No joke: Yang Mi caught reading lesbian manga, netizens question her sexuality

Are you what you read?

That's the question that's hanging on the minds of netizens after Chinese actress Yang Mi was caught reading lesbian manga.

According to Chinese reports, photos were taken of the 33-year-old recently at an airport. Through what seems to be a magnified image of the reflection in her sunglasses, perceptive netizens identified the manga that she was reading as Their Story — a romance-comedy genre manga that centers around two schoolgirls.

After the revelation, netizens pondered on her sexuality while her fans said that it could simply be a genre she enjoys reading.

When the news was shared on Facebook, commenters flocked to Yang Mi's defence and argued that you are not what you read. There were even some female commenters who revealed that they are heterosexual and attached but read same-sex romance comics.

The fact that Yang Mi divorced Hong Kong actor-singer Hawick Lau in 2018 after four years of marriage could have also fuelled the speculations. Though it's unclear if this commenter was being facetious, they said that sometimes people find their own direction after a marriage.

But it could very well be that Yang Mi is simply a manga and anime fan, and enjoys many different genres of it, as evident from her Weibo pictures. The actress is also an artist and has been known to do sketches sometimes.

It was reported that she's had more than 10 years of experience as an artist before she joined showbiz.

ALSO READ: Yang Mi reportedly spent the night in hotel with rumoured boyfriend Wei Daxun

bryanlim@asiaone.com