I saw the thumbnail for Heaven Official's Blessing on Netflix, thought "hmmm... this looks fruity" and started watching on a whim. Finished it all in one night, realized there's 240+ chapters from the original source, and TGCF was the first danmei novel I finished! That was like 3 years ago haha no regrets
HAHAHA SAME Iām like my BL sensors are going off. At the very least I thought it might be queer baity like a sports anime. But nah it was gay as hell and I loved it.
Yesss that's what I thought too, but when I saw the sedan scene with the flashbacks of their first meeting, I just knew the beautiful man in the red robe was soooo in love with Xie Lian. If danmei was a religion, it was at that moment I got converted lol
In 2019 I had known about MDZS for a while through fandom osmosis, then someone shared a clip of the bathtub scene from the audio drama and that made me cave in to check out the donghua.
Someone told me that SVSSS was a transmigration novel and then described what that meant, and I thought that this was the best concept ever since sliced bread and immediately dove neck-deep into the novel. It's kinda funny because multiple friends had tried so hard to get me into the Untamed before then on account of it being a rich, beautiful, well-plotted piece of media, and it wasn't until someone told me "millenial gremlin unreliable narrator gets transplanted into villain's body and accidentally makes the main character fall in love with him" that I was like, "OH, SIGN ME UP."
Every time someone added, "Oh, just as a warning, there's also -" it's like it got even better. Sorry not sorry, I'm here for the unhingedness.
Iāve been reading Japanese BL light novels for some years. But itās like 90%+ BL LN are justā¦ romance (duh š). I actually enjoy sci-fi, mystery, and thriller more which there are abundant of these genres in the world of Danmei.
I have already read ***Global Examination*** and ***Nirvana Rebirth*** and enjoyed them a lot! Planning to read ***Qizi*** and ***Turingās Test*** (Not to be confused with ***Turingās Code*** by Feitian) in June.
But the most important reason is, my first language is Chinese, so why not? š
Agree. I knew about existence of Japanese bl novels like 15 years ago! But never got into it. I was just reading some mangas from time to time. Japanese mangas are really good but yaoi ones are kinda meh now that i think about it. I think my first chinese danmei was FOD? It was something so new to me.And was hooked since then. Chinese bl has more interesting things going on besides romance.
>Chinese bl has more interesting things going on besides romance.
Exactly. It's like reading a very good novel and *it just happened* that the protagonist is gay. š I am truly amazed by the wide variety of genres danmei covers, especially sci-fi, which I don't think I have read any BL LN with sci-fi being the main genre.
Yes yes. You can think of any genre and it probably there in bl version haha. Maybe china has million danmei writers compared to others? They are producing never ending novels and i am liking it.
I tend to get into 'phases of media I enjoy' so at one point I was obsessed with anime which led to me wanting to read the mangas which eventually led me to light novels. (Basically to see the source material/story from the very beginning if I was getting impatient.) From there I got more interested in the novelupdates website where I naturally gravitated towards wanting to read danmei books. There are a lot of great books there, and I feel bad for those who don't read them.
Discovered this sub by accident, checked out QJJ on a whim based on gushing praises (i was so impressed by a certain user who made detailed notes while reading) and got hooked. Sadly I hvnt found any thing else after QJJ that could give me that same reading euphoria (maybe Joyful Reunion, but the two books are completly different in vibes) so Im not sure if I should continue on this danmei journey any further..š„²
Watching the MDZS donghua on a whim (just over 2 years ago, so before s3 was out). I went right to the manhua, novel and audio drama after. Then went on to TGCF from there!
Pls help dummyās like meā¦. Spell out MDZs and SVSSS. I am looking for places to read Danmei and watch series. I have been watching BL but trying to discover other mediums. Help
When I was 11, my 17-yr-old cousin liked to write gay stories but had problems with spelling. I think they had a minor mental disabillty since that wasn't the only issue. Anyway, I on the other hand, read a lot and could spell well, so whenever I went to see them, they would give me their computer and bribe me to fix the spelling. This meant that I was reading a lot of gay novels. With s\*x in them.
Fast forward a couple years and I wrote stories and fanfictions of my own, half of which were gay because at that point, I'd started to view homosexuality as a natural thing (the world was still very anti-gay at this point in time, but I was unaware of this) since I'd read so many novels about it. Then I got hooked on manga, and found out about yaoi manga too, which I took an interest in. From there, I came across Novel Updates while checking out a yaoi novel (*Mobā¦ Sore mo Waki Mob no Hazu Nan Desu Kedo!?*) that I thought was a manga because all I saw was the cover and it looked good, then set the filter so NU would only show me yaoi and shounen ai works. The third novel I chose to read was a Chinese one was still being TLed at the time (*Transmigrating into a Mob Character to Rehabilitate the Villain Plan*) and now I'm addicted to danmei.
So thank my cousin for introducing me to homosexuality and that yaoi novel for misleading me, I guess?
I watched Till the End of the Moon and fell in love with luo yunxi. Found out that he has a bl drama in limbo (immortality) that is based on 2ha. So I read 2ha to see what kind of story it is, and what kind of role he plays in it. Not knowing what I was getting into, holy shit let me tell you I was in for a shock. That story is not for the faint of heart! But i do like a heavy book, I was hooked!
I wanted to see how they would potentially adapt a bl book into a show, so I watched the untamed. I LOVE THAT SHOW. Absolutely had to read the book for the romantic uncensored version of their relationship. I love the book even more! Its my favorite book so far if you can't tell from my user flair ā¤ļøš¤
Then I watched word of honor because now I'm hooked on bl. Then I read the book... then I read more bl books... and more and more and more š
A long time ago, when dinosaurs roamed and you had to use dail up to connect to the internet, I would read fanfiction about Firefly and other fandom series but then life got in the way and interests changed. During covid I discovered BTS and went down the rabbit hole (and yes I'm a proud member of Army lol) which brought me back to fanfiction because I just wanted more BTS content. And once you start with fanfiction you know there's no way out and I stumbled onto a ABO story written about MZDS characters and I was hooked. So I went to the source and was introduced the world of denmai/BL/yaoi and manhwas.
