This study focuses on the interaction, creation, and practical activities of the Thai Boys’ Love drama cyber-fandom. Through interviews, it examines how fans accept and consume the culture, and how their gaze and perception of Boys’ Love and Thailand changes in the process, and how fans influence each other. In the Thai Boys’ Love dramas cyber-fandom in Japan, people with diverse gender identities and sexualities, mainly women, intermingle, learn, and become aware of their changing gaze towards Thai and Japanese culture, queerness, and various related issues. Within a transnational framework, Thailand’s culture is contrasted with others, particularly the west, and an oriental gaze has emerged in this context. Boys’ Love content does not comprise the monolithic global queerness of Western culture, and fandoms have an attitude of learning. A movement beyond national Thailand–Japan framework has also emerged that explores its multifaceted nature within a single-issue context. Thus, the Thai Boys’ Love drama fandom, comprised of diverse subcultures, overcomes the oriental perspective and reflects on the national framework by consuming Boys’ Love’s queer content.

Authors:
Sae Shimauchi, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Sae Shimauchi is an Associate Professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, International Center. Her research interests lie in the area of internationalization of higher education and cultural studies ranging from theory to practices.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sae-shimauchi-5546018/

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sae-Shimauchi

Additional website of interest
https://researchmap.jp/saereal

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