Madrid, 11 de abril de 2012.
DESCRIPCIÓN DE LOS PROCEDIMIENTOS DE CONSULTA INTERNOS Y EXTERNOS UTILIZADOS PARA LA ELABORACIÓN DEL PLAN DE ESTUDIOS.
The figured worlds of the texts demonstrate the social parameters in which the characters can acceptably fall in love. But, what are we dealing with when we speak of love in this contextual framework? What about desire, intimacy, lust? Are these all facets of the same cube? While scholars have pointed out that love, as a dimension of intimacy, has taken on different meanings over time (Jamieson, 1998, 2011), conceptualizations of love are culturally bounded, geographically differentiated, and temporally specific (Lutz, 1986; Jackson, 1993; Doherty et al., 1994). Even though romantic love has been observed in nearly every culture (Jankowiak & Fischer, 1992), its nature is culturally specific (Giddens, 2013), and it is therefore vital to consider the ethnocentric nature of scholarship on love in my appraisal of love in queer microfiction. In the Western historical context, love promoted individualism and “freed individuals from the weight of tradition, especially
144 when it took the form of passion” (Kaufmann, 2011, p.159). Yet, in more collectivistic societies, such as China, love and intimacy were traditionally less important than other factors as a basis for marriage (Dion & Dion, 1993, 2006; Jackson et al., 2006). Accordingly, the Western ideal of romantic love characterized by “intense feelings, disregard of others’ views of one’s lover, and complete mutual absorption would be regarded as disruptive” in Chinese culture (ibid, p.59). Indeed, the term lian ai (恋 爱, romantic love) in Chinese "is strictly a modern linguistic creation reflecting the need of an expression for its Western equivalent" (Hsu, 1981, p.49). This is a point of note for this study, as even though Western understandings of love do not necessarily align with Chinese ones, several of the micronovels—emerging from and speaking to Chinese cultural audiences—do indeed feature such ‘disruptive’, passionate relationships. In this regard, I believe it is therefore important to consider the transnational influences to which such literature and audiences are subject, and to consider whether the juxtaposition of romantic, individualistic narratives with the burden of familial and social responsibility demonstrates a way of reconciling transnational narratives on intimacy, romance and modernity with more traditional conceptualization of love and family.
Discussing the construction of ‘romance’ as a literary art form in English- language fiction, Cawelti states that “[t]he moral fantasy of the romance is that of love triumphant and permanent, overcoming all obstacles and difficulties” (2014, pp.41–42). The enduring nature of love is therefore considered a key feature of romance novels in the Western tradition, yet audiences have become discerning in what this constitutes. Specifically, for readers of the BL genre (even in Western contexts), the notion of “happy ever after” does not appear to be of primary importance. An online survey conducted by Pagliasotti in 2005 of readers of English- language BL manga from primarily English-speaking countries reported that having a “happy ending” was selected by only 6% of respondents, the least popular of the
145 response options inquiring as to the most important aspect of a BL romance120
(Pagliassotti, 2008, p.66).
Micronovel A002 (see p.295) offers an example of a long-standing love affair between two men, which is interrupted through the obligation of one of the men to enter a heterosexual marriage arrangement. The narrator of the story identifies periods of his life only by his age at certain events, e.g. the characters’ first meeting at the age of nine (1994 年，我 9 岁，与他相识 In 1994, when I was 9, I got to know him
)
, although no indication is made of the age of the other character, or in which social setting the characters affected this first contact. It can be assumed, given the timeline of the story, that both characters are of a similar age, and that perhaps the first meeting occurred at school, or in the playground, although no such information is provided. This could be seen as an alternative to a different sort of life-history narrative, which may construct events around such formative locations (particularly institutional ones) as a basis for shared experience. By indicating age in this manner, the animator seeks to show how the love between these two characters has developed since childhood, through their teenage years, into the present. The story is left open to interpretation, as to whether their love will endure beyond the social conditions that they must now live in [终于和他一起步入结婚礼堂，他是新郎，我是伴郎 [I] finally walked together with him into the wedding hall. He was the bridegroom. I was the best man], but it brings to light the issue of ‘true love’, which shows a high degree of penetration in queer-themed microfiction. Speaking to Chinese producers and consumers of BL/danmei microfiction for this project, several respondents claimed that, given the cultural requirement for social conformity, to behave in such a sexually transgressive (through desire or compulsion) manner must be a manifestation of ‘true love’, as nothing else could compel a person to violate social norms. This confirms McLelland’s findings from his analysis of Japanese BL manga, who states that “as a fantasy trope for women, male homosexuality is understood to120 The most popular responses to Pagliassotti’s survey were “detailed sexual descriptions” and “love
146 be a beautiful and pure form of romance” (McLelland, 2000b, p.287) despite such real life same-sex intimacies being not markedly more acceptable in Japanese society than in Western contexts (McLelland, 2000a). This viewpoint therefore simultaneously demonstrates similar attitudes towards social conformity in the Chinese context, and the prevailing attitudes towards same sex attraction within contemporary Chinese culture:
[What I enjoy is] pure love without any purpose that encourages these protagonists to carry on, and their persistence towards each other no matter how much misunderstanding and prejudice they will encounter.
