Queer masculinities with pain and love: embodied experiences from Black Myth: Wukong to its danmei fanfiction

Previous scholarship has established that videogames and fan communities serve as sites where queer representations are reproduced, altered, and challenged. Employing critical discourse analysis, this article examines the embodied experience of masculinity in the Chinese role-playing game Black Myth: Wukong, and how the game’s fanfiction reconfigures this experience. While the game compels players to enact a complex form of Chinese hegemonic masculinity characterized by implicit homosexuality and the downplaying of pain, fanfiction reconceptualizes this ideal.

This new form is defined by a vulnerable yet powerful body that embraces pain, and a mind that integrates explicit homosexuality, intellectual prowess, and a sexuality rooted in intense, equal, and reciprocal love. This article therefore contributes to game studies, fan studies, and queer studies by examining the embodied experiences of masculinity in both the game and its fanfiction. This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Sino-German Institute of Design and Communication, Zhejiang Wanli University, Ningbo, China The authors declare no competing interests. The Ethics Committee of Zhejiang Wanli University has approved the study [Approval Number: 2025000093]. Informed consent to participate was obtained from all participants in written form prior to their involvement in the study.

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If your intended use exceeds what is permitted by the license or if you are unable to locate the licence and re-use information, please contact the Rights and Permissions team. Queer masculinities with pain and love: embodied experiences from Black Myth: Wukong to its danmei fanfiction. Humanit Soc Sci Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-09617-3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-09617-3