Chapter Dive
The Adventure of the Funü: China’s ‘Rotten Girls’ and Sherlock Holmes
It is all over the Chinese Internet: Sherlock Holmes is gay. The British television series, based on the famous stories by A.C. Doyle, has become an enormous hit in China. Amongst its fans, there are many who identify as ‘funü’ (腐女), young women obsessed with gay love.
It is all over the Chinese Internet: Sherlock Holmes is gay. The British crime drama, based on the famous stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, has become an enormous hit in China. Since its premiere in 2010, the show has become available on YouTube-counterpart Youku; its third season received over 70 million views. Amongst its countless fans, there are many who identify as so-called ‘funü’ (腐女), young women obsessed with gay love. With the news about a new series and Christmas special of Sherlock Holmes in 2015, online rumors have ignited heated conversations on the possible coming out of Holmes in the series to come. On August 7, “the coming out of Sherlock Holmes” (#神探夏洛克出柜#) became a trending topic on Sina Weibo with over 3 million posts dedicated to it.
Many Chinese viewers are convinced that detective Sherlock Holmes (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and his sidekick Watson (Martin Freeman) are more than professional partners: they are in love. The presumed gay subtext to the Sherlock series has received so much attention within China that western media have started writing about it – much to the amusement of Chinese bloggers, who write that “China’s ‘rotten girls’ have become popular in western newspapers.” Not all of China’s Sherlock fans associate the TV show with homosexuality; it is the influential so-called ‘funü‘ subculture that has put this stamp on the series.
The ‘Rotten Girls’ Subculture
‘Rotten girls’ have become more common in China over the past few years. The term funü (腐女) originally comes from the Japanese fujoshi (ふじょし), referring to a group of young women with a love for fictional stories about homosexual romances, called ‘yaoi‘. These women do not just consume these stories, they also create and share them with others to discuss. The fujoshi first appeared in the late 1980s as the female counterpart of Japan’s otaku (‘manga geeks’); they were girls obsessed with comics and anime who mockingly called themselves ‘rotten girls’. Their love for “boys’ love” (also referred to as ‘BL’) started with Japan’s 1990s gay boom, when homosexuality became trendy and media targeted at women started to focus on it (Galbraith 2011: 211, 218; Baidu 2014). The ‘rotten girls’ subculture has mainly become popular in China over the Internet. The ‘trend’ was first mentioned on a Hunan TV show in 2011 and has not stopped growing since.
” ‘I am not gay, I am just in love with a man’ – a classic sentence within ‘rotten girl’ fiction
The concept of ‘pure love’ is one of the funü’s greatest attraction to the ‘BL’ cartoons, games, movies, literature and TV-series. According to them, it is the most romantic type of love because it transcends the boundaries of gender. The male protagonists in these stories do not identify as gay, but fall in love with other men nevertheless. “It doesn’t matter if you are male or female, I just love you” and “It’s not that I am gay, I just love a man” are classic sentences within ‘rotten girls’ fiction (Dai Fei 2013, 34). Even when movies or texts are not about homosexuality, funü will look for gay subtexts. These fantasies go beyond gender, but because they are about men, they are considered ‘safe’ for young women since they are not part of the fantasy themselves. Some sources also explain the phenomenon as a reaction to existing taboos in Chinese culture, where the traditional family, built on heterosexual marriage, is the cornerstone of society (Dai Fei 2013; Baidu 2014).
The Gay Adventures of of Sherlock Holmes?
Sherlock Holmes contains the ideal factors for funü to fantasize about. Although producers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss say that there is no indication that Holmes is gay, they do like to play around with the ambiguity of his sexuality. The detective and his sidekick have a very close relationship, somewhat mysterious, and when Watson asks Holmes if he has a girlfriend he replies: “Girlfriend, no. Not really my area” (Jones 2014; Pink News 2010). Their ambiguous relationship and the fact that they are not explicitly homosexual suits the fantasies harbored by China’s ‘rotten girls’. There are countless examples of how girls photoshop Sherlock images into homoerotic scenes, make their own stories and endlessly discuss the relationship between Holmes and Watson.