—Sheng121, 25-year-old heterosexual female
Businesswoman from Anhui. Microfiction consumer
Homosexual love tends to face bigger obstacles than heterosexual love. Love stories that depict how a homosexual couple overcomes these obstacles to be together can better illustrate the pureness, value and beauty of love, compared to general heterosexual love stories.
—Lili, 25-year-old female, sexuality undisclosed Businesswoman from Chongqing
Microfiction prosumer
147 Some women are aware of the unfairness in heterosexual
relationships in China, women are usually in the inferior position, so they turn to gay relationships to fulfil their fantasy and realize their idea about real love.
—Jinhua, 32-year-old female, sexuality undisclosed Businesswoman from Beijing Microfiction consumer, author of BL novels Jinhua’s response is interesting to appraise, because her worldview seems to delineate between two differing types of privilege; that born of gender, and that of sexuality. In this regard, she is asserting that in China’s heteropatriarchy, women are appropriating stories of gay relationships in order to redress a power-imbalance between males and females. Yet it is widely acknowledged that same-sex intimacies portrayed in BL and danmei fiction are romanticized facsimiles of heterosexual relationships, which even funü themselves concede are not accurate reflections of real-life homosexual unions. That such relationships in China bear no legal recognition and remain socially marginalized is not seen as the key issue. It cannot be denied that undertows of this train of thought can be observed in the collection of microfiction; seldom do issues of gay rights become evident within the texts themselves. This, then, is consistent with the idea of danmei as a form of what Williams calls ‘queer stylization’, where “[t]hrough the creation and consumption of media featuring speculative male-male kinship, fans re-imagine in unique ways hegemonic gender roles in the realms of sex, marriage, family, career and public life” (Williams, 2015, sec.2) .
As previous studies have primarily focused on female consumption of BL fiction, I was eager to see how male consumers of this style of fiction react to the idea of gay relationship constituting ‘true love’ within the figured world of queer- themed microfiction:
148 It [being in a gay relationship] is quite different from marriage
between a man and woman, and it’s quite a set belief that gay relationships are more ‘pure’ than marriage between a man and woman, because gay couples are not legally accepted in Mainland China, so most of the gays… the reason that they are with the other guy is not because he is wealthy. It’s a union based on love, that’s the only reason.
—Zhaozhuo, 28-year-old gay male Technical support worker from Fujian Microfiction consumer
Sometimes people joke that only the love between the same sex is a ‘true love’.
—Xuan, 23-year-old gay male Businessman from Liaoning Microfiction prosumer and author
In general, it seems that male respondents were familiar with the conceptualization of homosexual relationships as ‘true love’ within the literary genre, but were also sceptical about the general level of knowledge about gay existence by funü readers of BL/danmei fiction:
I would say it [BL microfiction] is mostly written by non-gay publishers, and for some reason…I can’t really understand why… they somehow glorify and beautify all of these same-sex settings, especially the boys and the relationship between the boys, so sometimes you feel it’s very artificial. It’s quite unreal. You’d have to be too lucky to be in that situation […] I think
149 they’re just projecting their own fantasies and using their own
imagination about these things.
—Zhongyu, 27-year-old gay male Student from Hubei Microfiction prosumer
It’s all about the beauty. These are known as Rotten Girls, and one of the features is that it’s all about the fantasy, not about what really goes on in a real gay couple.
—Tieying, 22-year-old gay male Student from Zhejiang
Microfiction consumer Several male respondents were openly critical of the funü consumers, who they see as having little to no knowledge of tongzhi lived experience. Tieying, during his interview, accused funüof “ventriloquizing gay identity to achieve their own means”. Indeed, given the majority consumer demographic of Chinese BL/danmei microfiction, the idealization of love seen here is consistent with findings from female BL consumers in other areas of the world (Pagliassotti, 2008), and feeds into the preoccupation of many consumers with the notion of ‘true love’. This then becomes a goal that is only achievable through transgression of social obligation: precisely because such love is marginalized and stigmatized, it becomes a reflection of the fruit of hard-earned and counter-cultural efforts. Therefore, homosexuality, or at least relationships between two men of undeclared sexual orientation, is appropriated as a vehicle to achieve such a result.
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