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A Queer Fantasy World of The New Member: The Phenomenon of the First Boys' Love Musical in Taiwan
- Asian Theatre Journal
- University of Hawai'i Press
- Volume 35, Number 2, Fall 2018
- pp. 418-442
- 10.1353/atj.2018.0039
- Article
- Additional Information
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Abstract:
The "Boys' Love" genre (BL), which revolves around love affairs between beautiful young men, developed from Japanese shōjo manga and has grown to cover novels, animated films, and video games. When the first BL musical in Taiwan, The New Member, was to premiere in November 2014, BL fans expressed suspicion, since their delight in the genre stems in part from its presentation as a fantasy world imagined on paper or in pixels. This paper investigates how The New Member successfully converted the initially skeptical BL fans into raucous theatre-goers.