if I remember correctly, portrayals of homosexuality or other lgbt stuff is banned in China. by not putting the tags they can fly under the censors
BL is the Japanese umbrella term meaning Boys Love. It encompasses everything in the genre having to do with guys loving each other. “Yaoi” is a term used by Western fans using a Japanese word for BL content that is sexual in nature. Differentiated from “shounen-ai,” the content of which is not sexual. If you went to Japan, you would find the genre under BL, but no references to either yaoi or shounen-ai.
There's basically no difference if you really late it out, and the thing abou some Chinese novels with clearly gay content, is it the main couple or side couple? If it's side couple, then we'll they're only supporting characters. If the work has a MAIN gay couple BUT doesn't have the "yaoi" tag, then that's because there's a second tag for boys love, and that's "Shounen Ai." A lot of the BL in novelupdates is labelled as Shounen ai, instead of yaoi.
Bl is basically the purer version of yaoi. The only difference is the guys keep it in their pants in Bl while in yaoi the pants come off
BL basically is anything involving male/male, yaoi is a specific type of bl Its the 18+ side of bl Shounen ai is Bl for those under 18
I see so many different explanations here, lmao. Anyway, I won't give you a lecture on what is yaoi and shonen ai and BL. Just filter all those terms if you don't wanna encounter it. The Chinese term is danmei, but I haven't seen NU using it as a tag yet. If a clearly BL novel doesn't have a tag, maybe someone was too lazy to add it. You can add it yourself and help out the community.
Yaoi can be romance between two men, but sometimes it may just be about gay sex with out romance at all. BL however, is romance between men guaranteed (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