Danmei

Danmei (Chinese: 耽美; pinyin: dān měi; lit.: 'indulging beauty') is a genre of literature and other fictional media, originated in China. Danmei is typically created by, and targeted for a female audience. The term itself means "indulgence in beauty" and symbolizes the romanticizing of male–male relationships, from a female perspective. [1]

The term danmei is borrowed from the Japanese word tanbi, which means "the pursuit of beauty".[2] The literary genre is also based on the Japanese BL manga literature after its global spread and integrate local homosexual tradition and perspectives. It was introduced to China through Taiwanese translations in the early 1990s.[3] Some describe this literature as a promiscuous uke, which is "a sea that receives all rivers."[2] Danmei emerged from fiction produced by an underground fandom. It is currently considered a cultural movement because it serves as an alternative to real queer literature, which does not exist in China, and plays a role in the formation of homosexual identity in the country.[4] However, the Chinese government consider danmei, that includes explicit erotic scenes, as pornographic content. Pornography is illegal in China in general [5], and selling books including such content caused the imprisonment of danmei erotica writers to jail [6] [7].