Why you'll see more and more LGBT characters on Asian screens

Television, cinema, and online streaming services in Asia are set to have a lot more LGBT content, Taiwan-based media entrepreneur Jay Lin told those gathered at the Content Asia Summ[email protected]&cFW(J*NOl1Z)9w(lXrTsUmJlhYW%6o%qit in Singapore last week.

Recent and future [email protected])N!#XqM4q_7f6fjBi+T$O-4OdV3hZLryproductions across Taiwan, Thailand, India, and Japan show LGBT content is ever-more popular with the region’s viewers.

"LG$cVvx(ltFTjmpM3N$G+UWs$MZIdUWWEcARjPJsS9T*5behpTX#BT content has already gone from what was once niche to now a part of the mainstream” Lin said.

He noted, for example, morriGg(ZE%[email protected]!3kIgq8uLJaayiI=zmUle6ee+6ne than half of the nominations for Best Picture at this years Academy Awards featured an LGBT component.

"This is aspirational for Asia, but there are certain territories where the media content landscape has made significant &Aml5U*E2sa2ZyTxi+-S6*x6o5x#EA1+2PirXlPV7VB==V&_Lwprogress in the past several years.”

“Boy Love” or male same-sex romances in Japan and Thailand are booming, Lin noted. The trailer for Thai movie Th[email protected]!YhwdxFeory of Love got 1.5 million views in one week.

LGBT content is increasingly appearing in television series in India and movies in Taiwan, Lin also explaiVKxVV418jaMDTsohb^[email protected]#!R%[email protected]$ztned.

Taiwan in May this year became the first coN+([email protected]=wu=%E-OK&Lp=JoyFIz15bz)Y#T0Q2PZKv4untry in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. India, meanwhile, decriminalized gay sex.

Both Thailand and Japan, meanwhile, have also seen RnGQK)qOyiR-&fcgpB#rQk*w(qym0Y6(+eelWFXrD%zbo5Hfwnsignificant steps towards equal marriage and other LGBT rights.

Lin also introduced GagaOOLala, Asia’s first LGBT onlinejS9_dBj-6exH+o-mCxMp*mTy*teiwOG1ye2gqOiwZTca*JGM2J streaming service now making productions available to one third of the world’s population.

He also introduced production house GOL _Fluo5gbvJqdwOOQxHv==6eaz^D^k7%$*[email protected]=Studios, which has projects on the go across the world from South Korea to the US, Myanmar to Germany.

Content Asia Summit 2019 bought together the region’s movers and shakers in media production and broadc(_Anb%Z*$vDkQoBVtImG$K381j0wp0Jjx2*lMc8Kkr!M-xfN+vasting industries.