Zhang Zhehan/Gong Jun
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Zhang Zhehan/Gong Jun |
| Alternative name(s): | JunZhe, 俊哲, Lang Lang Ding, LLD, 浪浪钉 |
| Gender category: | m/m |
| Fandom: | Word of Honor RPF/Chinese Actor RPF |
| Canonical?: | no |
| Prevalence: | popular |
| Archives: | |
| Other: | Wen Kexing/Zhou Zishu |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Zhang Zhehan/Gong Jun is the m/m ship for Chinese actors Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun, the two leads of Word of Honor. It is the RPF counterpart to the fandom's most popular ship, Wen Kexing/Zhou Zishu.
Nomenclature
The common name for the RPF pairing is Junzhe (俊哲), a portmanteau of Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan. (The name order may signify that Gong Jun is the gong or top, though not necessarily in English fandom.) "Lang Lang Ding" (浪浪钉) or LLD is also common, but used somewhat differently by English-speaking vs. Chinese-speaking fans. In English LLD refers only to the RPF ship, but in Chinese it may refer to both the RPF ship and Wen Kexing/Zhou Zishu (or possibly just WenZhou).
1640 is also a reference to the ship; it is the result of adding Zhang Zhehan (0511) and Gong Jun's (1129) birthdays together.
Junzhe shippers are called 橘子皮 (Juzipi, JZP), often translated as orange peel, though others have pointed out that it actually means tangerine peel[1]. The fannish nickname is a play on 俊哲批 (Junzhe pi).[2] Many shippers on social media use orange emojis, and some fanart contains references to oranges.
Fandom
On AO3, JunZhe is a smaller, but active fandom. The first fanwork featuring the ship was posted in late 2020[3], but fanfic for the ship really got going in March 2021, after the show began airing. Although AO3 as a whole is majority-English, over half of the JunZhe fanworks posted are in Chinese.[4] Word of Honor RPF was eligible for the popular Yuletide small fandom exchange in 2021 and 2022; fans wrote 14 stories in 2021 and one story in 2022.
Junzhe Extended Universe
Junzhe shippers also enjoy making non-RPF crossover fanworks pairing up non-Word of Honor characters played by Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun. Collectively, these pairings are sometimes known in English as the Junzhe Extended Universe (JZEU) or in Chinese as 俊哲衍生 (Junzhe derivatives).
CP Marketing
CP (short for coupling) is a standard term for ships and shipping in Chinese fandom. "Selling CP" or providing fanservice to shippers has become a common way to market dramas in China, so a lot of ship material was provided during the promotional period for Word of Honor. One Junzhe fan on tumblr described a commercial aspect of shipping for fans in China, where they buy products that are jointly marketed by both actors and "quote both names when buying the product so that it counts towards their sales".[5]
The usual timeline for an RPF ship has the actors 解绑提纯 "disentangle and purify", decoupling their fanbases from one another after the promo ends in a process that often involves a lot of fandom drama.[6][7] (The most dramatic example is BJYX, which got AO3 banned in China.) However, some Chinese sources indicated that Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun had gone off-script, were still friendly with each other, and had said positive things about shippers, causing much excitement among shippers.[8] The live concert on May 3-4, 2021, included a lot of RPF ship material fans were excited about, but shippers were especially surprised and delighted by Zhang Zhehan verbally acknowledging not only solo fans, but also Wen Kexing/Zhou Zishu fans and Zhang Zhehan/Gong Jun fans. As one tumblr user explained, "I feel so touched by it, like we finally have a place at the table. So, so touched. We’re not just some hidden subculture that actors are happy to use to get popular but don’t mention."[9] It became common knowledge celebrated in the fandom that the two actors were not "untying". This seemingly unusual piece of canon was also incorporated into JunZhe fanfic. For example, see this June 2021 twitter threadfic, which imagines the two actively planning to continue CP marketing while one is not out to himself and the other is secretly pining:
the thought of taking a big risk at gj's side feels great. and there's a lot of fans who're obsessed with lao wen and a-xu's relationship, who would be happy to imagine zzh and gj also in love. they can court the cp fans.the only hitch is how to get gj on board when he's sensitive about gay stuff. zzh can emphasize that it's just pretend, a way to get endorsements and manage the fans. good for their careers. gj is safe with zzh, he'll respect his boundaries, just punch up the fanservice a little
gj looks at him with big, soft eyes when he proposes it.
