Question about genre and love in c-dramas

As someone who specifically looks for BL dramas etc, there is an increase of LGB content hitting the mainstream, but it appears differently out of different Asian countries.

China has censorship issues especially after the drama Addicted, which was cut short and banned and the actors were banned from appearing together (all episodes up till the ban were recently released on Viki this year). After that point, like what another poster said, it is all very "bro"mance etc, like The Untamed (based on a BL novel, but produced as “best friends” who happen to be very intense together). Independently, there are smaller productions which post seem to be too small-fry to end up on Viki for now. However one BL has emerged out of China but is exclusive to Viki and outside-China due to the censorship (Capture Lover). In a way these “girls presenting as male” may be trying to target what would be the BL audience, if only in a round about way.

Thailand has quite a bit of BL, mostly on Netflix. They have long seasons, and Netflix only seems to have S1, and then you have to look elsewhere for any further seasons. They DRAG IT OUT. Takes an entire season (20+ episodes) of tension, flirting etc before they are “together” and you’re lucky if you see them kiss. Viki did recently just post Love By Chance out of Thailand, but is missing some other ones like Love Sick and SOTUS.

Taiwan is like the rebel against China. They are producing a lot of BL content as it becomes more popular as that stuff is more acceptable there. Rumor has it the writer for Addicted is going to produce something in Taiwan to avoid censorship (pre-covid though).

Korea is… getting there? Obviously most stuff is straight. I’ve seen some gay side characters in straight stuff (like Reply 1997) but still very limited. Viki has released some new gay content out of Korea, but I think it is produced by Viki, most likely seeing that BL is popular and trying to get in on the Korean drama bit of it. However what has come of that has been short/limited so far. There are some movies out of Korea, but they follow the kind of “tragic” trope of gay movies trying to be artistic, rather than a cute fluffy story that we can all enjoy.

There are also some similar movies out of Japan, but I admit I don’t want much J-drama and I don’t think there’s much gay content coming out of it.

A lot more LGB content appears on places like youtube or second-hand drama sites that aren’t official like Viki.

I like Asian LGB dramas etc cause its nice to have a cute romantic plot that appeals to me. Even in America shows that focus on an LGB couple seem lacking, though things like Love Victor are coming more to the forefront now. Otherwise, things tend to be tragic, which isn’t always a good impression as then to be gay = tragic/bittersweet ending.

Sorry if you got more of an LGB drama break down than you were looking for, ha. But even then I don’t see a lot of it coming up on the forums looking for it just now, honestly.

**I am leaving the T off of LGBT cause I haven’t found any dramas that include it. Surprise? Nah. Not there yet I guess.

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