Canon Compliant 01: Distant Similarity

Talking to a Shipper of Pu Yixing and Guo Wentao (Part 1)

Hi there.¹ Welcome to the inaugural issue of Canon Compliant, the talk-show segment of Active Faults where I speak to a fan about their experience.

My first guest is Abby, my most important friend and life companion of 18 years, my Beta-Reader and Subscriber Zero, as well as 70% of the reason why this publication exists in the first place. Our conversations about fandom, identities and intimacy since we were teenagers have laid the foundation for AF in unquantifiable and indescribable ways. 

Are you ready to get started?

A: Sure, even though I think you know me so well you can do this on your own, just speaking on my behalf. 

(She’s right.)

Em: LOL. So, introduce yourself to my beloved readers, please.

A: Hi, I’m Abby. I grew up in Beijing and moved to California ten years ago. I currently live in Los Angeles and work in entertainment. I identify as a cis-gender heterosexual woman. I’m a Leo, a cinephile, a fan since One Direction but I’d rather not talk about it. I spent a few hours on Canva to design AF’s first-ever logo, which finally peer-pressured Em into launching this as a serious project. 

Em: When I first threw the idea of this segment at you, you said you wanted to talk about “Nanbei” (南北). It is a popular male-male ship of reality stars Pu Yixing (蒲熠星) and Guo Wentao (郭文韬). Right now, they’ve got 4.8 million and 3.65 million followers on Weibo respectively. They first garnered public attention as powerful rivals in Jiangsu TV’s 2018 trivia game show “Who’s Still Standing” (一站到底), adapted from the NBC original of the same name. 

Pu (right) and Guo (left) on Who’s Still Standing

Pu (right) and Guo (left) now

Their ship name, literally “SouthNorth”, comes from the fact that they were the 校草 (handsome campus heartthrobs) of their respective universities, Pu of Nanjing University representing the south of China and Guo of Peking University the north. They were later cast by Hunan TV in 2019 to participate in two of their top-earning variety franchises, the fake crime-solving “Who’s the Murderer” (明星大侦探, hereafter “Murderer”) and the room escape show “Great Escape” (密室大逃脱, hereafter “Escape”). Specifically, they were the leads in their riff-off shows, Detective Academy (名侦探学院, hereafter “Academy”) and “Great Escape Masters’ Version” (密室大逃脱大神版). 

Tell me about Nanbei then.

A: [taken aback] That is such a big question. 

Power Duo

Em: How did you discover them in the first place - because I got us into “Who’s the Murderer”? 

A: Well, sort of. You and I were already watching “Murderer” and they created “Academy” as a riff-off of the fifth season, so I watched the first episode when it came out. Nanbei were killing it at a lot of head-wracking games for an opportunity to appear on the main show as the Detective’s assistant. A power duo. In the Masters’ Version of Great Escape, they were the “lab rats” who beta-tested the rooms and riddles. Because they can easily outperform the celebrities, they’d then provide the producers with feedback who adjusted the levels of difficulty for the main cast of A-listers. 

Em: So I guess the initial catch was their intelligence, which had been a core pillar of their persona since Who’s Still Standing?

A: Yeah. And also, they were selling. 

Em: [laughs hysterically] How are we going to explain this concept is beyond me, but let’s try nonetheless. 

I’ve defined before that “selling rottenness” (卖腐) is a reference to male celebrities’ performances of queer intimacy as marketing stunts. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of this concept to an understanding of this piece, or any queer pairings in Chinese entertainment. When we say someone is selling, they are actively putting up a pretence of closeness on camera. 

A: Yes. At this point, Nanbei ticks a lot of boxes as a pairing - the rivalry, the looks, the brains. They already had shippers before their Hunan TV debut, and the production team at “Academy” exploited their existing popularity to catapult the low-budget, potentially flopping small-time programme from the ground up. It was so obvious that their intimacy was scripted for views, and their cast mates teasingly egged them on. As introverts, they were uncomfortable to show that on camera but interacted to stay on a payroll. People ship that awkwardness while finding it hilarious. 

Early days Academy content as reality newbies

Em: I agree. To me, things felt forced back then and it was clearly a contractual relationship. 

A: But their connection gradually grew stronger and became authentic.

Em: Oof. Here’s my next question then: what is Nanbei’s appeal to you as a fan?