Data is Beautiful

The South Korean government has to balance a lot of interests: The powerful Kleptocracy (Samsung etc.), the military, domestic nationalism (and the people), the US, and all while constantly animositing with their neighbor to the north. I got that from a Chinese political-cartoonist pundit who later got cancelled for good reason though, so take that with a grain of sulphates.

In China, LGBT+ stuff is mostly just censored in state-aired mass media. Anything else, like the most popular manga on the most popular platforms, semifrequently include such stuff, to the point where there are dedicated genre names for at least both. Admittedly, those genre names are borrowed from Japan, but Chinese internet and youth culture in general is fused with East Asian culture (ACG), which was popularized by Japan. That also brings up the question on whether the culture is also fused in Korea. Now, I have no experience with actual South Korean culture, but my anecdotal impression is that the Koreans I meet are less receptive to ACG. From what I can see from a quick skim-through of the relevant Wikipedia article, the LGBT+ are legally more recognized but culturally more persecuted in South Korea.

You can easily search for such genres and obtain such works online (piracy is quite rampant in China). However, many teachers often still ban them in schools like the US deep south due to personal bigortry (but they also ban cards in school soooo). Those teachers are a microcosm of the government's current direction, which has already closed down LGBT+ establishments and started instituting the aforementioned censorship years ago.

this is kinda weird because i watch gay shows from china all the time

Huh, this is the first I'm hearing about this. Any recent examples?