"Chinese Top, British Bottom": Becoming a Gay Male Internet Celebrity in China

In 2012, a viral online video titled The Josh & Eddie Show—Ep13—20 Days to Go offered the world an intimate window into the wedding of a Chinese–Caucasian gay male couple, Ye Fan and Josh Taylor (RMIUC and J.T.). They soon became the most successful of China’s gay Internet celebrities, with legions of fans both within and outside of China. In contrast to the long-lasting “dominant White top versus submissive Chinese bottom” cultural stereotypes, the couple have been framed as zhongguo xiaogong—yingguo xiaoshou (“Chinese top, British bottom”) across social media platforms. This study investigates the discursive construction of RMIUC and J.T. as a “role-inverted” interracial gay male couple to answer the call for queer(y)ing intercultural communication studies (e.g., Chávez, 2013; Eguchi, 2015; Eguchi & Asante, 2016; Yep, 2013).