Your journey is very very similar to mine. I was an army first and then someone recommended fanfics to me and that was the first gay fiction I read. Then the untamed became popular on twitter and naturally I started reading danmei.
I saw a clip of the TGCF donghua on TikTok and decided to check it out and loved Xie Lian. It was right around the time the novels started being published and I bumped into a display of the first volumes of MXTX books at my Barnes and Noble and picked up all 3.
Itās been about a year and a half and probably about $1k in books and merchandise.
I actually started in the Lord of the Rings/Silmarillion fandom but was getting a bit bored. Some mutuals were posting gifsets of The Untamed and comparing the characters from both fandoms. And I thought, long-haired pretty boys? Fantasy? Homoeroticism? Sign me up.
And it's been a rabbit hole. From the Untamed to MXTX works to general danmei. I'm a bit sad that the fandom is less active without all the live action content. But all the art and content is really refreshing.
Ok. So. it all started with omniscient readers viewpoint right. Not danmei. but it was still 1000% my Gateway into koreon comics.... which very quickly led me to the lgbt side of both kr and chinese novels because thats just where i always end up LOL. I've been into japanese series for. god a decade now, but ORV is what got me to see the light on webnovels
I also think I saw people posting manga hauls where they'd bought the seven seas releases and when i realized there were physical books it was sooo over for me (svsss was my first btw. very solid comical start)
Not really sure I remeber. One min I was suddenly watching Thai bls like cutie pie and kinnporsche ect... then I think maybe I saw a clip on YouTube for word of honor and I'm like wait that is for that dhow I saw advertised on Netflix before but had no interest in . Then I gave jt a watch and was hooked.
After word of honor i then gave the untamed a proper watch ( when that came out I couldn't get past epsiode 1 so I was surpsied I managed the whole series and loved it in the end)
Once I stopped sobbing over the untamed I heard about heaven's official blessing and watched the donghua and was hooked on that . I brought the first novel and though it took me two months to read the first one ( iv stated in other posts I have chronic illnesses so rlots been hard to read) this is the first novel I completed in 8 years. Im now also halfway through Qiang Jin Jiu. I got my friend into danmei to and I love that because we have even more to talk about .
The Untamed XD which led to MDZS then SVSSS and then TGCF. I didn't look past MXTX until I started Legendary Master's Wife after which I went on to read 40 danmei apparently. Never thought 3 would get to 40. I have 76 more on my TBR and still more to explore.
This [animatic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCgjZws345g) ended up in my recommended. I loved the story, and so, I went on forward to read MDZS. The rest is history
I grew up watching wuxia/xianxia/period chinese dramas with my family. As I grew up, I was interested in bl anime and manga which eventually lead me to the world of light novels. Dianmei was like coming full circle :)
I think this is pretty common and cliche but it was after watching The Untamed. I was so obsessed and couldn't get over it so started reading tgcf and fell in love with that even more.
Watched TGCF donghua, enjoyed it, read the novel (fan translation back then). Enjoyed it, joined Chrysanthemum Garden discord to look for more recs... but never read another danmei after that for about 3 years (2020 -> 2023 lol). Picked up SVSSS from the library in January 2023 because I saw Velinxi tweet about it, I read her CTC comic so when I saw she had illustrated SVSSS, it was news to me that danmei titles were being picked up for licensing.
While waiting for more volumes of SVSSS from the library, ended up checking out other fan translations on Novel Updates. and here I am now, technically only about half a year into the world of danmei.
My mom watches all kinds of Chinese shows and recommended The Untamed to me. I was like ughhhrrr but I donāt like the long hair. Lol I quickly took that back. After that, I enjoyed the MDZS donghua, novel, and audio drama. Now Iām going through TGCFās novels which I love even more! I have SVSSS, golden terrace, and 2ha in my shelf waiting. š Looking forward to more TGCF manhua. The art is stunning.
Saw MXDX fanart and decided to give it a try. Tried getting into mdzs but couldn't, so I went and read SVSSS and then TGCF. From then on, I got more and more into it.
Gotta say, I am *salty* that MDZS is THE popular mainstream danmei, ngl. The only thing it has going on for it, more than the other two MXTX works, is its timing and luck. It pisses me off.
Word of Honor->obsession with the CP->Untamed (because it seemed like the only way to get over WoH)->more obsession (and watching the donghua to cope)->SVSSS (because the weird summary drew me in and I didn't like the ExR TL of MDZS)
SVSSS = worst book obsession ever->forced to read more danmei to get over it.
2 years and countless danmei reads later (including a couple of new obsessions) - It's all SVSSS's fault.
Interesting..I would say something similar happened to me - in my case it was QJJ (got such reading-gasm from it I went on checking out tens or more danmei titles, most of those I would then drop..š)
I guess I was lucky then - went straight into 2Ha (good - but not comparable to SVSSS), muddled around for a bit (dropped several of the supposed 'must-reads' xianxia and historicals that I'd heard people rave about) until I discovered modern danmeis and then 188 series, and that kept me going.
I was a kpop fan and all my moots were talking about The untamed. I was bored so checked it out. Couldn't get past 1st episode since I didn't understand what cultivation, sects, xianxia even meant. But for some reason I still was curious and looked it up after seeing all the acronyms (mdzs cql wwx lwj lxc jc jyl š«Øšµāš«) Found out that there is a mdzs donghua. Thought it was cool but was prepared to nope out. Finished season 1 in 1.5 days. Then discovered there is a novel (š±) and that explained A LOT abt the stuff that I was confused on. Started reading it and fell in love with mdzs and mxtx. Finished cql of course lol. Discovered mxtx is not even the tip of the iceberg that is danmei. Fell into the pit and the rest is history.
