China’s Most Popular Gays: The Untamed hits 10 billion views
On December 28, 2021 Tencent Video’s 2019 blockbuster smash hit The Untamed hit a whopping ten billion streaming views. Nobody involved in the show could have predicted just how much of a worldwide phenomenon this show would become. Starring Wang Yibo as Lan Wangji and Xiao Zhan as Wei Wuxian, The Untamed is a disgustingly beautiful gay love story that remains rivaled by none.
Fans all across the globe erupted in celebration on social media platforms as the news broke that their beloved WangXian had reached such an incredible milestone. There are two really interesting facts about the success of this story that leave our jaws hanging wide open.
The first is that the ten billion streams are just confined to Tencent Video’s streaming platform in China. None of the views that have occurred on other platforms, including Tencent’s international platforms contributed to that number. The show is also available on Amazon Prime, Netflix, Viki, and Youtube and none of the views collected on those platforms counted either.
That means China alone has viewed The Untamed ten billion times. It is unknown how much the collective views from the other platforms would raise that total number. However, the fact remains, the Chinese people have viewed The Untamed more times than there are people on the entire planet.
The second thing that is jaw-dropping to us about this, is that this number of ten billion views sits in stark contrast to China’s strict laws about the depiction of homosexuality on television. While it’s not illegal to be gay in China, it’s illegal to be gay on television in China, yet here we have Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian walking around taking names and breaking hearts. The juxtaposition of those two facts is mind-boggling.
So what is it about this story that has people still so captivated more than two years on? Buckle up as we happily wander down memory lane and recall some of the things we love about The Untamed the most.
It’s a loooovvvveeeee story
Whatever it is that made you tune in to watch, it is definitely the love story that develops between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian that keeps you around. It’s blindingly obvious that they like each other right off the bat, it’s just not obvious to them. It’s endearing to watch at first, but then Wei Wuxian gets involved in demonic cultivation and pushes Lan Wangji away.
Enter a world of pain. The pain of watching Lan Wangji lose the love of his life to something he can’t control; the pain of watching Wei Wuxian literally put every single person in his life before himself and suffering deeply for the betterment of others; the pain of watching Wei Wuxian die before they could tell each other what they really meant to one another. Just lots and lots and lots of pain.
Then, in a twist of magical fate, Lan Wangji gets his Wei Wuxian back and he vows to protect the man from the entire world so they can live out their lives together as they deserve. And my god, no one on earth has ever loved someone the way those two men love each other.
Even without all the touching and sex that usually goes along with building a love story for the ages (which was removed because of censorship in China), the creators of The Untamed still managed to convey the sheer beauty of their relationship. The relationship that exists between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian will make you feel so absolutely full and so absolutely alone all at the same time. No one does it as they do!
The cast
When we first sat down to watch the show, we didn’t know it at the time, but the creators of The Untamed really blessed us with a very special cast. Each actor was perfectly selected and there is no one better that could have brought this story to our screens.
The show, however, would not have been what it is if Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan had not been cast as Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. Their chemistry, both on and offscreen, brought these two characters alive in a way that is incredibly rare. They both added parts of themselves to these roles which morphed these already beloved characters into a whole new sphere of adoration.
At the time of filming, they were both young actors. Wang Yibo had a little more experience than Xiao Zhan, but for the most part, they were pretty fresh. This speaks volumes to their talent (which they have gone on to prove in other works since then) that they were able to do such an incredible job at that stage of their careers.
The musical score
Lin Hai wrote the soundtrack to the show. He is considered to be one of China’s most talented pianists, if not the most talented the country has to offer. He poured his heart and soul into this project and came up with a musical score that really resonated with the essence of the show.
When asked in an interview what the theme song, titled Wuji, is all about, Lin Hia simply stated that it was, of course, about love. The vocals for Wuji were recorded by Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan, and each actor contributed other songs to the soundtrack as well.
The soundtrack just fits. It captures the ups and downs, the angst, the longing and pining, and the overwhelming love that these two characters endure over the course of their lives together. Die-hard fans have fondly dubbed Wuji as the international anthem of the gays!
Bromance? We think not
Despite the fact that censorship prevented a physical relationship from playing out between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian on screen, the show is incredibly gay. The author of the books did a really good job of embedding a lot of symbolism from Chinese culture that represented the homosexual aspect of their relationship (proposal chickens, gay bunnies, oh, and husband headbands anyone?) and these moments made it past censorship and into the show.
But other than that, it’s almost as if the creators of the show decided to take it one step further to spite the removal of the physical relationship between the two leads. The author of the book has explicitly said that there are no other gay relationships in the story, but the creators of The Untamed definitely took some liberties there.
Although not confirmed, in much the same way that Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian were ambiguously set up as gay, implications were made about other characters as well. For example, Lan Xichen (Liu Hiakuan) and Meng Yao (Zhu Zanjin), Song Lan (Li Bowen) and XiaoXingchen (Song Ji Yang), Xue Yang (Wang Haoxuan), and some folks have even suggested Nie Huaisang (Ji Li) is of the LGBTQ persuasion in The Untamed as well.
There are so many things we love about this show. If we listed them all right here, we’d be here for an eternity.
We’d like to congratulate The Untamed and all involved in its creation for making something so powerful that means so much to so many people around the world. May it continue to bring success and joy for years to come.
The Untamed is available to stream on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Viki, WeTV English, YouTube, and all other Tencent platforms. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!
Feature Image: Image Courtesy of Netflix
