Queer women prefer older sisters : the onee-san voice, the woman game streamer Southern Senior Female Schoolfellow, and the Aurora Australis fandom

This article explores the Douyin-based queer fandom of Chinese woman game streamer Southern Senior Female Schoolfellow (南方学姐). It focuses on how “queer women prefer older sisters” (姬圈均恋姐), a prevalent trope in contemporary Chinese-speaking female homoerotic fantasies, is negotiated within her livestreams and digital fandom. I am attentive to the onee-san voice (御姐音; older sister-styled voice), that is, a gendered vocal/auditory experience initiated by the streamer, through which a “Sapphonic space” focalizing mature women’s same-sex desire and struggles is opened up. Analyzing the livestreamed activities between March 2022 and December 2024, my examination captures revamped queer fantasies enacted by the streamer and her queer fans through which they actively contest intertwined hetero- and homo-normative ideals for mature women in both virtual and real worlds. © 2025 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.