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

Televi4b8ibGBPJyfQAUWBAj%0j*FNRt$L#=&opDcE+xbretcv*__BB+sion, 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 Summit in Singapore last week.

Recent and future productions across Taiwan, Thailand, India, and Japan show LGBT content is _MvEc*1f7kyb^MreY0OS!TflZ6YgEnV0hkscblPu%Ce$oY8Tzqever-more popular with the region’s viewers.

"LGBT cjXMAc3s%DoHi3Nl34DsO*^Ahc^[email protected]=OvNyROErfH_jcontent has already gone from what was once niche to now a part of the mainstream” Lin said.

He noted, for example, more than half of the nominations for BE1y6b%Ma+fhR)=G(r8XK6b0XvO)I6cT7fyXPdhU=APwOPY(4IUest 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 madHhTja=r)peHW2TV0g!H$=THz_CY*rtMRH-W=ZO)jXf8d#HPlkUe significant progress 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 Theory of LovCZ+kmItVF&waKhuPBKZ9py-C1)RyzVtTm0ce%!ERy80o=&SApLe got 1.5 million views in one week.

LGBT content is increasingly appearing in television series in IndKbrxvzk+^I9GY02_I%Au=H+DdDdHfri2S)xaT-VS5Dc6oH5dTCia and movies in Taiwan, Lin also explained.

Taiwan in May this year became the first country in Asi[email protected]=rXMqV9fk436+klffQSzU5bN!M&-O1vZ0(Oa to legalize same-sex marriage. India, meanwhile, decriminalized gay sex.

Both Thailand and Japan, meanwhile, have alsoEMaFGuu#qANsYIbHrT)[email protected]_sLaZ3g7ad1RLDNekI5 seen significant steps towards equal marriage and other LGBT rights.

Lin also introduced GagaOOLala, Asia’s first LGBT online streaming service now making pGrchpCLgvH&NUPN9MWTJq7Oh)@1dpseZM4%)!0Ezpcu3GciusWroductions available to one third of the world’s population.

He also introduced production house GOL Studios, which has projects on the go across the world from South Korea to the US, Mya8qV7KutTIbuj*D=sW7aC9qep2h+i%!*DVc9pifTR$_bbf!QFaUnmar to Germany.

Content Asia Summit 2019 bou[email protected](cc&g3peHN+fyDPyWIvH^XbU1CFXght together the region’s movers and shakers in media production and broadcasting industries.