I'd like to know your thoughts on the divisive BL novel Dongfang Bubai’s Reborn Yang Lianting. When I came across the novel, I didn't know that Dongfang and Lian di were antagonists in a 1967 Jin Yong novel. A same-sex couple was written about in a mainstream wuxia novel written over 50 years ago?!
It should be noted though that this book is pretty transphobic. To be fair, it's more about what people are willing to sacrifice for the sake of power than it's about trans people per se. Also, homosexual relationships weren't taboo in China until the late-Ming era. Before then they were considered relatively normal, and there were Emperors who had male concubines.
I agree, to this day I can’t get the following lines out of my head. Spoiler: Smiling Proud Wanderer 31 Ren Woxing, Linghu Chong and the others had never witnessed such a strange sight in their lives, they had never even heard of such a thing. Homosexuality or paedophilia was not out of the ordinary. But to see Dongfang Bubai, the exalted Chief of the Sun Moon Sect, actually dressed up like a woman, and living in a woman’s quarters? He must have gone insane. That’s true! It's Western influence that brought up the idea that same-sex relationships are improper or illicit. The Han Dynasty is famous for its male favorites. The relationship between Emperor Ai and Dong Xian coined the cut sleeve term that's still used to this day. What I find interesting is that DFBB's YLT references the anti-homosexuality novel 宜春香質 written during the Ming Dynasty in one of it's titles. I think, the novel tries to strike a balance between 'greed for power' and 'accepting one's gender/sexuality.' Spoiler: DFBB If only I were a woman– But how could I be a woman? Spoiler: YLT How can two men be together? How can they even enjoy each other? If word gets out–