The fact that the show is English (broadcasted by the BCC) only adds to the fantasy; many Chinese netizens jokingly refer to the UK as ‘fuguo‘ (腐国) , the ‘rotten land’, since it is presumed that it is a country with many gay actors, performers, as well a a lot of homoerotic literature. A great number of Chinese netizens agree that “the English culture is a gay culture” (Baidu 2014).
Will Holmes really be ‘coming out’ in the next season? Some fans are sure of it: “It is official! The Sherlock Holmes show will adjust its story line to express their support for gays (..) According to insiders, the details are already unfolding, just wait until 2015!” Not all Chinese fans would agree with this plot twist: “Nothing wrong with gays, but they can’t just change stuff because of certain people’s preferences. It is such a nice show, it would an insult to viewers to corrupt the original work for this.” Sherlock fans will just have to wait and see what happens in 2015. In the meantime, the funü will just have to do what they do best: fantasize about their gay adventures.
References
Baidu. 2014. “腐国 Fuguo [Rotten country]” (In Chinese). Baidu Baike. http://baike.baidu.com/view/9152699.htm (Accessed August 7, 2014).
Baidu. 2014. “腐女 Funu [Rotten Women]” (In Chinese). Baidu Baike. http://baike.baidu.com/view/7883.htm (Accessed August 7, 2014).
Dai Fei 戴非. 2013. “腐女心理 Funu Xinli [Funu Psychology]” (In Chinese). 大众心里学 Popular Psychology (12): 34-35.
Galbraith, Patrick W. 2011. “Fujoshi: Fantasy Play and Transgressive Intimacy among “Rotten Girls” in Contemporary Japan.” Signs 37(1): 211-232.
Jones, Ross. 2014. “Sherlock facts: 21 things you didn’t know.” The Telegraph (Jan 2). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10537064/Sherlock-facts-21-things-you-didnt-know.html (Accessed August 7, 2014).
Pink News. 2010. “BBC Drama Hints Sherlock Holmes is Gay.” Pink News (July 23). http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/07/23/bbc-drama-hints-sherlock-holmes-is-gay/ (Accessed August 7, 2014).
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About the Author: Manya Koetse is the editor of What’s on Weibo. She’s a Sinologist who splits her time between the Netherlands and China. She earned her bachelor’s degrees in Literary Studies, Japanese & China Studies and completed her MPhil in Asian Studies. Contact: manya@whatsonweibo.com, or follow on Twitter.[/box]
Chapter Dive
Red Carpet, Pandas, and Power: How China Read the Trump-Xi Summit
On Chinese social media, Washington’s red-carpet reception wasn’t just diplomacy but read as recognition of China’s restored status on the global stage.
Originally published in the Eye on Digital China newsletter on Sunday, September 27, 2026. Want to receive the next edition in your inbox? Become a paid subscriber here.
The past week was all about the Trump-Xi meeting in Washington. On mainstream Chinese social media feeds, much of the focus wasn’t on what was discussed, who gained what, or what was promised. It was about: How was China welcomed? How far did they go? How exceptional was the reception? And what does this say about China’s status as a major power on the world stage today?
Symbolic moments mattered more than strategic talks. Within that framework, President Trump, along with First Lady Melania Trump, hit the right notes.
The US visit by Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan began on Wednesday (Sep 23), with Donald Trump and the First Lady personally welcoming them at Joint Base Andrews, a highly unusual move. Presidents typically receive foreign leaders at the White House; in recent decades, airport welcomes at Andrews have been reserved almost exclusively for popes. The last comparable presidential welcome was Kennedy’s 1962 greeting of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, a particularly close US ally at the time.
Wednesday’s welcome came with a red carpet, which members of the US military meticulously inspected and cleaned on their hands and knees right before Xi and Peng’s arrival. A photo of that scene was widely shared on Chinese social media, where many netizens seemed both bemused and struck by the sight of Americans quite literally bending over backward for their Chinese guests, with one popular Weibo account (@提刀探花在缅北) writing: “This is a scene that we will remember for decades.”
