Anime about a ghost chinese gay
MCLC Resource Center is pleased to state publication of “Navigating Transmedia Storytelling and Franchising in Chinese BL: Heaven Official’s Blessing,” by Linshan Jiang. The essay appears below and at its online home: https://u.osu.edu/mclc/online-series/linshan-jiang/. My thanks to Linshan Jiang for sharing her work with the MCLC community.
Kirk Denton, MCLC
By Linshan Jiang
MCLC Resource Center Publication (Copyright August 2023)
Promotional poster for the first season of Heaven Official’s Blessing.
Danmei (耽美), or BL (Boy’s Love), refers to male-male relationship. Although it originates from Japanese well-liked culture, it is now also immensely popular in China. In the Chinese market, successful and profitable cultural productions are referred to as IPs (intellectual properties), a idea aligned with Henry Jenkins’ notions of “transmedia story” and “transmedia franchise” (Jenkins 2006: 95, 96). These transmedia stories unfold “across multiple media platforms,” with each contributing uniquely to the overall narrative (Jenkins 2006: 95–96). At the same time, IP or “transmedia franchise” cater to market demands, and the latter can “[pitch] t
I was a fan of BL and yaoi for many years, but I basically despaired at these genres in anime since 90% of them are extremely problematic. But recently, a good friend of mine introduced me to a few anime series that are classically danmei (Chinese BL, basically). It was a new exposure for me since I had never watched a donghua (Chinese animation) before. Now, I will contribute my thoughts on two shows I enjoyed: Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) and Tian Guan Ci Fu (Heaven Official’s Blessing).
For a little bit of background, both of these series are based on novels written by the amazing author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. There are various adaptations of her works, from live operation dramas to web comics. Mo Dao Zu Shi and Tian Guan Ci Fu are similar in terms of setting and story themes, but they are written to be separate universes. Both are also fantasy, and of course, both of them get pretty gay. I’ll explain more about the settings in the two following sections. Let’s launch with Mo Dao Zu Shi.
Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation)
Note: Every site I tried gave me extremely poor quality screenshots. An exampl Tian Guan Ci Fu (天官赐福, or Heaven Official’s Blessing in English) is a noteworthy addition to China’s growing anime (known as donghua, in Chinese) industry for many reasons. The series is US animation distributor Funimation’s first Chinese acquisition, and its story revolves around two characters with a very unexpected relationship. Adapted from a web novel of the same name, Tian Guan Ci Fu (also referred to as TGCF for short) opens with a brief introduction to our main character Xie Lian, a god who ascends for the third period to Heaven after entity banished twice before. Though talented in the martial arts and compassionate in nature, he is the laughing stock of Heaven due to his previous mishaps. The first profession that Xie Lian is tasked with upon his return is to solve the mystery of the Ghost Bridegroom—a rumored ghost who kidnaps brides-to-be in a remote village. Up until its second episode, TGCF seems like your usual Chinese mythology, featuring Qi-cultivating gods interacting with the mortal realms. However, in that episode, the gods force Xie Lian to cross-dress as a bride to lure the Ghost Bridegroom. This l . .A same-sex romance, front and center