Zhang, W. and Qiao, P. (2024) The production of girls’ love narrative in Couple of Mirrors (2021) through transmedia storytelling in contemporary China. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 38 (5). pp. 676-690. ISSN 1030-4312
Abstract
There has been a relative dearth of scholarly discussions surrounding the production of girls’ love (GL) narratives in mainland China since the 2010s. This article offers an illustrative case study of a successful GL multimedia storyworld, Couple of Mirrors (CM), which unfolds across a webtoon, a novel, and a web series. First, this article scrutinizes the multilevel state regulation on queer content creation in different media formats. Second, we draw on Henry Jenkins’ canonical conceptualisation of “transmedia storytelling” to delineate the ways that the production of CM differs from the mainstream BL transmedia stories. Through a textual and paratextual analysis of official producers’ and fans’ participation, we argue that CM’s transmedia storytelling creates explicit GL elements through negotiation between market preferences, heteropatriarchal ideologies, and governmental censorship. In doing so, we show that CM represents a successful non-heteronormative cultural commodity within the mainland Chinese media market.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Couple of Mirrors (CM); girls’ love (GL); gender and sexuality; transmedia storytelling; compensatory relationship; audience participation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Languages Cultures & Societies (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 01 Aug 2024 10:52 |
Last Modified: | 10 Mar 2025 15:02 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor and Francis Group |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/10304312.2024.2385664 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:215595 |