baihe_media | Sep. 30th, 2023

Sep. 30th, 2023

This post is meant to provide a brief introduction to baihe as a literary genre and a starting point for those seeking to get into it. I consider baihe to be a distinct genre of its own, though I'd be hard-pressed to articulate its precise contours (or even general contours). Certainly I have a sense of baihe as being distinct from what I would classify as 'serious queer/lesbian literature', though here I'm hampered by my lack of knowledge about queer literature written in Chinese. Yan Geling's (严歌苓) novella White Snake might conceivably count as one, but I'm simply too unfamiliar with the genre as a whole to provide any sort of sensible comment. I also have a sense of baihe as being in conversation with its Japanese counterpart yuri, but again I'm woefully ignorant of yuri as a genre.

Baihe often seems to be regarded by international fandom as a sort of distaff counterpart to danmei (m/m romance), but my sense is that mainland baihe readers (and potentially other Sinophone audiences in Asia) do not really see baihe and danmei as having particularly close links beyond the fact that they deal with same-gender romance. In fact, I I've seen more mainland baihe readers say they also read yanqing (f/m romance, whose popularity runs rings around both danmei and baihe) than baihe readers say they also read danmei. There is also limited overlap between baihe and danmei in terms of their authorship. There are more authors who write yanqing+baihe than authors who write danmei+baihe, and I can think of no major danmei author who also writes baihe, or vice versa. To date, the only author I can definitively point to who writes both danmei and baihe (as well as yanqing) is Xiao Wu Jun (小吾君) who, while not unknown, is not exactly a major author. There seems to be limited overlap between baihe and danmei in terms of popular subgenres as well. Again, I'm not very familiar with danmei as a genre, but my sense is that a good number of the popular works are historical novels or xianxia novels, while a significant proportion of popular baihe novels are contemporary romances (which would, I think, be legible to a reader of Western genre romance as such). In terms of sheer audience numbers, baihe is very much regarded as a niche genre relative to danmei (quite popular) and yanqing (massively popular).

Having impressed you with my vibes-based ramblings and multiple admissions of ignorance, let's get down to what I do know about the genre. Under the headings below, you'll find information about where baihe novels are published, a list of major baihe authors (plus a few who specialise in specific niche subgenres), a list of notable works that I think provide a useful foundation for understanding the genre, and information about adaptations of baihe novels. A major caveat is that I'm focusing almost exclusively on works by mainland Chinese authors, both because these make up the greatest proportion of baihe novels and because I'm most familiar with them. There are also baihe novels by authors from elsewhere in the Sinosphere, most notably Taiwan, but I am much less familiar with them, so that will need to be the subject of another post (preferably by someone who knows the field much better than I do!)

( Baihe novels and where to find them )

( On the state of baihe novel translations )

( Top 10 current baihe authors )

( 10+ baihe novels that are helpful for understanding the genre )

( A note about adaptations )

I am grateful to xiaozhu for providing valuable input (and making sure I didn't say anything too obviously wrong) into this post. Read their translation of baihe showbiz tragedy Burn here. Special thanks to

superborb for doing the thankless grunt work of proofreading and checking each link.

douqi

Some baihe manhua are adaptations of existing works (generally of baihe novels), while others are original. At the time of writing, the latter significantly outnumber the former. It is only fairly recently that some of the most popular novels have been licensed for adaptation as manhua.

The baihe manhua translation scene is noticeably more active than the baihe novel translation scene. Official translations into English are available in some cases, and fan translations are available for most of the major baihe manhua. In the lists of notable works that follow, I will provide links to official translations where these are available, as well as to relevant fan translations (in the case of the latter, where I can be satisfied on a balance of probabilities that they are not machine translations).

( Baihe manhua and where to find them )

( Notable baihe manhua (adaptations) )

( Notable baihe manhua (originals) )

I would like to thank Lunaa of Zephyr Scans for her valuable insights into the baihe manhua scene, without which this post could not have been written. Check out the Zephyr Scans Discord server here! Special thanks to

superborb for doing the thankless grunt work of proofreading and checking each link.

douqi

This is going to be a very short post. The simple reason for this is that there is, to date, a grand total of one baihe donghua — Soulmate Adventure (风灵玉秀, pinyin: feng ling yu xiu; sometimes given the more literal English title of Spirit Wind Elegance). This is an original donghua, in the sense that it has not been adapted from an existing work. There is, to date, no donghua which has been adapted from a baihe novel.

