Gay male livestreaming began to take shape in 2016, in the wake of China’s fast-growing live video streaming economy. Mingyuan, previously a gender-specific term describing cultured ladies from eminent families, is repurposed to refer to gay men with an attention-seeking, socially extroverted, and allegedly promiscuous personality. In doing so, wanghong now alludes to gay men with an erotic online persona. In the Chinese gay community’s appropriation of the two terms, however, wanghong and mingyuan take on new layers of meaning as trending labels with which viewers express their sexual admiration and, paradoxically, their prejudices toward the public display of sexual desirability. With both terms originating from mainstream cultures, they imply the online prominence of those they describe. Yu exemplifies an emergent group of gay men who have become known as livestreamers, or wanghong (网红 internet celebrity) and mingyuan (名媛 socialite), as they are commonly addressed in the Chinese gay scene. Although such marketing activities perpetuate inequalities that favor gay men with erotic capital, it also provides a feasible pathway to gay visibility in China’s otherwise heavily censored cyberspace.
![gay men in suits playing with self gay men in suits playing with self](https://i2.wp.com/metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/secrets-of-human-pups.jpg)
I argue that Blued and Aloha invest in the production of gay celebrities to make financial returns. Whereas some gay streamers attempt to downplay the stigma associated with online fame, others strategize stigmatized behavior, both to enhance their sexual desirability and to defy China’s heterosexual-patriarchal norms as articulated through sexual censorship. Drawing on interviews with 13 gay men who livestream on two Chinese apps, Blued and Aloha, I investigate how gay streamers negotiate their online fame in the face of slut/feminine-shaming while seeking monetary rewards. These practices invite censorship, with homosexuality classified as pornographic, obscene, and vulgar content in state regulations enforced since 1988.
![gay men in suits playing with self gay men in suits playing with self](http://1842.img.pp.sohu.com.cn/images/blog/2012/3/14/18/6/u16535867_136d143e277g213.jpg)
By performing their sexual desirability to viewers, Chinese gay streamers generate erotic reputations that mix attraction with stigma (promiscuity and perceived femininity in that they become financially dependent on viewers). In online discourse, such men have come to be known as wanghong (internet celebrity) or mingyuan (socialite). This article examines Chinese gay men pursuing fame and money (gifts and payments made online) on livestreaming apps.