Ask any ardent fan of gay male performers of Asian descent and you’ll hear a few boldfaced names — Cory Koons, Brandon Lee, Jordan Young, Van Darkholme, to say nothing of a sizzling current crop that includes Axel Kane and Ken Ott, among others — but there is one name that often stands above the rest: Peter Le, whose website, PeterFever.com, is so iconic that its name has virtually subsumed the surname of its founder.
A perennial recipient of industry awards approbation — PeterFever regularly appears as an XBIZ Awards nominee for Gay Site of the Year — the site, now into its second decade, is starting to bear the fruits of a revamp that began when Le decided to step away from the limelight and turn over the site’s control to industry vet Daniel “Danny” Zeeman.
I wanted to show another side of Asian male sexuality that was confident and pushed back against stereotypes. I’m really proud that even as I’ve stepped out of the spotlight, so many great models have stepped up to keep the spirit of the site alive.
“Peter exploded on the gay porn scene back in 2001 by starting off as a Playgirl model,” Zeeman told XBIZ. “As he amassed his own large fan base, he saw the demand for muscular, masculine Asians and decided to start his own porn site in 2008; thus PeterFever was born.”
Le’s goal was to “break the stereotypes about Asian men being feminine, small and weak by hiring musclebound Asian studs. Since purchasing the site in 2017, we’ve carried that torch by hiring new models such as Axel Kane, Ken Ott, Alex Chu and Damian Dragon as well as continuing to use original fan-favorites such as Jessie Lee.”
Zeeman followed a circuitous path to his current position with the site and throughout his career has maintained an interest in turning the spotlight on Asian men. “I started in adult back in the late 1990s working for AdultCheck.com. In 2001, I moved to Asia and started doing production work there. My first Asian paysite was Japanboyz.com, which started in 2003 and became very popular as the first uncensored gay Japanese porn site, through our ZBuckz affiliate program. I started several more gay Asian paysites until moving back to the U.S. in 2013. While I no longer personally produce content in Asia, we do still work with a studio in Japan that continues to film Japanboyz for us, but I had my sights set on the American market with my move back to the States.”
His first encounter with PeterFever was “love at first site,” he recalls. “I was thrilled with the concept of the site and, of course, fell in love with Peter Le. Not since Brandon Lee was there (another) hot, gay, Asian porn star, and the fact that he was creating his own porn with other masculine Asian men was amazing. He introduced the world to guys that went on to great success, such as Eric East, who is now costarring in an independent film (‘Thirty Years of Adonis’) playing festivals in Hong Kong.”
Zeeman and Le finally met at an adult industry tradeshow and began exploring a partnership. “We started a great business relationship together, trading traffic. I gave him advice whenever I could,” the producer notes. “Not only is Peter an extremely hot stud, he is also very smart, articulate and kind. It’s easy to see why he became an idol for so many people.”
By 2017, however, Le found himself longing for greener pastures. “Peter told me that he had done everything he wanted to do in the gay porn industry and wanted to focus full-time on opening his own gym and personal training, but he wanted the site to continue on in good hands. I felt honored to be asked to take up the mantle and continue what Peter started: introducing the world to the hottest Asian-American hunks.”
Le is proud of his legacy. “I think most fans know that I started the site when I realized that in the U.S. there was practically zero representation of strong, sexy Asian men in porn,” he told XBIZ. “I wanted to show another side of Asian male sexuality that was confident and pushed back against stereotypes. I’m really proud that even as I’ve stepped out of the spotlight, so many great models have stepped up to keep the spirit of the site alive.
“These days I am pursuing my new love, powerlifting. It’s another avenue for me to show what strong Asian men can do and I love competing and setting new personal records,” he said. “I have a lot of love and appreciation for my fans and I hope we can keep seeing Asians breaking down walls across the industry and beyond.”
Despite the success of PeterFever, only a scant handful of membership sites have emerged that primarily feature Asian men. Fewer still have come close to challenging PeterFever’s supremacy.
It’s a puzzling concern, which Zeeman attributes to a variety of intractable causes. “In Asia, the culture is still very conservative and porn is illegal, so there is that. The only place where it’s actually legal to film porn is Japan, albeit with their own set of rules and censorship guidelines — pixelated penises, etcetera — and that’s why most of the porn you see coming from Asia is very amateur and underground. We do still run Japanboyz.com, but unfortunately I have very little control over the content produced for that site. There is only one studio that is able to film for us over there and they speak very little English. I do plan to (relaunch) the site this year and go over there and get some more higher-quality footage to bring that site to a content level like PeterFever.”
Zeeman notes many potential performers and models of Asian descent were raised in families where “porn is still considered very taboo.” Additionally, “the money offered to Asian models is usually just not enough to make them want a career in porn,” he said. “But I think things are changing slowly with the younger generation more willing to change the norms and interested in giving porn a try. I think Peter Le definitely played a huge role in showing these younger guys how hot Asians are, and pushing them in their fitness goals and to be proud of their masculinity.”
Today, Zeeman maintains a hands-on role in running PeterFever. “As the producer, I oversee all of the content production, including hiring models, coming up with storylines and ideas, as well as managing the marketing of the films,” such as a branded DVD line.
The brand has found success with sex parodies, such as “Deuce” (based on the HBO series starring James Franco), “The Black Panda” and “The GayVengers.” Their most recent epic — which springboards from the blockbuster “Crazy Rich Asians” — is “Sexy Rich Gaysians,” with an all-Asian cast that includes Axel Kane and Jessie Lee with newcomers Alec Cruz and John Rene.
Zeeman is taking advantage of his ability to expand PeterFever’s scope. “When Peter started the site, he had a very limited budget. He was not always able to woo over the models he wanted, and struggled with finding new Asian talent,” he said.
“When I purchased the site, I made the decision to put more money into finding and hiring the best talent. I became very involved with the production, from writing the screenplays to hiring production managers, and discovering new and interesting shooting locations. I think over the last two years, fans of the site can really see the difference in the quality of content being created, with bigger-budget movies and top gay porn stars mixed with our signature Asian studs. We’ve taken the site from an amateur-type of filming into something closer to professional, and with our next movie being filmed in 4K, we’re going to continue to evolve in that direction. So far, my formula has been very successful, and I can say that we’ve grown the site’s membership by three times since taking it over a little over a year ago.”
He notes “The Deuce” was particularly pleasurable to film. “It was definitely my favorite. We rented a whole gay hotel called the Parliament Resort in Augusta, Georgia. We had all the models together and an amazing storyline with ‘70s costumes and even filming in a ‘70s disco-themed club at the hotel. The whole shoot was just so fun and creative, with models giving their own input. Everyone had such a great time and when I see those models, they still tell me it was the most fun they’ve ever had filming porn.”
“Of course we also had a great time with our newer parody projects such as ‘Black Panda’ and the ‘GayVengers,’ however I do have to say there was just something magical about the shoot we did in Augusta that doesn’t happen very often,” he said. “Everything just went so perfectly on that shoot and it’s still so much fun to watch.”
