Boy’s love novels in contemporary Chinese internet literature

As the most important subgenre of Japanese tanbi (aesthetic) literature, boys’ love fiction (hereafter BL) refers to the (young and beautiful) male/male romances created by female writers and circulated among female readers. BL literature has become one of the most important and widely read literary genres in contemporary Chinese Internet literature. It is estimated that 50% of female Internet literature is tanbi literature. This paper aims to provide introductory research on this topic. It consists of two parts. First, the paper examines the history of BL literature in general, and it uses works by Konohara Narise, due to her great popularity and influence among Chinese BL literature readers, as examples to explore some of its particular characteristics. The second part of this paper focuses on the development of BL literature in contemporary China