BL Romance x Bromance X Censorship

General Discussion
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I’m opening this topic because I couldn’t find one and this is an issue that, from time to time, gets on my BL nerve. No shade to anyone in particular, just society in general when it comes to this subject.
First of all, let’s keep it simple about the terms.

Romance - romantic love between 2 people
Bromance - friendship love between two man
Censorship - what makes people believe that a romance is a bromance

I was CM for Word of Honor and I kept seeing comments about not being a BL and just a bromance. The point they were presented was because they didn’t kiss.
Well, is a kiss the only sign of love? A couple is not really a couple unless they show many kisses to the world? If two people kiss in a drinking game, it means they love each other?

They pretty much say they are soul mates and that they plan to spend the rest of their lives together. If they weren’t 2 guys, if they were a guy and a girl, would people still be calling this “just friends” stuff?

The list of BLs that are called bromance is big. Untamed, Guardian, Cure… Is not a coincidence that they are Chinese. This means censorship. A very hard censorship.

I’m currently CM for the anime Cure and all the time I get messages about this. I always reply that just friends don’t do what they do. But I keep thinking if they paint sand pictures and keep looking longingly at their friends. And again, if they were a guy and a girl, would they say this is just friendship?

I know this is just me rambling, but, seriously, some comments and even complaints, make me wonder what is romance to society and if it has anything to do with love or is just based on kissing and other physical stuff.

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Cure is a BL Cheng Ke waited for Jiang Yuduo whilst he was at the mental hospital for a long time and don’t let me get started about WoH… They are both BL and really good once…

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Censorship usually comes from an authority.

Would you like the genre tag on Cure here on Viki to contain also BL?

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Thank you!!! <3 WoH is one of my favorite love stories <3

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Yep, it comes from a very high authority.
The anime was tagged as BL and then it was removed so I’m not sure if they will put it back if I ask.

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They’re simply inexperienced in the BL genre. For some people, things have to be explicit and the censorship doesn’t help.
In Dramaland, confessions of love, kisses and hugs are the usual demonstrations of love. If there aren’t any, I can understand why some people might be confused.

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Most of them are BL watchers. They just think it’s not love unless it’s spelled it out. Some even went on Twitter to complain about BLs like Sotus. That they are bromance because they only have like 1 kiss. I didn’t go on twitter anymore after that LoL

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That’s… ridiculous! :joy:

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On this topic, “Stay with Me” is a Chinese drama, and I still have a couple eps left, but it is undoubtably a BL and I am pretty sure it falls into the category of being censored, however, Viki has tagged it as a BL.

The censorship of this one (or lack of???) has actually been a hot topic in the live comments on the show because there are so many how-did-this-pass-censorship moments that are so clearly not friendship things, lol.

I find this topic really interesting, and I’m always trying to learn more about how censorship works!

Anyway, if you love BL, this is a “censored” drama that isn’t painful or annoying to watch because their relationship and love are shown in other ways that are just as clear as kissing or whatever people always want to see. It’s love, pure and simple! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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tbh woh and the untamed where the best bl’s i’ve ever watched, they are tthe reason i got hooked to bl’s.

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the censorship has gotten a bit more stricter during these recent years, they weren’t this inflexible during the 2000’s, i’m impatiently waiting for it’s season 2 because they ended the first season on a cliffhanger. suyu and wu bie are one of the most sweetest couples i’ve ever seen

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I completely agree. Loved both of them. Seems like I should rewatch them :sob:

And, as far as I’m concerned, I’ve been waiting for bls/bromance shows like Immortality, Winner Is King and Eternal Faith for a while now. But sadly, I can’t see them happening anytime soon. :sob:

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I didn’t think of them before, and I don’t know if you or anyone else watches them, but donghuas seem quite censored as well (I’m speaking specifically about ones that are a “BL” in disguise, not all donghuas). If not being from China, it seems like “Heaven’s Official Blessing” and “Legend of Exorcism” would be able to clearly be BLs – though I consider them as BLs nonetheless. If I’m not mistaken, a lot of these not-BL-but-brotherhood donghuas start as a BL novel, but once adapted, they lose any clear instances of romance (anyone more familiar, correct me if I’m off!).

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I have been waiting for eternal faith too… I love the novel and I have watched the anime too, i really want to see the drama. Though the shooting was completed, i don’t know when they will release it and it really tortures me. :frowning:

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Same here. Hope we get some good news. It’d be a shame. :sob:

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All of them are most certainly BL and are adapted usually from a novel of the same name. As a person who has seen and read both I can say that while the essence of the plot is along the same line with some major changes it is not that different. Just highly censored but sometimes the chemistry makes up for it and what it dosen’t the novel can give a good idea of the plot.

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“Romantic love” involves wanting to rub your body on the other person’s body. Period. This is synonymous with being “in love”. You want to be physical with this person as well as hang around them and experience both their personality and body.

Lust = wanting to be physical, but you don’t really care about hanging around with the person.

The separate term “romantic” by itself can mean being sentimental or having other soulful feelings. Not related to boning.

There a tons of levels of friendship and types of plutonic love. You can be soulmates or kindred spirits in a completely plutonic way. Best friends, siblings, cousins, childhood friends, someone you’ve bonded with over shared experiences (roommates, summer campmates, coworkers, survivors of trauma, etc).

It’s also common to have romantic love with one person and be soulmates with someone else. Your best friend might know you better than your lover.

Frat hazing, like in SOTUS, can definitely bond people into kindred spirit/plutonic love situations. But having watched it, I have to say that the main couple in SOTUS is definitely more romantic love than bromance.

For censored C-dramas like Stay With Me, you can have romantic love that is not consummated-- especially when the characters are teenagers. You can convey romantic love feelings to the audience with mutual looks between characters or private moments with a single character.

So, yes, you can have a BL with no physical contact, but you have to convey to the audience that the characters WANT to have physical contact because romantic love involves wanting that. Otherwise, it’s a bromance. Just saying you want to be friends forever is not enough.

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