Zhang Zhehan/Gong Jun

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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
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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

Proportion of fanworks posted to the JunZhe AO3 tag each month in English, February 2021-December 2022
Fanworks posted each month, February 2021-December 2022. JunZhe tag is in yellow

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.

isocrime[10]

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

Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan painting by gd9221 on lofter (2021)

Fanfiction and Podfic

Fanart

Meta

Fannish Resources

Collections and Challenges

References