I am extremely thrilled to announce that I will be joining noted BL scholars Mizoguchi Akiko, Kristine Michelle Santos and Kim Hyojin in the Japan Foundation of New York‘s ongoing lecture series on Japanese girls’ culture. On May 12th, at 8PM US Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4), we will be discussing Boys’ Love: The History and Transformation of BL in Asia.

Naturally, I will be discussing the Thai context and drawing upon my forthcoming book Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture.

Here is the event blurb:

For our third episode of a special “Girls’ culture series”, we will focus on Boys’ Love (BL) genre and its media explosion across Asia. BL is male-male romantic content, originally created and marketed towards women by female manga artists in Japan to challenge gender and sexual norms in the 1970s. Over the years, BL has seen a tremendous growth in popularity and become a global phenomenon, expanding into media such as anime, prose fiction, live-action dramas, and fan fiction. As BL became more popular in other parts of Asia, it has evolved uniquely in each Asian country, taking on new meanings and forms within their own cultures.

You can RSVP to join the panel discussion via this link. The video will also be broadcast and archived on the Japan Foundation New York YouTube Channel, which I have embedded below: