Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
Year: 2023
DOI:
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Transgressions and Blockades: Gender, Sexuality and Authoritarianism in NISU Fiction
Songyan Li
ABSTRACT:
Since the twenty-first century, fan fiction has grown rapidly in China, along with the development of internet technology and has now become an important part of fan culture. Many of the works in fan fiction are danmei fiction featuring real people, i.e. two straight male celebrities, who are fantasised by fans as a couple. Many danmei authors set the bottom in them as a female or androgynous person, and these novels are known in Chinese fandom as nisu novels. I believe that nisu fiction expresses female subjectivity. In nisu fiction, female authors take the initiative and can borrow the male discourse system and perspective to gaze at the male characters, portray a male self-incarnation and explore their sexuality in the relationship between the two males. The sex transition of the bottom is a projection of female eroticism. However, not all fans are happy with nisu fiction; in fact, one nisu work once caused such an uproar that fans massively reported it to the government, causing the famous fan fiction website AO3 to be blocked by the government in China. This hatred of nisu fiction, I argue, is a fear of crossing gender boundaries and an oppression of women’s freedom to explore their sexual desires. Also, the recourse to state power to block nisu fiction is a reflection of the authoritarian culture in China that deeply influences Chinese fandom.
keywords: Authoritarianism, fan fiction, male-male romance, nisu, online Chinese fiction