwan independence and anti-nuclear issues in the Presidential election

The conflation of gay rights, Taiwan's independence and anti-nuclear issues can be a recipe for deepening fissures in society. Lianhe Zaobao correspondent Ng Soon Kiat opines that progressive values that are linked together by an election can be held hostage by politicians and political ideologies, and lose their rationality and true meanings.

Ng Soon Kiat

08 Nov 2019