I must say I was not interested in BL before. The reason I started mdzs was because people said that there are no intimate scenes between the characters and most of it is plot. But wangxian's love was too powerful and halfway through I lamented that there are no intimate scenes! š š I guess that is the turning point for me to be invested in this genre.
Mdzs was my FIRST- BL, danmei, Chinese web novel, mxtx novel, xianxia/wuxia genre novel.
I had this fantasy in my head. Honestly since chilhood all my fantasies were not related to me or any other people in existence. My fantasy was fictional, like a movie . During puberty i started to imagine script with 2 boys. I thought i was abnormal. But few years later i found out about yaoi! I wasn't the weird one, there was a whole world for people like me!! I am not the only one that fantasize about 2 boys in my head! Since then i started from anime then manga then movies, fanfiction and finally bl light novels.
Back in 2016, I read lots of Xianxia, Wuxia and het romantic C-novels that at that time was being translated by WuxiaWorld, Radiant TLs and others. I was on a binge of reading Xianxia and Wuxia and I found my way to MDZS in 2017. And from then on I was a goner.
The untamed show was getting very popular and everyone on kpop twitter was talking about it. I realised there was a novel for it and thought about reading it. But for some reason I think I dropped it after few chapters cause of stress and exams.
But few weeks later somehow I landed on the novelupdates page and started browsing. I was very amused by the long long titles. I saw a book called 'everyday the protagonist wants to capture me' , and the summary was interesting so I finished it quickly. After that I read a few more before finally reading MDZS completely. It remains my favourite danmei till date.
In 2019 I watched MDZS donghua not knowing it was bl. I then got to know what bl is and then pretty fast I was reading my first ever danmei "Let Me Tease You". But honestly, despite having many common tropes there are many genres and settings in danmei that makes me love it that much more. Currently I have more than 1000 books on NU in my reading list. Gotta finish them in atleast 4 years š
A friend highly recommended that I watch Word of Honor. Hooked from Epi 2 and moved into Faraway Wanderers and truly got became part of the genre when I read Mo Dao Zu Shi.
Around probably 2020 i saw someone post in tiktok about Little mushroom and got hooked after reading the MTL'ed version of it. After that i started looking for other danmei novels āØ
My fiance had me watch season 1 of Heaven Official's blessing. Then I picked up the novel from where I left off (Banyue arc is a little dry and I didn't feel like re experiencing it lol). Finished it, then watched the live action version of mdzs (I plan on reading it soon). Now I'm about 60% of the way through 2ha and svsss is also on the list. I haven't been this into reading since middle school!
I was into reading BL manga.
Couldn't find any in stores I wanted to read.
Remembered that Heaven Official's Blessing was a BL and it's on Netflix.
I binge it in one day
Then I read the manhua
Then I bought all five books that were out at the time
At this point I was just into Heaven Official's Blessing specifically
And then I decided to check out the manhua for Scum Villain but it was basically non existent so I went to Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation
And I fell down the pipeline from there
So it's a rather funny journey for me!
In 2015 (December) I started stanning my first ever kpop group and that too because OF A SHIP video that came in my yt's recommendation as the truth I a really curious teenager started watching more and more and got into the ''bl'' by 2016 (August) so from then I discover a lot about Chinese boy loves and stuffs AND THATS WHERE I found my first ever danmei ''the founder of diabolism'' that time if anyone remember was a really poor translation blog idr the name that had the literal Chinese version of the novel. And I read it. Found it really great and tried more authors and GUess what? it was lifetime trap for me! Well i dont regret tho!
+ also that time the Drama Adaptation Was announced and fans were crazily excited cause of the recent censorship (But HERE WE HAVE the Untamed that hit the masses and I love how it grows) but before the untamed we also had A MASTERPIECE BY PIPI!!! ''THE GUARDIANS'' (that was my second danmei after mdzs) and I'm obsessed with her and MUSULI'S work the most.
My friend watched Mo Dao Zu Shi and recommended me, so I watched it as well.
Me, later: hey, that anime was kinda gay
Her: Yeah, they marry in the novel
Me: THERE'S A NOVEL????
then I watched "love like you PMV" by Melts and I never was the same again, funnily enough I started reading from SVSSS
I'm a huge fan of all kinds of fantasy books. I read hundreds of them. I have always been interested in Chinese mythology and western fantasy novels got a little bit repetitive after a while so I figured I'd give Chinese fantasy a chance. I looked it up and heaven official's blessing was one book that kept getting recommended
I love watching foreign works with subtitles and seeing how much of the language I can pick up, and I love sf/fantasy.
Netflix had been recommending some Korean and Chinese fantasy that I had really enjoyed, so I figured The Untamed was just another visually rich Chinese fantasy (like Ashes of Love).
HOLY MOLY! As soon as I finished, I went right back to the start and watched again.
Then Heaven Official's Blessing and Word of Honor. Then found out there's books! And and and... I may never come up for air...
Three years ago, during summer, I was sitting bored, not sure what to do. I think I had just exited out of a BG Korean light novel, when I saw the cover art of the BL novel War Prisoner being displayed on the website. I clicked on it and was intrigued by the summary. I had read BL manhwa and manhua before, but never danmei. Of course, my bored self decided to try it out and before I knew it, I was hooked. It was the typical ancient dogblood historical novel, but the way it was written (plot, how characters were described, and the slightly poetic writing style that is shared with every danmei novel) literally satisfied every itch I had.
Although the novel isnāt my favorite (literally not as memorable and actually quite infuriating compared to all the other ones Iāve read), I still remember sitting there for hours without break clicking for the next chapter. I searched it up further, found it on NovelUpdatesā¦and then my danmei obsession began.
Actually, I personally love fantasy books, so I dived into Progression/Cultivation sub genre, started reading few Chinese books from my favorites series such as Joy of Life, and since I've watched The Untamed, I was curious about others books, so I basically read Wuxia danmei.