The Junzhe fandom was severely impacted by Zhang Zhehan's career getting destroyed on August 13, 2021 (see 813). Although in one sense the "disentangle and purify" process that was overdue happened all at once, in another sense it was postponed indefinitely with the disappearance of half the ship from public view. Tinhatting became more widespread and by the time Zhang Zhehan resurfaced on instagram to deny the ship (and make negative comments about m/m shipping), a large proportion of the remaining fandom assumed that he was a fake and the instagram account was controlled by somebody else.
Fanwork Examples
Fanfiction and Podfic
- untitled twitter threadfic, Archived version by isozyme (June 25, 2021) and Rule #1, Archived version, the podfic by opalsong. starting premise: zzh is a fucking idiot bisexual, gj is the most long-suffering gay who doesn't fuck his coworkers, and the pr strategy encouraging cp fans is basically fake dating, aka pure pining agony (July 12, 2021)
- Have You Eaten?, Archived version by hansbekhart and verity. American food documentary AU. (April-August 2022)
Fanart
- 谢谢,保重。, Archived version by 275boxes on twitter (Jun 22, 2021)
- I don't want to socialize and just go home and sleep with my wife😣, Archived version by Hmx009919 on twitter (Oct 14, 2021)
- untitled kiss, Archived version by Goldenr1930 on twitter (Nov 7, 2021)
- 🌒✨#浪浪钉, Archived version by LAIN_LEI on twitter (Nov 9, 2021)
- untitled portraits of ZZH and GJ, Archived version by www_fanart on twitter (Dec 4, 2021)
- Art for LLD Bang 2k23 by ailee-art on tumblr (Feb 20, 2023)
Meta
- translation of an LLD manifesto, Archived version by anonflail on twitter. The original Weibo post has since been deleted. (May 5, 2021)
Fannish Resources
- Gong Jun/Zhang Zhehan fanworks tag at AO3
- Russian anon forum threads at holywarsoo.net: TYK/WOH/RPS, starting 2021-04-02, RPS, cast, and 813, starting 2021-12-18
Collections and Challenges
- LLD Week challenge
- Happy Endings for LLD challenge set up post-813 by verity
- lld happy endings bingo another challenge set up post-813 by DZZS members
- LLD Fest 2022 - AO3 collection - includes derivative ships
- LLD Bang February 2023
References
- ^ Btw guys, did you know that 橘子皮=juzipi is not actually orange peel? It‘s a mistranslation for the sake of text flow. In fact 橘子 are actually tangerines, mandarins. Oranges are 橙子=chengzi., tweet by JusticeForZZH, Jul 19, 2022.
- ^ tweet by supertingg, Archived version, 24 June 2021.
- ^ Time Waits For No One by yib0sgg (reketrebn), Archived version, 7 October 2020.
- ^ As of 1 January 2023, 1260 out of 2331 fanworks had the 中文-普通话 國語 language tag. See the sort and filter sidebar on the Gong Jun/Zhang Zhehan works page.
- ^ Why was it significant that the two took photos together at the Tom Ford event?, Archived version, tumblr post by myu21, 23 April 2021.
- ^ {Chinese Fandom Culture} Chinese Idol Fans vs. The World (A primer on Chinese Fan Culture), Archived version, HobbyDrama subreddit, 12 April 2020.
- ^ Jikipedia: 提纯 (purify), Archived version. (Accessed 1 January 2023.)
- ^ 浪浪钉虽解绑CP粉却走不出来,单人商务下晒双人合照,遭路人反感, Archived version, Sina article, 18 May 2021.
- ^ untitled tumblr thread, Archived version, reblogged by sixteenthshen, 4 May 2021.
- ^ tweet thread by isocrime, Archived version, 25 June 2021. (Accessed 1 January 2023.)