Transnational Slash: Korean Drama Formats, Boys' Love Fanfic, and the Place of Queerness in East Asian Media Flows
In contrast to scholarship emphasizing the social and sexual conservativism of South Korean and East Asian popular culture relative to Western media, Lessard makes the case that queer cultural forms and online fandoms should be seen as a driving force in East Asian media flows. Focusing on the queer themed Korean drama, You're Beautiful, and its subsequent formatting for Japanese and Taiwanese markets, Lessard traces the transnational, queer circuitries of adaptation underlying You're Beautiful's courtship of both traditional broadcast markets and diverse online viewerships. Lessard argues that transnational queer fandoms, including yaoi and BL (Boys' Love) fanfic communities, have played an important, yet often overlooked, role in the regional as well as global successes of East Asia's creative industries.