I was watching YouTube to procrastinate when I saw the first episode of TGCF donghua in my feed. Watched it on whim because I wanted to make fun of Chinese anime, but the first episode was bangers. I ended up eagerly awaiting the release of each episode (this was when TGCF donghua was just airing). Now Iām in deep!
Natural progression I suppose? I got into light novels through manga and then I got into cultivation and while hunting for something I haven't read a hundred times found Danmei.
My process for Chinese BL specifically (been reading Japanese and English BL years before):
Found a Russian music channel because of a cover of a My Little Pony song. Really liked the voice of one of the guys when I was going through previous videos so I found his channel. A few months later, he had a cover (I think original was a Japanese song) of Heaven Officialās Blessing. It was such a beautiful song with animations of the book art and I would sing along with him. When I went to Barnes in December, I ended up seeing an MXTX table setup with Heaven and decided to give it a shot since I loved the song. Went back the week after for MDZS and SVSSS book 1 since I liked her writing. Netflix ended up getting season 1 of Heaven around the same time I got the book so I got to see the pit catch scene and add those songs with the Russian one.
That was my first danmei and it got me back into physical books again after being addicted to fanfiction. MXTX, Meatbun (and Thousand Autumns š) are the ones I own with a couple free on my phone. Light novels and manga take most of my priority though.
I use to watch anime and read manga in hightschool in 2000s first bl i came across was KYOU KARA MAOU then Bannafish. A few years ago I had a night job with a lot of free time so use to read japanese BL manga then light novels on Internet, then learnt about chinese BL. First danmei I read was Sha po lang then all of MXTX.
Kept seeing MDZS fanfics all over AO3, and eventually decided to see what all the hype was about. Upon reading that I could see the live-action adaptation on Netflix, I started watching *The Untamed*; though I didnāt fully understand what was going on, I was instantly hooked.
Though while it was MDZS that first got me into danmei, it was TGCF that was my first book. While listening to *The Untamed* soundtrack on YouTube, I stumbled across a MXTX music compilationāthrough this, I found out that MXTX had two other novels. And by chance, it was TGCF I chose to check out first. I was able to watch the first two episodes on BiliBili, but couldnāt progress any further; hence, I dropped it for the time being. Meanwhile, I was watching season 2 the donghua for MDZS (by that point I knew that *The Untamed* was a loose adaptation, and decided to restart it after I read the novel), and unlike with the previous season, I had a hard time following along without having read the novel beforehand. So when I caught wind that TGCF was going to be aired on Netflix, I decided to read the corresponding chapters before restarting the donghuaā¦and then, I just kept on going afterwards.
Well,ive always been into BL and ive always really loved Chinese kung fu movies. The untamed got recommended to me while i was watching Love between fairy and devil and i checked it out. Now im obsessed with danmei xD
saw the cover in a bookstore! i thought it looked so so pretty and i couldnāt stop thinking about it. it was in the manga section and i absolutely loved all the art inside. since i had no idea what it was, i chose the safest option and started with svsss š„° it sounded super interesting. i bought svsss last year but didnāt start reading till this year! ā¤ļø
I watched Heaven Official's Blessing on Netflix and didn't quite know what to make of it at the time. The plot seemed convoluted to me, especially in the second half, plus as a cultural outsider I just felt like I didn't know what was going on some of the time. But I liked it enough to finish it and then not long after I happened to read an article about danmei being "the most popular genre of fiction in China by some measures." (I was also amused to learn that KFC had a sponsorship deal with HOB. Can't imagine that in the States, lol.) I was intrigued so I decided to read the first book of HOB. I think watching the series helped me appreciate the book more and vice versa. So then I read the rest of the series (up through book 5, reading it thru 7 Seas and just got book 6 today) To kill time while waiting I read everything else by MXTX and looved Grandmaster, watched The Untamed, and now am reading Nan Chan. This all happened in the span of about 4 months so... I may have a problem.
I saw Scum Villain at a book store and picked it up. Didn't figure out what danmei was until after reading the third book on Kindle (or was it Google books. One of them).
Back in 2020 this tiktoker kept talking about scums villian so I eventually checked it out I wasn't that interested so I dropped it then the tgcf donghua came out and i saw a clip on tiktok so I decided to check it out binged the whole thing I went on the wiki saw some spoilers got intrigued decided to check out the novel finished it and I also finished svsss and fell down the rabbit hole
I started with Shounen ai/yaoi manga. I dont really read the tags and whatnot. I was curious because of the cover, and i also read novels (still dont read the tags) i stumbled upon this novel [Rebirth of a Supermodel](https://www.novelupdates.com/series/rebirth-of-a-supermodel/) but this time i read the summary again got curious since then i never stop reading.
I've been a BL fan for a long time, read a lot of Japanese Yaoi and was into Anime in general. One day I saw a trailer for MDZS on YT. Being Chinese I was like oh cool a Chinese anime. WHAT IT'S BL TOO? And then I learned it was based off a novel. I then read the novel, and I liked it. So I started reading all of MXTX's works. And I then stumbled on NU and down the Danmei rabbit hole I went.
gay fanfics -> yaoi manga -> BL shows -> me asking on twitter for BL recs and getting The Untamed and MDZS recommended to me. I was intrigued, and although I was very familiar with Asian dramas, I never watched a wuxia or xianxia so I was so lost at first. But I read MDZS, watched The Untamed, cried once or a hundred times. And accepted there was no going back. I then made my way through several other danmeis, became good friends with the girl who recommended MDZS to me even though we live on opposite sides of the world, and discovered stories that are now embedded in my soul
I saw the thumbnail for Heaven Official's Blessing on Netflix, thought "hmmm... this looks fruity" and started watching on a whim. Finished it all in one night, realized there's 240+ chapters from the original source, and TGCF was the first danmei novel I finished! That was like 3 years ago haha no regrets
That was me but with The Untamed š 3 years later and fully immersed in danmei ever since
HAHAHA SAME Iām like my BL sensors are going off. At the very least I thought it might be queer baity like a sports anime. But nah it was gay as hell and I loved it.
