<aside> <img src="/icons/heart_purple.svg" alt="/icons/heart_purple.svg" width="40px" /> For the best free danmei webnovels for newcomers, check out **Top 5 best free danmei webnovels for newcomers (2024).** For more danmei recommendations, check out The Cozy Study’s Media Bank
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耽美 (commonly referred to as “danmei”, “Boys Love” or “BL”) is a type of Chinese fictional entertainment media which involves romantic relationships between two male characters. Danmei fictional stories span many genres (such as fantasy, science fiction and contemporary) with varying degrees of romantic elements, from romance focus stories to plot driven stories with little romance.
In China, danmei media originally existed only in web-based literature (webnovels) but has gained popularity in the last decade leading to the growth of danmei fictional entertainment in other areas. Many popular danmei novels often receive adaptations in donghua (动画 - animation), manhua (漫画 - Chinese comic), audiodrama, audiobooks and TV drama. Complete novels may receive official physical publication in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong and in recent years many have received official translated releases in various languages including English, German, Korean, Japanese and Thai.
In recent years, two famous science-fiction danmei novels received awards in two categories:
Mainland web-based danmei literature can be found on popular platforms such as 晋江文学城 and 长佩文学. For details on other platforms check Digital Books and Webnovel Services
For manhua (漫画 - Chinese comic), many are published on BilibiliComics/哔哩哔哩漫画，咚漫漫画 and 快看漫画.
Danmei audiodramas are mostly made available on 猫耳FM and 漫播. Check Audiobooks, Audiodramas, and Podcast Services for more details.