( About Soulmate Adventure )

Special thanks to

superborb for doing the thankless grunt work of proofreading and checking each link.

douqi

Let's start by getting an important point out of the way: there is, to date, no live action adaptation of a baihe novel which has already aired. The authors of the two most popular current-generation baihe novels, Miss Forensics (我亲爱的法医小姐, pinyin: wo qin'ai de fayi xiaojie) and Reading the Remnants (问棺, pinyin: wen guan), have indicated that they have been approached about possible live action adaptations, but both have turned down these advances due to concerns about the major plot and relationship changes that would be needed to allow the adaptations to air. However, a live action adaptation of the extra from the contemporary baihe novel Kissing a Gardenia (都什么年代了啊, pinyin: ou shenme niandai le a) by Qi Xiao Huang Shu (七小皇叔), author of Reading the Remnants, has been filmed by an independent production team and is currently in post-production. This is projected to be a 30- to 40-minute film, and will air under the title When We Met (去年烟火, pinyin: qunian yanhuo; my preferred and more literal translation of the title is Fireworks of Yesteryear). The production team's Weibo account can be found here, and a subtitled version of their BTS reel can be viewed here. A live action adaptation of She Is Still Cute Today (今天的她也是如此可爱, pinyin: jintian de ta ye shi ruci ke'ai; also known as She Is Also Cute Today), the high school baihe manhua by Guo Si Te (郭斯特), completed filming in 2022, but at the time of writing, remains unreleased.

Mapping the landscape of GL live action is a complicated task, due to (i) censorship rules precluding mainland Chinese productions from being advertised explicitly as GL or baihe, meaning that the more ambiguous marketing tag of 'double female lead' is used instead; (ii) censorship rules meaning that any such production must rely heavily on subtext and coding instead of explicit displays of romantic affection or sexual interest; and (iii) the overlap between GL live action productions and what I think of as 'serious queer/lesbian cinema'. But I will do my best.

( Full-length dramas )

( Mini-dramas and short series )

( Short films )

Special thanks to

superborb for doing the thankless grunt work of proofreading and checking each link.

douqi

This is a community dedicated to baihe/GL media in any Chinese language (including Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, etc). Please feel free to post requests, news, discussions, meta, reviews, recommendations, thoughts, questions; share your fan works (including translations); and promote any relevant events. Both long and short posts are welcome!

If you're new here, or if you've been a lurker for a while, please feel free to tell us a little about yourself by commenting on this introductions post here. You may also want to take a look at the following resource posts, which provide an introduction to different forms of baihe/GL media:

You're also welcome to check out the baihe novel translation projects currently being undertaken by members of the community.

Complete translations:

Purely by Accident by Leng Qian Shan (translator: douqi; editor: x_los)
If I Could Mail You a Book by Yi Zhan Ye Deng (translator: hazevi; editor: riverofspring)
Jianghu (a short story) by L Si X Xi Y (translator: douqi; editor: x_los)
All About Summer: Galaxy's Breadth by Yi Zhan Ye Deng (translator: hazevi)
I Will Always Stay by Your Side (one-shot) by Yi Zhan Ye Deng (translator: hazevi)

Ongoing translations:

Burn by Chu Dao (translator: yuerstruly; editor: douqi; proofreader: mel)
Her Mountain, Her Sea by Fu Hua (translator: riverofspring; editor: hazevi)
To Embers We Return by Ning Yuan (translator: douqi)

Current and upcoming activities happening on the comm:

To Embers We Return read-along
Fan subtitling project for Soul Sisters

yuerstruly has also set up a couple of helpful calendars for keeping track of baihe audio drama releases and print edition/merch releases:

We are affiliated to the following communities:

c_ent

cnovels

Rules:

Content

'GL media' refers to works of fiction such as novels, comics, videogames, and live action and/or animated shows, dramas and movies. Variety shows, live stage performances, biopics and documentaries therefore fall outside the scope of the term and should not be discussed here.
The focus of the community is on GL media and not the lives of the actors or creators who make it. With that in mind, please do not post unsubstantiated gossip or speculation about actors' or creators' sexual orientation or romantic relationships in real life. If an actor or creator has been open about their sexual orientation or has disclosed that they are in a same-sex relationship (as several baihe authors are), it is fine to refer to it, but please don't make it the focus of a post.

Posting

Dreamwidth, like every other platform, has its own posting culture (not to mention technical idiosyncracies) which those new to it might not be familiar with. If you haven't been active on Dreamwidth before, you might want to take a look at a few introductory primers. Here is one aimed at Reddit users and one aimed at Tumblr users. There is also a Dreamwidth FAQ. Please also feel free to post any other helpful Dreamwidth primers you come across in the comments to this post.
You may either post directly to this community, or post on your own Dreamwidth journal (or other website or platform) and provide a link to the post here.
When posting, please remember to fill in the subject line.
Please remember to tag your posts. If you can't find a suitable tag, please either add a note at the end of your post, or send a message to douqi.
Please put the following under a cut tag: major spoilers, long text, and large or multiple images. On cut tags and how to use them, see this post.
I do not personally care about spoilers, but I understand many people do. If you're discussing something spoilery (whether in a post or in comments) and would like to hide it, you can do so either through the ROT13 method (link to ROT13 encoder/decoder here), or through Dreamwidth's 'expand details' function by using this code:
<details> <summary>Write a non-spoiler summary of what's hidden under the arrow here.</summary> Write your spoiler here.</details>
Alternatively, you can also use this spoiler text code:
<b>Highlight for spoilers!</b> *<span style="background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #FFFFFF">Write your spoiler here</span>*

Linking (and a note on machine translation ('MTL'))

When posting media links, you should provide a link to an official source where possible. However, in many cases, there are no official translations available, or the official translations available are subpar. In these cases, you are welcome to post links to unauthorised translations.
Many of the fan translations currently circulating online are produced using machine translation ('MTL'). If you are linking to a fan translation, and you are aware or discover that it is produced by MTL, please indicate this in your post or comment. Many fan translators will state whether they are using MTL in the 'About' section of their translation website.

No commercial use policy

This comm is a strictly non-commercial, fandom-only space. Members should therefore not engage in any commercial activity on the comm, including (but not limited to):

Promoting their commercial projects. This includes projects in which they are not directly involved, but which are carried out under the direction of an organisation with which they have a commercial affiliation (e.g. if A is an artist who contracts on a regular basis to work for a particular publisher, A should refrain from making posts promoting that publisher's titles). Of course, everyone remains free to recommend, review, discuss and hype up commercial projects in which they are not involved (regardless of whether another member is involved) and to which they have no commercial affiliation, in the usual fandom way. Members who do fan work alongside commercial work remain welcome to plug their non-commercial fan work;
Carrying out market research, such as product testing, focus groups, surveying members as to their reading preferences and habits, favoured genres, willingness to pay, demographic characteristics, and so forth;
Crowdsourcing ideas and suggestions for the purpose of developing a commercial project.

Members should also refrain from asking other members to make such posts on their behalf. While this is challenging (not to mention distasteful) for me to enforce, I would look very askance if (for instance) a member who had been inactive for a long time were to suddenly begin posting intensively about another member's commercial project. Please respect both the letter and spirit of these rules in good faith, and that will save a lot of unpleasantness on everyone's part.

Not a rule but a strong suggestion: when a commercially-published work or a commercial project is being discussed in the comm, members who are involved in or commercially affiliated with that project should refrain from participating too actively in the discussion. This is to avoid a 'chilling effect' on the ability of other members to discuss that project freely. In response to a review, for instance, a simple 'thanks for reviewing this!' would be fine. A rebuttal of the points raised in the review would be problematic.

Comm members are free (and indeed encouraged) to subject commercially-published work to rigorous critique, discussion and review. This is the case even if another member is involved in the production of that work. There is no expectation for comm members to 'pull their punches' (so to speak) when discussing a commercially-published work simply because another member is involved in it.

Further clarifications are available in the replies to this post. Please send a message to

douqi if you would like clarification on an individual case.

A final and very specific note

I am aware that the novels of Qing Jun Mo Xiao (请君莫笑, aka Please Don't Laugh aka PDL) are the ones most well known to international baihe fandom. As a result, discussions about baihe novels tend to become discussions about these particular novels 95% of the time. For various reasons, I have no interest in running a community that will, in practice, end up being about these novels. Because of this, please do not make or link to posts that focus on, discuss or centre the novels of Qing Jun Mo Xiao. It is fine to refer to them in passing (e.g. to mention one of the titles as the first baihe novel you read), but they should not be made the focus of an individual post or discussion. There are already many other spaces available for discussing those novels.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please send a message to

douqi.

douqi

Comment on this post to tell us a little about yourself! What got you interested in baihe/GL media in the first place, which works or what kinds of media you're most interested in, and your fanfic, fan art, fanvids and fan translations!

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Page Summary

douqi - Baihe Novels: Resource Post
douqi - Baihe Manhua: Resource Post
douqi - Baihe Donghua: Resource Post
douqi - GL Live Action: Resource Post
douqi - Welcome to the Baihe Community on Dreamwidth!
douqi - Introductions

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