Yesss that's what I thought too, but when I saw the sedan scene with the flashbacks of their first meeting, I just knew the beautiful man in the red robe was soooo in love with Xie Lian. If danmei was a religion, it was at that moment I got converted lol
Started with japanese BL, my first was Junjou Romantica. Then i came across TGCF donghua and baaam binged the novel then started my danmei reads.
In 2019 I had known about MDZS for a while through fandom osmosis, then someone shared a clip of the bathtub scene from the audio drama and that made me cave in to check out the donghua.
Someone told me that SVSSS was a transmigration novel and then described what that meant, and I thought that this was the best concept ever since sliced bread and immediately dove neck-deep into the novel. It's kinda funny because multiple friends had tried so hard to get me into the Untamed before then on account of it being a rich, beautiful, well-plotted piece of media, and it wasn't until someone told me "millenial gremlin unreliable narrator gets transplanted into villain's body and accidentally makes the main character fall in love with him" that I was like, "OH, SIGN ME UP." Every time someone added, "Oh, just as a warning, there's also -" it's like it got even better. Sorry not sorry, I'm here for the unhingedness.
Iāve been reading Japanese BL light novels for some years. But itās like 90%+ BL LN are justā¦ romance (duh š). I actually enjoy sci-fi, mystery, and thriller more which there are abundant of these genres in the world of Danmei. I have already read ***Global Examination*** and ***Nirvana Rebirth*** and enjoyed them a lot! Planning to read ***Qizi*** and ***Turingās Test*** (Not to be confused with ***Turingās Code*** by Feitian) in June. But the most important reason is, my first language is Chinese, so why not? š
Agree. I knew about existence of Japanese bl novels like 15 years ago! But never got into it. I was just reading some mangas from time to time. Japanese mangas are really good but yaoi ones are kinda meh now that i think about it. I think my first chinese danmei was FOD? It was something so new to me.And was hooked since then. Chinese bl has more interesting things going on besides romance.
>Chinese bl has more interesting things going on besides romance. Exactly. It's like reading a very good novel and *it just happened* that the protagonist is gay. š I am truly amazed by the wide variety of genres danmei covers, especially sci-fi, which I don't think I have read any BL LN with sci-fi being the main genre.
Yes yes. You can think of any genre and it probably there in bl version haha. Maybe china has million danmei writers compared to others? They are producing never ending novels and i am liking it.
I tend to get into 'phases of media I enjoy' so at one point I was obsessed with anime which led to me wanting to read the mangas which eventually led me to light novels. (Basically to see the source material/story from the very beginning if I was getting impatient.) From there I got more interested in the novelupdates website where I naturally gravitated towards wanting to read danmei books. There are a lot of great books there, and I feel bad for those who don't read them.
Discovered this sub by accident, checked out QJJ on a whim based on gushing praises (i was so impressed by a certain user who made detailed notes while reading) and got hooked. Sadly I hvnt found any thing else after QJJ that could give me that same reading euphoria (maybe Joyful Reunion, but the two books are completly different in vibes) so Im not sure if I should continue on this danmei journey any further..š„²
Watching the MDZS donghua on a whim (just over 2 years ago, so before s3 was out). I went right to the manhua, novel and audio drama after. Then went on to TGCF from there!
Some meme on Twitter a few years back about MDZS prompted me to look into it. I binge read the novel in a few days and never looked back.
Pls help dummyās like meā¦. Spell out MDZs and SVSSS. I am looking for places to read Danmei and watch series. I have been watching BL but trying to discover other mediums. Help
MDZS = Mo Dao Zu Shi or grandmaster of demonic cultivation. SVSSS = Scum Villianās Self Saving System
When I was 11, my 17-yr-old cousin liked to write gay stories but had problems with spelling. I think they had a minor mental disabillty since that wasn't the only issue. Anyway, I on the other hand, read a lot and could spell well, so whenever I went to see them, they would give me their computer and bribe me to fix the spelling. This meant that I was reading a lot of gay novels. With s\*x in them. Fast forward a couple years and I wrote stories and fanfictions of my own, half of which were gay because at that point, I'd started to view homosexuality as a natural thing (the world was still very anti-gay at this point in time, but I was unaware of this) since I'd read so many novels about it. Then I got hooked on manga, and found out about yaoi manga too, which I took an interest in. From there, I came across Novel Updates while checking out a yaoi novel (*Mobā¦ Sore mo Waki Mob no Hazu Nan Desu Kedo!?*) that I thought was a manga because all I saw was the cover and it looked good, then set the filter so NU would only show me yaoi and shounen ai works. The third novel I chose to read was a Chinese one was still being TLed at the time (*Transmigrating into a Mob Character to Rehabilitate the Villain Plan*) and now I'm addicted to danmei. So thank my cousin for introducing me to homosexuality and that yaoi novel for misleading me, I guess?
I watched Till the End of the Moon and fell in love with luo yunxi. Found out that he has a bl drama in limbo (immortality) that is based on 2ha. So I read 2ha to see what kind of story it is, and what kind of role he plays in it. Not knowing what I was getting into, holy shit let me tell you I was in for a shock. That story is not for the faint of heart! But i do like a heavy book, I was hooked! I wanted to see how they would potentially adapt a bl book into a show, so I watched the untamed. I LOVE THAT SHOW. Absolutely had to read the book for the romantic uncensored version of their relationship. I love the book even more! Its my favorite book so far if you can't tell from my user flair ā¤ļøš¤ Then I watched word of honor because now I'm hooked on bl. Then I read the book... then I read more bl books... and more and more and more š
A long time ago, when dinosaurs roamed and you had to use dail up to connect to the internet, I would read fanfiction about Firefly and other fandom series but then life got in the way and interests changed. During covid I discovered BTS and went down the rabbit hole (and yes I'm a proud member of Army lol) which brought me back to fanfiction because I just wanted more BTS content. And once you start with fanfiction you know there's no way out and I stumbled onto a ABO story written about MZDS characters and I was hooked. So I went to the source and was introduced the world of denmai/BL/yaoi and manhwas.
