Biographical experience, desires, and interests: a case study of individual Hong Kong fans of Japanese Boy Love Comics

Abstract

This paper is an ethnographic attempt to understand the relationship between individual Hong Kong fans of Japanese Boy Love (BL) comics and the general image of male characters in BL through the fans’ derivative creation of BL. The key concept here is the desire. We show that while Hong Kong fans of Japanese BL comics share a collective meaning of the general image of male characters in BL comics, each of them tends to maintain a unique interest in it. We further argue that the unique interest in the general image of male characters in BL comics is closely related to the biographical experience of each individual Hong Kong fan. The biographical experience itself is a product of many social factors, among which family is the most important one. Following Sangren (2000), we argue that in order to understand how biographical experience shapes unique interest of each individual fan, we should understand how family as a social institution underlies the desire of individual fans toward BL comics in general and the general image of male character in BL comics in particular. The desires instituted by family in turn will be shown to motivate the unique behavior of individual fans toward BL comics. Through this ethnographic attempt, we shall try to transcend the classic dichotomy of individual and society, sociology and psychology, and culture and personality lingering in social sciences in general and sociology in particular.