Red-carpet preparation at Joint Base Andrews
At the White House welcome ceremony on Thursday (Sep 24), where both leaders delivered remarks, Trump touched on the history of war and mentioned the American volunteer fighter group in China — the Flying Tigers — saying:
🗣️ “If we focus on our common interest, I’m confident there is much we can achieve. Throughout history, the pursuit of those common interests has connected our people across the vast oceans, across big, tremendous distances and many differences, and even made us allies in World War II. Look at the greatness we had together fighting in World War II.”
After the Washington summit concluded, Trump posted on Truth Social, calling the meeting one of “Friendship, Strength, and Success, for both China and the U.S.A.,” and adding that he looked forward to the next US-China meeting in November.
Historical Memory at the White House
But why did the special treatment given to the Chinese delegation in the US seem to matter so much in China, especially considering the ubiquitous anti-American sentiment of recent years? Not only did official media highlight it, but it also resonated strongly with netizens and became the defining story about this meeting on social media.
It goes much deeper than flattery.
Narratives of “never…
Chapter Dive
Keeping Score of History: The Mukden Incident and China’s Basketball Defeat to Japan
China’s defeat against Japan at the Asian Games trended on the same day as the commemoration of the Mukden Incident—not as a separate event, but as a painful reminder of the humiliation of war.
Football can be a useful way to gauge the state of nations.1 So can basketball, apparently.
One of the most discussed topics on Chinese social media on September 18 was the China vs. Japan men’s basketball semifinal at the Asian Games, a topic that was collectively viewed not merely through a sports angle, but through the lens of history and WWII – especially on an important commemoration day that was all about China’s war against Japanese aggression.
September 18 marks the anniversary of the Mukden Incident in 1931. Right next to the basketball game, that topic became one of the top keywords on Weibo and other Chinese platforms on Friday.2
The Mukden Incident —a staged explosion that damaged a section of Japanese railway in Shenyang [Mukden] on September 18, 1931—was used as a pretext for Japan’s invasion of Manchuria and has come to be widely regarded by Chinese historians and officials as the true starting point of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
On this significant day, the China vs. Japan game in Nagoya ended in a major 77-97 loss for the Chinese team, which critics attributed to a lack of speed and tactical weaknesses that left them defenseless against the Japanese team’s swift attacks. Making it worse, the Chinese had the advantage of taller players, and the Japanese weren’t even playing with their best team.
“Like a top-grade horse losing to a bottom-grade horse,” one sports columnist wrote (“是我们的上等马输给了对方的下等马”).
Prior to the game, many commenters already questioned why a China-Japan face-off should take place on such a sensitive date, while others suggested that the Chinese team “could not afford to lose on this day.”
Posted by Weibo user 君见理5, this AI poster transforms…
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Red Carpet, Pandas, and Power: How China Read the Trump-Xi Summit
Keeping Score of History: The Mukden Incident and China’s Basketball Defeat to Japan
The Rise of “Shuaqi-ism,” Taking Starbucks to the Fields, and Pretending to Go to Work
Why Japan Has So Many Surnames, China’s Back-to-School Shifts & Taiwan Pavilion Trouble
Blame Games & Bad Signs: Nepal–Tibet Floods, Huawei’s Toilet Trouble, “Screwed” Graduates
“God Won’t Save Us, but the PLA Will”: Floods, Faith, and Kung Fu Soccer Nostalgia
How Chinese AI Videos Turned Foreigners into Villains
The Power of Ugly: Why Niu Lai Became China’s Unlikeliest Box-Office Hit
AI Actress Ad Pulled, Baihaitun Disrupts Shanghai and Cicada Meme Bugs Huawei
Blame Games & Bad Signs: Nepal–Tibet Floods, Huawei’s Toilet Trouble, “Screwed” Graduates
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