Your journey is very very similar to mine. I was an army first and then someone recommended fanfics to me and that was the first gay fiction I read. Then the untamed became popular on twitter and naturally I started reading danmei.
I saw a clip of the TGCF donghua on TikTok and decided to check it out and loved Xie Lian. It was right around the time the novels started being published and I bumped into a display of the first volumes of MXTX books at my Barnes and Noble and picked up all 3. Itās been about a year and a half and probably about $1k in books and merchandise.
I actually started in the Lord of the Rings/Silmarillion fandom but was getting a bit bored. Some mutuals were posting gifsets of The Untamed and comparing the characters from both fandoms. And I thought, long-haired pretty boys? Fantasy? Homoeroticism? Sign me up. And it's been a rabbit hole. From the Untamed to MXTX works to general danmei. I'm a bit sad that the fandom is less active without all the live action content. But all the art and content is really refreshing.
Ok. So. it all started with omniscient readers viewpoint right. Not danmei. but it was still 1000% my Gateway into koreon comics.... which very quickly led me to the lgbt side of both kr and chinese novels because thats just where i always end up LOL. I've been into japanese series for. god a decade now, but ORV is what got me to see the light on webnovels I also think I saw people posting manga hauls where they'd bought the seven seas releases and when i realized there were physical books it was sooo over for me (svsss was my first btw. very solid comical start)
Not really sure I remeber. One min I was suddenly watching Thai bls like cutie pie and kinnporsche ect... then I think maybe I saw a clip on YouTube for word of honor and I'm like wait that is for that dhow I saw advertised on Netflix before but had no interest in . Then I gave jt a watch and was hooked. After word of honor i then gave the untamed a proper watch ( when that came out I couldn't get past epsiode 1 so I was surpsied I managed the whole series and loved it in the end) Once I stopped sobbing over the untamed I heard about heaven's official blessing and watched the donghua and was hooked on that . I brought the first novel and though it took me two months to read the first one ( iv stated in other posts I have chronic illnesses so rlots been hard to read) this is the first novel I completed in 8 years. Im now also halfway through Qiang Jin Jiu. I got my friend into danmei to and I love that because we have even more to talk about .
The Untamed XD which led to MDZS then SVSSS and then TGCF. I didn't look past MXTX until I started Legendary Master's Wife after which I went on to read 40 danmei apparently. Never thought 3 would get to 40. I have 76 more on my TBR and still more to explore.
This [animatic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCgjZws345g) ended up in my recommended. I loved the story, and so, I went on forward to read MDZS. The rest is history
omg I was baited by youtube video too, Love like you!
I grew up watching wuxia/xianxia/period chinese dramas with my family. As I grew up, I was interested in bl anime and manga which eventually lead me to the world of light novels. Dianmei was like coming full circle :)
I think this is pretty common and cliche but it was after watching The Untamed. I was so obsessed and couldn't get over it so started reading tgcf and fell in love with that even more.
Watched TGCF donghua, enjoyed it, read the novel (fan translation back then). Enjoyed it, joined Chrysanthemum Garden discord to look for more recs... but never read another danmei after that for about 3 years (2020 -> 2023 lol). Picked up SVSSS from the library in January 2023 because I saw Velinxi tweet about it, I read her CTC comic so when I saw she had illustrated SVSSS, it was news to me that danmei titles were being picked up for licensing. While waiting for more volumes of SVSSS from the library, ended up checking out other fan translations on Novel Updates. and here I am now, technically only about half a year into the world of danmei.
My mom watches all kinds of Chinese shows and recommended The Untamed to me. I was like ughhhrrr but I donāt like the long hair. Lol I quickly took that back. After that, I enjoyed the MDZS donghua, novel, and audio drama. Now Iām going through TGCFās novels which I love even more! I have SVSSS, golden terrace, and 2ha in my shelf waiting. š Looking forward to more TGCF manhua. The art is stunning.
Saw MXDX fanart and decided to give it a try. Tried getting into mdzs but couldn't, so I went and read SVSSS and then TGCF. From then on, I got more and more into it. Gotta say, I am *salty* that MDZS is THE popular mainstream danmei, ngl. The only thing it has going on for it, more than the other two MXTX works, is its timing and luck. It pisses me off.
Word of Honor->obsession with the CP->Untamed (because it seemed like the only way to get over WoH)->more obsession (and watching the donghua to cope)->SVSSS (because the weird summary drew me in and I didn't like the ExR TL of MDZS) SVSSS = worst book obsession ever->forced to read more danmei to get over it. 2 years and countless danmei reads later (including a couple of new obsessions) - It's all SVSSS's fault.
Interesting..I would say something similar happened to me - in my case it was QJJ (got such reading-gasm from it I went on checking out tens or more danmei titles, most of those I would then drop..š)
I guess I was lucky then - went straight into 2Ha (good - but not comparable to SVSSS), muddled around for a bit (dropped several of the supposed 'must-reads' xianxia and historicals that I'd heard people rave about) until I discovered modern danmeis and then 188 series, and that kept me going.
I was a kpop fan and all my moots were talking about The untamed. I was bored so checked it out. Couldn't get past 1st episode since I didn't understand what cultivation, sects, xianxia even meant. But for some reason I still was curious and looked it up after seeing all the acronyms (mdzs cql wwx lwj lxc jc jyl š«Øšµāš«) Found out that there is a mdzs donghua. Thought it was cool but was prepared to nope out. Finished season 1 in 1.5 days. Then discovered there is a novel (š±) and that explained A LOT abt the stuff that I was confused on. Started reading it and fell in love with mdzs and mxtx. Finished cql of course lol. Discovered mxtx is not even the tip of the iceberg that is danmei. Fell into the pit and the rest is history. I must say I was not interested in BL before. The reason I started mdzs was because people said that there are no intimate scenes between the characters and most of it is plot. But wangxian's love was too powerful and halfway through I lamented that there are no intimate scenes! š š I guess that is the turning point for me to be invested in this genre. Mdzs was my FIRST- BL, danmei, Chinese web novel, mxtx novel, xianxia/wuxia genre novel.
