What Does Danmei Mean?
Content TermThe Chinese genre of male/male romance fiction, primarily web novels, which produced some of the largest fandoms on AO3. Works like Mo Dao Zu Shi and Tian Guan Ci Fu brought danmei to massive international audiences.
Danmei in Practice
Danmei novels are serialized on Chinese platforms such as JJWXC and span settings from historical cultivation fantasy to modern romance. The genre exploded internationally in the late 2010s when adaptations — most famously The Untamed, the live-action drama based on Mo Dao Zu Shi — reached global streaming audiences; because Chinese broadcast regulations forbid depicting the romance directly, adaptations render it as intense devoted friendship, and fandom gleefully reads the subtext back in. Danmei fandoms developed their own ecosystem of fan translation, MTL reading, and terminology that now circulates widely on AO3 and Tumblr. The genre's authors, notably MXTX, are household names in international fandom.
Example usage
"I went in thinking I'd watch one episode of The Untamed and now I own four danmei print sets."
Related Terms
BL (Boys' Love)
The umbrella term for media and fanworks centered on romance between male characters, originating in Japanese publishing and now used internationally. BL covers everything from chaste romance to explicit work, replacing the older yaoi/shounen-ai split.
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Xianxia
A Chinese fantasy genre about cultivators pursuing immortality through spiritual refinement, martial arts, and sect politics. Many of the biggest danmei fandoms, including Mo Dao Zu Shi, are xianxia.
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Webnovel
A novel serialized online, usually chapter by chapter on a dedicated platform. Webnovels from China, Korea, and Japan are the source material for many of the largest fandoms in current AO3 culture.
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MTL
Machine translation — reading a fan-run or automated translation of a webnovel because no official or fan translation exists yet. 'Reading the MTL' is a rite of passage in international webnovel fandoms.
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