“I feel like a ‘cyber‐gypsy’”: BL fanfiction writers in China's changing landscape of fandom culture

Abstract

AbstractIn 2020, Archive of Our Own, a renowned fanfiction website, became inaccessible in China due to mass reporting by a celebrity's fans upset about him being portrayed as having a gender identity disorder in a fanfiction. This event led to increased regulation of Boys' Love (BL) content on many Chinese fanfiction platforms, posing challenges for writers. This study interviews Chinese BL fanfiction writers post‐incident and explores their strategies for navigating the shrinking creative space. It argues that China's current fandom culture is capital‐driven, data‐centric, and commercial, fostering a “fanquan (fan circle)” culture that redefines the meaning of “being a fan.”