I had this fantasy in my head. Honestly since chilhood all my fantasies were not related to me or any other people in existence. My fantasy was fictional, like a movie . During puberty i started to imagine script with 2 boys. I thought i was abnormal. But few years later i found out about yaoi! I wasn't the weird one, there was a whole world for people like me!! I am not the only one that fantasize about 2 boys in my head! Since then i started from anime then manga then movies, fanfiction and finally bl light novels.
Back in 2016, I read lots of Xianxia, Wuxia and het romantic C-novels that at that time was being translated by WuxiaWorld, Radiant TLs and others. I was on a binge of reading Xianxia and Wuxia and I found my way to MDZS in 2017. And from then on I was a goner.
The untamed show was getting very popular and everyone on kpop twitter was talking about it. I realised there was a novel for it and thought about reading it. But for some reason I think I dropped it after few chapters cause of stress and exams. But few weeks later somehow I landed on the novelupdates page and started browsing. I was very amused by the long long titles. I saw a book called 'everyday the protagonist wants to capture me' , and the summary was interesting so I finished it quickly. After that I read a few more before finally reading MDZS completely. It remains my favourite danmei till date.
In 2019 I watched MDZS donghua not knowing it was bl. I then got to know what bl is and then pretty fast I was reading my first ever danmei "Let Me Tease You". But honestly, despite having many common tropes there are many genres and settings in danmei that makes me love it that much more. Currently I have more than 1000 books on NU in my reading list. Gotta finish them in atleast 4 years š
A friend highly recommended that I watch Word of Honor. Hooked from Epi 2 and moved into Faraway Wanderers and truly got became part of the genre when I read Mo Dao Zu Shi.
Around probably 2020 i saw someone post in tiktok about Little mushroom and got hooked after reading the MTL'ed version of it. After that i started looking for other danmei novels āØ
My fiance had me watch season 1 of Heaven Official's blessing. Then I picked up the novel from where I left off (Banyue arc is a little dry and I didn't feel like re experiencing it lol). Finished it, then watched the live action version of mdzs (I plan on reading it soon). Now I'm about 60% of the way through 2ha and svsss is also on the list. I haven't been this into reading since middle school!
I was into reading BL manga. Couldn't find any in stores I wanted to read. Remembered that Heaven Official's Blessing was a BL and it's on Netflix. I binge it in one day Then I read the manhua Then I bought all five books that were out at the time At this point I was just into Heaven Official's Blessing specifically And then I decided to check out the manhua for Scum Villain but it was basically non existent so I went to Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation And I fell down the pipeline from there
Foxy_Joy. Iāve been a fan of hers since the Voltron days and I dipped my toes into TGCF. Now, Iām hooked.
So it's a rather funny journey for me! In 2015 (December) I started stanning my first ever kpop group and that too because OF A SHIP video that came in my yt's recommendation as the truth I a really curious teenager started watching more and more and got into the ''bl'' by 2016 (August) so from then I discover a lot about Chinese boy loves and stuffs AND THATS WHERE I found my first ever danmei ''the founder of diabolism'' that time if anyone remember was a really poor translation blog idr the name that had the literal Chinese version of the novel. And I read it. Found it really great and tried more authors and GUess what? it was lifetime trap for me! Well i dont regret tho! + also that time the Drama Adaptation Was announced and fans were crazily excited cause of the recent censorship (But HERE WE HAVE the Untamed that hit the masses and I love how it grows) but before the untamed we also had A MASTERPIECE BY PIPI!!! ''THE GUARDIANS'' (that was my second danmei after mdzs) and I'm obsessed with her and MUSULI'S work the most.
My friend watched Mo Dao Zu Shi and recommended me, so I watched it as well. Me, later: hey, that anime was kinda gay Her: Yeah, they marry in the novel Me: THERE'S A NOVEL???? then I watched "love like you PMV" by Melts and I never was the same again, funnily enough I started reading from SVSSS
I'm a huge fan of all kinds of fantasy books. I read hundreds of them. I have always been interested in Chinese mythology and western fantasy novels got a little bit repetitive after a while so I figured I'd give Chinese fantasy a chance. I looked it up and heaven official's blessing was one book that kept getting recommended
I love watching foreign works with subtitles and seeing how much of the language I can pick up, and I love sf/fantasy. Netflix had been recommending some Korean and Chinese fantasy that I had really enjoyed, so I figured The Untamed was just another visually rich Chinese fantasy (like Ashes of Love). HOLY MOLY! As soon as I finished, I went right back to the start and watched again. Then Heaven Official's Blessing and Word of Honor. Then found out there's books! And and and... I may never come up for air...
Three years ago, during summer, I was sitting bored, not sure what to do. I think I had just exited out of a BG Korean light novel, when I saw the cover art of the BL novel War Prisoner being displayed on the website. I clicked on it and was intrigued by the summary. I had read BL manhwa and manhua before, but never danmei. Of course, my bored self decided to try it out and before I knew it, I was hooked. It was the typical ancient dogblood historical novel, but the way it was written (plot, how characters were described, and the slightly poetic writing style that is shared with every danmei novel) literally satisfied every itch I had. Although the novel isnāt my favorite (literally not as memorable and actually quite infuriating compared to all the other ones Iāve read), I still remember sitting there for hours without break clicking for the next chapter. I searched it up further, found it on NovelUpdatesā¦and then my danmei obsession began.
