Currently the stars of both wildly successful BL novel adaptations (The Untamed & Word of Honor) have been or are under attack. Xiao Zhan almost lost his career, and they are still not releasing some of his work even after an apology tour. His costar Wang Yibo was just taken out of a cultural program on CCTV after the dress rehearsal for no reason (though he is a spokesperson of Channel and wore one of their pink woman's jacket on his street dance show).
The Untamed
Zhe Zhang from Word of Honor had pictures for four years ago surface of him being at a controversial temple in Japan (for a friend's wedding). And his costar Simon Gong just had pictures come out of him eating ice cream NEAR a stone directional marker for the same temple (he was kilometers away though that didn't seem to matter.)
Why am I beside myself by a law that bans effeminate men from Chinese TV?
1) It’s simply wrong and scary.
2) The law is vague and can be applied in subjective ways that allows for targeted attacks on LGBTQIA+ people.
3) People are being told to get into the constructed boxes society has prepared for gender > if you get out or don't fit you’re wrong. Since I’ve been out of them since I was three years old how incompatible am I?
4) Brings me back to all the debates of how “straight cisgendered women” shouldn’t write gay romance. Yeah, first fuck the jealousy and hate. Secondarily, I knew it eleven years ago but now there’s more visibility to show many of us weren’t cisgendered or straight so wrong on all accounts. Being told you’re something you are not is gaslighting and then to be chastised for it is enraging.
(BTW you don’t have to be a serial killer to write about them & you don’t need to be on the rainbow to write the rainbow > it’s silly to hold that belief > and yes, I support and elevate #ownvoices > however this law silences voices.
5) Silencing of people and not allowing them to be who they are is torturing them into a quiet hell.
6) Denying visibility to a queer population that is dying for validation of their very existence in horrible.
I fear this will get worst before it gets better and I don't know how many people will be harmed by this type of person censorship. All the International community can do is help elevate their voices (as best as we are able), hold up a mirror to reflect reality, and try to be visible when it is safe to do so.
Many Hugs, Z. Allora
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