The Xiao Zhan Controversy and the Case of Misplaced Fan Activism

In January 2020, a Chinese slash (male homoerotic) fanfiction named Falling by the fan-author 迪迪出逃记 started its serialization in the popular transformative work sharing site named AO3 (Archive of Our Own). The fanfiction starred fictionalized versions of real-life TV celebrities Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo (the former in a titillating role of a transgender sex-worker), depicting a speculative homoerotic romance between them. The subsequent fanfictions and the fanarts spawned by this theme were created to pay tribute to their on-screen chemistry in the wildly popular xianxia-dangai drama The Untamed which was streamed on Tencent Video in 2019. While the trope of yaoi/danmei/slash is well-worn in the BL fan community, what set this incident apart was how fans pinned their love for their idol, Xiao Zhan, on two opposing kinds of misplaced activism. The first kind blamed the incident on the fan artists, resulting in the official block of AO3 in China on 29 February 2020. The second blamed the hapless actor, who had nothing to do with the situation, that he should assume responsibility for the actions of his fans, leading protests to impose bans on his brand deals and boycotting several of the brands he endorsed. This article tries to look at the fiasco in the light of several dynamics, ranging from the problematics inherent in RPF, the practice of writing fanfiction based on real persons (mostly celebrities), and the consumer culture of China that treats young male actors as “little fresh meat,” the existing popular culture of dangai/danmei (Chinese counterpart of Yaoi/Boys Love culture) fandom in China, the present day government outlook towards homosexuality and homoeroticism, and the frequent government clampdown in the name of purging obscenity and how it influences some fans, and how misplaced fan activism can jeopardize the professional lives of actors. To this end, I plan to use, the psychological theoretical framework of idol worship and its effects on the psyche of the fans involved, as well as esteemed sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of cultural theory, namely taste (for and against supposed homoerotic obscenity) distinction (what sets these opposing groups of fans apart), and habitus (what sort of community each of the warring groups of fans inhabit).