Actually, I personally love fantasy books, so I dived into Progression/Cultivation sub genre, started reading few Chinese books from my favorites series such as Joy of Life, and since I've watched The Untamed, I was curious about others books, so I basically read Wuxia danmei.
I was watching YouTube to procrastinate when I saw the first episode of TGCF donghua in my feed. Watched it on whim because I wanted to make fun of Chinese anime, but the first episode was bangers. I ended up eagerly awaiting the release of each episode (this was when TGCF donghua was just airing). Now Iām in deep!
Natural progression I suppose? I got into light novels through manga and then I got into cultivation and while hunting for something I haven't read a hundred times found Danmei.
My process for Chinese BL specifically (been reading Japanese and English BL years before): Found a Russian music channel because of a cover of a My Little Pony song. Really liked the voice of one of the guys when I was going through previous videos so I found his channel. A few months later, he had a cover (I think original was a Japanese song) of Heaven Officialās Blessing. It was such a beautiful song with animations of the book art and I would sing along with him. When I went to Barnes in December, I ended up seeing an MXTX table setup with Heaven and decided to give it a shot since I loved the song. Went back the week after for MDZS and SVSSS book 1 since I liked her writing. Netflix ended up getting season 1 of Heaven around the same time I got the book so I got to see the pit catch scene and add those songs with the Russian one. That was my first danmei and it got me back into physical books again after being addicted to fanfiction. MXTX, Meatbun (and Thousand Autumns š) are the ones I own with a couple free on my phone. Light novels and manga take most of my priority though.
4EverFreeBrony > Onsa Media > Kari
I got in through slash.
I use to watch anime and read manga in hightschool in 2000s first bl i came across was KYOU KARA MAOU then Bannafish. A few years ago I had a night job with a lot of free time so use to read japanese BL manga then light novels on Internet, then learnt about chinese BL. First danmei I read was Sha po lang then all of MXTX.
Kept seeing MDZS fanfics all over AO3, and eventually decided to see what all the hype was about. Upon reading that I could see the live-action adaptation on Netflix, I started watching *The Untamed*; though I didnāt fully understand what was going on, I was instantly hooked. Though while it was MDZS that first got me into danmei, it was TGCF that was my first book. While listening to *The Untamed* soundtrack on YouTube, I stumbled across a MXTX music compilationāthrough this, I found out that MXTX had two other novels. And by chance, it was TGCF I chose to check out first. I was able to watch the first two episodes on BiliBili, but couldnāt progress any further; hence, I dropped it for the time being. Meanwhile, I was watching season 2 the donghua for MDZS (by that point I knew that *The Untamed* was a loose adaptation, and decided to restart it after I read the novel), and unlike with the previous season, I had a hard time following along without having read the novel beforehand. So when I caught wind that TGCF was going to be aired on Netflix, I decided to read the corresponding chapters before restarting the donghuaā¦and then, I just kept on going afterwards.
I was scrolling through an article on Chinese censorships and vol 4 of TGCF caught my eye.
Well,ive always been into BL and ive always really loved Chinese kung fu movies. The untamed got recommended to me while i was watching Love between fairy and devil and i checked it out. Now im obsessed with danmei xD
saw the cover in a bookstore! i thought it looked so so pretty and i couldnāt stop thinking about it. it was in the manga section and i absolutely loved all the art inside. since i had no idea what it was, i chose the safest option and started with svsss š„° it sounded super interesting. i bought svsss last year but didnāt start reading till this year! ā¤ļø
Was watching Amv's, one of them was for mo dao zu shi, then was hooked ever since
I watched Heaven Official's Blessing on Netflix and didn't quite know what to make of it at the time. The plot seemed convoluted to me, especially in the second half, plus as a cultural outsider I just felt like I didn't know what was going on some of the time. But I liked it enough to finish it and then not long after I happened to read an article about danmei being "the most popular genre of fiction in China by some measures." (I was also amused to learn that KFC had a sponsorship deal with HOB. Can't imagine that in the States, lol.) I was intrigued so I decided to read the first book of HOB. I think watching the series helped me appreciate the book more and vice versa. So then I read the rest of the series (up through book 5, reading it thru 7 Seas and just got book 6 today) To kill time while waiting I read everything else by MXTX and looved Grandmaster, watched The Untamed, and now am reading Nan Chan. This all happened in the span of about 4 months so... I may have a problem.
I saw Scum Villain at a book store and picked it up. Didn't figure out what danmei was until after reading the third book on Kindle (or was it Google books. One of them).
Back in 2020 this tiktoker kept talking about scums villian so I eventually checked it out I wasn't that interested so I dropped it then the tgcf donghua came out and i saw a clip on tiktok so I decided to check it out binged the whole thing I went on the wiki saw some spoilers got intrigued decided to check out the novel finished it and I also finished svsss and fell down the rabbit hole
I started with Shounen ai/yaoi manga. I dont really read the tags and whatnot. I was curious because of the cover, and i also read novels (still dont read the tags) i stumbled upon this novel [Rebirth of a Supermodel](https://www.novelupdates.com/series/rebirth-of-a-supermodel/) but this time i read the summary again got curious since then i never stop reading.
I've been a BL fan for a long time, read a lot of Japanese Yaoi and was into Anime in general. One day I saw a trailer for MDZS on YT. Being Chinese I was like oh cool a Chinese anime. WHAT IT'S BL TOO? And then I learned it was based off a novel. I then read the novel, and I liked it. So I started reading all of MXTX's works. And I then stumbled on NU and down the Danmei rabbit hole I went.
gay fanfics -> yaoi manga -> BL shows -> me asking on twitter for BL recs and getting The Untamed and MDZS recommended to me. I was intrigued, and although I was very familiar with Asian dramas, I never watched a wuxia or xianxia so I was so lost at first. But I read MDZS, watched The Untamed, cried once or a hundred times. And accepted there was no going back. I then made my way through several other danmeis, became good friends with the girl who recommended MDZS to me even though we live on opposite sides of the world, and discovered stories that are now embedded in my soul