An Introduction to the First Taiwanese BL Musical, The New Member

An Introduction to the First Taiwanese BL Musical, The New Member Tien-Yi Chao (bio) As many scholars have pointed out, Taiwan has long been an absorber of Japanese anime, comics, and games (ACG), including works of the boys love (BL) genre.1 Given the huge impact of Japanese otaku culture and products in recent years, many Taiwanese BL works have been released that aim to invigorate the genre and help it reach a wider audience. Here I would like to introduce the first Taiwanese BL musical, The New Member (Xin she yuan). As I demonstrate below, the musical achieved three things. First, it established a unique model of multimedia production and marketing. Second, it created what Dru Pagliassotti, Kazumi Nagaike, and Mark McHarry refer to as "transnational BL"2 by localizing the moe (affective) elements of Japanese BL. Third, and most important, it crossed the borders of gender and sexuality by complicating the characters' identities and relationships. The New Member, directed by Huang Yuan-Wen (also known as Brian Wong) and produced and performed by The Ex-rebel Lads, debuted in the Wellspring Theater in Taipei between November 21 and 30, 2014. According to Wen-ling Lin, in spite of any initial skepticism, audience enthusiasm was astonishing and all the performances sold out.3 The musical earned over $1.6 million NT dollars (approximately US$53,000) at the box office in 2014 from the sale of over 2,800 tickets.4 This success soon led to a second run, with minor variations, from September 29 to October 4, 2015, followed a year later by a third short run, this time in southern Taiwan at Wei Wu Ying, the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts. Yet another revival was staged in Taipei over ten days starting December 27, 2019. The key to the musical's success lies in the troupe's marketing strategies, especially promoting the work through various media. Although cross-media properties based on a single narrative franchise are common in the Japanese ACG market,5 such an approach was not common for Taiwanese BL at the time. Nevertheless, the troupe engaged with its primary potential audience, BL fans, via a variety of promotional goods. According to the troupe's producer, [End Page 137] sales of goods surrounding the 2014 debut were satisfactory, including 1,000 copies of the program (which sold out during the run) and 1,200 preordered albums.6 In conjunction with the 2015 revival came a myriad of multimedia adaptations, including a prequel manhua (comic/graphic novel),7 a manhua adaptation of the main story,8 an "official" collection of fan art (comprising invited contributions by multiple artists),9 and a novel adaptation.10 Notably, the marketing of this musical showed a clear intention to appeal to both otaku and non-otaku tastes. This is evident in the two types of promotional images for the 2014 production, featuring manhua characters to attract the former, and the real-person cast to attract the latter (Figures 1 and 2).11 In addition to targeting a diverse audience, The New Member offers an innovative hybridization of cultures, genders, and sexuality. As Huang, the show's director, has stated, the musical was inspired by Nakamura Asumiko's highly popular BL manga Classmates (Dōkyūsei).12 Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Manhua-style illustration of The New Member's main characters. Image courtesy of The Ex-rebel Lads Troupe. The story is set in a fictional Taiwanese high school, focusing on four male students in the Rock-n-Roll Club, their male teachers, and two female students. The main plot is about the emerging love and interpersonal struggles between three male couples (Figure 3): student members of the Rock-n-Roll [End Page 138] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. Cover of the novel version of The New Member. Image courtesy of The Ex-rebel Lads Troupe. [End Page 139] Club, Ahguang the guitarist, and Xiaoan, the titular "new member" of the band; the butler Sansan and his well-off master Laowu, also both students at the school; and teachers Mr. Lei and Mr. Dong. The final couple were lovers...