At the Frontline of a Bizarre Gay Rights Movement in China

Welcome to the paradoxical world of the Chinese internet, where the state enforces heteronormative conformity, yet millions of young women run a digital insurgency dedicated to proving that two of the nation’s biggest male pop stars are passionately in love.

A few days ago, social media in Hong Kong lit up when one of the stars, Wang Yibo, arrived to do an advertising spot. I wanted to learn more.

Looking at paparazzi photos (a paparazzi now being anyone with a mobile phone), I recognized the locale: The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. The one place in Hong Kong so posh that even our communist overlords decided it was okay they keep the ‘Royal’ prefix, though they were told to keep the colonial British flag flown strictly indoors.

The yacht club being a few streets away. I rushed over. Getting a pic of Wang Yibo wouldn’t be easy.

Origins of a Digital Resistance

To understand why a 29-year-old pop star’s hypothetical dating life became a frontline of gay rights and digital rebellion, one needs to take a look back to the 2019 Chinese television hit The Untamed.

The show was adapted from a homoerotic novel. Due to government censorship, the sexually explicit romance between the two male leads had to be watered down into a “soulmate bromance” consisting entirely of intensely prolonged eye contact, subtle sighs, and lingering glances.

The unexpected popularity of the show launched actors Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan into the heights of national stardom.

When the cameras stopped rolling, a massive community of fans refused to let the curtains close on the two leading men.

These fans formed the CP community (CP = Couple Pairing), a Real Person Fiction movement dedicated to the core belief that the two actors are, in fact, a real-life, underground gay couple.

The Yacht Club

Arriving at the yacht club under the blistering heat of a Hong Kong afternoon, I found security high and was turned away at the entrance gates. Around me, excited young women with cameras rushed to and fro, peering through gaps in the fence, hoping to see Wang Yibo. There wasn’t much to see. Also, I’ve had lunch inside the yacht club a few times, and it felt a bit shameful to be peering in from the other side of the fence.

Then, I heard choreographed shouting and looked for its source. Across a lagoon, I spotted a crowd of fans and a sea of color. They were leading chants from a jetty located across from the yacht club, split equally into a group dressed in canary yellow, and another in mint green.

I went over to take a video for TikTok.

I discovered two groups of fans, chanting very different things to the visiting male pop star

Wang Yibo “green” fans in Hong Kong (photo by author)

The Green group shouts: “You are MY husband” and waves flags of Wang Yibo looking very masculine.

The Yellow group shouts: “HE is your husband” and waves flags of Wang Yibo with his co-star Xiao Zhan.

I stood waiting for hours, but there were no signs of Wang Yibo making an appearance. (I was hoping to conduct an interview for Vocal)

Since the fans had no interest in talking to a middle-aged Westerner — they were here to see one man only — I went home to write this article and left them all cheering into the night, hoping for a glimpse of the celebrity of their (two very different) dreams.

A Chinese Rainbow

In Beijing, the state actively shutters LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and punishes students for distributing rainbow flags.

Yet Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan fans are executing a masterpiece of online social media defiance. This is not a traditional political movement with placards and legislative demands. They are sharing clips and edits of The Untamed, which, as a government-cleared television program, makes them extremely hard to censor.

Every action causes a reaction. Heterosexual fans of the leading men soon formed their own communities to prove that they are very heteronormative bachelors who might just want to date them, if they can only prove their loyalty by wearing the right color and screaming loudly enough at public events.

In this hyper-competitive sport of imposing your own beliefs on celebrities you see on-screen, the fan community has now fractured into very specific, color-coded tribes:

• The “Green Faction” Fans: Fans who fiercely guard Wang Yibo’s image as an eligible, heterosexual bachelor. These female fans frequently shout “be my husband”. His solo fanbase creates striking “Green Seas” at his public appearances and concerts.

• The “Red Faction” Fans: Red is the official solo fandom color for Xiao Zhan. When he performs, his fans light up the audience with massive “Red Seas” of light sticks and banners.

• The “Yellow Faction” (CP): This community chose yellow based on science: when you combine Green and Red light, the resulting color is Yellow. In Chinese internet slang, “yellow” also denotes adult content. “CP” couple fans arrive at events wearing coordinated yellow clothing, carrying yellow banners, and waving yellow lights to signal their belief that the two male stars are, or should be, a couple.

The Yellow Faction specializes in explicit fanfiction, highly realistic photo manipulations, and deep-dive video essays analyzing “clues” that supposedly prove the two men are secretly living together.

When the state launched a sweeping crackdown on women writing gay erotica, threatening authors with jail time, the Yellow Faction didn’t back down. Instead, they utilized encrypted chats, VPNs, and international servers to keep their narratives alive, using Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan as avatars for the LGBTQ variety of romantic freedom denied to everyday citizens.

The Competitive Tactics of a Color War

The three fan groups remain at war. Each of their objectives is a highly coordinated operation aimed at visual domination: when the stars appear at public events, their aim is to paint the stadium entirely in their faction’s color so that when the cameras pan across the audience, everyone knows who is the most popular.

It usually goes like this

• The Ticketing Scramble: Fan clubs map out the arena months in advance. They split up and coordinate thousands of fans to buy tickets in concentrated blocks, aiming to secure specific sections directly facing the main stage or the artists’ designated seating area.

• The Smuggling Operation: Security at Chinese arenas strictly bans large, unauthorized LED boards to prevent these exact standoffs. Fans counteract this by wrapping flexible, ultra-thin fabric light boards around their torsos underneath heavy coats, taping battery packs to their legs, or sewing light strips into the linings of bags.

• The “Breakout” Moment: The stadium remains dark while minor awards are handed out. But the absolute second Wang Yibo or Xiao Zhan steps into the arena, the fan leaders blast a signal across encrypted group chats. Instantly, thousands of smuggled boards power on, turning the dark stadium into a blinding, flashing mosaic of rival colors.

The Color Wars have evolved into a continuous game of digital chess, where a single flashing light board in a stadium corner is treated as a major victory over a rival faction.

And every time the stars are styled in matching color palettes at international fashion events, or when an ambiguous emoji is deployed on their social media, the Yellow Faction treats it as a coded victory over state censorship.

Wang Yibo is currently hosting a travel program on the Discovery Channel. Exploring the Unknown with Wang Yibo, available on Apple Prime and Discovery Max.