Harmonizing LGBTQ Progressive Ideology and Stylistic Continuity: The Expansion of Taiwan’s Soft Power through the Lesbian Drama "Fragrance of the First Flower"

This paper analyzes the first season of "Fragrance of the First Flower", an award-winning mini-TV series produced in 2021 as an original production of Taiwan-based LGBTQ-focused streaming platform GagaOOLala through the lens of transregional circulation. It examines how the production, exhibition, and reception of this series reinforce Taiwan’s self-positioning as a beacon of LGBTQ and human rights in Asia, a standing distinct from its more conservative past, while simultaneously drawing on stylistic conventions of heteronormative idol dramas from the 2000s. Cultural symbols from these dramas have long contributed to Taiwan’s soft power, attracting teenagers and young adults not only within Taiwan but also from other Sinophone societies and fostering citizen-to-citizen connectivity as argued by Song Hwee Lim. "Fragrance of the First Flower"’s blend of ideological progress (“we are different from the past”) and stylistic continuity (“we are not that different from the past”), with that past being recent rather than distant, feeds into both the quality television discourse in the Sinophone world and evolving Taiwanese nationalist and sexuality discourses. By contrasting how individuals respond to same-sex romantic attraction across different life stages and historical moments—adolescence in the early 2000s and adulthood in the late 2010s and early 2020s—the series reveals evident shifts, both on personal and societal levels, in attitudes and opinions on gender and sexuality issues. At the same time, its use of idol-drama conventions enhances its popularity by evoking a sense of familiarity among Sinophone audiences, while also foregrounding, in contrast to two decades ago, the importance of LGBTQ visibility and equality.