“Tales of Asian Boys’ Love: Translanguaging and Transmediality of Romance in Selected Japanese, Thai, and Filipino Series” | Cheeno Marlo M. Sayuno

The Thai Boys’ Love (BL) fandom, which originated from the bōizu rabu culture of Japan, saw a particular boom in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic. What used to be a way to spend time due to lockdown became a phenomenon in itself, leading to huge viewership, high sales of merchandise, streams of old Thai series and recordings by the actors, and even a well-received online global fan meet. This study thus tracks the origins, overlaps, and evolutions of BL narratives from Japanese, Thai, and Philippine traditions through principles in translanguaging the male-to-male romance across cultures, as well as fan experiences across media and nonmedia spaces. Such phenomenon is explored through analysis of the BL narratives as text, understanding of the media production practices within cultures, and unearthing of the fandom transmedia behavior through open-ended survey among fans in the country. Through translanguaging and transmediality, Filipino fans are able to link and transform BL narratives from different origin countries towards the sensemaking of their own gender identities and romance seeking.